Brexit news - live: Government postpones key no-deal bill vote to avoid humiliating tax havens defeat
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Your support makes all the difference.Prime Minister Theresa May postponed a vote on key bit of Brexit legislation to avoid a humiliating Commons defeat over rules governing tax havens.
Labour grandee Dame Margaret Hodge had tabled a cross-party amendment to the Financial Services Bill, which would have compelled UK overseas territories to be more transparent about business ownership.
It came as Labour MPs from Leave-backing areas dismissed Theresa May's "Brexit bribe" of £1.6bn for run down towns, saying their "vote is not for sale".
Shadow chancellor John McDonnell said it “smacks of desperation from a government reduced to bribing MPs to vote for their damaging flagship Brexit legislation”.
Beleaguered transport secretary Chris Grayling also came under fire on Monday for failing to personally answer questions from MPs about the botched Brexit ferry contracts.
Labour’s shadow transport secretary Andy McDonald said: “He leaves a trail of destruction in his wake, causing chaos and wasting billions of pounds yet he shows no contrition… the transport secretary has become an international embarrassment.”
Here's how the day unfolded:
A tranche of UQs have been announced and two urgent statements - bumping the Financial Services Bill clash off the list.
Beleaguered Chris Grayling has risked fresh criticism after failing to personally answer questions from MPs about the Brexit ferries fiasco.
Matt Hancock, the health secretary – rather than the transport secretary – will face the Commons over Friday’s shock £33m payment to Eurotunnel to settle the controversy over cross-Channel contracts.
More here:
Oxfam, which has been campaigning agains tax avoidance, has criticised the postponement of the Financial Services Bill today.
The charity's head of inequality, Rebecca Gowland, said: “It should be when not if the crown dependencies are required to lift their veil of secrecy - they are at the heart of a global network of tax avoidance that costs poorer countries and regions $170 billion a year.
"Given the level of cross-party support in parliament for action to make UK-linked tax havens more transparent the government should allow MPs a vote on this as a matter of urgency.
"Transparency is needed sooner not later to prevent countries being deprived of revenue that could be used to fight poverty and fund schools and hospitals.”
Shadow chancellor John McDonnell has also put out a statement.
He said: “More evidence that this government is incapable of getting its business through parliament. People have just had enough of the chancellor dragging his feet on tackling tax avoidance.
"We are demanding action now and no further delays and excuses. The government has been a friend to tax avoiders for too long.”
PA snapper Ben Birchall took this amazing picture of Theresa May is Salisbury today. The PM is visiting the town on the anniversary of the attempted murder of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.
Attorney general Geoffrey Cox has rubbished reports that he is watering down the government's Brexit demands.
Away from Brexit, a new report has warned that the government’s universal credit benefits system is “ruining lives” with burdensome red tape for people with mental health issues.
Campaigners are calling for more support for people with mental health problems on out-of-work benefits, including an end to sanctions for those in crisis who can’t attend job interviews.
Another big story today - Employers will be banned from using confidentiality agreements to stop staff reporting harassment, discrimination and abuse under a new government clampdown on so-called gagging clauses.
Ministers are tightening laws on the use of non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) to ensure they do not stop workers from speaking to police or medical professionals about their experiences.
The Commons will sit at 2.30pm for an hour of housing questions, before the run of UQs and statements begins.
A commitment to end period poverty around the world by 2030 will see millions go to projects providing sanitary products and working to eradicate the stigma that persists in the UK and beyond.
Around half of women and girls around the world lack access to sterile sanitary products, and often have to use strips of clothing, grass or animal hides to manage their periods.
Independent Group MP Chuka Umunna has written an interesting column for us, where he claims politicians across the divide are grateful for the defections.
He says he received a note from one of the PM's senior ministers, which said:
“The party system is in a parlour state: sclerotic and stale, they have both become undeserving of enthusiastic support. Their capture by Momentum and Moggmentum are pushing each to the fringe. So some fresh, principled, rebalancing will, I predict, have more impact than people immediately realise.”
Read the piece here:
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