“Home Secretary Sajid Javid is to reveal plans for MI5 to declassify and share information on UK citizens suspected of having terrorist sympathies. The security services currently hold information on around 20,000 such people, labelled “subjects of concern”. Mr Javid will make the announcement later in a speech relating to the overhaul of UK counter-terror strategy. Mr Javid is also expected to say he wants to eradicate “safe spaces” that are exploited by violent extremists. In his first speech on security since replacing Amber Rudd as home secretary, Mr Javid will suggest increased – and faster – sharing of information between security services, the private sector and other partners.” – BBC
>Yesterday: WATCH: Javid stresses neighbourhood policing role in combatting terror
“Sajid Javid has publicly criticised Theresa May’s migration policy and refused to endorse her target of reducing the number of people coming to the UK to “tens of thousands”. The Home Secretary was repeatedly asked whether he supports the Prime Minister’s target of reducing net migration levels to the “tens of thousands”. He refused to explicitly say that he supports the target, instead saying that he supports the policies in the Conservative Party’s manifesto. He told the Andrew Marr show on BBC One: “I’m committed to our manifesto. I’ll be working towards, rightly, reducing net migration and bringing it to lower sustainable levels.” – Daily Telegraph
>Yesterday: WATCH: Gardiner on Labour’s immigration policy. Migration will fluctuate according to the economy’s needs.
“The Muslim Council of Britain is unrepresentative, Sajid Javid, the home secretary, said as he rejected its call for an investigation into alleged Islamophobia in the Conservative Party…Yesterday Mr Javid hit back at the council, an umbrella body for hundreds of mosques and other organisations, which had said that it witnesses incidents of Islamophobia from Tory officials, candidates and supporters “more than weekly”. Baroness Warsi, the first female Muslim cabinet minister, has also called on Theresa May to acknowledge that Islamophobia was a problem in the party. Mr Javid told The Andrew Marr Show on BBC One: “I am afraid I don’t agree with her.”…he added: “The Muslim Council of Britain [MCB] does not represent Muslims in this country. You find me a group of Muslims that thinks they’re represented by the MCB. I would be very suspicious of anything that they’ve got to say not least because, under the last Labour government — and a policy continued by us — we don’t deal with the MCB . . . because too many of their members have made favourable comments on extremists and that’s not acceptable.” – BBC
>Yesterday: Iman Atta on Comment: The call for an inquiry into Tory anti-Muslim prejudice isn’t new. We made it two years ago. It still stands.
“Conservative defence minister who served in Northern Ireland has called for an amnesty to prevent army veterans being pursued by “ambulance chasers”, admitting he would not want them “knocking on my door”. Tobias Ellwood said he would not support any inquiry which could potentially see members of his former platoon facing historic allegations into old age, as he claimed that he himself had “knocked over a few milk bottles” during his deployment to the province. It comes after The Telegraph revealed last month that plans for an inquiry into the Troubles did not include an amnesty for British troops, despite calls for it to be time-limited to protect elderly veterans, some of whom are now in their seventies.” – Daily Telegraph
“The House of Lords has become “very political” and was wrong to vote against the government on Brexit legislation, Lord Lloyd-Webber has said. In his final speech in the Lords last July, Lord Lloyd-Webber, who voted to remain in the EU, said he feared that Brexit was “hastening Putin’s dream of the break-up of the EU — and with it, potentially, western civilisation”. Yesterday, however, he took aim at the upper chamber’s approach to Brexit. “I do not think you can possibly be part of an unelected House and vote against the will of the people,” he told The Andrew Marr Show on BBC One. “It seems to me to be wrong.” – The Times
>Yesterday: Tory Diary: Our survey. Almost two-thirds of Tory members don’t have confidence in the Government’s handling of Brexit.
