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Today’s political headlines includes May to be pressed to set departure date, Rees-Mogg apologises for changing mind over Brexit, Ministers could resign if Government doesn’t allow free votes today and Brexit extension could see UK leave EU in April 2020. 

May to be pressed to set departure date
According to The Daily Telegraph, at today’s meeting of the 1922 Committee of backbench Conservative MPs, Theresa May is to be urged to say that she will resign by the autumn. This would lead a number of Brexiteers to withdraw their opposition to her Brexit deal. Speaking at an event organised by the paper, Boris Johnson has hinted that he might reluctantly back the deal if she did so. If she can secure enough backing, a new vote on the deal may be held on Thursday, although Michael Gove has suggested she pick Friday instead.

Rees-Mogg apologises for changing mind over Brexit deal
Writing in the Daily Mail, Jacob Rees-Mogg apologises for changing his mind and backing Theresa May’s Brexit deal, so long as the DUP also back it. He claims that it has become clear that parliamentary numbers mean that ‘all the other potential outcomes are worse’. The paper adds that the European Research Group is likely to split over the deal, with a number of ‘refuseniks’ refusing to back it under any circumstances.

Ministers could resign if Government doesn’t allow free votes today
The Daily Telegraph claims that Theresa May has been warned that up to 20 pro-European junior ministers could resign unless she allows them to vote freely on their preferred Brexit outcomes today, although no Cabinet ministers are expected to quit. The Guardian adds that Jeremy Corbyn is considering whether to back the ‘Common Market 2.0’ proposal in today’s votes, which would keep the UK in the EEA and EFTA.

Brexit extension could see UK leave EU in April 2020
The Guardian reveals that the EU is to suggest a revised Brexit date of 1 April 2020 should the UK request a longer Brexit extension in the coming weeks. The date is contained in papers prepared for use should May have opted to request a longer extension at last week’s European Council summit.

Cameron tells ministers to push for soft Brexit
The Sun claims that former Prime Minister David Cameron has been privately critical to ministers over Theresa May’s failure to pursue a cross-party Brexit compromise, urging remainer MPs to force her to back a customs union with the EU. He apparently told one MP that May would always ‘put the party’s interest first’.

Automatic speed limiters to be fitted to all new cars
The Times says that new measures adopted by the European Commission will mean that all new cars sold in the EU must be fitted with automatic speed limiting and emergency braking technology within the next three years. The Government has pledged that British vehicle standards will be aligned with those of the EU after Brexit.

Government refuses to rethink ‘loan charge’ policy
The Financial Times says that Government has refused to rethink its ‘loan charge’ policy, which will see at least 50,000 people who used loan-based tax avoidance schemes taxed in a single financial year on income on loans they received up to two decades ago, leaving them with bills of up to six figures which they say they cannot pay. Sir Ed Davey, chair of the Loan Charge All-Party Parliamentary Group, said this ‘offends against the rule of law’.

Tory MP criticised after using antisemitic term
The Guardian says that former Brexit minister Suella Braverman has been criticised by the Board of Deputies of British Jews after she used the term ‘cultural Marxism’, often linked to antisemitic conspiracy theories, in a speech. Questioned afterwards, the Conservative MP said that she stood by her use of the phrase, despite its far-right connotations.

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Today’s political headlines covers May resisting pressure to quit, Johnson accusing May of being ‘chicken’, The Sun tells May to resign and more than a dozen racist councillors have been reinstated.  

May resists pressure to quit at Chequers meeting
The Times says that Theresa May has resisted pressure from prominent Brexiteers to set a date for her resignation in return for securing backing for her Brexit deal. At a meeting at Chequers yesterday senior Brexit-backers are believed to have told May to set out a departure timetable, but a source said that ‘she refused to be drawn’. The Sun adds that May suggested that the deal could be voted on tomorrow if they agreed to back it, and that Chief Whip Julian Smith warned that an attempt by MPs to take decision-making powers from the Government today will succeed.

Johnson accuses May of being ‘chicken’
Writing in The Daily Telegraph, Boris Johnson accuses the Government of being ‘chicken’ and of having ‘bottled’ Brexit, telling Theresa May to ‘tell Brussels to let me people go’ and ‘channel the spirit of Moses’. The paper says May is to hold a Cabinet meeting this morning, having been given public backing by Michael Gove and David Lidington who had been named as potential successors over the weekend. Ahead of the meeting, ministers will be given an hour in a reading room to consider papers covering seven Brexit options, with May expected to use Cabinet to announce plans for ‘indicative votes’ on these later this week.

