Category: Politics

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn fires shadow foreign secretary Hilary Benn for attempting coup, as 15 other members resign.

Britain’s opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn is facing a crisis within his Labour Party following the EU referendum, having sacked one shadow cabinet minister for attempting a coup, and as 13 other members resigned, citing ineffective leadership.

But, a defiant Corbyn said he will stand in any new Labour leadership election and “reshape” the shadow cabinet within a day.

“I regret there have been resignations today from my shadow cabinet,” the Labour leader said in a statement late on Sunday. “But I am not going to betray the trust of those who voted for me – or the millions of supporters across the country who need Labour to represent them.

“Over the next 24 hours I will reshape my shadow cabinet and announce a new leadership team to take forward Labour’s campaign for a fairer Britain.”

In the early hours of Sunday, Corbyn sacked shadow foreign secretary Hilary Benn as deep divisions emerged in the Labour Party following the UK’s vote to leave the European Union.

Corbyn, facing pressure to step aside after Thursday’s referendum, dismissed Benn after reports that he was preparing to lead a coup against the Labour leader.

Hours later, Heidi Alexander, the shadow health secretary, resigned. Soon after, Gloria de Piero, the shadow minister for young people , also quit and many others also quit. Shadow Commons leader Chris Bryant and Anna Turley, shadow minister for civil society were among those who resigned a day later, on Monday.

In a letter posted to Corbyn, published on her Twitter page, Turley said: “[I] do not believe the Labour Party under your leadership is, or ever will be, in good enough shape to go to the public in an election and ask to serve them in government.”

Corbyn has been criticised for not campaigning hard enough in support of EU membership, and had failed to convince millions of voters in the party’s heartlands to back “Remain”.

Many fear that should another general election be held in the wake of the Brexit, or British exit, vote, Corbyn would fail to inspire voters towards the Labour Party – the main opposition to the ruling Conservative leadership.

In a statement, Benn said he was sacked after telling Corbyn in a phone call that he had lost confidence in his leadership.

“It has now become clear that there is widespread concern among Labour MPs and in the shadow cabinet about Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership of our party. In particular, there is no confidence in our ability to win the next general election, which may come sooner than expected, if Jeremy continues as leader,” Benn said.

Benn, the son of former Labour politician Tony Benn, also publicly disagreed with Corbyn in September over air strikes on Syria.

Soon after the 52 to 48 percent vote in favour of Brexit , which triggered the resignation of Prime Minister David Cameron, two Labour MPs – Margaret Hodge and Ann Coffey – submitted a motion of no-confidence in Corbyn.

‘Immigration debate needed’

Around one third of Labour voters are estimated to have backed a British exit from the EU on Thursday, with many of those coming from traditional working class areas where high immigration tops the list of public concerns.

Responding to criticism from Labour colleagues that he had failed to address those concerns, Corbyn said there needed to be a national dialogue on immigration to reach a new settlement.

“We can’t duck the issue of immigration, clearly it was a factor,” he said. “We need to start an open and honest debate.”

Corbyn said the vote showed a backlash against the EU principle of free movement. But he added that if Britain wanted to retain access to the European single market – one of many issues cast into doubt by the vote – he believed it would have to accept free movement as a condition of that deal.

“If we were part of the single market in future, then clearly that would be accompanied by the continuing free movement of people,” he said.

Officials say US army to implement new policies affecting everything from recruiting to housing for transgender people.

The Pentagon plans to announce the repeal of its ban on openly serving transgender service members next month, US defence officials have said.

One of the US officials said on Saturday that parts of the repeal would come into effect immediately. But the plan would also direct each branch of the armed services to implement new policies affecting everything from recruiting to housing for transgender troops, the official said.

The repeal would come five years after a 2011 decision to end the US military’s ban on gays and lesbians serving openly, despite fears – which proved unfounded – that such a move would be too great a burden in wartime and would undermine readiness.

The disclosure came the same week that the US army formally welcomed its new secretary, Eric Fanning, who is the first openly gay leader of a military service branch in US history.

Republican Representative Mac Thornberry, chairman of the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee, said Defence Secretary Ash Carter had not answered questions the panel had asked, including about “readiness challenges” for transgender service members.

“If reports are correct, I believe Secretary Carter has put the political agenda of a departing administration ahead of the military’s readiness crisis,” Thornberry said in a statement.

Supporters of transgender rights cheered the news.

Ashley Broadway-Mack, president of the American Military Partner Association, said in a statement: “Our transgender service members and their families are breathing a huge sigh of relief.”

