“The Arrest Warrant – and the 34 other measures the Government proposes we opt back into – are practical measures that are necessary to protect us from serious criminals and terrorists. If we want to stop foreign criminals from coming to Britain, deal with European fighters coming back from Syria, stop British criminals evading justice abroad, prevent foreign criminals evading justice by hiding here, and get foreign criminals out of our prisons, these measures are vital” – Theresa May, Sunday Telegraph
>Today: Comment: Nick de Bois MP – Why the Government’s changes to the European Arrest Warrant wouldn’t have helped my innocent constituent
“When Theresa May presents the case for signing up to the European arrest warrant (EAW) to the House of Commons tomorrow, she will undoubtedly repeat her claim that failing to sign up will turn Britain into a honeypot for terrorists, paedophiles and gangsters. It is a claim that is designed to create blood-curdling headlines, but a moment’s thought demonstrates that it is patently untrue” – David Davis, Sunday Times (£)
“As our troops come home from Afghanistan I want us to begin erecting a new national memorial to the contribution made both there and in Iraq. I have asked the former Chief of the Defence Staff Lord Stirrup to lead a national effort in planning this new memorial and raising the funds to get it built. And the Government will help to make sure that every pound raised goes directly on the memorial, by contributing the value of any VAT due” – David Cameron, Sun on Sunday
“Support for Ed Miliband among his own voters has slumped to an all-time low, with more now saying he is not up to the job of prime minister than saying he is. A YouGov poll for The Sunday Times found that only 34% of people who voted Labour at the last general election believe the leader of the opposition is up to the job of prime minister, compared with 51% a month ago. Forty-two per cent say he is not up to the job, a sharp rise from 28% a month ago” – Sunday Times (£)
“Ed Miliband’s Labour party leadership was plunged into fresh crisis as senior Labour MPs revealed that at least 20 shadow ministers were on the brink of calling for him to stand down. The frontbenchers are willing to go public with their demand if the former home secretary, Alan Johnson, indicates that he would be prepared to step into the breach, should Labour be left leaderless just months from a general election” – Observer
“Ed Miliband’s position as Labour leader is hanging by a thread after one of his key allies plunged the knife in. Shadow Education Secretary Tristram Hunt blasted Mr Miliband’s desperate attempt to revive his flagging personal ratings by ‘getting closer to voters’ as a ‘total failure’…He said: ‘I never believed the answer to Labour’s problems was to show people more of Ed Miliband’” – Mail on Sunday
“It’s clear this great wishful rapport with the British public isn’t happening. Ed is not popular. He’s not a personality, and he needs to recognise this and stop pursuing a suicidal strategy. The time has come for Labour to get real and stop trying to project Ed as something he isn’t. Clement Attlee, one of Britain’s greatest Prime Ministers, had no personality either. George Orwell famously called him ‘a recently dead fish before it had time to stiffen’” – Simon Danczuk MP, Mail on Sunday
“David Cameron’s handling of the row over Brussels’ £1.7 billion surcharge demand has been strongly backed by the public, a poll for today’s Mail on Sunday has found. As a political storm raged over the deal, which the Government claimed had halved the bill to £850 million, the Survation poll found that 42 per cent of voters agreed it was ‘a result for Britain’ – against 33 per cent who disagreed” – Mail on Sunday
“David Cameron has overseen the destruction of the countryside and reneged on his election promises to protect it, according to the outgoing chairman of the National Trust, Sir Simon Jenkins, who has called for the introduction of a landmark listing system to save Britain’s rural landscape. Jenkins, who stepped down yesterday after six years in the role, believes that the coalition has been so hostile to Britain’s countryside that a new kind of conservation is needed to prevent more green spaces from being lost or blighted by developments such as wind turbines and fracking” – Sunday Times (£)
“In an interview during which his mood swung from his trademark bravado and cheek to fury and less-familiar self-doubt, Nigel Farage argued that Prince William should be the next King, not ‘pro-Green, pro-EU Charlie boy’, the Prince of Wales. He also lashed out at claims that he has teamed up with ‘racists and homophobes’ in Europe, and admitted he is ‘not steady enough’ to be Prime Minister” – Simon Walters, Mail on Sunday
“German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Saturday an irrepressible yearning for freedom brought the Berlin Wall tumbling down 25 years ago and called it a ‘miracle’ that the Cold War barrier was breached without a shot being fired.Speaking on the eve of Sunday’s celebrations to mark the 25th anniversary of the Berlin Wall’s collapse, Merkel said Germany would always be grateful for the courage of East Germans who took to the streets to protest the Communist dictatorship. ‘It was a day that showed us the yearning for freedom cannot be forever suppressed,’ Merkel said in a speech in Berlin” – Sunday Times (£)