UK Politics

Boris Johnson has been censured by the chair during a House of Commons debate after bizarrely claiming that Labour was “on the side of people traffickers”.Deputy Speaker Rosie Winterton, who presided over Wednesday’s session of prime minister’s questions, said the prime minister should be “more respectful” and that he was not living up to parliamentary standards.Mr Johnson made the claim because Labour has criticised his policy of deporting asylum seekers to Rwanda. Opposition leader Keir Starmer has opposed the move on the grounds of cost and practicality. During an exchange with the Labour leader Mr Johnson responded to heckling by telling MPs, telling the Commons: “They’re on the side of the people traffickers who would risk people’s lives at sea and we are on the side of people who come here safely and legally.”Many refugees crossing the channel to apply for asylum in Britain pay for help from traffickers because the UK government does not provide them with safe routes to enter the country.Anti-migration politicians often focus their rhetoric on “traffickers” as an easier target than the refugees themselves.After the end of the PMQs session Labour MP Yasmin Qureshi made a point of order questioning the prime minister’s comments to the deputy speaker and saying it should be removed from the record.Ms Winterton said the “level of noise” during the session meant it was not possible “for the chair to hear everything”.”But I understand that the Prime Minister did say that the opposition was ‘on the side of people traffickers’,” she said.”That seems to me, and I have to say to the Speaker, to fall well short of the good-temper, and moderation which should characterise our debates,” she said.”I say to the prime minister, and to all members here: we need to refer to each other in this place in more respectful terms, and I’m sure that that spirit will be adopted in the statement to come.” More

Boris Johnson is attempting to perform “Jedi mind tricks” on the country by boasting about the state of the economy and claiming no rules were broken over the Partygate scandal, Sir Keir Starmer had joked.Injecting Star Wars references into the weekly exchange at prime minister’s questions, the Labour leader also claimed Mr Johnson “thinks he’s Obi-Wan Kenobi”, but added: “The truth is he’s Jabba the Hut”.Focusing his attention on the economy, Sir Keir raised predictions from the OECD that the UK will be the worst-performing economy of any nation in the developed world besides Russia, in 2023.In an attempt to divert the line of the questioning, the prime minister, however, referenced the imminent rail strikes facing the country, saying the Labour leader had a “sphinx-like silence about the RMT” industrial action.But Sir Keir hit back, saying: “He’s in government. He can do something to stop the strikes. He hasn’t lifted a finger.”“I don’t want the strikes to go ahead, but he does. He wants the country to grind to a halt so he can feed off the division.”The Labour leader said: “As for his boasting about the economy, he thinks he can perform Jedi mind tricks on the country: ‘These aren’t the droids you’re looking for, no rules were broken, the economy is booming’.“The problem is, the force just isn’t with him anymore,” he added. “He thinks he’s Obi-Wan Kenobi. The truth is he’s Jabba the Hutt. More

A member of Sir Keir Starmer’s shadow cabinet told party was recorded telling supporters that she hopes the UK can re-join the EU single market and customs union.Shadow justice minister Anna McMorrin suggested a Labour government could renegotiate the existing Brexit deal, saying: “We certainly need to renegotiate the deal.”She also shared her desire to get Britain back in the EU single market. “I hope eventually that we will get back into the single market and customs union, and who knows then,” the frontbencher said.Stung by loss of support from Leave voters, Sir Keir has been careful to avoid promising any significant changes to Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal – saying only he wanted to make arrangements “work”.Video of the Labour Communications event, obtained by The Sun, showed Ms McMorrin being asked whether a return to the EU single market was possible. “I hope so – I really hope so,” she said.The shadow minister told the event: “Customs union and single market at the very least I think, in future, I hope we will return to that. At the moment there is not really scope for having that conversation at the moment.”She added: “At the moment what we need to be doing is setting out what we’re doing what we have now, where we are right now … Getting into government, there might be some scope then to renegotiate. We certainly need to renegotiate the deal, certainly.”But Labour made clear her comments do not reflect the party’s position. “Policy is clear,” said a spokesperson. “We need a strong relationship with EU partners but that does not involve membership of the customs union or the single market.”Ms Morrin later told The Independent: “Labour party policy on Brexit is clear. We have left the EU, Labour voted for the deal. It is now the job of all of us to make it work.”The prime minister taunted Ms McMorrin over her Brexit remarks at PMQs after she challenged him about his own cost-of-living tsar’s previous remarks saying he “has to go”.Mr Johnson replied: “I read … she wants to go back into the single market and into the customs union. If that’s the real policy of the Labour party … why won’t the leader of the opposition admit it?”Shadow cabinet minister David Lammy said in September that a Labour government would “fix” the Brexit deal – appearing to raise the prospect of more talks with the EU.At the time of the Labour conference, Mr Lammy said: “This is [Mr Johnson]’s deal. When we come to government, we’ll have to look at how we fix his deal.”However, Sir Keir said emphatically last year that there was “no case” for any “major renegotiation” of the withdrawal accord struck with the EU. He has since talked about making Brexit “work”.It comes as the EU launching legal action against Mr Johnson’s government in response to unilateral moves to tear up parts of the Northern Ireland Protocol in his own Brexit deal.The protocol bill is “extremely damaging to mutual trust and respect between the EU and the UK” Maros Sefcovic said. “That is why the Commission has today decided to take legal action against the UK for not complying with significant parts of the protocol.”Starmer said last week that a future Labour government would repeal any legislation passed to unilaterally ditch the mutually-agreed protocol.“We would scrap the legislation,” Sir Keir said on a visit in Belfast – who said the UK-EU row over protocol checks “can be overcome around the negotiating table with statecraft, with high levels of trust”. More

Starmer says Boris Johnson thinks he’s ‘on Love Island’
Downing Street has defended the government’s plan to override parts of the Northern Ireland protocol after the EU confirmed that it is taking legal action over the UK’s proposed changes to the post-Brexit trading arrangements.Boris Johnson’s official spokesperson said the government “disappointed” in the EU’s decision to take the issue back through the courts.“We will consider these documents carefully and respond formally in due course, however we are disappointed the EU has taken this legal action today,” the spokesman said.“The EU’s proposed approach, which doesn’t differ from what they have said previously, would increase burdens on business and citizens and take us backwards from where we are currently.“The infractions are related to the implementation of the protocol in our recently published Bill. It is difficult to see how scrapping grace periods and adding additional controls and checks would be the situation better.”Show latest update

1655304210Labour denies claim of planning return to EU single marketLabour has rejected claims it would seek to take Britain back into the EU single market and customs union after a shadow frontbencher expressed the hope it could return.A party spokesman said Anna McMorrin, a shadow justice minister, had been spoken to by Sir Keir Starmer after it was reported that she suggested a Labour Government may be able to renegotiate the UK’s deal with Brussels.However, she retained her frontbench role after she issued a statement making clear that she backed the official party line that the UK had left that EU and that Labour was committed to making the existing deal work.The Sun obtained footage of Ms McMorrin answering questions from supporters last week in which she said: “We need to renegotiate the deal, certainly.”She added: “I hope, eventually that, we will get back into the single market and customs union, and who knows then.”In her statement, Ms McMorrin said: “Labour policy on Brexit is clear. We have left the EU, Labour voted for the deal. Now it is the job of all of us to make it work.”The spokesman said: “That is the Labour Party position.”In the Commons, Boris Johnson taunted her about her remarks when she challenged him at Prime Minister’s Questions about comments by his new cost-of-living tsar saying that he “has to go”.The Prime Minister replied: “I read the other day that she wants to go back into the single market and into the customs union.”If that’s the real policy of the Labour Party, going back to the EU, why won’t the Leader of the Opposition admit it?”Matt Mathers15 June 2022 15:431655303454Braverman – Goverment would ‘prefer’ to negotiate with EUThe attorney general has said the goverment would “prefer” to negotiate with the EU after the bloc announced it was taking legal action against the UK’s move to take unilateral action on Brexit’s Northern Ireland protocol.Speaking to the BBC, Suella Braverman said: “Listen my preferred alternative right now is negotiation and my invitation to our EU friends is to come back to the table and to engage substantively with our proposals.