Boris Johnson news: Brexiteers' bid to force no-deal suffers legal blow, as constitutional expert warns UK 'heading for deep trouble'
John Bercow vows to stop prime minister suspending parliament as political crisis continues
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Your support makes all the difference.Britain is in “deep trouble” unless Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn can act like “good chaps” and find a way to resolve the Brexit crisis, a leading constitutional expert has warned.
In a boost for pro-EU campaigners, a Court of Session judge has ruled that a legal challenge seeking to prevent Mr Johnson from suspending parliament to force through a no-deal exit will be heard before 31 October.
It comes as No 10 is said to be ready to pull British diplomats out of Brussels. Donald Trump’s national security adviser John Bolton, meanwhile, said the UK was “first in line” for a trade deal with the US after meeting the PM.
Meanwhile John Bercow, the House of Commons speaker, has warned that he will try to stop the prime minister from suspending parliament.
Mr Bercow told an audience at the Edinburgh Fringe festival that he "strongly" believes the House of Commons "must have its way", in remarks reported by the Herald newspaper.
"And if there is an attempt to circumvent, to bypass or - God forbid - to close down Parliament, that is anathema to me," he said.
"I will fight with every breath in my body to stop that happening."
Amber Rudd also told the BBC on Tuesday that she would urge the prime minister not to suspend the Commons.
If you would like to see how the day's events unfolded, please see what was our live coverage below:
More on the comments made by Amber Rudd earlier today. The work and pensions secretary said it would be “far worse” to leave the EU without a deal than with a deal.
“A no-deal Brexit would be far worse than a deal Brexit, which is why the government is so focused on trying to get that,” she told Sky News.
“But we’re also putting in place a lot of preparations to make sure that, should it come to that, we will have done all we can to mitigate against any difficulties.”
Rudd also rejected the idea she was a “sellout” for taking a job in Boris Johnson’s cabinet despite her previous criticism of him.
“I made a decision to back a candidate in the leadership race, which initially was Jeremy Hunt who was very clear that we needed to have no deal as part of the armoury in a negotiation.
“And, having done that, I made my own decision to compromise on that basis and to go ahead and then prime minister Boris Johnson put his cabinet together.”
Boris Johnson has been talking about “gangsterism” and “alimentary systems” on his visit to Leeds today.
The PM said state agencies needed to “wrap their arms around” problem families to prevent young people getting sucked into crime.
“We are putting money into every aspect of the criminal justice system. We are putting 20,000 more officers on the streets, there is no point in asking them to arrest more people and put people away for longer periods for serious sexual and violent offences unless we have the (prison) places, so we are going to have another 10,000 places.
“I don’t want to see prisons just be factories to turn bad people worse. We need to be making sure that they are educated and there’s not a culture of gangsterism and drugs in the prison system.
“What we are going to do is put £100m into scans and checks of all kinds to protect the staff and to stop the prisoners bringing in, to put it bluntly, in their alimentary systems, drugs and mobile phones, which greatly degrade the life in prisons.
“And of course what we need to do is make sure when they come out there is a proper plan to resettle them and to get them jobs and that is a huge national challenge for us.”
Boris Johnson inspects body scanning equipment at HMP Leeds
Tory MP Damian Hinds accidentally let slip the existence of a “GE team” in the message posted on his Instagram account.
Our deputy political editor Rob Merrick has the details.
The Scottish Government paid former first minister Alex Salmond’s legal costs – amounting to more than £500,000 – for the recent legal review into its botched handling of sexual misconduct allegations, according to the political editor of The Daily Record.
Boris Johnson, inspected body scanning equipment at HMP Leeds, has been told by prison staff at that an inmate “ingested” a Kinder egg.
“That’s inside? He’s ingested it? He’s plugged it? You are joking? How’s he done that?”
Unemployment in Britain grew by 31,000 to 1.3 million between April and June and the jobless rate rose to 3.9 per cent, suggesting that worries about Brexit and the economy may be starting to take their toll on the labour market.
The unemployment rate increased for the first time since the middle of last year and vacancies, which have been declining since the turn of the year, dropped to 820,000 between May and July, according to official data.
Boris Johnson’s government has been accused of launching a “shameful spin machine” as it emerged the Cabinet Office will establish a team to monitor reports regarding Britain’s departure from the EU.
With 79 days to go until the Brexit deadline, the rapid rebuttal unit is being created to respond to “inaccurate media reporting” and “reassure the public” the government is prepared to leave without a deal.
In his capacity as the chancellor of Duchy of Lancaster, Mr Gove will launch the unit as part of his role in leading the government’s preparations for a no-deal exit on 31 October – now considered No 10’s “top priority”.
Priti Patel, the home secretary, hailed new funding for specialist teams to tackle violent crime.
Some £35m is being put into violence-reduction units as part of Boris Johnson's law-and-order drive.
John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, has condemned as an "absolutely damning indictment of successive Tory governments’ appalling record on productivity" statistics showing productivity fell for a fourth consecutive quarter.
The Office for National Statistics said the main measure of labour productivity fell by 0.6 per cent from April to June compared with the same quarter in the previous year.
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