Brexit news: Boris Johnson admits Tories 'staring down the barrel of political extinction', as Jeremy Hunt faces fox hunting backlash

Eeek, Boris Johnson pledge to scrap "sin taxes" is going down badly with some Tories. Here's health minister Caroline Dinenage...

The government is planning to again delay the legal requirement to call elections in Northern Ireland.

Northern Ireland secretary Karen Bradley is seeking to push back the end of August deadline amid deadlock between the political parties.

The latest talks, which were established following the murder of journalist Lyra McKee in Derry in April, appears to have stalled.

Power-sharing at Stormont collapsed in 2017, leaving Northern Ireland without a functioning executive.

With the politically sensitive summer marching season approaching its height, a time period not considering conducive for striking compromises, the prospects of consensus emerging in the coming weeks appear slim.

Over the last two months, there has been little evidence of any movement on key logjams preventing a return of Stormont, such as Irish language protections and the ban on same sex marriage.

Mrs Bradley is tabling legislation at Westminster to extend the deadline by which she will have a legal duty to call an election.

She had already extended what was a March deadline to the end of August.

Theresa May will make a speech in Scotland later today, warning the two men vying to be her successor that one of their “first and greatest” duties as prime minister will be to strengthen and preserve the union of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

In comments which will be seen as a veiled swipe at Boris Johnson’s readiness to take the UK out of the EU without a deal against the wishes of a majority of Scots, Ms May will say that she expects her successor to make the the union “their priority”.

Interesting point on Labour's Brexit policy from Owen Jones, an influential figure in the left of the party who is close to team Corbyn.

Pro-EU MP Anna Turley has accused Tories of "blithely discussing plans for a destructive no-deal" after the Brexit secretary said he could not rule out a recession in the event of such an outcome.

Ms Turley, who backs the People's Vote campaign, said: “It is outrageous that Steve Barclay can sit in his plush Whitehall office and tell us there will be disruption in the event of a destructive No Deal, as though it was on a par with rain on a school sports day or wasps at a family picnic.

“The livelihoods of millions of people are at stake while the likes of Barclay or the two contenders for the Conservative leadership blithely discuss plans for a destructive No Deal.

“If they allow such an outcome, the economic and social chaos that will follow will be hung round the Conservatives’ necks for a generation to come.

"Backing No Deal might help win this leadership contest, but it is a simple issue of democracy that the whole country should get a final say on Brexit – not just the 0.25 per cent of the population who are members of the Conservative Party.”

Responding to Mr Barclay’s comment, Theresa May’s official spokesman said: “The prime minister has been clear that in the event of no-deal, there would be disruption.

“But she has also said that we were making preparations to keep that disruption to a minimum and that work is ongoing.”

A health minister has branded Boris Johnson’s plan to review the sugar tax “bollocks”, as Tory infighting broke out over the threat to the anti-obesity levy.

Caroline Dinenage lashed out after Treasury minister Liz Truss, a prominent Johnson supporter, claimed that scrapping the tax would “help Britain's poorest”.

In a single-word tweet, Ms Dinenage said “Bollocks” – before going on to point out that the tax was already succeeding in persuading firms to cut sugar levels in their drinks.

The SNP's Pete Wishart suggested a Commons debate on fox hunting and jokingly pondered whether the Conservatives also want to talk about reintroducing child chimney sweeps and workhouses.

Speaking at business questions, he told the Commons: "Can we have the foreign secretary to introduce this (debate) before this particular fox is shot?

"Maybe when we're through with that we could have some legislation to reintroduce the 'Children Up Chimneys Act', when we're through with that maybe we can have a bill to reintroduce workhouses and then move on to the dunking of witches, such is the great offerings we have from a Tory leadership contest to keep us up-to-date with the modern zeitgeist."

Boris Johnson's pledge to recruit 20,000 more police officers would not solve the mounting problems with crime and violence that the UK faces, a watchdog has said.

Sir Thomas Winsor, HM Chief Inspector of Constabulary, said keeping the public safe was “not just about police numbers”.

At a briefing with journalists on Thursday, he said Mr Johnson's proposals were “not the most efficient and effective way of spending £1.1bn on policing”.