Brexit news: Theresa May 'plans to force fourth vote on deal next week' after Tory MPs' latest bid to oust her fizzles out

Jeremy Corbyn has insisted Labour's new policy to reverse cuts to 3,000 bus routes in England and Wales will not "clobber" motorists.

The party said the £1.3bn per year policy would be funded by revenue from Vehicle Excise Duty.

Despite the Conservatives claiming that Labour would have to "clobber motorists with tax hikes and slash funding for road repairs", Mr Corbyn said he would "not be clobbering anybody".

Launching the new policy in Nottingham on Thursday, Mr Corbyn said: "What we're doing is trying to help the whole community by ensuring there's good public transport.

"We've moved on a bit since Margaret Thatcher once said anyone on a bus over the age of 25 is a failure.

"I think people on a bus is a success."

Analysis by the Campaign for Better Transport shows more than 3,000 bus routes have been cut back or withdrawn since 2010, amid a 45% reduction in local authority bus budgets.

Addressing the laughter from some MPs after raising the issue of buses in Parliament, Mr Corbyn said: "There was an intake of breath, particularly from Tory MPs, it was bizarre.

"I raised the question of buses because everybody needs to get around and a lot of people need buses because they haven't got cars.

"A lot of people just laughed because MPs... live in a slightly different bubble where the only transport they use is trains or taxis.

"Buses to them are just something that block up the road. They're not. They are an essential form of transport.

"So I was happy to raise it because I feel very strongly about it."

A new survey from the Progressive Centre - chaired by the Change UK MP Chuka Umunna - has been launched this afternoon. It claims that a majority of the British public (51 per cent) now believe Britain is heading in the wrong direction.

Other key findings in the survey are: 

• 44 per cent think there should be a ring-fenced tax to support the NHS 

• 69 per cent of the public think senior executive pay should be capped in line with the average pay in a company, and 66 per cent thinking that executive bonuses should be capped at a level

such as 20 per cent of annual salary.

• 65 per cent also think that nominated workers should sit on a company board so that they are involved in executive pay decisions.

• Only a quarter (25 per cent) of people believe the current system of tuition fees is the best 

The system used to elect our MEPs is more complicated than you think.

The EU mandates systems of proportional representation be used to elect its Parliament, but leaves the detail to member states, as Sean O’Grady explains below:

Iran has backed away from reports that jailed charity worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe could be released as part of a prisoner swap.

Iranian foreign minister Javad Zarif had appeared to suggest the British-Iranian mother could be freed in exchange for an Iranian woman held in Australia on a US extradition request.

However, in a subsequent interview, he clarified his earlier comments, saying Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe was a "separate case" from those prisoners held at the behest of the Americans.

"The offer that I made was people who have been in prison either in the United States or elsewhere in the world on American request. But the Iranian-British woman is a separate case," he told Reuters.

Downing Street confirmed that the government had not received any approach from Tehran about a possible prisoner exchange.

"The treatment of all British-Iranians detained in Iran, including Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, is a priority for the Government," the Prime Minister's official spokesman said.

"We remain concerned about all of our consular cases and raise them at every level and every opportunity."

Ministers "cannot exclude"  the possibility of a criminal investigation after an unprecedented leak of secret discussions over a decision to allow a Chinese telecommunications giant to work on the UK's 5G mobile network.

It follows demands from both Conservative MPs and the Labour Party for a full-blown leak inquiry over reports that Huawei's work had been approved at this week's National Security Council (NSC) - despite opposition from some cabinet ministers.

Details from the highly secretive NSC emerged on Wednesday – a day after a meeting at which Ms May and senior ministers discussed the issue with chiefs of security and intelligence agencies.

An opera singer, a former lads' magazine editor and a senior civil servant who resigned just this week are among the latest European election candidates announced by the Brexit Party.

Martin Daubney, ex-editor of Loaded and now a regular TV pundit, said be believed Westminster politicians were "clueless" about the "real world" of ordinary people's lives and "don't know what a day's work is".

