Exclusive: Tory mayoral candidate Shaun Bailey calls for £104m ’emergency crime budget’ February 24, 2020 Tory mayoral candidate Shaun Bailey will attach an amendment to the mayor’s budget in an attempt to inject an extra £104m to the Metropolitan Police’s coffers. The London Assembly will vote on Sadiq Khan’s £17bn 2020-21 mayoral budget at City Hall today. The 25 assembly members can successfully add amendments to the budget, or over [...]
New law to force venues to prepare for terror attacks February 24, 2020 A proposed new law will require the UK’s venue operators to have measures in place to protect the public from terror attacks. The new legislation, labelled as “Protect Duty” by the Home Office, could force operators to increase physical security, conduct training and draw up incident response exercises for staff on what to do during an [...]
FSB calls for small business exemptions to immigration fees February 24, 2020 The government’s new immigration rules can work for small businesses if hiring costs are kept down and the system is easy to navigate, according to a new report. The new points-based immigration system, to be implemented from 2021, will require EU immigration applicants to speak English, have a job offer in the UK and to [...]
Emmanuel Macron ‘not sure’ a UK-EU trade deal can be reached by deadline February 23, 2020 French President Emmanuel Macron has cast doubt that the UK will strike a trade deal with the EU by the government’s 31 January deadline. Negotiations will begin between Brussels and the UK next month, with issues such as financial services regulation, fishing rights and tariffs set to be at the fore of discussions. Boris Johnson’s [...]
Acid-washed chicken could be on the menu in UK-US trade deal February 23, 2020 Environment secretary George Eustice has refused to rule out the prospect of allowing imports of acid washed chicken under a UK-US trade deal. Food standards post-Brexit has been an ongoing issue in Westminster, with opposition parties claiming the Tories are prepared to allow a diversion from the EU’s stringent rules to strike a trade deal [...]
MI5 officials limit information they give home secretary Priti Patel February 23, 2020 The Home Office turf war between Priti Patel and the civil service has escalated, after claims that Mi5 do not trust the home secretary. It has been claimed that officials from the security service have limited the number of briefings they give Patel and that they “roll their eyes” when she contributes at meetings. A [...]
House of Lords allowances surge in ‘rolling expenses scandal’ February 23, 2020 Expenses and allowances claimed by peers in the House of Lords rose by one-third last year in what has been described as a “rolling expenses scandal”. Analysis, by the Sunday Times, found that peers’ daily attendance allowance and expenses rose by 29 per cent to £23m in the year to March 2019. The analysis found [...]
Mayoral candidate Siobhan Benita wants to ‘Love London Better’ February 22, 2020 For a brief moment in 2019, the Liberal Democrats looked a serious chance of upending Britain’s two-party political hegemony. After years in the political wilderness, the party rode a wave of Brexit uncertainty and parliamentary division to top Westminster YouGov polling in late May, eliciting cries of jubilation from long suffering Lib Dem supporters. It’s [...]
Mayor of London election candidates have £420,000 campaign spending limit February 20, 2020 Candidates in the 2020 mayor of London election will have a limit of £420,000 to spend during the official campaign. Mayor of London Sadiq Khan will go head-to-head with Tory candidate Shaun Bailey, independent candidate Rory Stewart, Liberal Democrat Siobhan Benita and Green party co-leader on 7 May. Khan’s odds are as short as 1/7 [...]
Keir Starmer refuses to sign Khan’s London pledges February 20, 2020 Labour leadership frontrunner Sir Keir Starmer has refused to sign a set of so-called London pledges drawn up by Sadiq Khan. City A.M. exclusively reported last week that the mayor of London had asked the remaining three party leadership candidates — Starmer, Rebecca Long-Bailey and Nandy — to sign a set of six pledges aimed [...]
