Feisty May’s final push for Brexit

unanimously convicted of murdering Viktorija Sokolova by a jury at Wolverhampton Crown Court.

Detectives believe the boy used a hammer to launch a “ferocious and sustained” attack. MORE than 24,000 people in Britain are facing Christmas sleeping rough, in tents or on public transport, according to new research.

This number has increased massively over the past five years, according to the national homelessness charity Crisis.

The research shows 12,300 people are currently sleeping rough on the streets and nearly 11,950 are spending their nights in cars, on trains, on buses or in tents. HUNDREDS of modern-day suffragettes have gathered to see the unveiling of a statue of Emmeline Pankhurst in her home city.

The figure, in St Peter’s Square, Manchester, was revealed yesterday on the 100th anniversary of the first UK election in which women were able to vote.

Supporters wore green and purple sashes with the slogan “Votes for Women” and chanted “deeds not words” as Mrs Pankhurst’s greatgranddaughter Helen unveiled the first statue of a woman to be built in Manchester since Queen Victoria was unveiled in Piccadilly Gardens in 1901.

Hundreds of schoolchildren BRITAIN is to have talks with the EU over the coming days about how to obtain “further assurances” which might persuade MPs to back the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement, Theresa May has said.

In a press conference at the end of a European Council summit in Brussels, the Prime Minister acknowledged that it would not be possible to reopen the agreement to alter the backstop provisions which have sparked mass rebellion among Tory MPs.

She confirmed she had a “robust” discussion with European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker and insisted she had been “crystal clear” about the UK’s need for firmer assurances that the backstop cannot become permanent.

Video footage of the conversation showed a clearly angry PM apparently berating Mr Juncker for saying that her address to leaders of the 27 remaining states on Thursday evening had been “nebulous”.

She told the press conference: “I had a robust discussion with Jean-Claude Juncker – I think that’s the sort of discussion you’re able to have when you have developed a working relationship and you waved banners as they marched from The Pankhurst Centre to the statue, where they met with other marchers as Eurythymics song Sisters Are Doin’ it for Themselves was played.

Sculptor Hazel Reeves said: “Emmeline, I’m so sorry your statue has been a long, long time coming – exactly 100 work well together. And what came out of that was his clarity that actually he’d been talking – when he used that particular phrase – he’d been talking about a general level of debate.”

Mrs May welcomed the official conclusions issued by the EU27 which committed the EU to trying to get a post-Brexit trade deal agreed quickly enough to avoid the need for a backstop to keep the Irish border open.

“As formal conclusions, these commitments have legal status and therefore should be welcomed,” she said.

But she added: “The EU is clear, as I am, that if we are going to leave with a deal, this is it. But my discussions with colleagues years since you proudly first placed your ballot paper into that box.

“It’s been a huge privilege and a real labour of love.”

She encouraged the crowds to adopt the pose of Mrs Pankhurst, who is depicted standing on a chair to address crowds, and shout “rise up women”. have shown that further clarification and discussion following the council’s conclusions is, in fact, possible.

“There is work still to do and we will be holding talks in coming days about how to obtain the further assurances that the UK Parliament needs in order to be able to approve the deal.”

Mrs May’s hopes of a legally binding commitment on the backstop from the EU27 were dashed on Thursday, when Mr Juncker said there could be “no real changes” to the Withdrawal Agreement negotiated over 18 months.

After listening to a presentation from the Prime Minister about MPs’ concerns which had prevented her getting her Brexit deal through Parliament this week, the EU27 leaders tore up a draft communique prepared by officials which would have offered Mrs May “further assurances”.

The Prime Minister said a package of assurances around the backstop could “change the dynamic” at Westminster.

Mrs May managed a smile at her press conference when a reporter asked if she had had a “trying week”, jokingly replying: “Has something happened this week?”