Today’s political headlines include the DUP’s threat to withdraw support from Government, May to launch plans for ethnicity pay gap reporting, Home Office guidelines may have been breached and Major compares Universal Credit to the poll tax.\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n
DUP threatens to withdraw support from Government over Brexit plan<\/span> May to launch plans for ethnicity pay gap reporting<\/span> Home Office guidelines on migrant detention may have been breached<\/span> Major compares Universal Credit to the poll tax<\/span> Corbyn to announce plans to teach children about UK\u2019s role in slavery and colonialism<\/span> 25 high-priority no-deal Brexit plans in trouble<\/span> Blair concerned about services sector after Brexit, following new research<\/span> Pro-remain Tories to form group to rival Rees-Mogg\u2019s Eurosceptics<\/span>
\n<\/strong>The Daily Telegraph<\/em>\u00a0says<\/a>\u00a0that Theresa May will today ask her Brexit \u2018war cabinet\u2019 to agree a plan under which the UK would stay in a customs union with the EU until a permanent trade deal is agreed, with UK and EU negotiators having agreed to an all-UK backstop in principle. However, the DUP has described this plan, under which Northern Ireland would remain in the single market for goods, as a \u2018sell out\u2019 and is threatening to vote against the Budget later this month, abstaining from a vote on the Agriculture Bill last night to show that it is serious.\u00a0The Times<\/em>\u00a0adds<\/a>\u00a0that Brexiteer ministers including Penny Mordaunt, Esther McVey and Liam Fox will not be at the meeting, leaving some of them unhappy.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>The BBC\u00a0reports<\/a>\u00a0that Theresa May is to announce plans today to force companies to reveal their ethnicity pay gap, a comparison between the pay received by employees form ethnic minorities and their white counterparts. She will also launch a Race at Work Charter, committing firms to increasing recruitment and progression of ethnic minority employees.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>The Guardian<\/em>\u00a0has\u00a0published<\/a>\u00a0an investigation into migrants held in detention centres, finding that over half of its sample were either suicidal, seriously ill or victims of torture, with almost 56% defined as being an \u2018adult at risk\u2019. People in this category should only be held in extreme cases, so the paper suggests that Home Office guidelines have been breached.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>Speaking<\/a>\u00a0to the BBC, former Prime Minister Sir John Major has criticised the Government\u2019s Universal Credit policy, warning that it risked encountering the same issues as the poll tax. While he described the theory behind the policy as \u2018entirely logical\u2019 he cautioned that it was being brought in \u2018too soon and in the wrong circumstances\u2019.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>According<\/a>\u00a0to the\u00a0Daily Mail<\/em>, Jeremy Corbyn is to announce plans to teach about the UK\u2019s role in slavery and colonialism in schools today, claiming that the Windrush scandal shows that this is \u2018more important now than ever\u2019. The paper adds that Education Secretary Damian Hinds will use a speech today to attack Labour\u2019s plans for a \u2018common rule book\u2019, to abandon free schools and freeze the academies programme.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>The Times<\/em>\u00a0reports<\/a>\u00a0that 25 of the less than 100 high-priority no-deal Government workstreams are in trouble, with 13 \u2018off-track\u2019. Sir Amyas Morse, the head of the National Audit Office, warned that the Government had left business in a \u2018very difficult position\u2019 and said it was \u2018not implausible\u2019 that flights between the EU and the UK could be grounded.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>The\u00a0Financial Times<\/em>\u00a0says<\/a>\u00a0that Tony Blair has expressed concern about the future of the UK\u2019s services sector post-Brexit, following the release of new research by the National Institute of Economic and Social Research showing that if the UK traded with the EU on World Trade Organization terms, the lost trade would reduce the size of the economy by 2.1% by 2030.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>The Guardian<\/em>\u00a0claims<\/a>\u00a0that a group of up to 30 remain-backing Conservative MPs are planning to form a movement to rival Jacob Rees-Mogg\u2019s European Research Group and vote down Theresa May\u2019s Brexit deal if she moves towards a Canada-style model, with a number of the MPs hoping that this will lead to a second referendum.<\/p>\n