Theresa May has told Vladimir Putin “the use of a deadly nerve agent” in Salisbury was “part of a wider pattern of unacceptable behaviour” during a bilateral at the G20. The UK prime minister and Russian president shared a frosty handshake at the start of their meeting. May’s spokeswoman said the PM had told Russia the UK had “irrefutable evidence” Moscow was behind the attack.
Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt faced questions from Tory members at the latest leadership hustings in Exeter. Johnson reiterated his promise that the UK would leave the EU on 31 October and refused to rule out proroguing parliament to circumvent MPs blocking a no-deal exit. Hunt on the other hand said he did not see 31 October as a hard deadline. He said if there is a deal in sight, he would not rip it up and leave without one. Hunt ruled out bringing May’s withdrawal agreement to another Commons vote.
One of the questions was about Iran, with Johnson praising Donald Trump for “talking sense” on the country and accusing Tehran of being “bent on all sorts of mischief”. He added: “We need to very vigilant about Iran and that government.”
Hunt spoke about his regret over the handling of the junior doctors’ dispute, which began in 2016. It ended this week when junior doctors agreed a new contract, which comes with an 8.2% pay rise over four years. “What I realised is I wasn’t getting [the] message across to junior doctors themselves,” Hunt said. “I was getting the message across to Conservative members, but not these 51,000 junior doctors, who work amazingly hard and are the future of the NHS.”
The Irish PM, Leo Varadkar, said the EU would not reopen the withdrawal agreement, no matter who became the next prime minister. He told a summit in Manchester the EU “mean what we say”.
Ian Paisley challenged the BBC over a programme that made claims about him taking luxury foreign holidays. He said the broadcaster should provide evidence to the parliamentary standards commissioner. Paisley told the BBC: “If the BBC think I have done anything wrong, all the BBC has to do is to submit evidence to the parliamentary commissioner. The independent authority can examine on all of those matters and make their own ruling. That’s the only comment I can make.”
That’s it from us for today. Thanks very much for following and your comments BTL.
Irish PM says EU 'mean what we say' about not re-opening the withdrawal agreement
Ireland’s prime minister, Leo Varadkar, said whoever became the UK’s next prime minister would get a “fair hearing” from the EU but warned “we mean what we say” about not re-opening negotiations on the withdrawal agreement.
Varadkar spoke alongside the UK’s minister for the Cabinet Office, David Lidington, and Scotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon,at the end of a British-Irish Council summit meeting in Manchester.
He said “it needs to be understood that we mean what we say”.
“That is: the withdrawal agreement won’t be re-opened, without a backstop there will be no transition period or implementation phase, but that we are willing to examine the joint political declaration and make amendments to that if that enables us to proceed to an orderly Brexit with a guarantee there will be no hard border between north and south, which is our shared objective.”
Lidington said Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt had both said they did not want a no-deal Brexit, and it was important to “take their word on that”.
He also said it was clear tariffs and checks would be applied to UK trade on day one of a “no-deal crash-out”.
But he said there would be a window when EU leaders would want to hear what Theresa May’s successor had to say, and the government’s position was still to leave with a deal.
Sturgeon said there was a “real danger” of no-deal becoming inevitable – and it was futile to waste time trying to re-negotiate.
Ian Paisley has challenged the BBC to present any evidence of alleged wrongdoing to a parliamentary watchdog following the latest claims about him taking luxury foreign holidays.
Paisley said the parliamentary commissioner for standards, Kathryn Stone, could examine the issues raised.
The DUP North Antrim MP declined to be drawn on the specifics of Tuesday’s night’s BBC Spotlight programme, which included a claim that an undeclared family holiday to the Maldives was partly paid for by a former government minister in the Indian Ocean country.
Paisley told the BBC: “If the BBC think I have done anything wrong, all the BBC has to do is to submit evidence to the parliamentary commissioner.
“The independent authority can examine on all of those matters and make their own ruling. That’s the only comment I can make.”
Asked if his constituents deserved a fuller explanation, he added: “Don’t worry about my constituents; my constituents and me have a very good and sound relationship.”
Paisley was suspended from the House of Commons for 30 days for “serious misconduct” for failing to declare two family holidays to Sri Lanka in 2013.
