“Boris Johnson has thrown his weight behind a new group putting pressure on Theresa May to deliver a ‘hard Brexit’. In the latest sign of tensions between the Brexiteer Ministers and No 10, the Foreign Secretary will help the group, Change Britain, to demand measures such as pulling the UK out of the single market. Change Britain, which launches today, is backed by an array of high-profile Brexiteers including former Tory leadership contender Michael Gove, Margaret Thatcher’s Chancellor Nigel Lawson and David Cameron’s former adviser Steve Hilton.” – Mail on Sunday
“If we can step away from the confected outrage, however, perhaps we should cut Dr Fox a little slack..In 2012, convinced Britain needed to export its way to success, George Osborne set an ambitious target of achieving a doubling of exports to £1,000bn by 2020. To say progress has been slow would be flattering it. Total exports last year were £509bn, marginally up on the £499bn total for 2010. They fell in both 2014 and 2015. Exports of goods were 6% lower last year than in 2012. We can hope for a post-Brexit revival on the back of the pound’s renewed fall — and there is some tentative evidence of it — but recent history suggests we should not hope too hard.” – Sunday Times Editorial (£)
“Dr Fox was right to say that the Foreign Office has been insufficiently interested in commerce. Pledges were made under the Coalition to use UK embassies to boost British businesses, but – as reports of civil service grumbling about Brexit indicate – dynamism has been lacking. This is not entirely Whitehall’s fault. When the UK joined the Common Market in 1973, it surrendered authority to negotiate trade deals to Brussels. With it went the culture and experience of using government machinery to promote trade. Happily, Australia, Canada and New Zealand have offered to lend Britain their own well-versed negotiators.” – Sunday Telegraph Editorial
“Five councils – some of which have until now been fully comprehensive – have revealed they are considering creating thousands of grammar school places…Thurrock in Essex, Windsor and Maidenhead, Central Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire are also preparing to open new grammar schools. In Sutton, south London, a grammar is seeking to open a satellite several miles away in Croydon.” – Sunday Times (£)
“She is gambling that the past is forgotten and that the idea of greater meritocracy in education will have broad appeal across classes. This vicar’s daughter makes no apology for being middle class. She does not indulge in Blair’s glottal stops or the forced matiness of Brown and Cameron to try to connect with voters. Instead she is promising to put “ordinary working-class people first”.” – Sunday Times (£)
“Senior Tories believe that Jeremy Corbyn’s hard-left leadership has presented them with a prime opportunity to persuade members of minority communities to switch sides at the next general election. The strategy could pay huge dividends, with people from BME — black and minority ethnic — communities accounting for more than one in five voters in the Tories’ top 20 target seats. The Modern Britain group, which will be launched by Sajid Javid, the communities secretary, in parliament this week will develop ideas that could form the basis of a BME manifesto.” – Sunday Times (£)
“Celebrities are to be banished from Downing Street as Theresa May replaces cool Britannia-style receptions with parties with a purpose. Firms that want to toast their success with a soiree at No 10 will have to show that bosses have read the new prime minister’s speeches and acted on her call for business to do more for the community. In one of the first examples, leading designers have been told to bring apprentices along during London fashion week and “they will be the ones photographed on the front steps of No 10 with the PM”.” – Sunday Times (£)
“A free vote on whether to expand Heathrow Airport – proposed in a leaked Government paper – would be an “absolute dereliction of duty”, a senior Tory MP has told Theresa May. Former party chairman Grant Shapps hit out at the suggestion that Cabinet ministers and other Conservative MPs would be able break ranks on such “an enormous decision for Britain’s future”. “It would be leaving the future of our infrastructure pretty much to chance. Who knows which way that vote would go?” Mr Shapps said.” – Independent on Sunday
“Informed sources said there was mounting speculation Theresa May could intervene and significantly alter the scheme. “The new government is understood to want a new direction,” said one source. An announcement detailing the exact route of the second phase of the project has been delayed by the government for almost two years, according to another insider. It is now due this autumn…“Everybody has had a great deal of nervousness around why the Department for Transport [DfT] has not made an announcement on phase two. We haven’t even got a design for phase two yet. ” – Sunday Times (£)
“The ultimatum from rebel Tories came ahead of the release this week of detailed proposals to axe 50 constituencies at the next General Election. The move – part of a Tory manifesto pledge to ‘cut the cost of politics’ – will trigger bitter turf wars among MPs over whose seats will go. Senior Tory MP Charles Walker branded the plans ‘ridiculous’ if they were not matched by similar measures to cut the size of the ‘bloated’ and unelected House of Lords, which has 805 members.” – Mail on Sunday
“Mr Corbyn was rocked by dozens of resignations from his shadow government in the aftermath of the EU referendum, in a rebellion that triggered a leadership contest. However, with polls suggesting that Mr Corbyn is on course to win next week’s leadership election easily, a number of former shadow ministers are preparing the ground to return to work with him. They will demand a list of assurances from Mr Corbyn as a sign of his goodwill before pledging their support.” – Sunday Telegraph
“A disproportionate number of these are people vocationally drawn to the care of children, whether as teachers or social workers: it is not only that their personal lives have been wrecked, but so have their careers and everything they worked for. In many cases they have been financially cleaned out by legal bills, with no prospect of recompense, let alone an apology. Let this one speak for the many: “Everything I believed throughout my life has been smashed. Truth, honesty, morals — all the things I was brought up to believe in have been smashed. There has never been any acknowledgment that I was the victim in all of this.” – Sunday Times (£)