“They’ve failed to do that for over two years now and that’s why we’ve regrettably been left with no option but to take these measures.”In the same interview, Ms Braverman accused the BBC of framing the UK Government as “always malevolent” and the EU as “the honest broker”.Appearing on the corporation’s World At One programme, Suella Braverman was asked: “This Government keeps doing things that others judge to be illegal – we can go back to prorogation, partygate, the Northern Ireland protocol, deporting asylum seekers – I wonder how comfortable you feel with the reputation that this Government has being built up as with regard to law-breaking?””With respect, I think that’s a BBC view, if you don’t mind me saying, that the UK Government is somehow always malevolent and the EU is always acting as the honest broker and the good guys,” she replied.”It was the Supreme Court that ruled on prorogation,” presenter Sarah Montague interjected.Matt Mathers15 June 2022 15:301655302554ICYMI: EU launches legal action against Boris Johnson for breaking international lawOur policy correspondent Jon Stone reports: Matt Mathers15 June 2022 15:151655301723Editorial: The Rwanda flight is grounded – but migrants should be more than ammo in Tory MPs’ culture warThis humiliation for the government was brought about not by ‘lefty lawyers’ but by government incompetence.
Read the full Independent editorial here: Matt Mathers15 June 2022 15:021655300779Patel refuses to say how much failed deportation plane cost Priti Patel has refused to say how much last night’s failed Rwanda deportation flight cost the taxpayer.Asked whether it cost £500,000, the home secretary said: “We don’t speak about operational costs”.Matt Mathers15 June 2022 14:461655299854Germany’s ambassador to the UK has said the EU’s trust in Britain has been damagedMiguel Berger told the BBC’s World At One programme: “I think the most important issue is really to have a relationship of trust in everything we are doing together. That’s also why this draft on Northern Ireland is so disappointing.”We have this excellent cooperation on Ukraine where we have worked together, in Nato, in the G7, bilaterally, and in such a circumstance to have a dispute between the UK and the European Union is totally unnecessary.”And I think the main issue is really how can trust be re-established?”Pressed on whether the UK is no longer trusted, Mr Berger said: “I would not go so far to say that, but obviously it has had a negative effect.”Matt Mathers15 June 2022 14:301655299785Downing Street confirms PM considering withdrawal from human rights treatyBoris Johnson’s official spokesperson has confirmed the government is considering withdrawal from the European Convention on Human Rights, saying “all options are on the table” in the wake of last night’s cancellation of a deportation flight to Rwanda.Our politics editor Andrew Woodcock reports: Matt Mathers15 June 2022 14:291655298954No 10 ‘disappointed’ by EU legal actionThe government is “disappointed” in the EU’s decision to launch fresh legal action against the UK over the implementation of the Northern Ireland Protocol, Downing Street has said.The prime minister’s official spokesman said the latest proposals from Brussels for resolving the the issue would lead to more checks and controls, making the situation worse.”We will consider these documents carefully and respond formally in due course, however we are disappointed the EU has taken this legal action today,” the spokesman said.”The EU’s proposed approach, which doesn’t differ from what they have said previously, would increase burdens on business and citizens and take us backwards from where we are currently.”The infractions are related to the implementation of the protocol in our recently published bill. It is difficult to see how scrapping grace periods and adding additional controls and checks would be the situation better.”Matt Mathers15 June 2022 14:151655298054Labour lauches review to ensure UK is ‘best place in world’ for new businessesLabour is announcing a new review aimed at supporting fledgling British businesses and ensuring the UK is “the best place in the world” to launch a start-up.Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves will set out the party’s vision for harnessing the “creativity and drive” of the country’s entrepreneurs at the Times CEO Summit in London on Thursday.Driven by business experts including cross-bench peer Lord Jim O’Neill, the review will explore how to ensure start-ups can grow in Britain, to increase jobs and investment across the country, Labour says.The announcement will build on a five-point plan set out in January by the shadow chancellor to boost the economy, which includes a target to create 100,000 new businesses over the next five years.Matt Mathers15 June 2022 14:001655297154Scottish government planning second independence poll for October next yearThe Scottish government plans to hold a second independence referendum in October next year, the constitution secretary has said.However, at the same time as Angus Robertson revealed the possible time for the crunch vote, a