Politics

Twitter users have issued a plea to Paul Masterton to back Boris Johnson in the final round of votes today after he voted for successive losing candidates. The Tory MP for East Renfrewshire was one of 17 people to give their support to Matt Hancock in the first round of votes, before backing Rory Stewart in the next two rounds. In the fourth ballot he supported Sajid Javid who was eliminated today. The Home Secretary received just 34 votes today,...

Michael Gove has moved into second place in the Conservative Party leadership contest after receiving 61 votes to Jeremy Hunt's 59. Savid Javid bowed out after he received just 34 votes, leaving three contenders to battle it out today ahead of a membership vote on the final two remaining candidates. Talk of Rory Stewart combining forces with Gove spread yesterday, and the Environment Secretary may well have picked up a number of MPs as a result. Talking on BBC Two’s...

The Bank of England cut its growth forecast for Britain's economy to zero in the second quarter of 2019 and highlighted risks from global trade tensions and growing fears of a no-deal Brexit. BoE officials voted unanimously to hold interest rates at 0.75%, as expected, and stuck to their message that rates would need to rise in a limited and gradual fashion, assuming Britain can avoid a damaging no-deal Brexit. However, the BoE noted on Thursday a darkening global outlook...

Boris Johnson, a former foreign secretary who helped lead the 2016 Brexit referendum campaign, is the runaway favourite to win a final pair of ballots on Thursday that will whittle down the race to replace Prime Minister Theresa May to two candidates. Johnson, who served as London mayor for eight years, has cast himself as the only candidate who can deliver Brexit on Oct. 31 while fighting off the electoral threats of Nigel Farage's Brexit Party and Jeremy Corbyn's Labour...

A British court on Thursday ruled that the British government had acted unlawfully in allowing arms exports to Saudi Arabia that might have been used in the conflict in Yemen. "The Court of Appeal has concluded that the process of decision-making by the government was wrong in law in one significant respect," judge said as he handed down the ruling. He added that the government made "no concluded assessments of whether the Saudi-led coalition had committed violations of international humanitarian...

Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond warned contenders in the race to become prime minister that a no-deal Brexit could pull the United Kingdom apart and would deprive Britain's next leader of the money needed to end austerity. All four remaining candidates in the Conservative Party leadership contest have said they are prepared to take Britain out of the European Union without a transition deal to smooth the economic shock if necessary. Hammond, who supported staying in the EU...

Brexit risks are not priced in by bond markets and Britain's exit from the European Union could turn more bitter than expected, Anthony Linehan deputy director at Ireland's debt management agency warned on Wednesday. "To me (Brexit) is an area that isn't priced into markets and it can't be because no one knows what it looks like, even a hard Brexit," he said, speaking at a conference in London. "The one thing that worries me is, it's like a divorce,...

Dominic Raab has backed frontrunner Boris Johnson today, telling the Evening Standard newspaper he was the only candidate who would deliver Brexit by Oct 31st. "The only candidate who will now do this is Boris Johnson and so I'll be supporting him to become our next Prime Minister," he said. The former Foreign Secretary is far ahead of the rest of the pack, stretching a lead which, for many, makes Johnson the all but inevitable victor to replace Prime Minister...

U.S. President Donald Trump is refusing to cooperate with numerous congressional probes of himself and his administration, taking a defiant stance that is likely to result in a court battle with Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives. Trump's stonewalling hardened after the mid-April release of a redacted report from Special Counsel Robert Mueller on how Moscow interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election in Trump's favour and his attempts to impede Mueller's probe. In most of the cases where...