Good morning. Here’s your daily Politics Update:
Ireland says the Brexit backstop won’t change
Theresa May’s plans for renegotiating the Irish border backstop were dealt a blow on Sunday, when the country’s foreign minister Simon Coveney said that it “isn’t going to change”.
Speaking to the BBC’s Andrew Marr show, Mr Coveney said: “The European parliament will not ratify a withdrawal agreement that doesn’t have a backstop in it. It’s as simple as that.”
He added: “The backstop is already a compromise. It is a series of compromises. It was designed around British red lines.
“Ireland has the same position as the European Union now, I think, when we say that the backstop as part of the withdrawal agreement is part of a balanced package that isn’t going to change.”
The current Brexit deal has been rejected in the Commons by a huge majority, largely because of concerns around the backstop issue. The much needed backing of Tory rebels and the DUP could be won by the prime minister if changes to the backstop issue are made.
Student backing for Labour falls, alongside growing support for second referendum
Backing for the Labour Party has fallen among the core group of young supporters who helped Jeremy Corbyn secure his position as party leader.
Backing amongst students has dropped 10 percentage points in a year, according to a poll carried out for HEPI by YouthSight, which found that just 52 per cent would vote for the party in a group of 1,000 undergraduates.
The new poll numbers come after reports that many of the party’s supporters are unhappy with Corbyn’s Brexit stance, particularly his refusal this far to demand a second referendum.
Reports shows MPs received millions in EU farming subsidies
A new report by the Guardian and Friends of the Earth has revealed that dozens of UK MPs and peers own or manage farms which have been handed millions of pounds in EU subsidies.
The report identified 48 parliamentarians who had claimed £5.7m in European Union’s common agricultural policy (CAP) in 2017.
The largest beneficiary of the CAP in 2017 was Edward Fitzalan-Howard, Duke of Norfolk, who received £473,062, according to the report, despite previously claiming he had not received money from Norfolk Estate Farms Ltd – from which he is director – “for many years”.
Payments from the CAP to British farmers will stop after Brexit, and will instead be paid by the UK government. The environment secretary, Michael Gove, has proposed changing the system to ensure payments help to create “a cleaner and healthier environment”.
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