former adviser to both Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon cast doubt on whether it could be delivered by then.Campbell Gunn, who was a special adviser to Mr Salmond and then Ms Sturgeon, said that the “timescale is very difficult”.Mr Gunn, speaking on BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme, said: “We’re now 15, 16 months from when the referendum is likely to be held, we don’t have a section 30 order, it will probably end up in the courts.”I just don’t see the timescale working for the SNP.”His comments came after Mr Robertson told the same programme the Scottish Government intends holding the referendum in October of next year – going further on the timing than Ms Sturgeon, who has only said she wants the ballot to be held before the end of 2023.Matt Mathers15 June 2022 13:45 More

The European Union is launching legal action against the U.K. in response to unilateral moves to rewrite parts of the Northern Ireland Protocol in the post-Brexit deal between both sides, the bloc’s executive branch said Wednesday.The proposed U.K. bill seeks to remove customs checks on some goods entering Northern Ireland from the rest of the U.K. That will override parts of the trade treaty that Prime Minister Boris Johnson signed with the EU less than two years ago.The EU believes that the UK’s unilateral decision is violating international law. The so-called Northern Ireland Protocol is the part of the Brexit deal which keeps Northern Ireland in the EU’s single market for goods.The 27-nation bloc will restart the infringement procedure launched against the U.K. government last year after Britain unilaterally extended a grace period that applies to trade on the island of Ireland. The action had been put on hold in September 2021 as both parties tried to find joint solution. In addition, the EU will kick off further action against the U.K. for a perceived failure to carry out necessary controls under the EU rules, and to provide trade statistics data as required under the protocol.In the final stages of an infringement procedure, which can last for months, the European Commission can refer such cases to the bloc’s highest court. The European Court of Justice has jurisdiction to rule on matters of EU law in Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland is the only part of the U.K. that shares a border with an EU country — the Republic of Ireland. When Britain left the EU and its borderless free-trade zone, the two sides agreed to keep the Irish land border free of customs posts and other checks because an open border is a key pillar of the peace process that ended decades of violence in Northern Ireland.Instead, to protect the EU’s single market, there are checks on some goods, such as meat and eggs, entering Northern Ireland from the rest of the U.K.British unionists in Northern Ireland say the new checks have put a burden on businesses and frayed the bonds between Northern Ireland and the rest of the U.K. — seen by some unionists as a threat to their British identity.Britain’s Conservative government says the Brexit rules also are undermining peace in Northern Ireland, where they have caused a political crisis. Northern Ireland’s main unionist party is blocking the formation of a new power-sharing government in Belfast, saying it won’t take part until the Brexit trade rules are scrapped. More

Brussels has announced it is taking legal action against the UK government after Boris Johnson pushed ahead with plans to overwrite parts of the Brexit agreement.European Commission vice president Maros Sefcovic on Wednesday told reporters that the UK government had set out to “unilaterally break international law”.The prime minister published a bill this week that would  give ministers sweeping new powers to override elements of the Northern Ireland protocol, as well as giving themselves new powers over tax and state subsidies in the region without agreement from Brussels.Mr Johnson’s plan would mean “breaking an agreement that protects peace and stability in Northern Ireland, an agreement reached together only three years ago”, the commissioner said.Mr Sefcovic added: “Let there be no doubt: there is no legal nor political justification whatsoever for unilaterally changing an international agreement.”Opening the door to unilaterally changing an international agreement is a breach of international law as well. So let’s call a spade a spade: this is illegal.”Mr Sefcovic said the UK had not “sat down at the table with us since February” nor seen any constructive ideas since March last year.The commission vice president said that it was “simply inconceivable” that the UK could determine the kinds of goods that would enter the European single market.On Monday Mr Johnson said his plans for Northern Ireland were not a “big deal” and amounted to small tweaks to the status quo.