Political Headlines – Justine Greening’s Referendum, Tory whipping, antisemitism and Boris Johnson

Today’s Political Headlines includes Greening’s calls for a second referendum, Eurosceptic Tories planning a whipping, Labour’s antisemitism definition may breach the Equality Act and Boris Johnson’s attack. 

Greening calls for second referendum
The Times reveals that Justine Greening has become the first senior Conservative to call for a second referendum, criticising the Prime Minister’s Brexit plan as the ‘worst of both worlds’. Greening suggests a vote with three options: remaining in the EU, the negotiated deal, or a clean break, with voters given first and second preference votes. Speaking yesterday, the paper adds, Theresa May said that her proposals were ‘a good deal for the UK’ and claimed that Donald Trump had told her to sue the EU instead of negotiating.

Eurosceptic Tories set up whipping operation
According to The Daily Telegraph, Eurosceptic Conservative MPs have established a ‘party within a party’, with a whipping operation being run by former Brexit minister Steve Baker. More than 100 Tory MPs are now in a WhatsApp group being run by Baker, who has urged them to vote for four amendments to the Taxation (Cross Border) Trade Bill today. The paper also claims that party chair Brandon Lewis threatened to cut funding for Andrea Jenkyns’ constituency after she called for Theresa May to quit.

Labour’s antisemitism definition may breach the Equality Act
The Guardian reports that the Jewish Labour Movement is to give the Labour Party advice which claims that its definition of antisemitism could breach the Equality Act. The advice states that because the definition does not follow the Macpherson principle (a racist incident is one which the victim perceives to be racist), it would result in Jews being treated less favourably than other groups.

Boris Johnson attacks ‘lack of self-confidence’ in Brexit
Writing in The Daily Telegraph, Boris Johnson has used his first article since resigning as Foreign Secretary to attack the ‘lack of self-confidence, in the current debate on the EU, about whether we can do things for ourselves’ and to call for Britons to use Brexit as a chance to ‘rediscover the spirit of dynamism’ of the Victorian period.

Rudd quit because civil servants let her down
The Daily Telegraph reports that an internal inquiry has found that Amber Rudd stepped down as Home Secretary because senior civil servants failed to tell her about targets to remove illegal immigrants. The paper adds that the two civil servants in question were moved out of their posts following the inquiry’s conclusion and that a summary of the report has been shown to the Commons Home Affairs Committee.

Utility firms deterred from investing because of Corbyn’s nationalisation plans
The Financial Times says that Paul Drechsler, the vice-president of the CBI, has warned that utility firms are being deterred from investing because of Jeremy Corbyn’s plans for renationalisation. He has called on the party ‘to be very clear about the scope of the policy’ and carry out ‘a high-quality fact-based assessment of the pros and cons’.

May to announce £300m for aerospace industry
The BBC reports that Theresa May is to use a speech at the Farnborough Airshow today to announce extra investment for the British aerospace industry. More than £300m will be made available for various projects, including more environmentally-friendly aircraft, two new spaceports and a commitment to build a new fighter aircraft.

Mordaunt tells Catholic Church to change teaching on contraception
According to The Daily Telegraph, International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt used a meeting with aides of Pope Francis to call for the Catholic Church to relax its ban on the use of contraception. She told the paper that she called on the church to ‘help us save lives, especially of young mothers’.

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