Politics news in brief
Ken Clarke pledges to support May’s Brexit deal
Former Conservative chancellor Ken Clarke has said he will back Theresa May’s Brexit plans when they comes to a vote in the House of Commons. Mr Clarke said the deal, set to be signed off at a Brussels summit this weekend, was not ideal but it delivered continuity for business and lay groundwork for critical future trade negotiations with Europe. His intervention will be seen both as a boost for Ms May – coming from one of the greatest critics of Brexit – but also as proof for some Eurosceptics that her proposals do not give the UK a clean enough break from the EU. Mr Clarke, seen as one of the most pro-EU MPs on the Tory benches, said: “I will vote for this deal. I think it’s, you know, it’s a bit of a dog’s breakfast. I think if she hadn’t made so many efforts to appease the really hardline Eurosceptics in my party, she could have got a slightly better one. We could have just stayed in the single market and the customs union on the date of withdrawal before we go into the big negotiations on what the long-term aim is. I’ll settle for this, it keeps the borders as they are, it keeps everything continuous for British business, industry and
investment, and it paves the way for the transition period.”
Labour frontbencher backs fresh EU referendum
A Labour frontbencher has set himself at odds with the party’s official position by calling for a fresh EU referendum as he dismissed a general election as “not possible” without Conservative MPs’ support. The comments from Steve Reed – a shadow culture minister – come just days after Jeremy Corbyn resisted calls to throw his party’s weight behind a second vote, saying a referendum could be an option “for the future” but “not an option for today”. Labour’s official policy is to fight for a general election should Theresa May’s Brexit deal be rejected – and failing that the party has left all options on the table, including campaigning for a people’s vote. In an article for the Evening Standard, Mr Reed reiterated Labour’s opposition to Ms May’s Brexit proposals, saying the prime minister had failed to satisfy any of his party’s six tests for a deal. But Mr Reed continued: “The Labour Party agreed that if the deal failed the six tests and if a general election wasn’t possible, we would keep all the options on the table including a public vote with remain as an option. Cabinet is split, parliament is deadlocked, and a snap election is not possible under the Fixed-term Parliaments Act without Tory support.”
‘Shortsighted’ student loans sale was bad deal for taxpayers
The government failed to get the best deal for taxpayers when they sold off student loans for less than half their £3.5bn face value, MPs have warned. The Treasury took a “shortsighted” approach to the sale of public assets in its effort to reduce government debt, the Commons Public Accounts Committee has concluded. Last year the government sold the first tranche of student loans, with a face value of £3.5bn, for £1.7bn – a return of 48p in the pound. Ministers are expected to “get the best possible deal” on behalf of the taxpayer – and this did not happen, the report says. The government received “too little in return” for what it gave up, it said. However, the report acknowleged MPs did not expect the government to recover the face value of the loans in full as repayments rely on people’s earnings. The report said: “Treasury’s focus on reducing its ‘public sector net debt’ measure is a shortsighted approach which fails to convince us that the deal is the best one for public sector finances in the long term.” The government’s own analysis shows it would have recouped the £1.7bn sale price in just eight years if it had held off from selling the loans.
Government to help unemployed and low-paid ‘invisible women’
The government has launched a new drive to help unemployed and low-paid women as part of an equalities shake-up announced by Penny Mordaunt, the women and equalities minister. The move will see the Government Equalities Office shift focus from tackling the gender pay gap and helping women into highflying jobs in order to prioritise the UK’s “invisible women”, Ms Mordaunt said. The minister said this group includes 1.8 million women who are not in work because they are looking after their home or family – eight times the equivalent number of men. She also highlighted huge gaps between ethnic groups, including the fact 73.3 per cent of British women are in jobs compared to just 32.8 per cent of Bangladeshi women in the UK. Speaking at a Women in Work conference organised by the Conservative think tank Bright Blue, Ms Mordaunt said: “We need a focus on small businesses, part-time work, women from all parts of the UK, low-paid women, women with multiple barriers to reaching their full potential, older women, financially fragile women, women who aren’t easy to reach, or measure, or sometimes even to see. The invisible women who keep our families, our public services and our nation going – women to who we owe a great deal, and women who really need our support.”