LONDON — Suspended Labour MP Mike Amesbury has been charged with assault after CCTV footage appeared to show him punching a man in the street. Amesbury, 55, was summoned to appear at a magistrates court to face a charge of assault, Cheshire Police said in a statement released Thursday. Rosemary Ainslie, head of the Crown Prosecution Service’s special crime division, said: “Following a review of the evidence provided by Cheshire Police, we have authorized a charge of common assault against Mike Amesbury MP, 55.” She added: “The Crown Prosecution Service reminds all concerned that criminal proceedings against the defendant are…
Author: Noah Keate
LONDON — Nigel Farage just made Britain’s new government an offer it’s bound to refuse. The right-wing Brexiteer said he would help the country’s center-left Labour administration deal with Donald Trump if the Republican returns to the White House next January. “I repeat the point that if this government needs any help with relationships with Trump 47, I will do all that I can,” he told an event held by the Spectator magazine Thursday evening. Farage, who heads up the populist Reform UK party, is a close British ally of the former president and has frequently campaigned alongside him. The…
LONDON — Never say politics is predictable. Right-wingers Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick will do battle for the Conservative Party leadership after centrist contender James Cleverly fell at the final hurdle despite a late surge. Tory MPs — who had to whittle down the list of contenders to just two before a vote of the wider party membership in the coming weeks — decided Badenoch and Jenrick should be the final two candidates. Badenoch bagged 42 votes, and Jenrick netted 41. Cleverly, the shadow home secretary who urged the Tories to get united and be optimistic, enjoyed a boost in…
LONDON — The Conservatives tore into the U.K. government’s decision to hand the disputed Chagos Islands, home of a key U.S. military base, to Mauritius. The opposition party on Monday lambasted Foreign Secretary David Lammy’s explanation for why Mauritius is being given control of the archipelago, which has been described as the U.K.’s last African colony.It includes the U.S. airbase on Diego Garcia, although that will remain under U.K.-U.S. control for at least the next 99 years under a deal struck last week. Lammy told MPs in a House of Commons grilling Monday that a decision had to be made…
LONDON — The BBC has canceled a primetime interview with Boris Johnson after the former prime minister was accidentally sent internal briefing notes intended for BBC staff. Johnson, who was U.K. prime minister between 2019 and 2022, was due to be interviewed Thursday for 30 minutes on BBC One as part of a promotional tour for his memoir “Unleashed,” which is published Oct. 10. However, the BBC interviewer Laura Kuenssberg said Wednesday evening the interview could not go ahead after Johnson received her preparation notes for the interview in error. “While prepping to interview Boris Johnson tomorrow, by mistake I…
Prime minister’s questions: a shouty, jeery, very occasionally useful advert for British politics. Here’s what you need to know from the latest session in POLITICO’s weekly run-through. What they sparred about: Winter fuel payments — again. The final PMQs before MPs pack their bags for party conferences saw the leaders go head-to-head on their big current dividing line. Brief reminder: The Commons voted Tuesday to approve means testing winter fuel payments — so only pension credit recipients get the payments. The Tories opposed the measure (perhaps with one eye on their elderly voter base) while dozens of Labour MPs abstained. Heavy…
LONDON — It was the deadliest fire in Britain since the country was bombarded by Nazis in World War II — and a stark symbol of a deeply unequal nation. More than seven years on, survivors and grieving relatives affected by the 2017 Grenfell Tower blaze, which left 72 dead and dozens injured, hope Wednesday to finally get some answers. A report from the long-running official inquiry into the disaster — which rocked British politics and has long served as a symbol of state and corporate failure — lands at 11 a.m. It’s expected to catalogue widespread incompetence across numerous…
LONDON — Benjamin Netanyahu lambasted Britain’s “shameful” decision to suspend the sale of some arms components used by Israeli forces in Gaza. U.K. Foreign Secretary David Lammy announced Monday that 30 licenses, including parts for fighter planes, helicopters and drones, would be put on hold immediately after a review concluded there is a real risk weapons could be used in violation of international humanitarian law. In a strongly-worded statement from the Netanyahu’s office Tuesday, the Israeli prime minister’s team said Britain’s “shameful decision will not change Israel’s determination to defeat Hamas, a genocidal terrorist organization that savagely murdered 1200 people on…
LONDON — Nigel Farage said he would stop going to the pub if Labour goes ahead with a plan to ban outdoor smoking in Brits’ beloved watering holes. The leading Brexiteer, known for downing pints in photo opportunities to boost his image as a man of the people, took aim after reports suggested the U.K. government is considering tighter restrictions on smoking outdoors as part of its ambition to phase out tobacco. “The Labour party is showing its authoritarian socialist state control instincts and mentality,” the Reform UK leader wrote in a Telegraph op-ed. “The rumored ban on smoking in…