Sun tells May to resign
The front page of The Sun says ‘Time’s Up, Theresa’, calling on Theresa May to resign as Prime Minister because ‘she has lost the backing of much of the country and now her party’. It tells her that she should promise to resign, and then Conservative Brexiteers and the DUP ‘must back the deal’, warning that ‘if it fails again this week we are heading for a much softer Brexit’.

Racist Tory councillors reinstated
An investigation by The Guardian reveals that more than a dozen Conservative councillors who had been suspended after they posted Islamophobic or racist material online have had their membership ‘quietly reinstated’. Mohammed Amin, who chairs the Conservative Muslim Forum, has called on the party to publish formal disciplinary processes.

CPRE says brownfield land could deliver a million homes
The Sun carries details of research by the Campaign to Protect Rural England, which finds that the UK’s housing crisis could be solved if a million homes were built on brownfield land, with two-thirds of the potential sites ‘shovel-ready’ and deliverable within five years.

Former top Treasury official warns over HS2 cost
The Financial Times says that Lord Macpherson, former Permanent Secretary at the Treasury, has said that HS2 would now fail ‘a rigorous cost-benefit analysis’ and that the technology behind it was likely to be outdated when the line becomes fully operational.

Opposition parties call for Saudi arms sales ban
The Guardian reports that the leaders of Labour, the SNP, the Liberal Democrats, Plaid Cymru and the Green Party have all signed a letter calling on the UK to stop selling arms to Saudi Arabia. The letter comes on the fourth anniversary of the civil war in Yemen and ahead of the visit of the UN special envoy for Yemen to London this week.

Lib Dem MP admit slapping boyfriend
The Daily Telegraph says that Liberal Democrat MP Layla Moran has admitted that she was arrested and detailed by the police after she slapped her then-boyfriend during a row over a computer cable at the party’s 2013 conference in Glasgow. While some activists have praised her honesty, others have demanded that she step down.

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Today’s political headlines covers May’s extension, Trump Jr’s opinions and BBC blamed for cost of EastEnders’ set revamp. 

May to ask for short article 50 extension
The Guardian report on the possible extension Theresa May will request that is likely to delay Brexit by three months. This comes after it is rumoured that pro-Leave Cabinet members spoke against a previous agreed longer extension and threatened May’s position as PM. Last week the PM warned MPs that if they did not vote for her deal then they may face a long extension to article 50. May will not have to request the approval of all 27 member states to have the extension granted.

Trump Jr speaks on Brexit
The Telegraph have a column written by Donald Trump Jr, in the column he says that democracy is all but dead in the UK due to the Brexit deadlock and the will of the British people is likely to be ignored. The President’s son also criticises Theresa May for not taking his father’s advice on negotiating with the EU.

BBC blamed for cost of EastEnders set revamp
City A.M. report on the Public Account’s Committee’s report into the cost of the revamped EastEnders set. Due to poor management of the project the set was always going to be over-budget is one of the claims in the report. The project is expected to cost £87m, £27m over-budget and will be completed almost five years late. The project is expected to be a significant extra cost to licence fees payers.

The Independent Group could stand as candidate in the European elections
The Sun reports that the newly formed Independent Group has contacted the Election Commission to see if it can register as a political party in time to stand in the European election taking place in May. Ex-Labour Shadow Minister Chris Leslie said ‘it wouldn’t be right if people only had a choice between Corbynism and Theresa May’s Tories’. The Election Commission has confirmed it would still be possible to register in time, however, it said it could be ‘tight’.

70 MPs join campaign to end period poverty
The Mirror report on a campaign supported by 70 MPs that is calling on the Chancellor to end period poverty and go beyond his pledge to provide free sanitary products to children. The letter to the Philip Hammond was written by Janet Daby and co-signed by 70 other MPs including Shadow Women and Equalities Minister.

Major brands enlisted to spot extremism in workers
The Financial Times have a story that says major brands such as McDonald’s, Tesco and River Island are being included on a training programme by counter-terrorism police to spot the signs of violent extremism in workers. This focus is an attempt to address a blind-spot in the private sector, critics of this strategy have suggested that workers could be targeted due to their religious beliefs.

Loan provider banned from using Brexit food stockpiling ad
The BBC reports that financial services company Cash On Go, trading under the name Peachy.co.uk, has been banned from using an advert in which encourages people to take out a loan so they can stockpile food ahead of Brexit. The ad said that Brexit ‘could affect the amount of food available’ and that ‘it’s a good idea to have a little stockpile ready’. The Advertising Standards Authority ruled that the ad could not be used in its current form.

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Today’s political headlines covers Bercow ruling out a third meaningful vote, Brexiteers threaten strike, EU offers May helping hand and social media firms to be forced to hand over algorithms. 

