{"id":111490,"date":"2018-01-15T09:30:58","date_gmt":"2018-01-15T09:30:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk?p=111490&preview=true&preview_id=111490"},"modified":"2018-01-15T09:30:58","modified_gmt":"2018-01-15T09:30:58","slug":"todays-political-headlines-15-january-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/blog\/todays-political-headlines-15-january-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"Today\u2019s Political Headlines – 15 January 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"

A round-up of the latest political headlines, including questions over Carillion’s liquidation, on-the-spot fines for hiring fly-tippers, scrapping the immigration target and Penny Mordaunt addressing ‘public concerns’ about aid spending.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Carillion enters liquidation as ministers face questions
\n<\/strong><\/span>Construction firm and public sector contractor Carillion collapsed into liquidation this morning, following talks with its lenders and the Government. The Times<\/em> says<\/a> that ministers, including Transport Secretary Chris Grayling, are facing questions over their decision to continue to award the firm contracts while it issued a series of profit warnings. The Government is the firm\u2019s biggest client, paying it around \u00a31.7bn a year.<\/p>\n

\u00a3400 on-the-spot fines for householders who fail to stop fly-tipping
\n<\/strong><\/span>The Daily Telegraph<\/em> reports<\/a> that the Government is considering giving councils the power to issue \u00a3400 on-the-spot fines to householders who do not check if a business is licensed to transport waste, if it ends up being fly-tipped. The paper says, \u2018the move is likely to spark fears that the fines could be abused and used as a way of generating income for cash-strapped councils.\u2019<\/p>\n

Immigration target should be scrapped, select committee says
\n<\/strong><\/span>An article<\/a> in the Financial Times <\/em>says the Home Affairs Select Committee has released a report calling on the Government to scrap its immigration target, replacing it with a three-year plan set out and overseen by the independent Migration Advisory Committee<\/p>\n

Mordaunt pledges to address public concerns about aid spending
\n<\/strong><\/span>Writing in The Daily Telegraph<\/em>, International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt makes<\/a> five pledges which will ensure that money spent on foreign aid cannot be \u2018better spent\u2019, including to \u2018not invest when others should be putting their hands in their pockets\u2019 and that \u2018our focus will increasingly be on helping developing countries stand on their own feet\u2019.<\/p>\n

Sexual harassment – Guardian
\n<\/strong><\/span>The House of Commons Women and Equalities Select Committee is to launch a formal inquiry into the laws around sexual harassment, The Guardian<\/em> claims<\/a>. The committee\u2019s chair, Maria Miller, told the newspaper, \u2018I think it\u2019s clear that the current system is broken\u2019, while Frances O\u2019Grady, TUC General Secretary, said, \u2018The government has removed protections from women and they have made it harder for women to get justice.\u2019<\/p>\n

Andrea Leadsom describes John McDonnell as \u2018truly evil\u2019
\n<\/strong><\/span>Andrea Leadsom, Leader of the House of Commons, has described Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell as \u2018truly evil\u2019, The Daily Telegraph<\/em> says<\/a>. The remarks come in the context of a dispute over comments he made in 2014 and 2015 about the new Work and Pensions Secretary, Esther McVey. Asked about the remarks, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said, \u2018I would rather stick to where I disagree with somebody on their policies.\u2019<\/p>\n

UK and France in danger of drifting apart
\n<\/strong><\/span>Lord Ricketts, UK ambassador to France from 2012 to 2016, has warned that the two countries are in danger of drifting further apart. The Guardian<\/em> reports<\/a> that the claim is contained in a report for the Royal United Services Institute. Ricketts says that co-operation has \u2018become even closer in response to recent terrorist attacks. It is crucial that Brexit does not adversely affect this.\u2019<\/p>\n

British favour \u2018European-style market economy\u2019, Hammond says
\n<\/strong><\/span>The Times<\/em> has details<\/a> of an interview with Philip Hammond by the German newspaper Welt Am Sonntag<\/em>. He said the British, \u2018have a strong attachment to a European-style market economy\u2019, that the UK wanted certainty on the transition period before the European Council summit on March 22, and there would be no deal that did not include services.<\/p>\n

Want more political insight? Get\u00a0Vuelio political services<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A round-up of the latest political headlines, including Trump cancelling his visit to the UK, Nigel Farage’s second Brexit referendum, Government ordering illegal migrants’ accounts to be closed, and a threat to the Royal Marines and paratroopers. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":412,"featured_media":109691,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3694,7271],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111490"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/412"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111490"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111490\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":111492,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111490\/revisions\/111492"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}