“The UK should be prepared to walk from a Brexit trade deal with Brussels to protect the City rather than settle for becoming a “rule taker” of the EU, a senior Conservative MEP has said….One option – outlined in the EU’s draft Brexit negotiating guidelines in March – would be offering access under Brussels’ so-called “equivalence” regime. But this has raised fears the UK financial services sector – which accounts for 11pc of UK economic output and contributed £72bn last year in tax – would then become a “rule taker” of Brussels, with the threat of access being revoked at 30 days notice. Kay Swinburne, a Conservative MEP and vice-chairman of the European Parliament’s economic committee, told The Daily Telegraph she believed this was unacceptable.” – Daily Telegraph
“Doomsday” Brexit scenario warning that Britain will be hit with shortages of medicine, food and fuel if it tries to leave the EU without a deal is “Project Fear on speed”. Whitehall officials have reportedly begun contingency planning for the Port of Dover to collapse “on day one” if Britain crashes out of the European Union, leading to critical shortages of supplies. The Brexit Department, Department of Health and Department for Transport have drawn up plans for a no-deal Brexit including a mile one, severe one and one dubbed “Armageddon. However Jacob Rees-Mogg, a senior Tory eurosceptic MP, said that it was a “gamma minus piece of work” and “economically illiterate”.” – Daily Telegraph
“Pressure was mounting last night for Gibraltar to have its own Member of Parliament in Westminster after Brexit, with a petition signed by 40 percent of the voting population. It emerges two weeks before MPs will be asked to debate the prospect of the overseas territory securing its post-Brexit future as a fully-fledged member of the United Kingdom. With 23,000 voters Gibraltar would not be the smallest constituency – Nah h-Eileanan an Iar, in the Outer Hebrides, has just 21,260. But senior government insiders on the Rock say the move, if accepted by the majority of Gibraltarians, would more likely see it share an MP with Cornwall.” – Daily Express
“A leading Eurosceptic campaign group wants the UK to accept substantial portions of the EU’s rules after Brexit to chart a compromise between “hardline leavers and extreme remainers”. Open Europe, a think tank with close ties to prominent Brexiteers, says today that the UK should in effect become a “rule-taker” on regulations over goods while writing its own rules on services. The model will be anathema to pro-Brexit campaigners, who want the UK to abandon red tape emanating from Brussels, but it is being pitched as a compromise option that would appeal to the bulk of the Conservative parliamentary party.” – The Times
>Today: Stephen Booth on Comment: Our Brexit proposal. Integrate for goods, diverge for services.
“Chief EU bully Michel Barnier last week spat out the words that should be carved on the hearts of all those fighting to overturn Brexit. “We don’t want to negotiate. We don’t want to compromise,” he confessed to Vice online news. Now we all know. Our grovelling attempt to buy a friendly, friction-free and costly trade deal was doomed from the start…..Her £39bn cheque is the trump card. With Greece destitute, Italy imploding and Austria, Poland and Hungary near revolt over immigration, the EU needs all the friends — and money — it can get.” – Trevor Kavanagh, The Sun
“Theresa May is facing a rebellion by Boris Johnson and senior Tory MPs after it emerged that she is considering whipping a vote on third runway at Heathrow later this month. The Prime Minister had been expected to give Mr Johnson and dozens of anti-Heathrow Tory MPs a “licence to rebel” by handing them a free vote on the runway in a bid to avoid destabilising the Government. However The Telegraph understands Mrs May is now considering imposing a “three-line whip” on the vote next month amid concerns that the Government could lose.” – Daily Telegraph
“Russian scare tactics will threaten our stability “for years to come”, a hard-hitting report says. Tory MP Bob Seely said the Kremlin’s use of hackers, trolls, paid protesters and misinformation are all part of a “full spectrum” destabilisation strategy against the West. Mr Seely, who compared the approach to a Russian doll, said at least 50 tools of state power are being used in a bid to interfere with Western countries. He said: “From fake news aimed at Europe to the propaganda of RT, and from the occupation of Crimea to the streets of Salisbury, Russia is waging a very modern kind of conflict on the West – as well as on the Russian people themselves. Putin’s tactics owe much to the ‘active measures’ practised by the KGB during the Cold War, subverting truth to undermine our faith in our institutions.” – The Sun
“Sadiq Khan faces the prospect of a Conservative challenger from September at a time when there are concerns about knife crime, questions about Transport for London’s finances, and uncertainty about how far the capital’s mayor is able to address the housing crisis…Khan has been accused of failing on his election pledge to “make London safer”, although he announced an as yet largely unspent £45m knife crime fund in February. But in response to the criticisms, the mayor told the Guardian he is not getting enough money from central government for policing.” – The Guardian
