View from Westminster
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Julian Assange won't go the US | It looks as if the top people in the Biden administration don't actually want Julian Assange to be extradited to the US. As Joshua Rozenberg points out, the High Court allowed Assange to appeal against his extradition because the US failed to put up a good enough case that it should go ahead. "It felt almost as if someone senior in the US wanted to stop the case ever coming to trial but didn't want the embarrassment of withdrawing the extradition request," Rozenberg says. I think we can predict now that Assange will never go. That is the right result, in my view. Assange is not my kind of hero, but having imprisoned himself in the Ecuadorian embassy for seven years and in Belmarsh prison for another five, he has suffered enough. Time to let him go. | |
| Which cabinet minister lost her Hertford and Stevenage seat in the 1979 election? | Answer at the bottom of today's email | |
| | Karim Khan KC, chief prosecutor, also accuses three Hamas leaders | |
| | Mark Harper says the vehicles will be 'a real boost to both safety and our economy' | |
| | Government has no date for full controls on trade with the EU, says National Audit Office | |
| What else you need to know today | - Rishi Sunak has just made a statement in the Commons on the infected blood inquiry: he called it "a day of shame for the British state"; follow the latest here
- It is just one poll, but a YouGov survey of Scotland puts Labour 10 points ahead of the SNP, 39 per cent to 29 per cent, in voting for the Westminster parliament, which could give Labour 41 seats in Scotland, up 40, and the SNP eight seats, down 40
- I wrote at the weekend about Jeremy Hunt describing Labour's claim that the Tories want to cut the state pension a "lie" – the Labour charge is untrue, but the l-word debases debate and persuades no one
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| Does the Tory exodus from Westminster signal a Labour landslide ahead? |
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| Chris Heaton-Harris, Northern Ireland secretary, is the 65th Conservative MP to announce that they will stand down, compared with the 75 who said they wouldn't contest the 1997 election... Read more |
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| Tomorrow inside the Westminster bubble | Our political commentator Andrew Grice on what to look out for | No cabinet meeting tomorrow because Rishi Sunak will be in Vienna for a meeting with Karl Nehammer, the Austrian prime minister. Sunak will also speak online to open a two-day conference on artificial intelligence in Seoul, co-hosted with the South Korean government. The Commons sits from 11.30am for energy questions. There will be another ministerial statement on the infected blood inquiry, focusing on the issue of compensation. The main business will be an argument with the House of Lords over the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Bill – The Independent's Chris Blackhurst says the government is shying away from a fight with Big Tech.
John Woodcock, the former Labour MP now known as Lord Walney, will publish his report on political violence. Michael Gove will give a speech on antisemitism. David Lammy, the shadow foreign secretary, will speak about economic crime. Andrew Mitchell, the deputy foreign secretary, will give evidence on arms exports to Israel to the Commons Business and Trade Committee from 2.30pm. | |
| "I'd still vote for Tony Blair in the morning if he was back in the game"
Noel Gallagher, on Times Radio |
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| Quiz answer: Shirley Williams, education secretary | |
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