Top story: ‘No room whatsoever for renegotiation’
Good morning – I’m Warren Murray and this is where we find ourselves.
Theresa May returns from the continent to the House of Commons this morning facing a possible threat to her leadership, while the EU is moving into full no-deal mode after Brussels rebuffed any suggestion of renegotiating its Brexit agreement with the PM.
Conservative MPs last night were lobbying colleagues to submit letters of no confidence in May’s leadership to Graham Brady, the chair of the 1922 Committee of backbenchers. Getting the 48 letters does not remove May but allows a confidence vote to be called among the party’s MPs. The Conservatives have 315 MPs, and if everyone voted, it would take 158 to force May out. In parliament, Labour has not ruled out tabling a motion of no confidence in the government before Christmas if the PM fails to bring a Brexit deal to the House of Commons for a vote.
Jean-Claude Juncker has told the European parliament that there is “no room whatsoever for renegotiation” but the EU could offer “clarifications and interpretations” to help May secure MPs’ support. Donald Tusk tweeted he’d had a “long and frank” discussion with May and it was “clear that EU27 wants to help. The question is how.” During a visit to Berlin, May was reportedly told by the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, that there could be no renegotiation and to talk to Brussels rather than national leaders.
The Irish taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, suggested to the Irish parliament that Downing Street could revoke or extend article 50. “I do believe there’s a majority that the UK should not be plunged into a no-deal scenario,” he said. Research by Britain Thinks has found a significant decrease in the strongest supporters of Brexit and an increase in the most pro-remain voices.
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Terror in Strasbourg – A gunman has remained at large in the French city of Strasbourg overnight after killing at least three people and wounding another dozen in the city’s celebrated Christmas marketplace. After firing several volleys at passers-by, the man was injured in an exchange of fire with patrolling soldiers and reportedly fled in a taxi. French security services said they had identified him as a 29-year-old born in Strasbourg, who was known to police and listed as a security threat. There were reports gendarmes had raided his home earlier in the day but he was not there. The anti-terrorist section of the Paris prosecutor’s office has declared the shootings an act of terrorism.
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‘See, we get along’ – Crazy scenes at the White House where Donald Trump has locked horns in front of the press with the congressional Democratic leaders, Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer. The president threatened a government shutdown unless he gets his border wall, and traded barbs mostly with Schumer, while Pelosi – the presumptive House speaker, after Democrats won a majority in the midterms – tried to get a few more measured words in. Mike Pence, the vice-president, sat there and said nothing.
The extraordinary footage speaks for itself but Pelosi summed it up afterwards. “It goes to show you: you get into a tickle contest with a skunk, you get tinkle all over you.”
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Midweek catch-up – Latest developments in some recent and rolling stories …
> Grace Millane’s father said New Zealand had taken his daughter to its heart and she will be “forever a Kiwi” as he visited bushland where the 22-year-old British backpacker’s body was found. A 26-year-old man is in custody charged with murder.
> The Home Office has reneged on a promise to suspend the £2m “golden visa” scheme for rich foreigners. Campaign group Global Witness is accusing the government of “keeping Britain’s doors open” to the super-rich and potentially corrupt.
> Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou has been let out on bail by a court in Canada where she faces extradition to the US for allegedly breaching sanctions on Iran. China has arrested a Canadian former diplomat in a possible tit-for-tat move.
> The gilets jaunes protests roll on despite President Emmanuel Macron’s concessions. He probably didn’t get the disaffected ordinary people of France back on side by speaking to them from the heavily gilded salon doré of the Élysée Palace.
> Stormy Daniels has been ordered to pay nearly $293,000 of Donald Trump’s legal fees after her defamation suit against him was dismissed.
> Peter Bradshaw gives two out of five stars to Aquaman, calling it “a laborious, slow-moving and dripping wet film”. Instead, watch Counterpart season two – “the superlative spy thriller you have never heard of, with the name you struggle to remember”, as Chitra Ramaswamy puts it.
