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Rejoin

Independent
Thousands of protesters have formed a sea of blue and yellow in central London as they call for the UK to rejoin the EU.
The National Rejoin March attracted around 3,000 people as they marched from Park Lane, outside the London Hilton, toward Parliament Square for speeches and a waving of flags of the EU nations.
At Parliament Square, speakers, including former Belgian prime minister Guy Verhofstadt and high-profile campaigner Gina Miller – who masterminded an anti-Brexit legal challenge, addressed the crowd.
“I think everyone young and old can see it’s a disaster,” said Eric Stock, 23 from north London, who was painted from head to toe in blue body paint. He added: “We don’t have much left of a democracy at all. Getting out on the streets is one of the few beacons of democracy we have left.”
Ceira Sergeant, a leader in the youth wing of the rejoin movement, said she was too young to vote in the 2016 referendum.
She said: “Everytime I come to London I’m stunned by just how positive everyone is. It’s the best turnout I have ever seen.
“I have true faith we will rejoin in my lifetime. In the last year this movement has grown exponentially.
“Everybody in power needs to wake up to what young people especially want.”

Express
A top academic has laid bare the reality of the UK rejoining the EU after Remainers took to the streets for an anti-Brexit protest yesterday.
Thousands of people took part in the National Rejoin March in London demanding Britain returns to the bloc.
But Professor Matthew Goodwin said it would not be “at all” easy for the UK to rejoin the EU.
The bestselling author listed a series of obstacles including the possibility of having to ditch the pound for the euro, losing previous opt-outs in areas such as Schengen, and having to hand over more money to the club.
Prof Goodwin, who also has a Substack blog, told the Express: “It is very unlikely the EU would give us any of the previous opt-outs that we had as part of our negotiated membership.
“It is likely we would have to join the euro single currency and/or certainly pay more into the EU budget than we did previously.
“We would also have to, in theory, sign up to the EU’s principle of ever-closer union.
“And we would also have to join the EU organisation as it struggles to contain a number of growing crises, from the refugee crisis to growing divergence between economically more prosperous northern states and more impoverished southern states.

Inheritance tax

Express
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is planning to slash “the most hated tax in Britain” — inheritance tax — as part of a number of “crowd-pleasing” announcements next month.
Cutting the tax and then eventually abolishing it is being considered before the Conservative party conference in October.
He is set to unveil a raft of ambitious long-term policies designed to change Britain.
Slashing inheritance task is expected to be framed as an “aspirational offer to voters” before the next general election, The Times reports.
The reports of his plans have been celebrated with jubilation by many, with one person describing the Prime Minister as a “born winner”.
Sources have confirmed there is an ongoing discussion high up in Government about reforming the levy, reported the publication.

Mail
Rishi Sunak is planning to revive his proposal to slash inheritance tax.
The Prime Minister is set to target ‘the most hated’ levy in ‘an aspirational offer to voters’ ahead of the next general election.
Cutting the tax before eventually scrapping it is one of many possible crowd-pleasing announcements tax payers could expect to hear before next month’s Conservative Party conference, according to The Sunday Times.
Inheritance tax is currently charged at 40 per cent for estates worth more than £325,000.
An extra £175,000 allowance goes towards a main residence if it is passed to children or grandchildren and a married couple can share their allowance – parents can pass on £1 million to their children without any tax being paid.
It is believed that a live discussion was held at the highest level of government about reforming inheritance tax.

ITV News
Rishi Sunak is reportedly considering a cut to inheritance tax as he seeks to woo voters ahead of the general election.
Downing Street sought to play down speculation in the Sunday Times that the prime minister was drawing up plans to slash the tax.
But the newspaper reported there were live discussions at the highest level of government about reforming the tax.
One proposal being considered is for Mr Sunak to announce his intention to phase out the levy by reducing the 40% inheritance tax rate in the budget in March, while setting out a pathway to abolish it completely in future years, the newspaper said.

Lib Dems

Telegraph
The Liberal Democrats want to rejoin the European Union, their foreign affairs spokesman has said – despite Sir Ed Davey insisting it was “off the table” for the time being.
Sir Ed, who leads Britain’s fourth-largest party, said this week that voters are not talking about Brexit and that he has focused his party on other issues, including healthcare and sewage.
He has also refused to commit to rejoining the bloc, saying the Liberal Democrats’ focus is on revising existing Brexit arrangements.
But speaking on the first day of the party’s annual conference in Bournemouth, Layla Moran told a fringe event: “We want to rejoin. We want, as part of it, to get back into the Single Market.

Guardian
The Liberal Democrats are planning to open two fronts against the Conservatives in their traditional heartlands, with a campaign focused on NHS waiting lists and a pledge to protect the pensions triple lock.
In an interview with the Observer, Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, said that the scale of support his party had been receiving from lifelong Tory voters meant that there was now no Tory seat in either the “blue wall” or the Conservatives’ rural heartlands that was safe.
The Lib Dems are in an increasingly optimistic mood as their annual conference takes place this week after a string of byelection wins, including in Chesham and Amersham, and Tiverton and Honiton. There is also mounting concern among Tories in constituencies where the Lib Dems are in second place.