>Today: Shaun Bailey on Local Government: We are the party of social mobility – but we must increase our focus on disadvantaged communities
“Jeremy Corbyn will order the British Museum to return the Elgin Marbles to Greece if elected Prime Minister, opening the door to dozens of historical artefacts being repatriated under a Labour government. The Labour leader has claimed that the Parthenon sculptures “belong to Greece” and that on entering Downing Street he would begin “constructive talks” with its government to begin the process of their return.” – Daily Telegraph
>Yesterday: WATCH: The Tracey Ullman sketch that is riling the Corbynistas
“The days of prime ministers staying in power for more than a decade are over because the era of 24-hour news has shortened the shelf life of politicians, Gordon Brown said yesterday. The former Labour prime minister, who occupied 10 Downing Street between 2007 and 2010, claimed the hourly news cycle meant voters got bored quickly if they were stuck with the same personalities. He also suggested that the constant invasion into politicians’ private lives made it hard for them to survive. Saying the country would never again have a prime minister serving 11 years like Margaret Thatcher, Mr Brown told the Hay Festival: ‘There will be no ten years of any other prime minister again.” – Daily Mail
“Sinn Fein voters will switch allegiance to the Democratic Unionist Party because of its opposition to liberalising Northern Ireland’s abortion laws, Arlene Foster has claimed. The DUP leader said that she had been contacted by republicans after the Republic’s decisive referendum, saying that the DUP was “the only party that supports the unborn”. Abortion is illegal in Northern Ireland unless there is a serious risk to the mother’s health, making it far more restrictive than Great Britain.” – The Times
>Yesterday: WATCH: Foster on abortion. “I have had e-mails from nationalists and republicans saying that they will be voting DUP.”
“Nicola Sturgeon has been branded borderline delusional after describing the reaction to the SNP’s Growth Commission as “heartening”. Despite a week of intense criticism from the Left of the Yes movement, the First Minister said publication of the 354-page report had “shifted political debate in a very positive direction”.” – The Herald
“Israel raised the pressure on Britain and its European partners last night to tear up the nuclear deal with Iran by sharing secret files showing Tehran’s determination to build a bomb. One of the key documents, seen by The Times, is a memorandum that formally hands responsibility for the production of weapons-grade enriched uranium to the Iranian defence ministry. This and other written orders are part of a cache of 100,000 files snatched from a Tehran warehouse by agents of Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency, in January.” – The Times
“The anti-immigrant Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS) has emerged as the largest party in Slovenia’s general election. With nearly all votes counted SDS had 25% of the vote, officials said. The centre-left anti-establishment LMS party came second with 12.7%. Analysts say SDS may find it difficult to form a coalition. The poll was called in March after centre-left PM Miro Cerar quit amid strikes, coalition wrangling and a damaging Supreme Court ruling. The SDS is led by former PM Janez Jansa, who has been a vocal supporter of Hungary’s nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban.” – BBC
“The investigation into one of Britain’s most notorious political scandals descended into total farce last night. In an astonishing turn of events, police were first forced to admit that the prime suspect in the plot to kill Jeremy Thorpe’s gay ex-lover is actually still alive. Then, when embarrassed officers raced to Andrew Newton’s Surrey home to confront him yesterday, they found he had vanished, leaving the humiliated force empty-handed. But Newton was seen walking to the house he is believed to share with Patsy Frankham on Saturday, after a spot of shopping.” – Daily Mail
“Jonathan Aitken has been an MP, a Cabinet minister, the chairman of a bank, a prisoner and a bankrupt. Now, at the age of 75, he is to be a clergyman. The first-ever woman Bishop of London, Sarah Mullally, will make him her first-ever ordinand at the end of this month….Obviously the role of any priest touches all aspects of life, but the specific purpose of Mr Aitken’s ordination is to minister (unpaid) in prisons. He will surely be good at this. He has the fellow feeling and experience required. He notices, by direct observation, particular prison problems of our time – the unmet spiritual needs of prison officers, the growth of Islam at the expense of enfeebled Christianity, and the growing number of sex criminals, desperately lonely because they are despised not only by the outside world but by other inmates.” – Charles Moore, Daily Telegraph