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’s hopes of prising away Emmanuel Macron from the rest of the European Union to sign up to her Chequers vision for Brexit looked tenuous on the eve of the pair’s crunch talks.
- Michel Barnier has launched his own appeal for hearts and minds in Europe by warning that Theresa May’s Brexit proposals, put forward in the UK government’s recent white paper, pose a threat to the future of the European single market.
- Europe should try to keep the UK in the EU by improving its offer on an emergency brake on the free movement of people, first made before the 2016 referendum, the chair of the French senate’s European committee has said.
- Jeremy Corbyn is expected to make a speech next week to address Labour’s ongoing crisis over antisemitism, amid increasing divisions in the party over how to tackle the issue.
- The Electoral Commission will not investigate the Democratic Unionist party over claims it coordinated its Brexit referendum campaign spending with Vote Leave in order to break legal spending limits.
On Thursdays local council byelections take place. There were three yesterday. Britain Elects has two of the results.
Just three council by-elections tonight - Conservative defences in Fylde, Peterborough and West Norfolk.@andrewteale previews them for you here:https://t.co/czk03JxcGS#SuperThursday
— Britain Elects (@britainelects) August 2, 2018
Orton Longueville (Peterborough) result:
— Britain Elects (@britainelects) August 2, 2018
CON: 36.5% (+7.6)
LAB: 33.7% (+12.4)
LDEM: 12.1% (+3.5)
GRN: 10.3% (-3.3)
UKIP: 7.3% (-20.1)
Conservative HOLD.
Chgs. w/ 2016.
Ansdell (Fylde) result:
— Britain Elects (@britainelects) August 2, 2018
CON: 72.4% (+21.6)
LAB: 27.6% (+5.1)
Conservative HOLD.
No Ind (-26.7) as prev.
