Theresa May claims Boris Johnson will ‘tear up’ Northern Ireland promise October 2, 2018 Theresa May has hit back at Boris Johnson's plan for Brexit, claiming it would "tear up" the UK's pledge to Northern Ireland. In a series of interviews on Tuesday afternoon, May tore into Johnson's Brexit vision as it would see the need for customs checks on goods crossing the UK's border with Ireland. Her comments [...]
Boris Johnson launches no-holds barred attack on Theresa May’s Brexit plan in highly-anticipated conference speech October 2, 2018 Boris Johnson took a hammer to Theresa May's Brexit plan today as he claimed her proposals were "dangerous and unstable". Addressing a packed fringed meeting at the Conservative party conference, the former foreign secretary dubbed the so-called Chequers plan "an outrage" that was "not democracy". Read more: Conservative Party conference app flaw exposes MPs' phone [...]
Foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt backpedals on ‘Soviet prison’ comments about EU October 2, 2018 Jeremy Hunt, the foreign secretary, has backtracked on comments he made about the European Union in which he compared the group to the Soviet Union. Hunt provoked condemnation and mockery on Sunday, after he said the EU risked becoming like a Soviet “prison” because of its negotiation stance on Britain’s exit from the EU. Read [...]
Theresa May’s vision-free approach is alienating us all October 2, 2018 An opening day Conservative conference speech by former CBI Director-General Digby Jones might not have been expected to diagnose the Prime Minister’s key weakness. But defending Theresa May’s Brexit approach, the former Labour minister unwittingly exposed the reason that the Prime Minister has alienated much of her party: she is a vision-free zone. Riffing off [...]
Theresa May: We’ll prioritise skilled immigration after Brexit October 2, 2018 Theresa May plans to prioritise immigrants’ skills, rather than their country of origin, in a post-Brexit shake-up of the visa system. The Prime Minister will focus on tackling low-skilled immigration and place more value on those with skills desirable to British businesses, following a recommendation from the Migration Advisory Committee (Mac). Read more: 'Frictionless' immigration [...]
Philip Hammond says Tories are the ‘party of business’ as he takes the fight to Jeremy Corbyn October 1, 2018 Philip Hammond tried to paint the Conservatives as the "party of business" today as he launched a sustained attack on the Labour Party's plans for the economy. Speaking at the Tory conference in Birmingham, the chancellor urged his party to put on a united front to defeat Jeremy Corbyn – arguing Labour's plans would threaten [...]
Brexit secretary says Chequers plan is not ‘perfect’ as he urges Tories to back the proposal October 1, 2018 Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab today admitted the Prime Minister's EU negotiating plan is not perfect as he appealed to his fellow Tories to back the so-called Cheques proposal. Speaking at the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham, Raab claimed eurosceptics would have "bitten my arm off" before the 2016 referendum for the deal he and other [...]
May’s stamp duty tax on foreign buyers forces down FTSE developers’ share prices October 1, 2018 More than half a billion pounds was wiped off the value of some of the UK’s largest housebuilders today, as the City digested news of Theresa May’s planned property tax on foreign buyers. Shares in Berkeley Group, Barratt Developments and Taylor Wimpey all slid in the wake of the Prime Minister’s weekend announcement to slap [...]
Philip Hammond: Tory party ‘has business at its core’ October 1, 2018 Philip Hammond this morning sought to reaffirm the Tories as the “party of business” ahead of his Conservative Party Conference speech later today. He also tried to bolster business confidence about the prospects of the UK negotiating a Brexit deal with the EU, amid rising concerns over the possibility of the UK leaving the bloc [...]
Raising stamp duty for foreigners won’t fix Britain’s housing crisis September 30, 2018 It can't be easy, being Theresa May. The Prime Minister faces constant battles on several fronts – grappling with negotiators in Brussels, rebutting opposition parties in Westminster, and fending off leadership plotters within her own ranks. Little surprise the domestic policy agenda can sometimes seem like an afterthought. Ahead of this week's Tory party conference [...]