Vote leave founder claims EU citizens will get voting rights after Brexit
Daniel Hannan, MEP and Vote Leave founder, has claimed he has seen secret drafts of the UK’s withdrawal agreement and says it gives voting rights to EU citizens who stay in the UK.
According to Hannan, who founded the controversial Vote Leave campaign – referred to the police earlier this year for allegedly breaking electoral rules – told fellow MEPs that citzens living in England and Northern Ireland would get full voting rights, and that voting rights in Scotland Wales were devolved.
He then went on to question why the UK were prepared to make such a deal, rather than making separate agreements with each EU country. The statements come after Brexit secretary Dominic Raab said last month that there were no plans to set out a no-deal technical notice for EU citizens’ rights.
John McDonnell – Labour will reverse cuts to end austerity
The shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, has said that a Labour government would work to reverse cuts made by the Conservatives, as Labour’s pre-budget review estimated more than £108bn was needed to “end austerity”.
In a speech to business and trade union representatives in London on Thursday, McDonnell said that his party would undo the cuts made by the Tories since 2010, increasing spending on the NHS, adult social care and schools.
Speaking in a separate interview with the BBC on Thursday, McDonnell admitted that his party would commit to a large increase in spending, and that a tax on the top 5% of earners would be introduced in order to partially fund the extra spending.
Earlier this month at the Conservative party conference, Theresa May claimed that “austerity is over”, though since this announcement others have come forward to contradict this claim, such as The Resolution Foundation, who claim that £1.5bn in cuts to working-age benefits are still due to take effect in April 2019.
The chancellor Philip Hammond will announce his budget on 29th October, where he is expected to reveal extra spending in order to try and meet expectations after May’s “austerity is over” claim.
In his Thursday BBC interview, John McDonnell said that his party will have an alternative budget ready to go “as soon as we go into power” adding that this will have “detailed, costed proposals” ready for the next general election.
Vince Cable tells Barnier to plan for a People’s Vote
Sir Vince Cable, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, has told the EU’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier that support for a People’s Vote is growing, and that the EU should prepare itself for the eventuality of it.
In a meeting with Barnier in Brussels on Thursday, Cable told Barnier that up to now the EU had been warning of the dangers of no-deal, or a bad deal, before telling him that the People’s Vote was growing in support, and they should ready themselves for it.
“The UK needs to come up with something that meets their requirements,” Cable said after his meeting. “It’s very clear really: it is a British problem rather than one on the European side.”
The People’s Vote campaign, which aims to achieve a vote for the public on the final Brexit deal, saw 670,000 people march across London on Saturday, in the largest demonstration against Brexit since the referendum.
Something a bit different – Drill rap from Channel 4
Channel 4 enlisted a drill rapper to put some of the recent quotes by MPs to a beat, in order to highlight their ‘violent’ nature.
The point illustrated by Channel 4 is that MPs have previously accused drill rap artists of glorifying the rise of knife-crime in Britain, though the language used in recent weeks is much the same as the lyrics of the artists in this controversial genre.
See the video below:
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