UK and the UN
The UK has hit a significant UN target on the way to ending the HIV epidemic by succeeding in diagnosing and effectively treating more than 90% of people with the virus.
Evaluation of UK’s international obligations
A study by the Equality and Human Rights Commission has found that cuts to public services and benefits that disproportionately affect the least well-off, single parents and disabled people put the Government in breach of its human rights obligations.
UK’s post-Brexit relationship with the EU
Labour is arguing for an art 50 extension if the Brexit deal is voted down in Parliament. However Diane Abbott has stated that the UK would vote for Brexit again if a second EU referendum were held tomorrow.
Arlene Foster has stated that Theresa May’s Brexit deal poses a greater threat to the United Kingdom than a Government led by Jeremy Corbyn.
Theresa May has been accused of “cronyism” after handing a knighthood to a Tory Brexiteer just weeks before a crunch Commons vote on her EU deal. Meanwhile Gavin Barwell, Theresa May’s chief of staff, has begged Labour MPs to back her Brexit deal in a bid to avoid a humiliating Commons defeat on 11 December.
PoliticsHome reports that Theresa May’s hopes of getting her Brexit deal through Parliament has suffered yet another blow as Labour MP Lisa Nandy, who was open to backing the agreement said it was now “inconceivable” she would vote for it whilst ex-defence secretary Sir Michael Fallon has stated that the deal is “doomed” and must be renegotiated.
Theresa May has begun a campaign, calling for a “national debate” on her Brexit deal, as she launched a PR blitz to prevent a humiliating Commons defeat next month. Meanwhile Labour has said Jeremy Corbyn would “relish” a TV debate with Theresa May after it emerged she is ready to go head-to-head with the opposition leader over her Brexit. However, Theresa May favours the BBC, whilst Corbyn favours ITV for the debate. The Prime Minister took her publicity blitz to Scotland.
Charles Grant has written a piece for the Centre for European Reform discussing what will happen if Parliament rejects Theresa May’s Brexit deal.
In The Spectator, Martin Howe QC has responded to No.10’s ‘rebuttal’.
Nicholas Boles MP has suggested the ‘Norway Plus’ plan as a way to save Brexit, and this has attracted the unlikely alliance of Amber Rudd and Michael Gove.
The Department for Exiting the European Union has published a set of materials aimed at supporting public and parliamentary assessment of the draft Withdrawal Agreement.
MPs have stated that the Foreign Office faces ‘considerable challenge’ to ensure it has the skills required for European diplomacy post Brexit.
The House of Commons Public Accounts Committee has published a report on the Department of Transport’s implementation of Brexit, warning that the Department still has to implement IT systems and test contingency plans to keep goods flowing if the UK crashes out of the EU without a deal.
Theresa May has stated that the Government would have to reopen negotiations with the EU on the Brexit deal if it sought to extend art 50 to allow for a second referendum on the plan. She has also ruled out any plan B involving a Norway-style compromise deal with the Labour party in order to deliver a parliamentary consensus on Brexit.
Theresa May has said she will only take part in a TV debate against Jeremy Corbyn and not any hard Brexiter such as Boris Johnson or any campaigner for a second referendum, saying the country had moved on from the leave versus remain argument.
International Trade Secretary Liam Fox is to urge MPs to “set aside our differences” and back the Brexit deal Theresa May clinched with Brussels. Meanwhile the prime minister has called on Tory MPs to ditch their misgivings about her Brexit deal and support it for the good of their constituents.
Top MPs from across the political divide have launched a bid to prevent the UK crashing out of the EU without a deal.
The prospects for a People’s Vote are reportedly growing, with John McDonnell supporting it, as well as former Tory ministers Jo Johnson, Justine Greening and David Willetts, and three former Labour foreign secretaries. Meanwhile May has stated that she is not ruling out a second MPs’ not on the deal.
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