Express
The Lib Dems have been criticised after passing a motion stating that “menstruation is not just a women’s issue”.
Members overwhelmingly voted in favour of the wider policy motion on period poverty, put forward by the Young Liberals and a local branch in London, at the party’s conference in Bournemouth today.
It stated: “Conference notes that… menstruation is not just a women’s issue, and also affects some trans and non-binary people.”
The motion went on: “Conference believes that period products are a human right, not a luxury; nobody should experience period poverty; England’s current free period product provision is not fit for purpose; it is in everyone’s interests for the stigma around periods to be addressed.”

HS2

Mail
The row over looming cuts to HS2 deepened last night following claims by the London Mayor that travelling between the capital and Birmingham could take longer on the new line than it does now.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Chancellor Jeremy Hunt are expected to decide in the coming days whether to axe the second phase of the high-speed line, from Birmingham to Manchester, and stop the London leg at Old Oak Common – six miles west of the original Euston terminus.
In a letter sent to Mr Sunak, London Mayor Sadiq Khan says this would turn the project into ‘a colossal waste of public money’
He reveals that, according to Transport for London estimates, passengers who took HS2 from Birmingham to Old Oak Common, then used local public transport to get to Euston, would be travelling for one hour 22 minutes on a ‘best case’ scenario to reach the station, compared with the current scheduled time of one hour 21 minutes.

Telegraph
Rishi Sunak could axe the second half of HS2 after an £8 billion expected increase in costs threatened to wipe out the budget for other transport projects.
Mr Sunak and Jeremy Hunt, the Chancellor, are expected to meet early this week to finalise plans to scrap phase two of the troubled railway line, from Birmingham to the North.
A Whitehall source said: “There is a reluctance to throw good money after bad.”
The Telegraph understands that officials expect the upper estimate of building the initial London to Birmingham stretch of the line to increase by at least a fifth – or more than £8 billion – from the £45 billion figure published in June 2022.

Guardian
Rishi Sunak is facing a huge backlash from senior Tories and business leaders amid signs he is ready to scrap the northern section of the HS2 high speed rail line before the Conservative conference opens in Manchester next weekend.
Several sources told the Observer on Saturday that a meeting was scheduled to take place involving the prime minister and the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, on Monday or on Tuesday, with a decision to be announced by Sunak by the middle of this week.
One source said any decision to cancel the section of HS2 from Birmingham to Manchester could not be made at the conference and would have to come before it. “He has to do it before Tories go to Manchester. To do it there would be inconceivable. It would be a kick in the teeth for the city. So doing it before seems to be the plan.”
On Saturday night – with indications that business leaders were bombarding No 10 with demands not to scrap the northern section – there were strong rumours that at least one middle- ranking minister could resign if the project is dramatically cut back.

Mirror
Rishi Sunak faced ridicule over plans to ditch HS2 rail links – after it emerged some ‘high speed’ services could end up slower than regular trains.
The Prime Minister is said to be considering scrapping the planned HS2 link from Birmingham to Manchester and the link to London’s Euston Station – meaning the route would terminate in Old Oak Common, a suburban station in West London.
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has warned that costs on HS2 have got out of control and Rishi Sunak has pointedly declined to publicly back the Manchester leg.
Sir John Armitt, Government’s own infrastructure tsar yesterday said cancelling the leg of HS2 between Birmingham and Manchester would be a “tragedy.”
“If we don’t continue, what are we saying to the rest of the world?,” he said.
“What are we saying to all those investors that we want to bring into the UK? Here’s a country which sets itself ambitions and then runs away when it starts to see some some challenges. We have to meet the challenges.”

Metro
Rishi Sunak appears poised to axe the northern arm of the HS2 rail line from Birmingham to Manchester, due to spiralling costs.
The Sunday Telegraph reported the potential cost of the high-speed rail scheme – which Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has said is ‘out of control’ – had increased by £8 billion.
The Observer suggested the decision to kill off the Manchester leg of the scheme could come before the Tories host their conference in the city on October 1.
The Prime Minister and Chancellor are reported to be meeting to discuss the situation in the coming days.

Independent
Rishi Sunak is facing open revolt from the top of his own party, key advisers and business leaders over HS2 after The Independent’s revelations about plans to ditch the multibillion-pound project.
Two former Tory prime ministers, the government’s infrastructure tsar, northern powerhouse groups and mayors both north and south all came out on Saturday to slam Mr Sunak.
Clamour has been building since The Independent broke the story 10 days ago, detailing how sunk costs of £2.3bn could be offset by a £34bn saving if HS2 was scrapped north of Birmingham.

BBC News
Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson has urged the government against building a “mutilated” version of HS2.
He said suggestions the high-speed rail link that began construction under his premiership could be scaled back were “Treasury-driven nonsense”.
Last week, the government refused to guarantee HS2 would continue between Birmingham and Manchester.
It comes as more than 80 companies and business leaders seek clarity over the commitment to HS2.