“Frankly, it’s a relatively trivial set of adjustments in the grand scheme of things,” he told broadcasters.The EU had previous started a legal action against the UK on 15 March 2021 for failing to properly implement the Northern Ireland Protocol, but had put it on ice “in a spirit of constructive cooperation to create the space to look for joint solutions with the UK”.However the bloc’s executive in Brussels is now moving the action to its second stage, by issuing a formal “reasoned opinion”.The UK now has two months to reply, and if it does not then the Commission would consider taking the UK to the European Court of Justice, which has full powers and the ability to fine the UK for non-compliance with the agreements. The Commission has also launched two more infringement proceedings against the UK, the first for failing to carry out phytosanitary checks on trade, and the second for failing to provide the EU with trade data required under the protocol. A UK Government spokesperson said: “It is disappointing that the EU has chosen to relaunch legal proceedings relating to the grace periods currently in place, which are vital to stop the problems caused by the Protocol from getting worse. The UK’s preference remains for a negotiated solution but the proposals set out by the EU today are the same proposals we have been discussing for months and would not solve the problems – in many cases they take us backwards from current arrangements. “The Protocol is undermining the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement – disrupting trade and leading to people in Northern Ireland being treated differently to the rest of the UK. The EU continues to insist it is unwilling to change the Protocol itself, so we are obliged to act ourselves to change the parts of the Protocol that are causing problems. The legislation we introduced this week delivers practical, reasonable solutions which also protect the EU single market and support North-South trade.” More

Ministers have dismissed clamouring from Tory MPs to withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights after the Home Office was forced to abandon its inaugural flight deporting asylum seekers to Rwanda.It comes after a handful of migrants won a last minute legal reprieve from an out-of-hours judge at the European Court of Human Rights, blocking ministers’ attempts to relocate them on a chartered flight costing taxpayers around £500,000.The international court indicated to the UK that a Iraqi national should not be removed to Rwanda until three weeks after the delivery of the final domestic decision at a judicial review on the legality of the policy.Championed by Priti Patel, the home secretary, the divisive policy has been condemned by church leaders, but Conservative MPs have turned their anger on the ECHR after the ruling on Tuesday evening.The international court was set up in 1956 to rule on individual or state applications alleging violations of civil and political rights, as set out in the European Convention on Human Rights.One Tory MP, Greg Smith, said: “There have been multiple occasions this Parliament of legislation passed with great speed.“What last night showed is we now need the same speed and urgency to bring in a UK Bill of Rights and remove all power of the European Court of Human Rights over our sovereign decisions.”Jonathan Gullis, a Conservative MP who is also a ministerial aide to the Northern Ireland secretary, said his constituents will be “frustrated” the first flight to Rwanda was abandoned on Tuesday evening.He claimed: “This policy was always going to face mass action from lefty lawyers and activists. It is clear that the ECHR prevented the flight from departing, after efforts in the UK courts were exhausted.“The ECHR has no place in the UK judicial system. The government needs to free itself from it entirely!”Another Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) and Tory MP Danny Kruger told his colleagues: “Ultimately we need to leave ECHR or return to the original concept of human rights as drafted by Conservative Brit lawyers in the 50s to give post Nazi Europe the same rights and liberties as UK had enjoyed for centuries”.Another backbencher Stephen McPartland said it was “clear” that ministers “must look at how they can keep the protections in the Human Rights Act, but have decisions made by British not European Courts, otherwise what was the point of the last six years since the vote to leave!”But cabinet minister Therese Coffey insisted she is not aware of any moves to to withdraw, telling BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I don’t think that’s even a question that I’m aware that’s on the table at all”.She also insisted that the Tories’ 2019 manifesto included no such policy, adding: “I’m not aware of any decisions or hints of leaving the ECHR”.Another minister in Ms Coffey’s department, Guy Opperman, also told Times Radio: “I don’t believe it is our policy, nor would it be something I will be advocating for withdrawing from the ECHR.”He added: “This is not necessarily a final prevention that has taken place last night. This is a temporary delay whilst matters are considered in more detail by the UK courts.“And I think that is the thrust of it, that the ECHR has basically said that there needs to be more time to consider the applications involved and that the UK courts should do that.”Their remarks came after the prime minister appeared to hint he may be ready to take the ECHR to ensure continued operation of the scheme.Asked if the controversial move was on the table, he replied: “Will it be necessary to change some laws to help us as we go along? It may very well be and all these options are under constant review.” More

