Today’s Political Headlines – 20 March 2018

Today’s Political Headlines include the Cambridge Analytica story, the Brexit transition period, Corbyn could ‘do business’ with Putin, and the Tories outspending its rivals in the last election. 

Cambridge Analytica boasted about swinging elections to undercover reporters
As The Guardian reports, executives from Cambridge Analytica, the firm at the centre of the Facebook data breach, ‘boasted of using honey traps, fake news campaigns and operations with ex-spies to swing election campaigns around the world’ to undercover reporters from Channel 4. The broadcaster moved in after months of investigation by The Observer.  The Information Commissioner is applying for a warrant to examine the firm’s activities, but the company denies any wrongdoing.

UK reaches agreement with EU on Brexit transition period
The UK obtained conditional agreement on the Brexit transition period by ‘offering the EU concessions over sovereignty’, the Financial Times reports. The progress will be acknowledged at the EU summit on Friday and new guidelines for negotiating the future relationship will be adopted. A colour-coded draft text of the withdrawal agreement show that progress still needs to be made on issues including governance and the Irish border. The Daily Telegraph adds that Jacob Rees-Mogg is to protest the ‘abject betrayal’ of the fishing industry by throwing fish overboard from a boat outside Parliament.

Corbyn would ‘do business’ with Putin
Jeremy Corbyn has told the BBC that he would ‘do business’ with Putin, but would challenge him on human rights and act in an ‘assertive’ and ‘demanding’ way with Russia. However, he also called for ‘an absolutely definitive answer’ over the source of the nerve agent used in the Salisbury attack and suggested that the Russians should be given a sample.

Conservatives outspent Labour and Lib Dems combined at last election
The Financial Times reports that the Conservatives spent more than Labour and the Liberal Democrats combined in the 2017 general election. The Tories spent £18.6m, while Labour spent £11m and the Lib Dems spent £6.8m. Detailed analysis revealed that the Tories spent four times more on Facebook advertising than Labour, and twice as much on Google adverts.

Council tax should be scrapped, thinktank says
The Guardian says that a report by the Resolution Foundation calls for council tax to be scrapped and replaced by a progressive levy on property. The think tank claims that in some areas council tax had ended up resembling the poll tax and is highly regressive.

UKIP ‘on brink of bankruptcy’
According to The Guardian, UKIP is ‘teetering on the brink of bankruptcy’ after being presented for a legal bill of £175,000 following a libel action brought by three Labour MPs. If it does not appeal, it will have to find the money in the next fortnight, with the party’s finances reportedly being ‘in a perilous condition’.

Politicians back The Sun campaign to cap credit fees
The Sun reports that politicians from across the spectrum are backing its call to ‘end rip-off doorstep lending fees and rent-to-own credit agreements’. The paper cites support from politicians including Lib Dem leader Vince Cable, former pensions minister Ros Altman, Tory backbencher Robert Halfon, Labour’s Stella Creasy, and the co-chairs of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Debt, Yvonne Fovargue and Jonathan Edwards.

One in eight local roads could close within a year due to backlog of repairs
Research by the Asphalt Industry Alliance published today, warns that as many as one in eight local roads could be closed to traffic within a year because of a huge backlog of pothole repairs, The Times says. While Government funding is at its highest level in a decade, the paper says that this is considered ‘too little, too late by some’.

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