Top story: Another May day?
Good morning, Graham Russell here delivering your morning briefing.
The prime minister today faces (another) crunch cabinet meeting today that will be seen as a test of her power amid a splintered cabinet, a nascent revolt over education spending and less-than-convincing Brexit talks.
Theresa May is expected to seek to regain control of her cabinet, insisting they stop briefing against each other and “get on with delivering Brexit”. However, the Brexit thing seems hard when your Brexit secretary has to return from negotiations in Brussels to help put out fires in Westminster. David Davis held less than an hour of EU talks before voting twice in London.
Keir Starmer, the shadow Brexit secretary, put it like this: “Since the election, the government has been in disarray. There is no agreed cabinet position on vital Brexit issues, the negotiating team is not prepared and the prime minister has lost her authority.” EU diplomats have voiced similar fears for progress on negotiations.
The length of May’s tenure is becoming an openly discussed question, with a letter of no confidence in circulation and timelines for the ideal ousting considered.
The main card May has in her hand appears to be her assertion that any more infighting would spark a general election that puts Jeremy Corbyn in power.
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‘The tobacco of the 21st century’ – Air pollution across the north of England is putting the health of hundreds of thousands of people at risk and hampering economic growth, new analysis has found. The Institute for Public Policy Research called for radical action, saying too much attention was focused on the capital while the regions suffered. The government has suffered two legal defeats over its plans to improve air quality in the UK after judges ruled they were so poor as to be unlawful. The courts have given ministers until 31 July to publish a new plan.
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Have your say, again? – The Electoral Commission will investigate 1,000 reports of double voting in the general election, a development it described as “troubling”. Thirty-eight MPs have raised concerns about the activity in their constituencies. About 500,000 more people were registered for the June poll than for the 2015 general election, taking the electorate to a record 46.8 million people.
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Weather watchout – Storms are expected to sweep north across much of England and Wales from Tuesday evening, bringing the risk of flooding, large hailstones and power outages. Some areas could experience up to 30mm of rainfall in an hour, the Met Office said.
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The price of life – A “political decision” in 2010 to cut NHS funding has coincided with a stagnation in life expectancy after a century of gradual rises, a former government adviser has said. Sir Michael Marmot, who advised on the links between poverty and ill-health, did not draw a direct causal link but pointed out that “miserly” spending in recent years had affected the amount and quality of care that an ageing population receives.
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Precautionary step – Primark has pulled three types of flip-flop after a cancer-causing chemical was found inside them. The men’s shoe in blue, black and khaki contained high levels of chrysene, and had been on sale since January. It is not clear why Primark was selling flip-flops in January.
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Lunchtime read: Trump’s version of ‘Made in America’
“Remember in the old days they used to have ‘Made in the USA’ ... We’re going to start doing that again.” So said a nostalgic Donald Trump on Monday, surrounded by piles of domestically produced goods that made the White House resemble an Amazon warehouse. “No longer are we going to allow other countries to break the rules, steal our jobs, and drain our wealth – and it has been drained. It has been drained,” he added. So the big question, during the president’s “Made in America Week”, is why are so many of the Trump family’s products made overseas? From education to board games, vodka to clothing, here is just a selection.
Sport
The inquest into England’s defeat to South Africa has begun in earnest, with head coach Trevor Bayliss describing the 340-run defeat as a “shocker” and captain Joe Root saying his side must learn quickly from the result.
Meanwhile, a brace of stinging attacks in other sports were launched yesterday. One came from Team Sky principal Sir Dave Brailsford on a cycling journalist during yesterday’s Tour de France rest day, and the other by para athlete Richard Whitehead, who accused the International Paralympic Committee of “playing with careers” by excluding double-leg amputees from the Para World Athletics Championships at Tokyo 2020.
Romelu Lukaku scored his debut goal but Manchester United’s evening soured when Antonio Valencia was sent off for scything down Real Salt Lake’s Sebastian Saucedo during the tourists’ 2-1 win. And Mark Sampson has admitted he and his England squad were “shocked” when they learned their Euro 2017 match against Scotland Utrecht on Wednesday could be targeted by terrorists.
Business
The latest inflation figures are released today, with City analysts expecting June to show a brief pause in the rising cost of living – which has increased to 2.9% in the 12 months since the Brexit vote. And with annual earnings growth at 2%, the data from the Office for National Statistics is likely to prompt renewed speculation about a slowdown in consumer demand caused by prices rising faster than wages. The cost of car insurance has soared by 11%, nearly four times the rate of inflation, over the past year, taking the cost of motor cover to a record high.
And Nils Pratley writes that the self-serving boasts about jobs and economic rebalancing swirling around the HS2 high-speed railway fail to answer the question: could its £55.7bn budget have been spent on achieving these goals more cheaply and effectively?
The pound is buying $1.30 and €1.13.
The papers
Politics and pictures of a slightly grumpy Prince George in Poland dominated the front pages today.
The Times leads with Theresa May being urged by cabinet ministers to sack the testosterone-fuelled “donkeys” and “safe seat kids” behind a series of leaks against the chancellor, Philip Hammond.
The Telegraph says money is being wasted by government departments rushing to meet the target of spending 0.7% of the nation’s income on overseas aid.
The Guardian focuses on education, with the news that Justine Greening has pledged another £1.3bn in funding for schools in England to head off a Tory revolt. The money will come from a raid on the free schools and new buildings budgets.
The Daily Mail is concerned with potential voter fraud, warning that thousands of students “may have voted twice” for Jeremy Corbyn thanks to having both their term-time and home addresses registered.
Away from Westminster, the Sun leads on the Duchess of Cambridge joking about having a third child, the Daily Mirror has a story about Sarah Payne’s brothers feeling “guilt” over her abduction and the Daily Express claims eating the right foods can cut the risk of dementia. The i has gone with the revealing of the final HS2 railway route.
The FT has gone with a zinger: “KKR lines up joint successors to founders Kravis and Roberts”. Henry Kravis and George Roberts helped develop the private equity industry in the 1980s and have taken the rare move of publicly revealing the heirs to the throne.
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