Local independents have prised away a seat in Mansfield previously held by a Labour councillor who narrowly defeated them to win a mayoral poll in May.
The Labour loss came at the hands of the Mansfield Independent Forum in the Sandhurst ward of Mansfield district council.
The seat had been vacated by Labour’s Andy Abrahams after he won the directly elected Mansfield mayoral poll on 2 May.
He won by just two votes against the Mansfield Independent Forum candidate, Kate Allsop, in the second round of counting under the single transferable vote system.
Mansfield Independent Forum now has 14 of the 36 seats on the council, while Labour also has 14 plus the mayoralty.
Theresa May has told Vladimir Putin “the use of a deadly nerve agent” in Salisbury was “part of a wider pattern of unacceptable behaviour” during a bilateral at the G20. The UK prime minister and Russian president shared a frosty handshake at the start of their meeting. May’s spokeswoman said the PM had told Russia the UK had “irrefutable evidence” Moscow was behind the attack.
Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt faced questions from Tory members at the latest leadership hustings in Exeter. Johnson reiterated his promise that the UK would leave the EU on 31 October and refused to rule out proroguing parliament to circumvent MPs blocking a no-deal exit. Hunt on the other hand said he did not see 31 October as a hard deadline. He said if there is a deal in sight, he would not rip it up and leave without one. Hunt ruled out bringing May’s withdrawal agreement to another Commons vote.
One of the questions was about Iran, with Johnson praising Donald Trump for “talking sense” on the country and accusing Tehran of being “bent on all sorts of mischief”. He added: “We need to very vigilant about Iran and that government.”
Hunt spoke about his regret over the handling of the junior doctors’ dispute, which began in 2016. It ended this week when junior doctors agreed a new contract, which comes with an 8.2% pay rise over four years. “What I realised is I wasn’t getting [the] message across to junior doctors themselves,” Hunt said. “I was getting the message across to Conservative members, but not these 51,000 junior doctors, who work amazingly hard and are the future of the NHS.”
Hunt says he would “love” to have Boris Johnson in his cabinet if he becomes prime minister, saying “he has changed the course of our history through his leadership of the leave campaign”.
Hunt says he cannot understand why there are “far too many drugs in our prisons”.
He believes too many young people leave school without sufficient reading and writing skills.
Hunt also cites a study in Iceland about how parents spending time with their children led to young people being less likely to develop problems including obesity.
The foreign secretary has spoken of his regrets over the handling of the junior doctors dispute, which began in 2016 and he described as “bitter and difficult”.
“What I realised is I wasn’t getting [the] message across to junior doctors themselves,” Hunt says.
“I was getting the message across to Conservative members, but not these 51,000 junior doctors, who work amazingly hard and are the future of the NHS.
“What I learned is as Conservatives, we have to be better on social media. They are getting information from Facebook and Twitter.
“As prime minister, I want to approach social media in a different way, your thinking, dilemmas. I am not saying go Trump on social media, but we have to engage.”
Hunt has ruled out bringing Theresa May’s withdrawal agreement back before the House of Commons.
On why he will not commit to leaving the EU by 31 October, he said: “If you make it a hard deadline and parliament stops you then you have to have a general election … and we would be crucified.”
Hunt said character mattered in choosing the next Tory leader but politicians’ private lives should not be part of the process.
“We all have things in our private life, things that we did 20 years ago that we would not want our mum and dad to find out about … I’ve got lots and I’m not going to tell you, Ian, sorry – and my wife is sitting in the front row, so that’s another reason,” he said.
“I think when we are in a constitutional crisis, frankly the biggest constitutional crisis of my lifetime, it demeans that competition if we start having huge discussions about people’s private lives, and I think we should stick to the issues facing the country.”
On university tuition fees, Hunt said: “I do worry some of the courses do not offer students value for money, if you have £50,000-£60,000 debt and do not have the prospect of earning enough to pay that debt back.”
He added: “I cannot justify why the interest rate on student loans is 6%, I just don’t think it’s fair. It risks discrediting the system.”
Jeremy Hunt has said he is committed to HS2 and Northern Powerhouse Rail, but delays to its opening are frustrating, comparing it to the railway network in Osaka being built within two years.
He added that “the train service to Devon and Cornwall is totally inadequate”.
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