|
MPs go on recess today – and so too does this email, to return on 6 January. Happy Christmas.
1. Boris: it’s time to ‘move on’ from Brexit
Opening the debate on the withdrawal agreement bill in the Commons this morning, Boris Johnson said that, with a new parliament to ‘break the deadlock and get Brexit done’, the ‘sorry story of the last three-and-a-half years will be at an end’ and his vision of an independent United Kingdom is ‘only hours from our grasp’. He also said it’s time to ‘move on and discard the old labels of Leave and Remain’. MPs are to vote on the bill after 2.30 p.m.
2. Corbyn opposes WAB
Jeremy Corbyn says he wants to ‘respect’ the results of the EU referendum and the general election and ‘move on’. But he thinks Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal is ‘terrible’ – so Labour ‘will not support’ the withdrawal agreement bill. The BBC’s Iain Watson says ‘a couple’ of shadow cabinet members might miss the division this afternoon rather than vote against the legislation.
3. Boris accused of ‘direct attack’ on child refugees
The revised withdrawal agreement bill that MPs will vote on today does not include an amendment mandating the government to negotiate a deal with the EU to allow unaccompanied child refugees with relatives already living in Britain to come and settle in the country. Lisa Nandy says that represents a ‘direct attack on some of the most vulnerable children in the world’. Boris Johnson responded to her by saying he remains ‘absolutely committed to ensuring that we continue to receive unaccompanied children’.
4. Andrew Bailey named next Bank of England governor
Andrew Bailey, the head of the Financial Conduct Authority, has been appointed to take over from Mark Carney as Governor of the Bank of England. He’ll start the job on 16 March. On Coffee House, Ross Clark looks at what we can when Bailey takes charge.
5. Hoyle’s diabetes diagnosis
Lindsay Hoyle has told a documentary following him as he settles into the role of Speaker that he was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes shortly before the election – ‘but it doesn’t stop me carrying on and nothing is going to be a barrier to me’.
|