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Broadly substandard – More than a quarter of UK homes have broadband slower than 10Mbps which is not good enough for the average household’s needs, says Ofcom. The street with the slowest speed is Greenmeadows Park in Bamfurlong, Gloucestershire, where it’s 0.14Mbps and downloading a movie could take up to 100 hours. If yours works reasonably well, here are answers to Google’s top 10 questions of 2018 – from deleting Facebook to doing the floss like in Fortnite.
Today in Focus podcast: Conviction of the Stansted 15
The prosecution of peaceful protesters who locked themselves around a deportation flight at Stansted airport has been called a “crushing blow for human rights”.
The Guardian’s Damien Gayle has been following the case and hears from demonstrators and deportees. Plus: Soraya Chemaly on the importance of female rage
Lunchtime read: What your childhood teddy says about you
When he was four years old, Chris had a piece of blue cloth he took everywhere with him, which he called Boo-Boo. Before his first day at school, his mother had him throw it into the fire.
“It was a rite of passage; I detected that it was for my own benefit. It doesn’t cause me distress, I never felt traumatised, it’s not anything I ever dwelt on,” he says. Others still have their bedraggled totems, like Ian Robertson, 50, from Whistable in Kent, who clung to Panda “even after my brother chewed one of his eyes out and spat it from the family Vauxhall Viva as we were heading up the M6”; he now occupies the best chair in his house. Readers share stories of the security found in cuddly friends.
Sport
Mohamed Salah’s goal and a terrific injury-time save from goalkeeper Alisson helped send Liverpool through to the Champions League knock-out rounds with a 1-0 win over Napoli at Anfield. Joining Jürgen Klopp’s side in the last 16 will be Tottenham, who scored with five minutes remaining to earn a 1-1 draw against Barcelona in what was a very un-“Spursy” denouement. The former world champion Garry Kasparov has said he likes what he sees of AlphaZero, the game-changing program that leads the way for chess computers and could be used to find cures for diseases.
The England wing Joe Cokanasiga is set to be out of action until the new year and faces a battle to prove his fitness for the Six Nations after Bath confirmed he has suffered a torn medial knee ligament. Premiership Rugby hopes to conclude a £230m agreement with a private equity firm before Christmas after a board meeting on Tuesday failed to tie up a few loose ends. The Olympic cyclist Jess Varnish has accused British Cycling of exercising “extreme control” over her and other athletes in her long-running legal attempt to sue the organisation for sex discrimination and unfair dismissal. And Sam Curran has been confirmed as one of 18 English players who will feature in next week’s Indian Premier League auction, with the Surrey all-rounder expected to be in high demand after a breakout year in international cricket.
Business
The TUC has called for a million manufacturing and hi-tech jobs to be created in the next decade in order to kickstart the government’s industrial strategy. The unions want targets to boosts jobs, investment and pay. Asian share markets have seen big climbs today in response to greater optimism about the China-US trade standoff, helped by the bailing in Canada of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou. The FTSE 100 will join the party with an expected rise of 0.5% later this morning. No such relief for the pound, which remains (or should that be leaves?) on its knees at $1.25 and €1.104.
The papers
Things look dire for Theresa May today as the front pages anticipate her downfall. The Mail reports “The vultures are circling”, the Express says “May faces mutiny on Brexit” and the i says we’re in for a “Christmas coup – as Javid rebukes the PM on immigration”, which the paper sees as the home secretary setting out his stall for the leadership.
The Telegraph’s splash is “May facing her Brexit moment of reckoning” but it also covers the terror attack in Strasbourg. The Guardian has those two stories on its front page, leading with “A dash to Europe but May faces new threat at home”. The Times says “May puts on brave face as Tories prepare fatal blow”, the FT has “May kicks Brexit vote to new year as threat escalates of Tory mutiny” and the Telegraph’s headline is “May facing her Brexit moment of reckoning”. The Sun’s front page features a still from the amazing video of May getting locked in her car with the headline: “I can’t get out! – May stuck in EU and her car amid claims 48 no-confidence letters sent”. The only paper not leading on May or Brexit is the Mirror, which has a report on the narcotic spice: “Children of 11 selling zombie drugs”.
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