I’m not writing my usual blog today but here, as an alternative, is the Politics Live readers’ edition. It is a place for you to discuss today’s politics, and to share links to breaking news and to the most interesting stories and blogs on the web.
Feel free to express your views robustly, but please treat others with respect and don’t resort to abuse. Guardian comment pages are supposed to be a haven from the Twitter/social media rant-orama, not an extension of it.
You can read all today’s Guardian politics stories here.
And here are some of the main ones on our site this morning.
- Theresa May is to tell the European Union it is time to drop what she feels is their inflexible view on an Irish border solution and “evolve” their position to break the impasse in Brexit talks.
- The EU’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, has welcomed Dominic Raab to Brussels with a thinly veiled critique of Theresa May’s Chequers plan and a 13-week deadline in which to solve the problem of the Irish border.
- The Conservatives have been forced to admit that their chief whip asked MPs to breach Commons voting conventions in knife-edge Brexit votes on Tuesday, as opposition parties demanded he quit and queried the accuracy of the prime minister’s account of events.
- The welfare secretary Esther McVey has admitted there are continuing problems with the much-criticised universal credit system and signalled that further changes are in the pipeline.
- Theresa May signed off a bonus of up to £20,000 for her chief Brexit adviser, Oliver Robbins, while he was working as permanent secretary of the Department for Exiting the European Union last year, Number 10 confirmed.
On Thursdays local council byelections take place. There were six yesterday. Britain Elects has four of the results.
Tonight's council by-election previews from @andrewteale. Six contests: three Labour defences, one Conservative, one Liberal Democrat, one Plaid Cymru.https://t.co/MvDfLaFs2s
— Britain Elects (@britainelects) July 19, 2018
Saron (Carmarthenshire) result:
— Britain Elects (@britainelects) July 19, 2018
PC: 65.2% (+15.7)
LAB: 20.9% (-15.0)
CON: 12.7% (-1.9)
LDEM: 1.2% (+1.2)
Plaid Cymru HOLD.
Headington (Oxford) result:
— Britain Elects (@britainelects) July 19, 2018
LDEM: 60.9% (+1.2)
LAB: 26.9% (+3.2)
CON: 8.0% (-1.4)
GRN: 4.3% (-3.0)
Liberal Democrat HOLD.
Hesketh with Becconsall (West Lancashire) result:
— Britain Elects (@britainelects) July 19, 2018
CON: 41.2% (-18.5)
LAB: 34.9% (+4.0)
IND: 23.8% (+23.8)
Conservative HOLD.
No LDem (-9.3) as prev.
Besses (Bury) result:
— Britain Elects (@britainelects) July 19, 2018
LAB: 51.1% (-7.6)
CON: 36.2% (+16.2)
EDEM: 3.7% (-7.8)
LDEM: 3.6% (-0.7)
GRN: 2.8% (-2.6)
UKIP: 2.5% (+2.5)
Labour HOLD.
