Brexit second referendum – as it happened: Nigel Farage and Arron Banks make surprise call for another vote
Senior figures in Leave campaign say another Brexit poll might be needed to 'settle issue for a generation'
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Your support makes all the difference.Theresa May has delivered a landmark speech on the environment in which she laid out the Government's 25-year plan for reducing waste and tackling climate change.
The Prime Minister pledged to eliminate all avoidable plastic waste by 2042, alongside a range of other measures, but environmental groups said the plan lacks "urgency, detail and bite".
Also included in the Government's strategy are a £7bn fund for "plastics innovation" and plans to encourage supermarkets to set up plastic-free aisles.
Elsewhere, Boris Johnson will use a meeting with the Iranian foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, to raise the case of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe. The British mother has been imprisoned in Iran since April 2016. And new analysis commissioned by Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, showed a no deal Brexit could cost the UK economy up to £50bn.
Greenpeace have said the Prime Minister's landmark environment speech was a "missed opportunity".
Louise Edge, the campaign group's senior oceans campaigner, said:
This announcement was billed as a major push to tackle our plastic problem, but it looks more like a missed opportunity. It’s good that the government wants to make tackling plastic waste a priority, but the specific measures announced today don’t match the scale of the environmental crisis we face.
Encouraging more water fountains, extending charges on plastic bags and funding for innovation can all be part of the solution, but the overall plastics plan lacks urgency, detail and bite.
The WWF was more positive about the PM's speech.
Its CEO, Tanya Steele, said: “It’s great to hear the Prime Minister speaking today about the much needed action to protect our environment.
“I sincerely hope that the Government’s 25 year plan marks a turning point when we start restoring our environment rather than destroying it.
“Urgent action is needed on plastic pollution, dirty air, changes to our climate and protecting our precious natural heritage, here in the UK and around the world. But these commitments will only become a reality if they are backed by the force of law, money and a new environmental watchdog.”
However, the charity said plans to eradicate single-use plastics by 2042 was too long a delay.
Ms Steele said: “The tidal wave of coffee cup, plastic bottle and other plastic waste needs action now.
“We want to see an end of single use plastics by 2025. If we wait until 2042 we’ll see more plastic than fish in our oceans."
Germany will reportedly demand the UK continues to pay money into the EU budget if it wants access to European financial markets after Brexit. More from our Europe Correspondent, Jon Stone, here:
After her environment speech this morning, Theresa May was asked about new official figures showing the number of A&E patients treated within the four-hour target is at a record low. Here's what the Prime Minister had to say about it:
As we know, every year in winter the national health service comes under additional pressure. We have seen the extra pressures that the NHS has come under this year.
One of the issues that determines the extent of that pressure is flu and we have seen in recent days an increase in the number of people presenting at A&E from flu, and the NHS today has launched their national flu campaign. And I would encourage people to act on the advise that the NHS is giving, and also encourage NHS staff who haven’t had the flue vaccine yet to have that vaccine.
We have put more funding into the NHS for these winter pressures. We’re putting more funding into the NHS overall.
Almost 70 heads of emergency departments in the NHS have written to Theresa May to express "serious concerns" about the state of the health system.
In a letter, the doctors write:
"The facts remain, however, that the NHS is severely and chronically underfunded."
"Thousands of patients are waiting in ambulances for hours as the hospitals lack adequate space," they wrote.
"Some of our own personal experiences range from over 120 patients a day managed in corridors, some dying prematurely.
"An average of 10-12 hours from decision to admit a patient until they are transferred to a bed."
Theresa May launched the Government's 25-year environmental plan this morning and - don't say we don't spoil you - you can read it IN FULL here. It's a mere 151 pages, so a nice light bit of lunchtime reading...
Jeremy Corbyn has responded to new A&E figures showing the number of patients being treated within four hours is at the lowest level since records began.
The Labour leader told Sky News:
We would put more resources, money, into the NHS straight away, but also look at the wider question of why those figures are so high, and in part it’s a symptom of lots of other things. Some of those people going into A&E have come from care homes where there was not sufficient support for them. Some of those people have come in because of a level of desperation in their lives and they need that support. But there has to be more resources put in.
They're all piling in now...
Arron Banks, the Leave.EU and Ukip donor, has backed Nigel Farage's support for a second Brexit refendum.
Mr Banks, another key Brexiteer, issued a rather lengthy statement in response to the former Ukip leader's suprirse announcement this morning. Here it is in full:
"Nigel’s decision to call for a second referendum comes after eighteen months of backsliding by a weak, incompetent Prime Minister egged on by her Remain entourage.
The historic decision taken by the British people on 23 June 2016 was seismic. It was our opportunity to revolutionise our nation and take back control from elites who were leading us down the wrong path. Unfortunately, thanks to David Cameron’s cowardly resignation, the nation was plunged into political chaos and Theresa May has spectacularly failed to take the reins and deliver what the people voted for.
The vast majority of the country understands that the Brexit vote meant taking back control of our laws, money, trade and borders. The only viable way to do this is to leave the Single Market and the Customs Union. The honeymoon period is over; the Tory party want to leave in name only and not only has Theresa May betrayed the nation by agreeing a sizeable divorce bill but her transition deal up until the next General Election will see open borders remain in place for years to come.
The government have dragged their heels because they haven’t had the integrity to implement the will of the people. Just because we are continuously told we are leaving does not mean we are doing so!
If we do not act radically now, we will sleepwalk into a faux Brexit, in name only. True Brexiteers have been backed into a corner and the only option now is to go back to the polls and let the people shout from the rooftops their support of a true Brexit. Let the people denounce plans for greater European integration, the European Army and porous borders which facilitates the free movement of jihadis.
Leave would win by a landslide. The Tories don’t want to do what the electorate have instructed. Perhaps we need to shout louder.”
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