ITV News
Former prime minister Boris Johnson has warned Rishi Sunak about “delivering a mutilated HS2” after the Government refused to deny it was considering axing the Manchester leg.
Mr Johnson said suggestions the Birmingham to Manchester route could be chopped over cost concerns were “desperate” and “Treasury-driven nonsense”.
He urged the prime minister to deliver on the 2019 levelling-up pledge the Conservatives were elected on.
Last week, the government refused to guarantee HS2 would continue between Birmingham and Manchester, despite £2.3 billion having already been ploughed into stage two of the national line.
In a speech on Wednesday, Mr Sunak announced he was weakening environmental commitments, saying it was the start of a “series of long-term decisions” designed to change the country’s direction.

Armed police

Guardian
Dozens of Metropolitan police firearms officers are refusing to go out on armed patrols after one of their colleagues was charged with murder.
More than 70 police marksmen said they want time to consider whether or not they wish to still carry a gun given their colleague is facing a murder charge.
Others are declining to go out on regular armed patrol and have remained at their stations while others said they will respond only in emergency situations.
It follows the charging of an armed officer, who has only been identified as NX121, with the murder of Chris Kaba in September last year.
Kaba, 24, died in Streatham Hill, south-east London, after he was shot through a car windscreen during an armed stop.
The officer has been given conditional bail and is expected to stand trial next year.

Sun
HUNDREDS of Met firearms officers have handed in their weapons in protest at the treatment of a colleague charged with the murder of Chris Kaba.
The widespread action has left the capital with a “skeleton” armed police capability and alarmed senior Met chiefs.
The London force is said to be planning to apply for armed police assistance from counties under mutual aid rules and could also appeal for help from the military.
Gun cops on the Met’s MO19 firearms command began handing in their blue authorisation cards after their colleague, known as Officer NX121, was charged on Thursday with murdering 24-year-old Mr Kaba.
The dad-to-be died from a single shot to the head while behind the wheel of his Audi in Streatham, South London, on the night of 5 September last year.
Mr Kaba’s vehicle was boxed in by Armed Response Vehicles when it flagged up on an automatic number plate recognition system.
Mr Kaba’s death sparked anger in the black community and relatives and supporters, including rap star Stormzy, marched on New Scotland Yard in protest.

Metro
Hundreds of Metropolitan Police firearms officers have handed in their weapons in protest at the decision to charge a colleague with the murder of rapper Chris Kaba, it has been reported.
Mr Kaba, 24, died in Streatham Hill, south-east London, in September last year after he was shot through an Audi car windscreen.
The marksman accused of his murder, named only as NX121 after an anonymity order was granted by a district judge, appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court and the Old Bailey on Thursday.
Scotland Yard has confirmed ‘a number of officers have taken the decision to step back from armed duties while they consider their position’, adding: ‘That number has increased over the past 48 hours.’

BBC News
A number of police officers in London have stepped back from firearms duties after a marksman was charged with the murder of a man.
Unarmed Chris Kaba, 24, died after he was shot in south London last year.
A Metropolitan Police officer appeared in court on Thursday.
The Met said many firearms officers were “worried” about how the charging decision “impacts on them”. Armed officers from other forces are being deployed as a contingency measure.
The force said its own officers still make up the vast majority of armed police in the capital but they were being supported from Saturday evening by a limited number of firearms officers from neighbouring forces.
A source suggested that more than 100 officers have handed in what is known as a ticket permitting them to carry firearms.

‘Triple lock’

Mail
Rishi Sunak is set to fight the next election pledging to keep the pension ‘triple lock’ – despite its spiralling cost – after being told it would be ‘political suicide’ to abandon it.
The Prime Minister had declined to commit to the policy beyond next year’s 8.5 per cent rise in state pensions, after experts said it could add up to £45 billion a year to the welfare bill by 2050.
Treasury officials had been discussing taking a one-off break from the triple lock – which increases pensions each April by whatever is highest out of average earnings rises, inflation or 2.5 per cent – and there had been debate about ditching the guarantee in the next manifesto.
But The Mail on Sunday understands that voters’ reaction to the idea of axing the policy has been so negative that Tory strategists have ruled out any changes.
A Government source said that fears over the growing burden of the measure, which was introduced by the Coalition Government in the 2010 Budget, have been overridden in No 10.

Fungus

Express
“Perplexed” scientists have expressed concern after a plant fungus was found to have infected a human in the first recorded case of its kind.
It had previously been thought that a fungus which infected plants could not make the leap and cause disease in a healthy human. However, a patient with a pus-filled abscess in his throat was found to have contracted silver leaf disease – a fungal infection that normally only infects trees, especially plums, apples, apricots and cherries.
The fungal disease has, until this year, never been considered a problem for humans – aside from the impact it can have on plants, which can be a bane for keen gardeners and horticulturalists.
But, in what researchers believe is the first reported case of its kind, a 61-year-old mycologist in India has contracted silver leaf disease in his throat.

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