Peer backs party’s alternative plan for leaving EU in post criticised by Chuka Umunna

The pro-remain Labour peer Andrew Adonis, who is standing for the party in the EU elections, has backed its “sensible alternative plan” to deliver a Brexit deal, in a Facebook post that baffled some of his supporters.

In the post, Lord Adonis, a candidate European parliament elections candidate in the South West England constituency, apologised for “off-the-cuff comments” he had made during an LBC radio phone interview, in which he said those who were pro-Brexit should not vote Labour because the party was going to stop Britain leaving the EU.

25/04/2019 - www.theguardian.com

In the view of the postwar Labour prime minister Clement Attlee, “No government can be successful which cannot keep its secrets.” By that yardstick, still the traditional one in British politics, Theresa May’s government is one of the least successful in our history. This is not merely the view of its opponents. It is also the view of its own key members. Less than a month ago the Conservative chief whip, Julian Smith, admitted to the BBC that “discipline is not as good as it should be”. Brexit, he continued, had generated “the worst example of ill-discipline in cabinet in British political history”.

That’s quite a claim. But it is hard to blame Brexit directly for the extraordinarily reckless new act of indiscipline that took place this week. On Tuesday the government’s national security council, which is chaired by the prime minister and contains senior ministers as well as security officials, agreed that the Chinese telecoms giant Huawei could build parts of the UK’s 5G network. This would normally have been a tightly guarded and unpublicised decision – Attlee, for instance, involved only a few trusted ministers in his momentous 1947 decision to build an independent British nuclear weapon. Instead, the Huawei decision was reported in full detail in the following morning’s Daily Telegraph, which named five cabinet ministers who opposed it, and laid the decision directly at the feet of Mrs May.

25/04/2019 - www.theguardian.com

Foreign secretary’s support for US president seen as revealing ambition to be next Tory leader

Jeremy Hunt has come out in favour of Donald Trump being invited to address both Houses of Parliament despite protestations from other politicians about the controversial state visit, as he made a thinly veiled pitch to be the next Conservative leader.

The foreign secretary said it was important to give the US president the “best possible welcome” when he visits in June to attend D-day commemorations.

25/04/2019 - www.theguardian.com