The West Midlands candidate appeared at a press conference in Manchester with James Wells, who quit his job as head of UK trade at the Office for National Statistics less than 48 hours to run for Nigel Farage's party.

Wells to decision to become to stand for election in Wales had been "a bit of a whirlwind" butt he could no longer go on "shouting at the TV" as he believed "democratic values" were being "trampled over".

Lucy Harris, a London-based former opera singer now working as a "grassroots campaigner" for Brexit is standing for the party in Yorkshire.

She said: "I believe democracy is the cause that trumps all others. It's the ultimate expression of equality. It is the only way for us to achieve a fair and just society."

Martin Daubney, former editor of the magazine Loaded, is running for Nigel Farage's Brexit party 

Independent MP Jared O'Mara has announced a "temporary pause" in his constituency activity amid reports that all his staff have left.

The Sheffield Hallam MP, who quit Labour last year, issued a statement after the Yorkshire Post reported all of his employees had quit or been fired.

He said the pause would last "a few weeks" as he scrambles to hire new staff.

Mr O'Mara said: "I am happy to say I am indeed in the middle of a recruitment drive to assemble an exciting and dynamic new team composed of youth and experience and with a broad range of skill sets and talents."

The MP won the Sheffield Hallam seat in the 2017 general election, sensationally beating former deputy prime minister Nick Clegg.

But he had Labour whip withdrawn as the party investigated alleged sexist and homophobic comments which he had posted on social media years earlier.

He resigned from the party after complaining he had been "made unfairly to feel like a criminal".

Former defence secretary Sir Michael Fallon has described the leak of details of secret discussions at the National Security Council as "completely shocking" and urged Downing Street to call in the police.

He told the BBC: "That would involve a proper Scotland Yard investigation of all those who attended the meetings, all those who have mobile phones - whether they contacted journalists after meeting. All those involved should be investigated now to find out who this leaker is.

If a minister was found to have been responsible, they could face prosecution under the Official Secrets Act.

Sir Michael said: "It is an offence to divulge secret information from the most secret of all government bodies, which is the National Security Council. It has got to be stopped.

"It is extraordinary to think that a minister can leak details of the National Security Council and then think they can get away with it. That is why a police inquiry now is so important."

The government has said it "cannot exclude" a criminal investigation into the unprecedented leak of details of the decision to allow a Chinese telecommunications giant to work on the UK's 5G mobile network.

Theresa May's de facto deputy has firmly rejected any suggestion Westminister could grant Holyrood the power to hold a second  referendum on Scottish independence.

Cabinet Office minister David Lidington said: "We don't see any evidence that there's a demand from the people of Scotland for changing the decision they took in 2014.

"That referendum was something that the first minister and her colleagues said at the time would settle matters for a generation."

It comes after Nicola Sturgeon confirmed that if Brexit goes ahead she will seek to hold another vote on the issue before the next Scottish elections in May 2021.

Scotland's deputy first minister said Ms May's refusal to grant Holyrood the legislative power to hold a further independence referendum should not be seen as "the last word on the subject".

John Swinney said the UK government did not look "particularly stable" and he believes the position on declining to grant a request for a section 30 order needed to hold further ballot on Scottish independence could change.

SDLP leader Colum Eastwood has made a proposal which he says could see power-sharing government in Northern Ireland restored.

Speaking at Stormont on Thursday afternoon, a day after a priest at the funeral of murdered journalist Lyra McKee challenged politicians to act to revive Stormont, Mr Eastwood said suspending the petition of concern (POC) mechanism could allow power-sharing to resume.

He told reporters he had spoken to Irish foreign minister Simon Coveney about the proposal and planned to have a conversation with Northern Ireland secretary Karen Bradley later.

He said: "This proposal threatens no-one. It is about creating the space to get parties back into Stormont to take decisions affecting all of our lives. It is clear there is an Assembly majority to resolve the outstanding issues if we remove the veto.

"We need to bring our people back together, we need to bring our government back together. This is a time for leadership, for courage and for compromise."