The National Centre for Transgender Equality estimated last year that 15,000 trans people served in the US military.

Government faces pressure to begin Brexit negotiations immediately after landmark vote to leave the 28-member bloc.

European Union officials have called for the UK to start the exit process as quickly as possible after Britons voted to leave the 28-member bloc, prompting the resignation of David Cameron, the prime minister, and dealing the biggest blow to European efforts at greater unity since the second world war.

The outcome of Thursday’s EU referendum – a 52-to-48 split in favour of Britain’s exit – caused financial markets to fall sharply and brought the British pound down to a 31-year low, its biggest drop in history.

There are now fears the vote could set off a chain reaction of further breakaway bids by other EU members battling hostility to Brussels.

There are also worries the outcome could lead to the break-up of the UK itself after Scotland raised the prospect of another independence vote.

On Saturday, foreign ministers from the six founding members of the EU – Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg, held a crisis meeting in Berlin to discuss the shock exit.

“Negotiations have to go quickly in the common interest,” said Jean-Marc Ayrault, France’s foreign minister, adding that the pressure would be “very strong” on Cameron at an EU summit on Tuesday to speed up the process.

Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the German foreign minister, said it was essential to preserve the “project of freedom and stability” that the six founding EU members had forged.

“We have a situation now that neither allows hysterics, nor shock,” he said.

“We shouldn’t fall into hectic activities, pretending that all answers are ready; we also shouldn’t fall into depression and inactivity.

“This is why the exchange that is happening now is necessary and I’m sure that amongst the 27 countries who want to defend this Europe, we have a strong will to strengthen this Europe after the British decision.”

Saturday’s meeting came a day after EU chiefs issued a joint statement saying negotiations over the so-called Brexit should begin immediately.

“We now expect the United Kingdom government to give effect to this decision of the British people as soon as possible, however painful that process may be,” said Donald Tusk, EU president; Jean-Claude Juncker, European Commission chief; Martin Schulz, European Parliament head; and Mark Rutte, Dutch prime minister, whose country holds the six-month EU presidency.

“Any delay would unnecessarily prolong uncertainty.”

German Chancellor Angela Merkel called the result a “blow” to Europe while French President Francois Hollande admitted it was a “grave test”.

Merkel and Hollande will meet Matteo Renzi, Italy’s prime minister, in Berlin on Monday to discuss future steps.

US President Barack Obama, who publicly threw his weight behind British EU membership during a visit to London in April, insisted the “special relationship” between the two countries was “enduring”.

Following the UK’s vote in favour of exiting the bloc, Dutch far-right MP Geert Wilders and French National Front leader Marine Le Pen called for referendums on EU membership in their own countries immediately.

The British vote will lead to at least two years of divorce proceedings with the EU, the first exit by any member state.

Cameron, who led the campaign to remain in Europe to defeat, after promising the referendum in 2013, said it would be up to his successor to formally start the exit process.

“The British people have made the very clear decision to take a different path and as such I think the country requires fresh leadership to take it in this direction,” Cameron, in office since 2010, said in an emotional televised address outside his residence on Friday.

“I do not think it would be right for me to be the captain that steers our country to its next destination.”

His Conservative Party rival Boris Johnson, the former London mayor who became the most recognisable face of the Leave camp, is now widely tipped to seek his job.

“We can find our voice in the world again, a voice that is commensurate with the fifth-biggest economy on earth,” Johnson said.

The “Leave” victory also threatens to shatter the unity of the UK, with Scotland and Northern Ireland voting to remain in while England – barring big cities like London – and Wales supported out.

Nicola Sturgeon, Scottish first minister, said a second independence vote was now “highly likely” after a 2014 referendum backed staying in the UK.

“The option of a second referendum must be on the table and it is on the table,” she said, declaring it was “democratically unacceptable” for Scotland to be dragged out of the EU against its will.

The Scottish parliament is due to meet for an emergency session early on Saturday.

In Northern Ireland, the nationalist Sinn Fein party seized on the result to call for a vote on reunification with the Irish Republic.

The possibility of such a vote is included in the 1998 peace accord that largely ended three decades of violence in the province, but leaders north and south of the border were quick to dismiss the idea.

Highlighting the discord, a petition demanding a second EU referendum had gathered more than 550,000 signatures late on Friday.

Risks ahead

The result caused the pound to fall to a 31-year low of $1.3229 at one point but it recovered some ground after the Bank of England said it stood ready to pump £250bn ($370bn) into the financial system to avert a crisis.

European stock markets dropped around eight percent at opening before recovering later, while British bank shares lost a quarter of their value in morning trade.

