United Kingdom

    Britain’s secretive provision of police training to foreign regimes with dubious human rights records threatens the integrity of the UK “brand” of policing that such programmes aim to promote internationally, a parliamentary report has warned. In highly critical findings about how security personnel from states such as Saudi Arabia benefit from British assistance, the home affairs select committee describe the government’s refusal to reveal details of “opaque” training agreements as “totally unacceptable”. The MPs also state that the lack of transparency around the contracts mean the Foreign Office’s own guidance on ensuring human rights obligations are met may not be “fit for purpose.” They call for the government to secure written guarantees in future that such training ...

    David Cameron is to send more British troops to Afghanistan amid concerns about the deteriorating security situation. The Prime Minister, attending the Nato summit in Warsaw, will announce that he is to deploy up to 50 additional personnel to help build up the beleaguered Afghan security forces. They will join the 450 British troops already in the country who had been due to return at the end of this year but will now have their mission extended into 2017. The move follows the announcement by President Barack Obama that he is to keep the remaining 8,400 US troops in Afghanistan for the remainder of his presidency, further slowing the draw-down of US forces. Arriving in Warsaw, Mr Cameron said it was essential that Nato continued "to work with the Afghan government and the ...

    The hopes of more than 4.1 million people who signed a petition calling for a second referendum on the EU have faded, after a response from the government saying was a “once in a generation vote”. Parliament must consider all petitions that reach a threshold of 100,000 votes for a debate and, although the decision has yet to consider the motion for a debate, the Foreign Office responded to the signatories by email on Friday evening, pointing out that over 33 million have had their say. Referring to the wording of the petition, which asks for a second vote to be held because the vote to leave did not surpass 60% of the vote and the turnout was less than 75%, the government response states that the European Union Referendum Act did not include rules about minimum turnout. Th...

    The home secretary, Theresa May and Andrea Leadsom, the junior energy minister who campaigned for Brexit, will be the two candidates put before Conservative party members in the vote to confirm Britain’s next prime minister. Conservative MPs chose Leadsom, who was considered a rank outsider when the contest began, over the justice secretary, Michael Gove, who entered the contest last Friday, effectively stopping his fellow Vote Leave campaigner Boris Johnson from entering the race. In the second round of voting by Tory MPs, May scooped up 199 votes, Leadsom scored 84 and Gove was knocked out, with just 46. The choice means that the next British prime minister is guaranteed to be a woman, the second after Margaret Thatcher. May said Britain needed “strong, proven” leadershi...

    Britain’s vote to leave the EU has sent further shock waves through financial markets, with three more property funds suspended, the pound plunging and share prices falling amid fresh uncertainty about the economic impact of the decision to leave the EU. Funds responsible for investing some £14bn in shopping centres, office blocks and warehouses have now locked out investors following the decision by Henderson, Threedneedle Columbia and Canada Life to suspend dealing on Wednesday after being swamped by investors attempting to redeem their cash. The three made their announcements after Standard Life, , Aviva and Prudential’s M&G barred investors from withdrawing their cash earlier in the week. The suspensions mean that half of all UK retail property funds are suspended,...

    Theresa May has refused to say that she will not deport EU nationals from the UK after Brexit (Picture: [copyright]) Theresa May has promised to be “bloody difficult” during Brexit talks with the European Commission president while speaking at a hustings for Tory MPs before the second round of voting to choose the party’s new leader. Referring to unguarded comments recorded by Sky News by Tory former chancellor Ken Clarke, in which he referred to Mrs May as "a bloody difficult woman", the Home Secretary joked that the next person to share his view would be Jean-Claude Juncker. “Ken Clarke might have found me to be a 'bloody difficult woman'”, said Mrs May. “The next person to find that out will be Jean-Claude Juncker”, she added with her response receiving cheers from MPs...

    Editor’s note: The opinions in this article are the author’s, as published by our content partner, and do not represent the views of MSN or Microsoft. Tony Blair was sorrowful. But he wasn’t sorry. He apologised for “the mistakes in planning and process”. He apologised for relying “too much on the assurances I was given”. He apologised “for the mistakes in intelligence, even though I’m not responsible for that”. Anything else? “It would have been better to have more formal options papers presented to Cabinet at certain points.” But he wouldn’t apologise for the invasion of Iraq itself. He still believed it had been “the right thing to do”. He still believed he would take the same decision again, in the same circumstances, with the same information. And he still believed – ...

    Demonstrators outside the Queen Elizabeth II centre vent their anger about the Iraq War Announcing a two-day House of Commons debate on the report next week, Prime Minister David Cameron - who voted for war in 2003 - said it was important to "really learn the lessons for the future" and to improve the workings of government, the decisions it arrives at, and its reading of legal advice. Sir John took no questions from the press following a televised statement in Westminster, which took place as anti-war campaigners outside chanted "Tony Blair - war criminal". His report acknowledged that the initial campaign to overthrow Saddam was successful and praised the "great courage" of service personnel and civilians involved during and after the invasion, which led to the deaths o...

    Britain's decision to go to war with Iraq in 2003 had a "far from satisfactory" legal basis and ex-Prime Minister Tony Blair's case for military action was over-hyped, a long-awaited inquiry into the conflict concluded on Wednesday. The intelligence about Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction which Blair used to justify joining the US-led invasion, which led to the removal of Saddam Hussein and the deaths of 179 British soldiers, was flawed but went unchallenged, inquiry chairman John Chilcot said. There was no imminent threat from Saddam in March 2003 and the chaos in Iraq and the region which followed should also have been foreseen, he added. "The inquiry has not expressed a view on whether military action was legal," Chilcot told reporters and relatives of some o...

    On Monday morning, Markit released its latest set of data on the state of the UK’s construction sector, and to say things didn't look good would be an understatement. The sector slipped into contraction for the first time since April 2013, hitting just 46.o, a shock fall from an already poor base last month, and the biggest single month fall since 2009. All this helped confirm fears about a coming crash in the UK's construction industry. Generally speaking, Markit doesn’t make grand proclamations and or use strong language about its data, but on Monday representatives from both Markit and CIPS, which jointly produced the survey, variously said that "the rate of decline was not as sharp as that experienced during the last recession" and called the data "a clear warning flag...