More worries for PM’s Brexit plan

about the potential consequences of forcing voters to show ID documents at the polling station, and said it could “stifle participation among legitimate voters” and discriminate against “vulnerable groups”. HILLSBOROUGH match commander David Duckenfield has pleaded not guilty to the manslaughter by gross negligence of 95 Liverpool supporters, who were crushed on April 15, 1989.

The former chief superintendent, 74, appeared via videolink at Preston Crown Court yesterday.

A provisional trial date for both men has been set for January 14. In June, judge Sir Peter Openshaw lifted a historical stay – halting further legal proceedings – on Duckenfield, put in place in 2000. ENDANGERED water voles are being brought back to a stretch of river where they have not been seen for more than 30 years, the National Trust said.

Some 150 of the mammals, immortalised as the character Ratty in The Wind In The Willows, are being released on the River Aller in the National Trust’s Holnicote Estate on Exmoor in Somerset, where they were last seen in the 1980s.

Their return to the estate is part of a £10 million project to restore five rivers across England and Wales, and it is hoped the voles will boost the wildlife of the waterways running through the property. DOWNING STREET has insisted there is no alternative to Theresa May’s Chequers blueprint for Brexit, while MPs have said any new trade deals should include human rights clauses.

With 200 days until Britain leaves the EU, the Prime Minister was warned yesterday that pursuing her plan could lead to a “catastrophic split” in the Tory party.

Former Brexit minister Steve Baker, who quit over the proposals earlier this year, said he was “gravely concerned” for the future of the party if she presses ahead.

Mr Baker, a leading figure in the proBrexit Tory European Research Group, said the party’s annual conference in Birmingham, starting on September 30, could prove a decisive moment as Mrs May is forced to acknowledge the scale of grassroots opposition to her proposals.

“If we come out of conference with her hoping to get Chequers through on the back of Labour votes, I think the EU negotiators would probably understand that if that were done, the Tory party would suffer the catastrophic split which thus far we have managed to avoid,” he said.

Number 10, however, said that critics of

Water voles have seen numbers plummet across the country in the past few decades in the face of loss of suitable habitat and because they are preyed on by invasive American mink, which escaped or were set free from fur farms.

Alex Raeder, National Trust South West conservation the plan had yet to come forward with a credible alternative which would avoid the return of a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic.

“Chequers is the only plan on the table which will deliver on the will of the British people while avoiding a hard border in Northern Ireland,” the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said.

Number 10 said Mrs May would be chairing a special meeting of the Cabinet on Thursday to discuss the ongoing preparations for a no-deal Brexit if Britain fails to secure an agreement with Brussels.

Meanwhile, the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee said there was little clarity from the Government on how it intends manager, said: “I remember being enchanted by these creatures as a child, and hugely welcome their return.

“They were once a vital part of the Holnicote ecosystem, and could be again.

“In true Wind In The Willows style, these voles should soon be busy burrowing into the muddy banks.” to balance future business agreements and the need to uphold commitments on individual rights.

MPs said the UK faces challenges promoting its agenda overseas due to a “global backlash against the international human rights system”.

The committee’s report stated there were “conflicting priorities” between human rights and trade.

However, the study said it was in Britain’s long-term commercial interest to back human rights.

The MPs said: “The Government will face conflicting priorities between human rights and other Government policies, especially trade deals.

“This may create short term conflicts, but the prioritisation of human rights is in the UK’s long term commercial, as well as moral, interest.”

Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee Tom Tugendhat said: “The UK cannot afford to be complacent.”

He also warned that engagement with countries such as Burma risked “sending the wrong signals” over human rights issues.