Starmer says Boris Johnson thinks he’s ‘on Love Island’
Downing Street has defended the government’s plan to override parts of the Northern Ireland protocol after the EU confirmed that it is taking legal action over the UK’s proposed changes to the post-Brexit trading arrangements.Boris Johnson’s official spokesperson said the government “disappointed” in the EU’s decision to take the issue back through the courts.“We will consider these documents carefully and respond formally in due course, however we are disappointed the EU has taken this legal action today,” the spokesman said.“The EU’s proposed approach, which doesn’t differ from what they have said previously, would increase burdens on business and citizens and take us backwards from where we are currently.“The infractions are related to the implementation of the protocol in our recently published Bill. It is difficult to see how scrapping grace periods and adding additional controls and checks would be the situation better.”Show latest update

1655304210Labour denies claim of planning return to EU single marketLabour has rejected claims it would seek to take Britain back into the EU single market and customs union after a shadow frontbencher expressed the hope it could return.A party spokesman said Anna McMorrin, a shadow justice minister, had been spoken to by Sir Keir Starmer after it was reported that she suggested a Labour Government may be able to renegotiate the UK’s deal with Brussels.However, she retained her frontbench role after she issued a statement making clear that she backed the official party line that the UK had left that EU and that Labour was committed to making the existing deal work.The Sun obtained footage of Ms McMorrin answering questions from supporters last week in which she said: “We need to renegotiate the deal, certainly.”She added: “I hope, eventually that, we will get back into the single market and customs union, and who knows then.”In her statement, Ms McMorrin said: “Labour policy on Brexit is clear. We have left the EU, Labour voted for the deal. Now it is the job of all of us to make it work.”The spokesman said: “That is the Labour Party position.”In the Commons, Boris Johnson taunted her about her remarks when she challenged him at Prime Minister’s Questions about comments by his new cost-of-living tsar saying that he “has to go”.The Prime Minister replied: “I read the other day that she wants to go back into the single market and into the customs union.”If that’s the real policy of the Labour Party, going back to the EU, why won’t the Leader of the Opposition admit it?”Matt Mathers15 June 2022 15:431655303454Braverman – Goverment would ‘prefer’ to negotiate with EUThe attorney general has said the goverment would “prefer” to negotiate with the EU after the bloc announced it was taking legal action against the UK’s move to take unilateral action on Brexit’s Northern Ireland protocol.Speaking to the BBC, Suella Braverman said: “Listen my preferred alternative right now is negotiation and my invitation to our EU friends is to come back to the table and to engage substantively with our proposals.“They’ve failed to do that for over two years now and that’s why we’ve regrettably been left with no option but to take these measures.”In the same interview, Ms Braverman accused the BBC of framing the UK Government as “always malevolent” and the EU as “the honest broker”.Appearing on the corporation’s World At One programme, Suella Braverman was asked: “This Government keeps doing things that others judge to be illegal – we can go back to prorogation, partygate, the Northern Ireland protocol, deporting asylum seekers – I wonder how comfortable you feel with the reputation that this Government has being built up as with regard to law-breaking?””With respect, I think that’s a BBC view, if you don’t mind me saying, that the UK Government is somehow always malevolent and the EU is always acting as the honest broker and the good guys,” she replied.”It was the Supreme Court that ruled on prorogation,” presenter Sarah Montague interjected.Matt Mathers15 June 2022 15:301655302554ICYMI: EU launches legal action against Boris Johnson for breaking international lawOur policy correspondent Jon Stone reports: Matt Mathers15 June 2022 15:151655301723Editorial: The Rwanda flight is grounded – but migrants should be more than ammo in Tory MPs’ culture warThis humiliation for the government was brought about not by ‘lefty lawyers’ but by government incompetence.
