Today’s political headlines include Ryan quitting the Labour party, Shamina Begum’s family to sue the Home Office, Independent Group to announce first Tory defector within days and May to visit Brussels for Brexit talks.\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n
Ryan quits Labour citing antisemitism ISIS runaway\u2019s family to sue Home Office over loss of citizenship Independent Group hopes to announce first Tory defector \u2018within days\u2019 May to visit Brussels for Brexit talks Brexit vote may be brought forward to next week Major warns that \u2018extremists\u2019 are manipulating both main parties Report shows Universal Credit will boost incomes for almost 4m people Thinktank warns against Huawei
\n<\/strong>The Times<\/em>\u00a0reports<\/a>\u00a0that Joan Ryan has now also resigned from the Labour Party to join the Independent Group. In an interview with the paper, she accused Jeremy Corbyn of \u2018presiding over a culture of antisemitism and hatred of Israel\u2019, adding that she couldn\u2019t \u2018be part of a party that allows racism to flourish\u2019. Labour MP Ruth George has apologised after suggesting that it was \u2018possible\u2019 that the new group was being supported by Israel.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>The\u00a0Daily Mail<\/em>\u00a0reports<\/a>\u00a0that the family of Shamina Begum, who fled the UK to join ISIS, are to take the Home Office to court after Home Secretary Sajid Javid said he would remove her British citizenship. While being left stateless is illegal, the Government believes that as Begum\u2019s mother was born in Bangladesh, she also has Bangladeshi citizenship.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>According<\/a>\u00a0to\u00a0The Sun<\/em>, the Independent Group hopes to unveil their first defector from the Conservatives \u2018within days\u2019, with talks taking place between Chuka Umunna, Chris Leslie and Tory backbenchers. It adds that either Heidi Allen or Sarah Wollaston might announce their defection before Prime Minister\u2019s Questions today.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>The BBC\u00a0reports<\/a>\u00a0that the Prime Minister is to visit Brussels today for continued Brexit negotiations, where she is expected to request a legally-binding assurance that the Irish backstop will not be indefinite. European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has warned that a \u2018breakthrough\u2019 should not be expected.\u00a0The Times<\/em>\u00a0adds<\/a>\u00a0that Theresa May has told Brexiteers that the so-called \u2018Malthouse compromise\u2019 cannot be negotiated in time for 29 March, but that both sides had established a taskforce to work on it after the UK had left the EU, although she did not promise that it would be legally binding.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>The Daily Telegraph<\/em>\u00a0suggests<\/a>\u00a0that Theresa May will bring forward the meaningful vote on her Brexit deal to next week, following revisions being approved by EU leaders at a summit in Egypt this weekend, allowing her to avoid mass resignations from ministers who want Brexit to be delayed if a deal is not reached.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>The Daily Telegraph<\/em>\u00a0says<\/a>\u00a0that Sir John Major has warned that moderate members of both the Conservatives and Labour are being sidelined while the parties are \u2018manipulated\u2019 by extreme fringes such as the European Research Group, which he described as a \u2018party within a party\u2019. However, he also argued against establishing a new centrist party.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>In an\u00a0exclusive<\/a>,\u00a0The Sun<\/em>\u00a0reports that Work and Pensions Secretary Amber Rudd has welcomed a report from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation which shows that 3.9m working people will see their incomes increase by an average of \u00a33,400 a year under Universal Credit. However, the report also shows that 1.7m people will be an average of \u00a32,500 a year worse off, with Rudd promising to \u2018continue to make improvements to the system\u2019.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>The\u00a0Financial Times<\/em>\u00a0carries details<\/a>\u00a0of a new report by the Royal United Services Institute which warns that permitting Huawei to equip the UK\u2019s future 5G mobile networks would be \u2018na\u00efve\u2019 and \u2018irresponsible\u2019, despite GCHQ\u2019s National Cyber Security Centre having concluded that the risks associated with Chinese influence can be mitigated.<\/p>\n