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Minister suggests May could avoid making changes to backstop before another vote
Eurosceptics have reacted angrily after a cabinet minister suggested that Theresa May could put her Brexit deal to parliament without securing changes to the Irish border backstop.
The culture secretary, Jeremy Wright, suggested in an interview with BBC’s Andrew Marr on Sunday that whilst Theresa May’s key aim was to solve the backstop issue, the “mechanism” by which she solved the issue did not matter.
Speaking on Sunday, Wright said: “I think what’s obvious is that parliament, and I think probably people well beyond parliament, are concerned about the potential indefinite nature of the backstop – that’s what we’ve got to do something about.
“If this is the only way of doing it then that’s the way we will pursue. If there are other ways of doing it that are just as effective that perhaps we haven’t yet explored then we will do that too.”
However, many ERG members have previously suggested they would need to see legal changes to the backstop in order to support Theresa May’s Brexit deal when it reaches the Commons for another ‘meaningful vote’.
New committee report calls Facebook “digital gangsters”
A new report by the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport select committee has called Facebook’s top employees “digital gangsters”, accusing them of deliberately breaking privacy and competition law and urging that they be subject to statutory regulation.
The report states that “democracy is at risk” from practices on social media interfering with elections, and is highly critical of Theresa May, accusing the prime minister of inaction over potential social media interference in the 2016 EU referendum.
Speaking on Sunday, the committee’s chairman, Damian Collins, said: “Democracy is at risk from the malicious and relentless targeting of citizens with disinformation and personalised ‘dark adverts’ from unidentifiable sources, delivered through the major social media platforms we use every day.”
The report’s publication comes after an 18-month investigation into disinformation and fake news, focussing on issues such as the Russian government’s attempts to discredit democracy, and “foreign influence, disinformation, funding, voter manipulation and the sharing of data” in the 2014 Scottish independence referendum, the 2016 EU referendum and the 2017 general election.
McDonnell: MPs who quit the Labour party risk a decade of Tory rule
Labour’s shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, has said that MPs who quit the party risk enabling a decade of Conservative government rule.
Speaking on Sunday, the shadow chancellor added that there was no need for a split in the Labour party over differences on Brexit, as the party leadership may still end up officially backing a second referendum.
McDonnell said that the Conservatives could end up winning several seats from Labour if MPs left the party, comparing it to the 1980s when four members left to form the Social Democratic party (SDP).
Speaking on Sunday, McDonnell said: “It would be like the 1980s. In my constituency in Hayes and Harlington we had a Labour MP join the SDP and we lost the seat to the Conservatives,”
“And it basically installed Mrs Thatcher in power for that decade. I don’t think any of the people who have even been mentioned around this split would want that.”
Referring to the split within the party on the future steps on Brexit, he said: “On all the issues people have raised as a reason for a split, we’re dealing with [them]. For example on Brexit we’re holding the party together. Those saying we’ll split over a people’s vote, well, we’ve still kept that option on the table and it might come about. Why split over that? It’s ridiculous,”
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