PM May back in the ‘breach’ as parliament resumes Brexit battle
LONDON, June 18, (Agencies): The British government faces another nerve-rattling test this week as its flagship Brexit legislation is picked over once again by a restive parliament.
The upper House of Lords, which wants to keep Britain close to the European Union after the UK leaves in March, will rake over the EU (Withdrawal) Bill on Monday, before it returns to the lo++++wer House of Commons on Wednesday. Last week, Prime Minister Theresa
May narrowly survived votes in the Commons on changes suggested by the unelected Lords, overturning the upper house amendment seeking to keep Britain aligned to the EU’s customs union.
May also persuaded rebels in her governing centre-right Conservative Party to reject a Lords amendment that would have allowed parliament to stop the government from leaving the European Union with no deal on new trading arrangements.
But now May faces the prospect of having to go through the wringer all over again in a fresh bout of parliamentary ping-pong.
“We recognise the concerns people have about the role of parliament,” May told BBC television.
But she added: “Parliament cannot tie the hands of government in negotiations.”
A summit of European leaders on June 28 is fast approaching, and May does not want to go to Brussels on the back of a stinging defeat in her own parliament. Wednesday’s Commons vote required last-minute concessions, and pro-EU Conservatives warned they could yet seek to defeat May if she backtracks on promises to give parliament a greater say on the final withdrawal deal.
The EU (Withdrawal) Bill would formally end Britain’s membership of the bloc and transfer more than 40 years of European law on to the British statute books.
May is on a tightrope as her Conservative minority government relies on the backing of 10 MPs from Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party for a slim majority in the 650-seat elected Commons chamber.
And pro-EU rebels on the Conservative backbenches are proving hard for May to satisfy.
Dominic Grieve, the former attorney general who heads up the faction, told BBC television that a future vote on a Brexit deal could see May tumble.
“We could collapse the government, and I assure you I wake up at 2:00 am in a cold sweat thinking about the problems that we have put on our shoulders,” he said.
‘Give Trump a chance’:
Thomas Markle, the father of Meghan, said her new husband Prince Harry told him to give US President Donald Trump a chance and that he had an open mind about Britain’s exit from the European Union.
“I was complaining I didn’t like Donald Trump. He said “give Donald Trump a chance”. I sort of disagreed with that, but I still like Harry,” Markle told ITV’s Good Morning Britain in his first broadcast interview since the royal wedding.
Thomas Markle, 73, said he had spoken to Prince Harry by phone in the months leading up to the wedding. Harry, Markle said, told him that he was “open to the experiment” of Brexit.
Kensington Palace, which speaks for Harry and his brother William, declined to comment on the interview, though the statements by Meghan’s father may bring unease to the royal family, who try to remain politically neutral.
In the days leading up to the May 19 wedding of his daughter and Prince Harry, Markle gave a flurry of sometimes contradictory statements to an American news website about whether he would attend.
3 struck dead by train:
Three young men have died after being struck by a train in south London, British Transport Police said Monday.
Police said they were trying to determine the details about the deaths at the Loughborough Junction station, on a busy commuter line into the British capital.
All three men are believed to be in their 20s, Superintendent Matthew Allingham of British Transport Police said. Their deaths are being treated as “unexplained.”
“Our investigation is focusing on how and why the men came to be on the tracks in the early hours of this morning,” he said.
Britain’s Press Association, citing rail industry sources, reported that spray cans had been found nearby and that area was popular with graffiti artists. Officers took photographs of graffiti as they investigated, but said it was too early to comment on the reasons why the three men were there.
The bodies were found at about 7:30 am Monday near the start of the morning rush hour. The first call to police was from a train driver.
Mum, daughter jailed:
A court on Friday jailed a mother and daughter, who formed an all-female terrorist cell linked to the Islamic State group, for plotting an attack in Britain.
Rizlaine Boular, 22, was jailed for life.
She had planned to stab people around the Palace of Westminster in central London last year, while her 44-year-old mother Mina Dich admitted aiding her plot.
The scheme had been hatched by younger sister Safaa Boular, 18, who wanted to target crowds at the British Museum but had been arrested and remanded in jail over her attempt to become a jihadi bride in Syria.
Following her detention the siblings shared phone calls in which they discussed holding an “Alice In Wonderland” themed tea party that prosecutors said was code for an attack.
The security services launched a proactive surveillance operation, and in April 2017 tracked Rizlaine Boular and her mother as they conducted reconnaissance of London landmarks earmarked for attack.
Days later, officers swooped to arrest the mother and daughter in an operation that led police to shoot Rizlaine Boular, who made a full recovery.