Briefsfromshittu

Tuesday, September 20, 2016

Final push for votes as Labour leadership deadline looms

Voting in the long-running Labour leadership contest between Jeremy Corbyn and Owen Smith will close at noon today.

An estimated 640,000 party members have been eligible to cast a ballot, and the result will be announced at the Labour conference in Liverpool on Saturday.

Mr Corbyn, who was elected as party leader last September, is favourite to win the contest.

Last night, the frontrunner visited volunteers at the headquarters of the Unite union to thank them for their campaign efforts.

He told them: "Whatever the result is, we - all of us - have mounted the most incredibly campaign, mobilised a lot of people, and we've actually changed the political discourse in this country. Together we are very, very strong."

Shadow chancellor John McDonnell, a close ally of Mr Corbyn, has expressed confidence the incumbent leader will be re-elected.

He said: "The most important thing on Saturday - accept the mandate, respect the will of our members, unite, and then start preparing for a general election, and on that basis I think we can win an election and start transforming our country."

Mr McDonnell also claimed some members of the parliamentary Labour party have already expressed willingness to serve in Mr Corbyn's shadow cabinet should he be reappointed.

Meanwhile, Mr Smith has made a final push to woo undecided party members.

In an open letter, the MP for Pontypridd wrote: "Our party is at a crossroads, and the choice we face is between renewing our party to pursue unity and power, or satisfying ourselves with ongoing division and opposition.

"It's the clearest choice we have had to face in a generation.

"A choice that will not just determine the future of our party, but the future of the millions of people in Britain who need Labour in power."

Mr Smith acknowledged the leadership contest had been "long and bruising" in the letter, but insisted "it had to happen" if Labour were to enter government again - even if many people did not want the challenge to take place.

"Unless we have a radical, credible opposition to the Tories then we won't be able to stop them - now or at the next election."

As the clock ticks closer to the ballot closing, Labour remains in deadlock despite eight hours of talks on how best to form a shadow cabinet.

Mr Corbyn has proposed that ordinary party members should be allowed to have a say in who serves in the shadow cabinet - but deputy leader Tom Watson believes MPs should be responsible for electing their peers.

Despite the impasse, senior Labour figures - including Mr Watson and Jon Trickett - described the National Executive Committee meeting as "very positive".

:: Watch coverage of the Labour leadership announcement on Sky News from 11am on Saturday 24 September.

Brexit deal 'must be inferior' to membership, EU leader warns

The EU leader preparing to chair Brexit negotiations has told Sky News the UK is "between a rock and a hard place" and will be offered an "inferior" trade deal.

Joseph Muscat, the Prime Minister of Malta, told Sky News on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York that he had told Theresa May: "Most of my colleagues want a fair deal for both the UK and Europe, but it has to be a deal that is inferior to membership, so you can't have the cake and eat it.

"I don't see a situation where Britain will be better off at the end of the deal."

Dr Muscat's comments are significant because Malta is the set to hold the rotating EU presidency, meaning it will chair the initial Brexit negotiations if Mrs May triggers Article 50 early next year, as she has indicated.

He is also one of 27 EU leaders who met in Bratislava last week to plot a course for the EU without the UK.

Dr Muscat expressed some exasperation at the lack of clarity from UK about its intent on Brexit.

A day after meeting with Mrs May, Dr Muscat said: "One of the problems is that in order to negotiate you have to know what the other side wants … right now, we don't know what the UK side wants.

"Can you tell me if the UK government wants access to the single market? Because I don't know. What does Brexit mean at the end of the day?"

Dr Muscat said the EU-27 will negotiate as one bloc, and outlined the likely process being prepared by the Council presidency should the UK trigger Article 50, the formal process for leaving the EU.

He explained: "Once the position of British government is determined, then the EU side will take a month, a month and a half to come together, draft the lines of engagement, draft a mandate and then the negotiations will start … there will be a unified position where the EU Council will give a mandate to the Commission to negotiate."

Some British Brexit campaigners have suggested the UK Government will be able to take advantage of splits in the EU-27.

Negotiating as a bloc of 27 means Britain would be unable to restrict migration from, say Bulgaria or Romania, without inviting the same restrictions on British citizens going to France or Spain.

Initial soundings have also been made by British negotiators about splitting exit negotiators into chapters, most notably breaking off a deal on single market trade from the discussion on migration.

Dr Muscat warned this approach has been rebuffed already, adding: "I don't think there is a situation where one can discuss access to the single market and freedom of movement of people separately. EU countries will resist.

"It's not like discussing entering the union with a number of chapters.

"It will be a more holistic approach, a number of countries will be wary - including my own - of giving the UK a deal which would undermine our own competitiveness."

Italy's Prime Minister, Matteo Renzi, told Sky News he wanted to use the process to help the EU "turn a new page", saying: "(I am) not interested in the consequences for the UK. Brexit is Brexit, no problem for us."