Bercow rules out another meaningful vote
The Guardian claims that the Government has been ‘plunged into constitutional chaos’ after Speaker John Bercow ruled that another meaningful vote on Theresa May’s Brexit deal would fall foul of a parliamentary convention dating back to 1604 which prevents MPs from voting on the same deal twice, suggesting that for a further vote to be allowed, the EU would have to agree to changes to the deal and that May will be forced to request a long extension to the Brexit negotiations. However, the Commons could use a ‘paving vote’ to set aside the convention, if it did wish to vote for May’s deal, while Solicitor General Robert Buckland suggested that the Government could end the parliamentary session early and begin a new one in order to re-run the vote.

Brexiteers threaten strike over delay
The Sun claims that as many as twenty ‘hardline’ Brexiteers have threatened to go ‘on strike’ on key votes if Theresa May agrees a year-long Brexit delay with the EU, pushing the Government to the ‘verge of collapse’. The paper has also conducted a survey of Conservative MPs who voted against May’s deal, and two-thirds of those who responded confirmed they would not back it if it was brought back to the Commons unamended.

EU offers May ‘helping hand’
The Guardian says that the EU is to give Theresa May ‘a helping hand’ by formally agreeing the length of the Brexit extension at its summit on Thursday and keeping this on offer until just before midnight on 29 March, when the UK is currently due to leave. Changing the date that the UK leaves the EU might be sufficient for John Bercow to allow the Government to hold another meaningful vote.

Social media firms to be forced to hand over algorithms
The Daily Telegraph says that the Government’s forthcoming white paper on online harms will give a new regulator the power to force firms to hand over algorithms showing how people are targeted with content based on their personal details, which may ‘reveal their role in fuelling self-harm and suicides’.

Industrial strategy criticised by MPs
The Financial Times carries details of a critical report by the Commons Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee on the Government’s industrial strategy. It warns that there is a risk that the strategy will fail in its efforts to improve productivity levels because it is focusing on innovative sectors but neglecting others, such as hospitality and retail, and is too focused on London and South East England.

Jewish Labour Movement to hold no confidence vote in Corbyn
The Times says the Jewish Labour Movement, the Jewish affiliate of the Labour Party will debate a vote of no confidence in Jeremy Corbyn at its annual meeting in April. The motion says the party has a ‘culture of antisemitism’ and that Corbyn ‘is directly responsible’ so a ‘Labour government led by him would not be in the interest of British Jews’.

Lord Forsyth criticises loan charge
Speaking to the Financial Times, Lord Forsyth, Chair of the Lords Economics Affairs Committee, calls on the Government to scrap the retrospective aspect of the loan charge because ‘ordinary people are being ruined’. He argued that it should instead pursue the developers of tax avoidance schemes and the employers who used them.

Electric scooters could be allowed on roads
The Times reports that the Government will  launch a ‘wide-ranging review of traffic laws’ which could see electric scooters allowed on the roads for the first time and the speed limit for electric bicycles increased. The plans are contained in the Department for Transport’s Future of Mobility: Urban Strategy, published today.

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Today’s political headlines covers May facing defeat over deal again, Johnson calling on MPs to vote the deal down, May pins her hopes on the DUP and Brexiteers could join forces with Corbyn to topple Government. 

May ‘faces defeat’ over deal again
The Times says that Theresa May ‘faces defeat’ over her third attempt to secure MPs’ backing for her Brexit deal, despite personally lobbying some Brexiteers. Esther McVey has confirmed that she will now back the deal, while Lord Trimble has backed her changes to the Irish backstop in a report published by Policy Exchange today. However, former Brexit Secretary David Davis, who backed the deal in the last vote, told the paper that he ‘might not vote for it this time’.

Johnson calls on MPs to vote down deal
Writing in The Daily Telegraph, Boris Johnson says that MPs should vote down the Prime Minister’s Brexit deal, claiming that the Government is participating in ‘the final sabotage of Brexit’. The paper adds that the Government will only put the deal to a further vote if it believes it will win, with a possibility that it could be delayed until next week, so that MPs would already know the length and terms of an extension.

May pins her hopes on the DUP
The Financial Times claims that Theresa May is ‘pinning her hopes’ of winning the third vote on her Brexit deal on securing the support of the DUP. Officials have said that they expect the DUP to offer a ‘Stormont lock’ under which any EU regulations applied to the Northern Ireland would be applied to the rest of the UK. Chancellor Philip Hammond has denied suggestions that the DUP are being offered more funding to back the deal.

Brexiteers could join forces with Corbyn to topple Government
According to The Sun, Brexiteers could join forces with Jeremy Corbyn in order to topple the Government. Corbyn said yesterday that it would be ‘appropriate’ for Labour to table another confidence motion in the Government if the Prime Minister’s Brexit deal was rejected for a third time.

