United Kingdom

    Boris Johnson has sent an unsigned letter to European council president Donald Tusk requesting a further Brexit delay beyond 31 October accompanied by a signed one arguing against it. The prime minister sent three letters: an unsigned photocopy of the request he was obliged to send under the Benn Act, an explanatory letter from the UK’s ambassador to the EU and a personal letter explaining why Downing Street did not want an extension. In the signed message, he warned of the “corrosive impact” of a long delay, and that “a further extension would damage the interests of the UK and our EU partners, and the relationship between us”. He said Parliament had “missed the opportunity to inject momentum into the ratification process” yet remained confident Brexit legislation ...

    Michael Gove has insisted the UK will leave the EU by October 31, despite Boris Johnson writing to the EU to ask for a Brexit extension. Asked if he could guarantee that the UK would leave the EU by Halloween, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster said: “Yes, that’s our determined policy." He told Sky News’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday: “We know that the EU want us to leave, we know that we have a deal that allows us to leave.” "We are going to leave by October 31st. We have the means and the ability to do so and people who yesterday we had some people who voted for delay, voted explicitly to try to frustrate this process and to drag it out. “I think actually the mood in the country is clear and the Prime Minister’s determination is absolute and I am with him in this, we...

    Botched announcements by Boris Johnson’s government are putting over a million British citizens living on the continent at the risk of “retaliatory deportations” and other consequences after Brexit, the prime minister has been warned. UK emigrants living in EU countries fear that a string of hardline statements and “domestic grandstanding” targeting migrants by British government ministers has “directly impacted” the way UK nationals will be treated by their host countries once the United Kingdom leaves. Groups representing British citizens living across the 27 EU countries have written to Boris Johnson accusing the prime minister of viewing his own citizens as “simply not a priority” and of “undermining” their legal status. They say rushed announcements by home se...

    The government has announced a proposed legislative programme dominated by post-Brexit bills and a renewed focus on law and order in an unusual Queen’s speech, one mainly used by Boris Johnson as a preview of the Conservatives’ election manifesto. The summary of planned new laws read out by the Queen to mark the new session of parliament contained 26 new or returning bills, more than a third of which relate to new arrangements following departure from the EU. Other key elements of a speech widely trailed in advance included plans for tougher jail sentences and controversial proposals to oblige people to show photographic ID before they are allowed to vote. The pre-election feel was increased earlier on Monday when, ahead of the Queen’s speech, the chancellor, Sajid...

    Chinese President Xi Jinping said on Sunday that any attempts to cause division in China "will end in crushed bodies and shattered bones." Xi made the remarks during a state visit to Nepal, according to China's state broadcaster CCTV. The Chinese president added that any external forces supporting Chinese division "will be deemed by the Chinese people as pipe-dreaming!" Xi's comments come as protests in Hong Kong enter into their 19th week and have recently seen an uptick in violence. Chinese President Xi Jinping on Sunday said that any attempts to drive a wedge between China and its territories will "end in crushed bodies and shattered bones." Xi made the remarks during a state visit to Nepal on Sunday. "Anyone attempting to split China in any par...

    Boris Johnson has been warned to move "further and faster" if he is to secure an agreement with Brussels by the end of this critical week in the Brexit process. EU officials said intensive talks had been "constructive," but added further concessions would needed to be made by the British side if the prime minister is to avoid requesting a Brexit extension. It comes as the Queen marked the state opening of parliament today, outlining the government's domestic agenda, including a crackdown on foreign criminals.

    The rarest 50p coins in circulation have been revealed as the Royal Mint marks half a century since the piece was introduced. The 50p coin, which entered circulation on October 14 1969, is considered to be the most collectable in Britain today, the Royal Mint said. But it is the 2009 Kew Gardens 50p design which remains the nation’s rarest coin, with just 210,000 created. Mintage figures from 2018 show the 2011 Olympic wrestling design is the second rarest 50p coin in circulation, with 1,129,500 produced. It is followed by the 2011 Olympic football design, of which 1,161,500 were created. The Royal Mint’s director of currency, Andrew Mills, said: “The official 2018 mintage figures provide a guide to the volume and variety of coins in 50p circulation today. “Coin...

    A Boris Johnson clown in the style of the horror film It is among the images that will grace billboards going up around the country this weekend after a competition to redesign the government’s “Get Ready for Brexit” campaign. The image is among five winning entries picked by the writer-director Armando Iannucci and the actor and comedian David Schneider, following the competition run by the pro-remain group Led By Donkeys, which described it as a push to give the public more accurate information. Donald Trump, who was also a strong theme among more than 3,000 entries to the competition, also features in one of the winners. In a nod to fears that the future of the NHS would be on the table in any post-Brexit US-UK trade deal, the billboard shows Trump gobbling up ...

    The Democratic Unionist party has given a guarded response to Boris Johnson’s apparent U-turn on the Irish border, saying it will judge any Brexit deal on how it affects Northern Ireland’s long-term economic and constitutional interests. In a statement on Friday night Arlene Foster, the DUP leader, reiterated the party’s opposition to the backstop but did not criticise the prime minister’s reported acceptance that there could not be a customs border on the island of Ireland. “The DUP has always indicated that the United Kingdom must leave the EU as one nation and in so doing that no barriers to trade are erected within the UK,” said Foster, warning against any measure that would “trap” Northern Ireland in the EU’s single market or customs union. She vowed to use th...

    Downing Street appears to have a credible Brexit proposal after a week which began with a Number 10 aide calling a deal essentially impossible. The proposal thrashed out between Boris Johnson and Leo Varadkar, in theory, deals with the main of the outstanding intractable issues. The nascent plan, revealed by leaks to Sky News and others, appears clever because it creates the illusion of victory for both sides on the most difficult issue of all customs. Under the plan, the whole of the United Kingdom leaves the EU customs union, in a big and important win for Boris Johnson. However, the EU tariff regime will continue to be applied on whole of the island of Ireland. This means that the tariffs charged in Great Britain could be different to those in Northern Ireland...