Tag: 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum

The chancellor said the extra spending on projects in Cambridge, Edinburgh and Oxfordshire, would ensure the UK was “at the forefront of science and technology innovation” and maintain its reputation as a “pioneering nation as it leaves the EU”. It’s possible that following bumper income tax receipts in January the OBR will increase the level of headroom by more than £15bn, giving the chancellor greater scope to increase the state’s support for households and businesses over the rest of the parliament. However, economists expect the OBR to lower the UK’s expected growth rate over the next two years, dampening future tax receipts and limiting the scope for extra spending. It is other parts of the country and other industries that are desperately in need of government support.” Hammond is understood to be planning only a limited spending spree when he stands up to deliver his mini-budget on Wednesday, to maintain the Treasury’s war chest should a no-deal Brexit trigger a recession and widespread job losses. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, which advises 34 of the world’s richest countries, said last week that a no-deal Brexit would most likely cause the economy to shrink, though it added this prospect could be offset by extra Treasury spending and moves by the Bank of England to reduce the cost of borrowing. Hammond will say the £200m of extra cash will be spent on three projects the over the next four years in Cambridge, Oxfordshire and Edinburgh. The sums are: • £45m to support work in Cambridge sequencing one million genomes and exploring innovative cell therapies to tackle genetic diseases. • £81m for medical laser technology at the Harwell research centre in Oxfordshire, which is home to the European Space Agency’s UK base. The funds will support an industry worth £13bn to the economy, and employing around 65,000 people. The chancellor said the funds were part of the government’s commitment to raise investment in research and development to 2.4% of GDP by 2027.

Writing in the Sunday Telegraph, Tory MP Steve Baker and the DUP's Nigel Dodds said the "extended uncertainty" would be a "political calamity". On Tuesday, Theresa May will again ask MPs to back her Brexit deal, but if they reject it they may get a chance to vote to delay Brexit. The UK is due to leave the EU on 29 March. Your guide to Brexit jargon Enter the word or phrase you are looking for MPs rejected the prime minister's deal by 230 votes in January - the largest defeat for a sitting government in history. If they do the same this week, MPs have been promised a vote on whether the UK should leave without a deal. If Parliament approves Mrs May's withdrawal agreement, and the UK leaves the EU on 29 March, it will begin a transition period, when the two sides will attempt to agree a comprehensive trade deal. Q&A: The Irish border Brexit backstop Brexit's border drama nears final act But some MPs fear that - in its current form - the backstop may leave the UK tied to the EU indefinitely. On Friday, Mrs May said the UK had put forward "serious" proposals to resolve the deadlock. But Brexit Secretary Steve Barclay and the DUP, the party Mrs May's government relies on for a majority in Parliament, were both dismissive of the EU's latest proposal. Meanwhile the US Ambassador to the UK, Woody Johnson, has urged the British public not to let the "distraction" of the debate over food standards and chlorine-washed chicken block the "huge opportunity" of a trade deal between the countries.

The cabinet minister in charge of Brexit has held detailed talks with Labour MPs who are championing plans for a second referendum – amid signs of mounting desperation inside Theresa May’s government about what to do if the prime minister’s deal suffers another crushing defeat on Tuesday. The Observer view on the case for a second Brexit vote remaining as strong as ever Read more Kyle told the Observer on Saturday that Barclay had “remained loyal to government policy”, which is to oppose any second referendum. Under the Kyle-Wilson plan, which could receive Labour’s official backing after Tuesday’s vote but before Brexit day on 29 March, an amendment would be put down in parliament allowing MPs to approve May’s deal, but on the condition that it is then put to the country in a second public vote. Read more Kyle said: “Clearly the Brexit secretary is fully engaged in the battle to deliver support for the vote on Tuesday. We didn’t enter the meeting with expectations of converting him to our cause but we hope that government now understands what our plan offers, should a new direction be demanded by parliament in the coming days.” A senior Downing Street source said May remained “100% opposed to a second referendum, with bells on” and insisted that she and all cabinet ministers were still determined to persuade enough Tory MPs and the 10 DUP members to rally behind her deal this week. “The PM, ministers and her negotiating team are intensely focused this weekend on making progress so that ultimately we can, in the country’s best interests, leave the EU with a deal.” If May loses on Tuesday, she has said she will call a vote on Wednesday on whether parliament should rule out a no-deal Brexit and then a further one, probably on Thursday, on delaying Brexit. It is understood that if she loses, the prime minister has not ruled out trying to bring back her deal to parliament a third time, nearer to Brexit day, when she would tell MPs that the only alternative to backing her would be a lengthy delay that could mean Brexit not happening at all. Labour will delay putting down an amendment in favour of a second referendum until nearer Brexit day. But the new Independent Group of MPs will table an amendment for a second referendum to take place after a series of indicative votes on alternatives to May’s deal had been held. Some two million young people who could not vote last time due to their age would now be able to do so.

Britons have become angrier since the referendum to leave the EU, according to a survey which suggests there is widespread unhappiness about the direction in which the country is heading. Sixty-nine per cent of respondents said they felt their fellow citizens had become “angrier about politics and society” since the Brexit vote in 2016, according to the Edelman Trust Barometer, a long-established, annual survey of trust carried out across the globe. Intolerant post-Brexit Britain: history shows we can be better than this | Hugh Muir Read more Forty per cent of people think others are now more likely to take part in violent protests, the UK results from the survey show, even though violent political protest in Britain is rare. One person in six said they had fallen out with friends or relatives over the vote to leave the bloc, the survey found. Some 60% of people who identify with the Conservatives think the country is heading in the right direction, but among Labour identifiers, the figure is just 20%. According to Edelman, which conducted online interviews with more than 2,000 people in the UK between December 18 and January 7, the results show “party politics is clearly failing many Britons”. Play Video 0:45 Both May and Corbyn have seen their trust ratings among their supporters fall considerably over the past year. Some 72% of respondents said they thought life in Britain was unfair, 68% said they wanted to see change, and 53% said they thought the socio-political system was failing them. The figures were similar for those voting leave and remain, but those leaning to Labour (66%) said they were more likely to feel unrepresented than those leaning to the Conservatives (43%). Commenting on the findings, Edelman’s UK and Ireland chief executive, Ed Williams, said: “We are a disunited kingdom – a country that is seen as increasingly unfair, less tolerant and headed in the wrong direction.