United Kingdom

    The Queen will break with tradition and not lay a wreath at the Cenotaph on Remembrance Sunday with Prince Charles carrying out her duties instead. Placing the wreath at the base of the Whitehall monument requires the monarch, who is 91, to walk backwards down the stone steps. The Queen will stand with the Duke of Edinburgh on a Foreign Office balcony to observe the service. As head of the armed forces, Remembrance Sunday is seen as a significant event in the Queen's royal diary. A Buckingham Palace spokeswoman added: "The Queen wishes to be alongside the Duke of Edinburgh and he will be in the balcony. The Palace also confirmed to Sky News that it is not the first time the Queen has not placed a wreath on Remembrance Sunday. She missed the event while she was pregnant wit...

    A new Brexit faultline opened up in the Conservative party after Theresa May appeared to slap down Chancellor Philip Hammond over how much the Government will spend preparing for a no deal Brexit. The Prime Minister said she has now set aside £250m to help prepare for Brexit, including a no deal scenario, with aides saying she would spend whatever necessary. But earlier on Wednesday, Mr Hammond signalled he wanted to wait until the last point before authorising spending on no deal preparations and appeared unwilling to discuss further funds. Ms May’s intervention was seized upon by Brexiteers, who accuse Mr Hammond of creating ambiguity over the UK’s stance, with some concerned his words will be seen as a sign the UK is not serious about quitting talks without a deal. But ...

    Every day as many as 10,000 trucks rumble through the Port of Dover, whose towering white cliffs face continental Europe across the narrowest stretch of the English Channel. Rigs loaded with French cheese, German car parts, and other European goods roll off ferries and onto British highways, while trucks hauling Scotch whisky and Welsh lamb bound for the Continent glide through passport checks in two minutes on average. Traffic through the facility amounts to almost a fifth of all the U.K.’s trade in goods, worth about £122 billion ($165 billion) annually. Brexit threatens to clog this crucial artery. Port officials warn that increasing the average time it takes trucks to clear customs by as little as two minutes could lead to 17-mile (27-kilometer) traffic jams. And with ...

    Theresa May has warned the British public to prepare for crashing out of the EU with no deal, setting out emergency plans to avoid border meltdown for businesses and travellers. As hopes of an agreement appeared to fade at home and abroad, the Prime Minister for the first time set out detailed steps to minimise disruption on Brexit day in 2019. They included plans for huge inland lorry parks to cope with the lengthy new customs checks that will be needed to avoid ports becoming traffic-choked. The move came as Ms May admitted she expected the deadlocked negotiations to drag on for another year before any possible breakthrough. At Westminster, Brexiteer Tories exploited the Prime Minister’s weakness after last week’s attempted coup to demand that Chancellor Philip Hammond, ...

    An Isis supporter who tried to make a bomb in his parents house after being bedroom radicalised by propaganda has been jailed for life. Zahid Hussain’s device was intended to cause a significant explosion and could have killed dozens of people, a judge told Winchester Crown Court. If detonated in a crowded area it would have been potentially fatal to those within metres of it and would have potentially caused serious injury among those up to 10 metres away, Mr Justice Sweeney said. Hussain’s pressure cooker device was would not have worked but the jury heard he was strongly committed to launching a deadly attack, packing the bomb with 1.6kg of shrapnel. The 29-year-old, from Birmingham, was jailed for life with a minimum term of 15 years for preparing for acts of terrorism...

    North Korea is being closely watched amid fears it could launch another long-range missile test on Tuesday to mark the anniversary of the founding of its ruling party. Bellicose rhetoric from Donald Trump has heightened tensions in the region in recent months, prompting British officials to draw up military plans for a response to a break out of hostilities, it was reported. Among the plans disclosed by the Daily Mail is the deployment of the Navy's newest aircraft carrier, HMS Queen Elizabeth, before it has undergone flight trials. We have plenty of ships to send… the Type-45 destroyers, the Type-23 frigates. Britain’s new aircraft carrier could be pressed into service early if things turn south, a senior Whitehall source told the newspaper. HMS Queen Elizabeth, which arr...

    The Foreign Secretary reacted to articles in the Daily Telegraph and The Sun claiming Mr Johnson was calling for Chancellor Philip Hammond to be sacked and would refuse to leave his post if he was demoted by Theresa May. In a WhatsApp message to Conservative MPs, he wrote: "I am frankly fed up to the back teeth with all this. Heseltine: I would put Boris in Mongolia I do not know who these people are. I do not know if they are really my friends and allies or if they represent some sinister band of imposters. I heartily disagree with the sense, tone and spirit of what they are quoted as saying. Whoever they are they do not speak for me. The Prime Minister has come under pressure to sack both Mr Johnson and Mr Hammond as she tries to reassert her authority over the Tory part...

    Thousands of shops are likely to ignore the Royal Mint’s deadline next Sunday to stop accepting the old £1 coins. A trade organisation, which represents 170,000 firms, has advised its members to continue taking the coin as the changeover period with the new coins has been so short. Mike Cherry, the national chairman of the Federation of Small Businesses , said small businesses had embraced the new £1 coin as an invaluable way to reduce counterfeits. Many had modified coin-operated equipment while others have separated out millions of old coins to be melted down. “But the changeover period has been fairly short,” he said. “While no business is obliged to accept the old coins beyond the deadline, it would help if small firms knew they were allowed a short transition period t...

    Theresa May is facing calls to publish legal advice she received that is believed to state that parliament could stop Brexit. The country’s top legal experts apparently gave the Prime Minister advice saying that leaving the European Union could be halted if MPs judge that a change of mind is in the national interest. Prominent lawyer Jessica Simor QC, from Matrix chambers, has written to Ms May asking her to release any legal advice she received. Ms Simor claims she has been informed about the discussions by two good sources and that there is no time to waste, according to The Guardian. Such advice would also accord with the view of Lord Kerr, who was involved in drafting article 50, of Jean-Claude Piris, former director general of the EU council’s legal service, and of Ma...

    Theresa May has suggested she would not shy away from demoting Boris Johnson amid reports she is preparing a Cabinet reshuffle. The Prime Minister has faced down a fresh call to resign in recent days, following a party conference speech plagued by a coughing fit, falling scenery and a prankster. In a bid to revitalise her administration, Mrs May is reportedly set to make changes to her top team following the European Council meeting on October 19-20. A Cabinet reshuffle would prompt questions over the future of Boris Johnson, who has faced calls to be sacked over two Brexit interventions which appeared to undermine the PM's authority. Boris Johnson is accused of being self-obsessed amid reports he is on leadership manoeuvres. Asked what she planned to do with the Foreign S...