United Kingdom

    Theresa May’s premiership has been declared dead before. After her election losses last year, the British Prime Minister appeared to be on the brink of resigning. As she left 10 Downing Street on Thursday morning, members of her own party once again wondered: How long can she last? In the early morning hours, several British ministers resigned over May’s deal to leave the European Union, which was released on Wednesday. Theresa May likely expected some resignations, but one came unexpectedly: Dominic Raab, her second Brexit minister. With the official who negotiated May’s Brexit deal writing that he “cannot support the proposed deal,” the British government was suddenly thrown into jeopardy. May has come under attack from both sides of the political spectrum. Staun...

    Leading Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg submitted a letter of no confidence in the Prime Minister and several high-profile ministers including Dominic Raab and Esther McVey quit in protest at the Brexit plans. The embattled Prime Minister was briefing MPs in the House of Commons on the draft deal on Thursday morning amid rumours that the number of letters submitted by Tory MPs to the 1922 committee was nearing the 48 needed to trigger a confidence vote. Mrs May is facing a battle to get the deal, which was passed by Cabinet on Wednesday night, through Parliament with Brexiteer Conservative MPs, Remainers, the Labour party and the DUP all saying they will vote down the plan. She has been accused of breaking promises and handing control back to Brussels.

    Leaving the European Union without a transitional trade deal would cost Britain about 6 percent of GDP -- roughly four years of economic growth compared with staying in the bloc, the International Monetary Fund said on Wednesday. The IMF, which warned of the costs of Brexit before Britons voted to leave in June 2016, said securing a trade deal would roughly halve the economic damage from trade barriers and reduced foreign investment and immigration. Directors emphasised the importance of a timely agreement with the EU, accompanied by an implementation period to avoid a cliff-edge exit in March 2019 and to allow firms and workers time to adjust to the new relationship, the IMF said. Two months ago, IMF managing director Christine Lagarde said she expected the world'...

    Tiroude and Gislyne are Haitians by birth and migrants by necessity. The couple’s 18-month-old daughter, however, was born in Fort Lauderdale, and as an American by birth she is part of a growing number of US citizens seeking refuge in Canada. In 2017, some 2,550 US citizens applied for asylum in Canada – an increase of more than sixfold from 2016 and the largest such number since at least 1994, according to data from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada. Americans were the third largest contingent of asylum seekers in 2017, after Haitians and Nigerians. The vast majority are children born to Haitian parents, according to experts. Most of the Americans applying for refugee status are the children of non-residents, says Stéphane Handfield, a Montreal-based ...

    Peter Bone today led Tory outrage at Theresa May's Brexit deal saying it does not deliver the Brexit people voted for. The Brexiteer MP confronted the Prime Minister to her face with a damning assessment of the deal her Cabinet will decide on this afternoon. Mr Bone MP told Theresa May during Prime Minister's Questions: Is the Prime Minister aware that if reports are accurate you are not delivering the Brexit people voted for and today you will lose the support of many Conservative MPs and millions of voters across the country. The Tory had MP had previously been supportive of May's negotiations with the EU and said she could be the Queen of Brexit. It comes as dozens of hard Brexiteer Tories from the European Research Group prepare to vote against the deal in the...

    As the clock ticks towards exit day, Theresa May is battling to agree a Brexit deal with the European Union and steer it through parliament in time. British politics is in uncharted territory, so predicting with a high degree of certainty how the next few months will pan out is risky. Think of it like a chaotic game of chess. One move in either direction could throw the entire board into turmoil and completely alter what follows. There are myriad of outcomes, but here's a broad overview of how things could go between now and Brexit day in March. Senior UK and EU officials remain locked in negotiations to try and reach an agreement with both sides continuing their talks until 2.45am on Monday. Downing Street said substantial issues over the Irish border backstop t...

    Brexit negotiations with Brussels are now in the endgame, Theresa May has declared, amid predictions that a deal could be imminent. The prime minister said talks between UK and European negotiators have been going on through the night in a bid to break the Brexit deadlock. And, with Brexiteers in her cabinet and on the Tory backbenches threatening mutiny, the PM also promised no compromise on the 2016 referendum result or agreement at any cost. The embattled PM's latest attempt to placate the warring factions in the Conservative Party came in a speech at the annual Lord Mayor's Banquet in the City of London. In what is traditionally a major foreign policy speech, she also called for improved relations with Russia after this year's Salisbury poisonings and a series...

    The Duke of Sussex is the most popular royal with the British public, according to a new poll. Some 77% of people have a positive opinion of Harry, who is expecting his first child with his wife the Duchess of Sussex. The duke, who is sixth in line to the throne, is followed by the Queen who is in second place with 74%, and the Duke of Cambridge, who is third with 73%. Harry is described by his fans as admirable, likeable, humorous, fun-loving and genuine, the YouGov survey said. Future king the Prince of Wales, who celebrates his 70th birthday this week, is in seventh position in the ranking of royals. Almost half of the nation 48% have a positive opinion of the heir to the throne. Charles is behind his daughters-in-law and his father. The Duchess of Cambridge...

    British employers do not expect to increase the average pay settlements they offer to staff over the coming year, an industry survey showed on Monday, raising questions about whether pay will pick up as the Bank of England predicts. Employers plan to raise pay by 2 percent over the year to come, unchanged from the increase they planned three months earlier, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) said. Moreover, only around half of the businesses experiencing recruitment and retention difficulties were raising pay to attract new staff or keep hold of existing ones, due to wider productivity challenges and cost pressures, the CIPD said. The CIPD's data shows a similar pattern to other industry surveys, which report employers offering higher pay f...

    Universal Credit (UC) is set to cost more than the legacy benefits system it replaces because of changes declared in Philip Hammond's Budget, according to a new report. In October the Chancellor injected an extra £1.7 billion into UC. This, coupled with the £3.2 billion higher benefit take-up projected by the Office for Budget Responsibility, means UC will be more expensive than the old system for the first time since early 2015, the Resolution Foundation think tank has said. Mr Hammond's reform means 200,000 more working families will be better off under UC, taking the figure of those gaining under the new system from 2.2 million to 2.4 million. Among working families with children, the number expected to gain from switching to UC (1.5 million) matches the number ...