United Kingdom

    The UK government has told a Scottish court it will never offer MPs the chance to vote against leaving the EU, even if the House of Commons rejects the final Brexit deal. David Johnston QC, a lawyer for the government, said any legal questions on whether article 50 could be unilaterally withdrawn by the UK were hypothetical and irrelevant, since there was no prospect of ministers doing so. He urged Lord Doherty, a civil judge in Edinburgh, to throw out an application by seven Scottish politicians for permission to get a European court of justice (ECJ) ruling on whether the UK could revoke its article 50 letter without agreement from all other EU member states. Johnston told the judge, who will decide by early next week whether the case should go to a full hearing i...

      Two leading Conservative MPs have launched a bid to make Theresa May keep the UK in a customs union with the European Union, as the prime minister faces cabinet and party splits over the issue. Anna Soubry, a former business minister, and Ken Clarke, the former chancellor, said they would try to get cross-party support for keeping the UK’s current customs arrangements with the EU, in a clear challenge to May’s authority. They have a strong chance of causing an embarrassing government defeat if Jeremy Corbyn’s frontbench supports their amendments to two trade bills when they are debated in the House of Commons before the end of February. It is understood Labour is not ruling out backing the Tory rebels, who already have the support of a number of pro-EU La...

A new error £1 coin looks like it's been released with three examples having been seen already by ChangeChecker - and they're selling for hundreds. This time it looks like the new £1 coin design has been stamped on one of the old £1 coin blanks. The first one that came to light, sold for £205 on eBay after receiving 22 bids, a second is being sold at auction next month. What to do if you find one ChangChecker's advice to someone who thinks they've found an example of this coin is to send the coin off to The Royal Mint Museum, which offers a free verification service . Armed with this information, you should be able to get more value from it when selling either online or at a more traditional auction house.

  Immigration plans that would see 40,000 fewer EU migrants a year come to the UK after Brexit are being looked at by the Government, according to reports. A leaked impact assessment document suggests EU workers will be given preferential treatment if Britain gains a free trade deal, the Daily Telegraph states. The economic analysis has been drawn-up with the support of Home Secretary Amber Rudd, the newspaper said. A flexible migration scenario, branded as being a midway point between strict policy and continued Labour mobility”, would see EU workers having to earn £20,500 to come to the UK, according to the report. In a no deal scenario, migrants would need to have degrees, a job offer and earn at least £30,000, which would bring them into line with visa requirements for no...

  Royal-to-be Meghan Markle has continued to prove she won’t be letting protocol get in the way of her own style. Stepping out with her future prince, Markle accompanied Prince Harry to their first official black-tie evening engagement - dressed in a suit. The former actress was photographed arriving at a black-tie event honouring servicemen and women, before the Endeavour Fund Awards on Thursday night, in black trousers and a tuxedo shirt by designer Alexander McQueen - and she looks fantastic. And proving a little rain can’t dampen her style, Markle arrived all smiles while taking cover under a grey umbrella. The Suits star, who got engaged to Prince Harry in November 2017, will tie the knot on May 19, 2018. Here's a look at the evolving fashion choices of the active humani...

    Jeremy Corbyn sought to heap pressure on Theresa May to publish her full tax return as figures released by Labour showed he paid almost £50,000 in tax in 2016/17. The Labour leader received a total income of £136,762 including his salary as an MP, pay for his role as leader of the opposition and pensions and paid a total of £48,079.80 in tax. He said: “Tax avoidance and evasion deprive our public services of tens of billions of pounds every year and will only be tackled if we have the political will to do it. We cannot expect the public to trust us as party leaders, if we are not prepared to be open and honest about our own tax arrangements. Shadow chancellor John McDonnell received a total income of £87,353 and paid a total of £24,099.20 in tax, Labour said....

    UK inflation has peaked and is now on a downward trajectory, market commentators have said, as today's figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show the Consumer Price Index (CPI) dropped from a five-year high of 3.1% in November to 3% in December. The slight decline, the first drop since June 2017, was in line with expectations and partly a result of a weaker increase in air fares compared to the same month in 2016. In addition, higher import costs because of the collapse in the value of the pound, which has been largely responsible for driving living costs up in 2017, has fallen out of the figures. Sterling has been steadily climbing since the start of the year and was today trading at $1.38, the highest level since the Brexit vote. CPI remains abov...

    Nearly two years after Britons voted in favor of the U.K. leaving the European Union, some are calling for a second Brexit referendum. This time, however, the question isn’t whether the U.K. should leave the bloc, but how. Concern over what kind of final deal the U.K. will get out of its negotiations with the EU has fueled the recent interest in a second referendum. A survey published last week by the Guardian and British pollster ICM found that 47 percent of British voters surveyed support having a say on the terms of a final Brexit deal. When one omits the respondents who said they were undecided, support jumps to 58 percent. And the support comes from voters on both sides of the Brexit debate: The poll estimates that one quarter of “leave” voters also favor havin...

    Theresa May has sparked a new clash with Brussels by saying that EU citizens who arrive during the post-Brexit transition period must not have the same rights as those who came before. The prime minister’s remarks set her on course for a major skirmish with officials in Brussels, who have offered a status quo transition period until December 2020, including free movement and citizens’ rights for those who settle in the UK during that period. Rules for new EU migrants could include mandatory work permits, requirements to register on arrival and restrictions on access to benefits, which would not apply to EU citizens who moved to the UK before Brexit. Speaking to reporters on a three-day trip to China, May said the details were a matter for negotiation for the impl...

    The UK may be forced to scale back its digital mass surveillance of citizens after a court ruled today that its current powers are unlawful. The UK’s Court of Appeal ruled that the Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Act (DRIPA) allowed police officers to authorize their own access to citizens phone records and web browsing history even in the case of non-serious crimes. According to a report from The Guardian, three appeal court judges ruled that the law did not adequately restrict access to this personal information and so was inconsistent with EU law. DRIPA was passed into law in 2014 as emergency” legislation, with parliamentary debate restricted to just a single day of discussion. The law paved the way for 2016’s Investigatory Powers Act, which authorized...