Brexit news: Farage hit by milkshake in Newcastle as Tories jockey for position in race to replace May
Conservative leadership race continues as health secretary refuses to rule out bid
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Your support makes all the difference.Nigel Farage has been attacked with a milkshake during a campaign stop in Newcastle. The Brexit Party leader was furious with his security team and later said that "normal campaigning is becoming impossible".
It came as Theresa May was set to make a last-ditch offer to MPs in a fourth attempt to win support for her Brexit deal, even as the race to replace her as Conservative leader continues. She will enter discussions with senior ministers after cross-party talks with Labour broke down last week.
Her plan has yet to be finalised, but it is understood to include additional protection on workers’ rights and the environment, as well as clarification of how the UK will seek to avoid a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. There is scepticism throughout Westminster about its chances of passing.
But the PM suffered a blow when the EU Commission said it would not revisit the withdrawal agreement.
It came as the Liberal Democrats warned that British consumers could face a greater risk of exploitation after Brexit if the UK loses the EU's clout to fine multinational companies.
New analysis by the party shows 44 companies have been fined a total of €13.8bn (£12.1bn) by the European Commission since May 2017, for offences that increase prices and reduce choice for consumers, such as operating cartels, abusing market dominance and misleading competition authorities.
And away from Brexit, the new defence secretary, Penny Mordaunt, was forced to order an urgent review of a secret policy under fire for allowing ministers to share intelligence with allies even if there is a risk of torture.
See below how we covered the day's events live
The Queen expressed support for EU integration at a historic meeting with German diplomats, a declassified account of a meeting shows, writes Jon Stone.
A diplomatic cable written by Ambassador Rüdiger Freiherr von Wechmar after a meeting with the monarch in 1988 says that the Queen left “no doubt that the future of Britain lies in Europe”.
The person who replaces Theresa May as Tory leader must be "a Brexiteer who believes in Brexit", Esther McVey has said as she launched a political group aimed at winning over working-class voters to the party.
Ms McVey, who announced she wanted to be prime minister earlier this month, told the Blue Collar Conservatism event in Parliament that it was "not an easy time" to be a Tory activist.
"Our failure to deliver Brexit has left many feeling demoralised, with no obvious light at the end of the tunnel, and most of us know that ahead of us is still a bumpy ride," she said.
Additional reporting by PA
Here is a video interview with the man allegedly involved with the Nigel Farage milkshake incident.
The Electoral Commission has announced it will visit the Brexit Party’s headquarters on Tuesday to review the systems used by Nigel Farage’s party to receive donations, writes Adam Forrest.
A spokesman for the watchdog said: “As part of our active oversight and regulation of these rules, we are attending the Brexit Party’s office tomorrow to conduct a review of the systems it has in place to receive funds, including donations over £500 that have to be from the UK only.
“If there’s evidence that the law may have been broken, we will consider that in line with our enforcement policy.”
Brendan Cox, the widower of the murdered MP Jo Cox, has responded to the Newcastle milkshake incident
M'colleague Andrew Griffin has rounded up everything you could possibly want to know about milkshake-throwing and its history here:
Former Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron has said he does not approve of the milkshake attack on Nigel Farage.
Theresa May believes all politicians should be free to go about their work without fear of harassment or intimidation, and that police should take any such incidents seriously, Downing Street has said, writes our political editor Andrew Woodcock.
The prime minister's official spokesman was speaking after Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage was doused with milkshake during a campaign visit to Newcastle.
The PM's spokesman declined to comment on the specific incident involving Mr Farage. But he said: "The prime minister has been clear that politicians should be able to go about their work and campaign without harassment, intimidation or abuse.
"The prime minister supports efforts to stamp out unacceptable and unlawful behaviour. Where incidents of harassment and abuse constitute a criminal offence, this should be taken seriously by police."
Labour has lost half of its vote share in Wales ahead of the European parliament elections, a new poll suggests.
The survey, carried out by YouGov for ITV and Cardiff University, found Labour would end up in third place behind Plaid Cymru and the Brexit Party in the election this week.
Support had dropped 15 points to just 15 per cent, the poll found, with Plaid Cymru on 19 per cent and Nigel Farage's Brexit Party on 36.
ITV reported that the figures showed 68 per cent of people who voted Conservative in the 2017 general election planned to vote for the Brexit Party.
It is yet another blow for Theresa May, whose party has lost considerable ground to the insurgent Brexit Party since it was formed earlier this year. Just last week, it was reported that the Tories had lost one-third of their vote share among general election voters.
A local council has denied that Brexit Party literature was inserted into postal voting materials following a Twitter controversy sparked by TV historian Dan Snow.
On Sunday Mr Snow posted an image of what he said was a Brexit Party leaflet that had been posted to him inside papers required for postal voting.
In a separate tweet, he asked: "If anyone else in the New Forest has had partisan election literature in your postal voting pack, can you let us know please?"
But his local council suggested Mr Snow was merely confused.
A New Forest District Council spokeswoman said in a statement on Monday: "On 19 May 2019 a claim that a political leaflet was in the same envelope as a postal vote issued by us, was made in a tweet.
"We have looked into the suggestion that political communications were contained in with postal voting material. The postal voting packs were put together at the council and not by external contractors. The packs are double-checked.
"This process means that it is very unlikely that a political leaflet would have been included in a postal voting pack. Rather, it is likely that the leaflet was delivered on or around the same day as the postal voting pack, which is how this misunderstanding may have arisen."
Mark Heath, regional returning officer for the South East, said in a statement: "I am satisfied that the matter has been properly and fully looked into. The leaflet in question will have been delivered around the same time as the postal voting pack and I agree with the local returning officer that this is how this issue has arisen."
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