MPs call for social media tax
The BBC carries details of a report by the All Party Parliamentary Group on Social Media and Young People, which calls for a tax on social media firm’s profits and claims they are operating in ‘an online wild west’. The report says there is no robust scientific evidence to link social media to mental health problems, but calls for precautionary action to be taken, including a duty of care and considering making social media addiction an official disease.

Abuse victims accuse Government of punishing them
The Times says victims of child sexual abuse are accusing the Government of punishing them by forcing them to disclose criminal convictions linked to their sexual exploitation. Fiona Broadfoot, one of three claimants who won a High Court action claiming that the disclosure rules were unlawful, said that the Government’s decision to appeal this ruling was an example of ‘victim blaming’ and the ‘Home Office need to hang their heads in shame’.

Patel in call for aid spending reform
The Guardian reports that former International Development Secretary Priti Patel is backing a pamphlet published by the TaxPayers’ Alliance which calls for reform of the international development budget and for the UK to set the definition, instead of using one set by international bodies, allowing it to include spending on measures such as peacekeeping.

Stricter checks for online gamblers
The Daily Telegraph says that the Gambling Commission is planning to introduce strict ID and age checks for online gamblers as part of creating a national ‘self-exclusion’ scheme for gambling addicts. The House of Lords is setting up a special committee to examine the impact of gambling deregulation following a proposal from the Bishop of St Albans.

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Today’s political headlines include May securing an improved Brexit deal, Watson’s Future Britain Group holding its first meeting, the ICO using its powers to prevent a second Molly Russell and Begum’s mother pleads with Home Office. 

May secures ‘improved Brexit deal’
The Times says that Theresa May has claimed ‘victory’ in the Brexit negotiations after travelling to Strasbourg yesterday, having secured what she called an ‘improved Brexit deal’ ahead of a vote today, made up of three parts: a legal document giving more weight to guarantees that the backstop won’t be permanent, alterations to the political declaration committing negotiators to work to find alternatives to the backstop, and a unilateral statement explaining why the Government doesn’t expect the UK to be trapped in the backstop. The paper adds that the EU is preparing for a Brexit delay of at least a year.

Watson’s Future Britain Group holds first meeting
The BBC reports that Labour Deputy Leader Tom Watson’s new Future Britain Group, established in the wake of the defections to The Independent Group, held its first meeting last night, which was attended by around 130 Labour politicians, including Lord Mandelson, Lord Kinnock and Yvette Cooper. Kinnock called for ‘democratic socialist values’ and ‘achievable, possible and affordable policies’.

Information Commissioner would use new powers to prevent a ‘second Molly Russell’
Interviewed by The Daily Telegraph, Elizabeth Denham, the Information Commissioner, has said that she would use new powers and block ‘addictive’ technology to ‘break’ the ‘cycle’ of children being exposed to ‘ever more provocative content’. She vowed to prevent a ‘second Molly Russell’, a 14-year-old girl for whose suicide Instagram has been accused of contributing towards.

Begum’s mother pleads for Home Office to reconsider its decision
The Guardian reports that the mother of Shamima Begum has written to the Home Office, requesting it to reconsider its decision to stop the 19-year-old who joined Isis of her British citizenship as an ‘act of mercy’. Yesterday, Home Secretary Sajid Javid rejected suggestions that he was responsible for the death of her baby.

Officials accused of trying to cover up costs of Johnson’s trip
The Daily Mirror claims that officials have been blamed for trying to cover up the cost of a trip made by Boris Johnson, then Foreign Secretary, to Afghanistan to avoid a vote on expanding Heathrow. The Foreign Office gave details to a member of the public while delaying journalists’ freedom of information requests, blaming an ‘IT issue’ for this, the details of which cannot be revealed owing to ‘national security’ concerns, and has now admitted breaking rules by internally identifying journalists’ requests.

Raab pitches for leadership in speech
The Times says that former Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab ‘made his pitch for the Tory leadership’ in a speech yesterday. He called for a ‘second-chance society’, arguing that his life had taught him that ‘no one-off meritocratic process will ever be perfect’ and that young people need ‘a genuine opportunity to fulfil their potential’.

Grayling accused of keeping residents ‘in the dark’ over Heathrow noise pollution
The Daily Telegraph claims that lawyers for five London councils, Mayor of London Sadiq Khan and Greenpeace are to tell the High Court today that Transport Secretary Chris Grayling understated the impact of an expanded Heathrow Airport on residents in order to keep them ‘in the dark’ about the effect of noise pollution on them.

Stronger auditing regulator to be introduced
The Financial Times reports that Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Secretary Greg Clark has announced that the audit regulator the Financial Reporting Council is to be replaced by a new Audit, Reporting and Governance Authority with greater powers, following the conclusions of a review by Sir John Kingman into the FRC.

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