Read the full Independent editorial here: Matt Mathers15 June 2022 15:021655300779Patel refuses to say how much failed deportation plane cost Priti Patel has refused to say how much last night’s failed Rwanda deportation flight cost the taxpayer.Asked whether it cost £500,000, the home secretary said: “We don’t speak about operational costs”.Matt Mathers15 June 2022 14:461655299854Germany’s ambassador to the UK has said the EU’s trust in Britain has been damagedMiguel Berger told the BBC’s World At One programme: “I think the most important issue is really to have a relationship of trust in everything we are doing together. That’s also why this draft on Northern Ireland is so disappointing.”We have this excellent cooperation on Ukraine where we have worked together, in Nato, in the G7, bilaterally, and in such a circumstance to have a dispute between the UK and the European Union is totally unnecessary.”And I think the main issue is really how can trust be re-established?”Pressed on whether the UK is no longer trusted, Mr Berger said: “I would not go so far to say that, but obviously it has had a negative effect.”Matt Mathers15 June 2022 14:301655299785Downing Street confirms PM considering withdrawal from human rights treatyBoris Johnson’s official spokesperson has confirmed the government is considering withdrawal from the European Convention on Human Rights, saying “all options are on the table” in the wake of last night’s cancellation of a deportation flight to Rwanda.Our politics editor Andrew Woodcock reports: Matt Mathers15 June 2022 14:291655298954No 10 ‘disappointed’ by EU legal actionThe government is “disappointed” in the EU’s decision to launch fresh legal action against the UK over the implementation of the Northern Ireland Protocol, Downing Street has said.The prime minister’s official spokesman said the latest proposals from Brussels for resolving the the issue would lead to more checks and controls, making the situation worse.”We will consider these documents carefully and respond formally in due course, however we are disappointed the EU has taken this legal action today,” the spokesman said.”The EU’s proposed approach, which doesn’t differ from what they have said previously, would increase burdens on business and citizens and take us backwards from where we are currently.”The infractions are related to the implementation of the protocol in our recently published bill. It is difficult to see how scrapping grace periods and adding additional controls and checks would be the situation better.”Matt Mathers15 June 2022 14:151655298054Labour lauches review to ensure UK is ‘best place in world’ for new businessesLabour is announcing a new review aimed at supporting fledgling British businesses and ensuring the UK is “the best place in the world” to launch a start-up.Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves will set out the party’s vision for harnessing the “creativity and drive” of the country’s entrepreneurs at the Times CEO Summit in London on Thursday.Driven by business experts including cross-bench peer Lord Jim O’Neill, the review will explore how to ensure start-ups can grow in Britain, to increase jobs and investment across the country, Labour says.The announcement will build on a five-point plan set out in January by the shadow chancellor to boost the economy, which includes a target to create 100,000 new businesses over the next five years.Matt Mathers15 June 2022 14:001655297154Scottish government planning second independence poll for October next yearThe Scottish government plans to hold a second independence referendum in October next year, the constitution secretary has said.However, at the same time as Angus Robertson revealed the possible time for the crunch vote, a former adviser to both Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon cast doubt on whether it could be delivered by then.Campbell Gunn, who was a special adviser to Mr Salmond and then Ms Sturgeon, said that the “timescale is very difficult”.Mr Gunn, speaking on BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme, said: “We’re now 15, 16 months from when the referendum is likely to be held, we don’t have a section 30 order, it will probably end up in the courts.”I just don’t see the timescale working for the SNP.”His comments came after Mr Robertson told the same programme the Scottish Government intends holding the referendum in October of next year – going further on the timing than Ms Sturgeon, who has only said she wants the ballot to be held before the end of 2023.Matt Mathers15 June 2022 13:45 More