For years there was consensus between the major UK political parties about the Overseas Territories, but that has now changed and the OTs now face a “more hostile and less supportive UK political class,” Dr Peter Clegg said, adding that perhaps a review of relations is appropriate, one which would “offer the Territories more autonomy, address the UN’s decolonization agenda, and give the Territories a stronger foreign policy voice.”
A former head of the Civil Service has backed the call for a people’s vote on Brexit as the only viable option after “disastrous” exit negotiations. Independent crossbencher Lord Kerslake said he had moved from being skeptical about holding a second referendum to joining last Saturday’s march in support of it.
A no-deal Brexit could slam the brakes on the UK’s economic growth, wiping out Chancellor Philip Hammond’s hopes of boosting public spending, a think tank has said. If the UK fails to reach a withdrawal deal with the EU and moves on to World Trade Organization (WTO) rules next March, GDP growth can be expected to slow sharply from 1.4% this year to 0.3% in both 2019 and 2020, said the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (Niesr).
Operations have been suspended at the UK's only active shale gas fracking site following an earthquake - just 11 days after it was given the go ahead. Energy firm Cuadrilla said it would halt fracking at the Lancashire site for 18 hours after a tremor of 0.8 magnitude was recorded.
More than one third of Tory Members of Parliament, including a former Defense secretary - have written to the prime minister to demand an end to “legal witch hunts” of military veterans. Signatories to a letter delivered to Theresa May on Tuesday also include more than 50 members of the House of Lords, including four former chiefs of defense staff.
Brexit brings a chance to strengthen ties between Argentina and the Falkland Islands, the country's foreign minister Jorge Faurie said in London. Faurie met with Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt and the pair discussed increasing trade and travel links between the Falkland Islands and South America.
A no-deal Brexit may be the “most likely outcome” of the UK’s negotiations with the EU, Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has told MSPs. The First Minister said that while the terms of Britain’s withdrawal from the bloc are 95% agreed, there remains an “impasse” over the issue of the Irish border.
The House of Lords EU Select Committee has written to Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab urging him not to stand in the way of Parliamentary scrutiny, and to honor his previous commitment to give evidence to Committees “on a regular basis”.
Gibraltar will step up its contingency planning as from January 1, 2019, if there is no certainty of a Withdrawal Agreement and implementation period by that date, Chief Minister Fabian Picardo told an influential House of Lords select committee. Addressing the EU Select Committee, he also signaled his hope that Gibraltar, the UK and Spain could salvage elements of the Gibraltar negotiations even in the event of a ‘no deal’ Brexit between the UK and the EU.
Ecuador does not plan to intervene with the British government on behalf of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to negotiate a way for him to leave the country's embassy in London, where he has lived under asylum since 2012, Ecuador's foreign minister said on Tuesday.