Ratings agency Moody’s said Britain’s creditworthiness was now at greater risk, as the country would face substantial challenges to successfully negotiate its exit from the bloc.

Huge questions also face the large numbers of British expatriates who live and work freely elsewhere in the EU, as well the fate of EU citizens who live and work in Britain.

Split vote effectively kills Obama’s executive order to protect millions of undocumented people from deportations.

The US Supreme Court has deadlocked President Barack Obama’s plan to spare millions of undocumented immigrants from deportation with a tie vote.

The eight-member court split four to four on Thursday, but did not provide details about how or why justices had voted, effectively killing the plan for the remaining seven-months of his presidency.

Obama called the ruling frustrating to those who want to “bring a rationality” to the immigration system.

“For more than two decades now, our immigration system … has been broken, and the fact that the Supreme Court was not able to issue a decision today doesn’t just set the system back even further, it takes us further from the country that we aspire to be,” Obama said at the White House.

Though Obama predicted an immigration overhaul is inevitable, he conceded it won’t happen while he’s president due to opposition from the current Congress.

Working to lay the groundwork for the next president to pick up the effort, he cast the election in November as a referendum on how the country would treat its immigrants.

“We’re going to have to make a decision about whether we are a people who tolerate the hypocrisy of a system where the workers who pick our fruit or make our beds never have the chance to get right with the law,” Obama said.

“Or whether we’re going to give them a chance, just like our forebears had a chance, to take responsibility and give their kids a better future.”

Obama’s 2014 plan was tailored to let roughly four million people – those who have lived illegally in the US at least since 2010, have no criminal record and have children who are US citizens or lawful permanent residents – get into a programme that shields them from deportation and supplies work permits.

The court, with four conservative justices and four liberals, appeared divided along ideological lines during oral arguments on April 18.

The ruling reflects the need to confirm a ninth justice, Obama said, blaming the Senate for failing to give a hearing to Merrick Garland, his nominee to replace Antonin Scalia who died in February.

The case reached the Supreme Court after a lower court struck down Obama’s 2014 executive order last year.

Obama said the order was necessary because Congress had failed to pass immigration reforms.

‘Not permitted’

Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, the top Republican in Congress, said the court’s action showed Obama had overstepped his authority.

“The Constitution is clear: The president is not permitted to write laws. Only Congress is,” he said.

Obama insisted on Thursday that his administration would continue with its other immigration action that protects immigrants brought to the country as children from deportation. That programme was not under
consideration by the court.

Officials would instead continue to prioritise deportations for people who have committed crimes, those who recently crossed the border and threats to national security.

The Israeli PM to meet Kerry and Mogherini to fight pressure over settlement growth on occupied Palestine.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to fly to Rome for three days of intense diplomacy as the the Middle East Quartet is expected to use strong language against his settlements policy in a forthcoming report.

Netanyahu will fly to the capital of Italy on Sunday to meet with US Secretary of State John Kerry and the European Union’s foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini.

The Middle East Quartet, a mediation group made up of the US, EU, UN and Russia, is expected to use unusually tough language in criticising Israel’s expansion of settlements on occupied land that the Palestinians seek for an independent state.

It is unclear whether the wording may be softened before the report is issued, probably next week, although its publication has already been delayed several times.

“As it stands, the language is strong and Israel isn’t going to like it,” said one diplomat briefed on the content. “But it’s also not saying that much that hasn’t been said before – that settlements are a serious obstacle to peace.”

On Thursday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas appealed to the EU for help to end Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories and support for a lasting peace agreement.

“You are our friends, help us,” Abbas told EU politicians in Brussels. “Israel has turned our country into an open-air prison.

“Why is international law not being applied in the case of Israel?” he said to applause.

Defence agreement

Netanyahu is expected to talk to Kerry about a series of other issues, including how to conclude drawn-out negotiations with Washington on a new 10-year defence agreement.

There is also the looming issue of a peace conference organised by the French that is supposed to convene in the autumn, although it may no longer take place in Paris.

Israeli officials oppose the initiative, seeing it as sidestepping the need for Israel and the Palestinians to sit down and negotiate directly. They argue that it provides the Palestinians with a chance to internationalise the conflict rather than dealing with it on the ground.

Israelis are also concerned that the conference may end up fixing a timeframe for an agreement on ending Israel’s 49-year-old occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem and reaching a two-state solution with the Palestinians.

If that does not emerge from the French plan, it remains possible that a resolution along similar lines could be presented to the United Nations Security Council before the end of the year.

Netanyahu is expected to discuss the issue with UN chief Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday in Jerusalem.