One EU leader claimed to Sky News privately that "the UK has no leverage" in Brexit economic negotiations, only from its security policy in Eastern Europe.

Brexit-backing Cabinet ministers believe that the goods trade deficit run by the UK with the EU will ensure the most powerful EU nations will maintain tariff-free trade.

However, others point out that the UK is a much smaller proportion of EU trade than EU trade is for the UK.

Car boot murder: Woman lured lover to his death with family help

A 16-year-old boy and his parents have been jailed for life for murdering a man whose body was discovered in his car boot.

Music shop owner Tanveer Iqbal, aged 33, was lured to his death by his mistress, Zatoon Bibi, and strangled with a rope bought hours before the killing.

Bibi and her ex-husband Gul Nawaz, together with their teenage son Kashim Nawaz, were given life sentences at Birmingham Crown Court.

They had denied the charge but were unanimously convicted after a trial lasting a month.

The court heard that Mr Iqbal had been in a relationship with Bibi while he was still married.

He ran a music store in Smethwick, near Birmingham, and was found dead in the boot of his car in Edgbaston on 1 February.

Detective Inspector Paul Joyce said: "The whole thing was thoroughly planned.

"Bibi messaged Tanveer on the Sunday afternoon to check he was still coming over - she told him she'd got cake to celebrate his birthday.

"But the reality is that she was luring him to his death because just three hours earlier her husband Gul Nawaz was in Poundland buying the murder kit ready to kill him."

Judge Mark Wall, QC, told Bibi: "What is particularly awful is that you recruited your own son to the enterprise.

"Although he could and should have resisted your efforts to involve him, he was a young man who was devoted to his family.

"This is a case in which the murder weapon - the rope - was bought for the express purpose of killing Tanveer Iqbal. It was bought hours before the killing.

"Your position is aggravated by the fact that you were the planner of the killing. You recruited other people to it and that, in my judgement, is a significantly aggravating factor in your case."

Bibi, aged 37, was jailed for a minimum of 27 years before she can be considered for parole.

Forty-four-year-old Gul Nawaz was given a minimum 25 years sentence.

Their son has been detained for a minimum of six years.

"I cannot say who played what part in the attack," the judge added: "None of you pleaded guilty - you Zatoon Bibi and Gul Nawaz blamed each other in evidence for the crime that you had executed together."

He told Gul Nawaz he did not regard him as a "prime mover" in the murder, and said their son had been "ill-served" by a manipulative mother and a weak father.

In a statement, Mr Iqbal's family said: "Tanveer was taken away from us in a way which has had a profound effect and changed our lives forever.

"We cannot comprehend how anyone could be so callous and cold-hearted.

"Tanveer was a good husband, a wonderful father, a loving son and an amazing brother who has been stolen from us."

Syrian aid convoys halted after deadly attack near Aleppo

All aid convoys in Syria have been suspended after an attack on 18 trucks carrying humanitarian supplies killed 20 people.

United Nations spokesman Jens Laerke said Syria's security situation was being reviewed, adding it had been a "very dark day" for aid agencies around the world.

The convoy operated by the Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) was attacked in rebel-held Urm al Kubra near Aleppo on Monday night.

Witness Mohammed Rasoul said the fleet had been "erased from the face of the earth".

The attack happened hours after a US-led airstrike killed 60 Syrian soldiers at the weekend. America apologised for the bombing, which occurred on a base near Deir al Zor airport, insisting that its intended target was Islamic State fighters.

Britain admitted playing a role in that strike but the Ministry of Defence insisted it would never "intentionally" strike Syrian forces.

Analysis: Why the latest Syrian ceasefire was doomed from the start

The US has expressed outrage at Monday's convoy attack which officials said could only have been carried out by the Syrian regime or Russia.

"The destination of this convoy was known to the Syrian regime and the Russian Federation," said State Department spokesman John Kirby.

But a Russian ministry spokesman has suggested the attack could only have been the work of militants because "all information on the whereabouts of the convoy was available only to the militants controlling these areas".

UN aid chief Stephen O'Brien called for an investigation warning that the "callous" attack could amount to a war crime if it found to have been deliberate.

:: Syria timeline: How the fragile peace fell apart

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon opened the UN annual General Assembly debate in New York with a call to end the fighting in Syria as he condemned the "sickening, savage" attack on the convoy.

The aid workers were "heroes" he said, adding that "those who bombed them were cowards," before calling for accountability for crimes committed in the war.

Ban blamed all sides for killing innocent people, but "none more so than the government of Syria, which continues to barrel bomb neighborhoods and systematically torture thousands of detainees."

US Secretary of State John Kerry is meeting his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in New York where both sides have suggested a fragile truce between some factions in the war that was brokered by the two countries could be salvaged.