“Quitting the EU would be an act of liberation and patriotic renewal, Michael Gove is to say, as the war of the words in the debate intensifies. The justice secretary, who backs EU exit, will accuse those who want to stay of treating voters “like children who can be frightened into obedience”. It follows Treasury forecasts an exit could cost households £4,300 a year. Mr Gove will warn of a further loss of powers to Europe in areas such as tax and asylum if the UK stays in the EU. He is expected to use a speech in London later to set out his vision of what the country would look like in the event of a Leave vote.” – BBC
Comment
>Today:
>Yesterday:
“As identified in recent ORB polls, British voters see the economic case as a strong argument for staying in the EU, but they also see the changes to the immigration system as a benefit of leaving. This remains the case in this poll. But what this latest poll also shows is that while the Remain campaign are maximising the potential of the economic arguments, the same cannot be said of the Leave campaign and the immigration case.” – Sir Lynton Crosby Daily Telegraph
“Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond has visited Libya in a show of support for the country’s new UN-backed national unity government. Mr Hammond met Prime Minister-designate Fayez Sarraj in Tripoli and pledged £10m in funding for the new government. He also said the UK was ready to provide training support to the administration’s armed forces.” – BBC
“Firms who cut workers’ lunch breaks to off-set the cost of the living wage should be named and shamed, Chancellor George Osborne has insisted. Mr Osborne said the actions of some companies made him angry, but the law could not dictate what people have for lunch. “It makes me angry. One of the things I’m proudest of in the years of doing this job is introducing the national living wage. It means a £900 pay rise for a low-paid person.” – Herald Scotland
“In 2013 Zac Goldsmith thought running for London mayor was “a suicide mission”. He wasn’t going to do it. People have had enough of white male Etonians,” he told a fringe meeting at the Conservatives’ annual conference in Manchester. “I’m not sure my chances would be very high. As he enters the final 16 days of his battle against Sadiq Khan, the Labour favourite to succeed Boris Johnson at City Hall, the question of what drives Goldsmith and why he is running looms over his campaign.” – The Guardian
“Campaigners have criticised as disappointing the home secretary’s plan to place a 72-hour limit on the detention of pregnant women held at immigration detention centres. Theresa May confirmed her intention to end the routine detention of pregnant women following a House of Lords vote last week demanding an outright ban on the practice.” – The Guardian
“China has vowed to reduce the amount of steel it makes, Business Secretary Sajid Javid said. He spoke after a crisis meeting in Brussels about the global steel glut that was attended by 30 countries. China has “absolutely recognised that it is a problem of overcapacity in their country”, Mr Javid said. However, China rejected suggestions that it subsidised its loss-making steel companies, and the meeting ended without any formal agreement.” – BBC
“Labour has called on the attorney general to clear up the mounting confusion over whether the health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, has the power to impose a new contract on junior doctors…Hunt deepened the uncertainty over his legal powers in the Commons on Monday when he again said that he was “imposing” the contract, even though both the government’s own lawyers and his department of health insist that he is merely playing a key role in its “introduction”.” – The Guardian
“Labour could be forced to reverse its decision to block McDonald’s from hosting a stand at its annual conference after a revolt by MPs and peers. Senior figures are plotting to force a U-turn over the ban on the fast food chain, with one Labour grandee accusing the leadership of a “snobby attitude” towards the company and its workers…Baroness Prosser, a former Labour party treasurer and union official, said that the bar on McDonald’s had been decided by people who appeared to be “sniffy about flipping burgers for a living”.” – The Times(£)
“Muslim chaplains appointed by the Ministry of Justice routinely distribute Islamist hate literature in British prisons, a leaked report has found. The review, ordered last year by Michael Gove, found extremist pamphlets and CDs in more than ten jails in November. It uncovered misogynistic and homophobic leaflets, hate tracts encouraging the murder of apostates and ultra-conservative Islamic literature preaching contempt for basic British values.” – The Times(£)
“More home-grown school leavers are being “frozen out” of university in Scotland than in England despite Nicola Sturgeon describing higher education as a “right”, the Tories have said. The Conservatives highlighted official figures from university admissions service Ucas showing overall acceptance rates for 18-year-old Scots have fallen from around 80 per cent in 2007, when the SNP took power, to 73.7 per cent last year.” – Daily Telegraph
“Children from the poorest families are missing out on places at the best primary schools, analysis shows. Those from deprived backgrounds were only half as likely to go to the top schools according to the research by charity Teach First. And it found parents on low incomes were four times more likely to send their kids to schools that needed improvement.” – The Sun
“If Charles is well-advised, he will follow his mother’s example in almost everything, though this will demand from him a dramatic acquisition of wisdom. Elizabeth II has given a masterclass in the maintenance of a constitutional monarchy in the 20th and now the 21st centuries. Her dignity has never faltered, and lapses of judgment have been seldom…In the National Anthem, we sing ‘long to reign over us’. Many of us hope for better than that: we want her to go on for ever.” – Max Hastings Daily Telegraph