‘The Board of Deputies and the Jewish Leadership Council, two of the most senior Jewish groups in Britain, will on Monday take the unprecedented step of holding a protest against Mr Corbyn in Parliament Square. They will tell Mr Corbyn that “enough is enough” and hand him a letter in which they accuse him of siding with anti-Semites “time and time again”…The Jewish Leadership Council said it was the first demonstration by Jewish leaders against the leader of a mainstream political party since at least the Second World War. Their letter says that Mr Corbyn “issues empty statements about opposing anti-Semitism, but does nothing to understand or address it. We conclude that he cannot seriously contemplate anti-Semitism, because he is so ideologically fixed within a far-Left world-view that is instinctively hostile to mainstream Jewish communities”…In a meeting on Monday evening, Labour MPs will confront the Labour leadership about Mr Corbyn’s handling of anti-Semitism. Mr Corbyn had been expected to attend but Labour MPs were left furious on Sunday when it emerged that he would not be going.’ – Daily Telegraph
>Today: MPsETC: The Board of Deputies of British Jews’ letter that calls out Corbyn over anti-semitism. Full text.
>Yesterday: WATCH: Watson – “Jeremy says he didn’t see the mural”
‘Britain could refuse to pay the £40billion Brexit divorce bill if the UK does not get a trade deal, David Davis today said. The Brexit Secretary hailed the good progress which has been made in negotiations with Brussels. But he said that ‘nothing is agreed until everything is agreed’ and the UK could take its financial offer off the table if a free trade deal is not thrashed out. The Cabinet minister was suffering from a bad bout of food poisoning – and kept a sick bucket by his side during the interview. Asked directly on the BBC’s Andrew Marr show if the UK could take back the money offer, Mr Davis said Britain could ‘if we don’t get the free trade deal’.’ – Daily Mail
Opinion
>Today: Andrew Green on Comment: The Government has lost its way on immigration – and the Home Secretary shows no interest in reducing it
>Yesterday:
‘Boris Johnson and Michael Gove defended the official Brexit campaign they led, insisting that the decision to leave the EU had been “won fair and square”. Mr Johnson described claims by Mr Sanni, a former campaign volunteer, as “utterly ludicrous”. Vote Leave “won fair and square — and legally”, Mr Johnson said. Mr Gove said that the decision to leave the EU had come after a “free and fair vote”. “I respect the motives and understand the feelings of those who voted to remain in the EU,” the environment secretary said. “But 17.4 million opted to leave in a free and fair vote and the result must be respected. It’s our job now to work to overcome division.” Other cabinet ministers were more circumspect, saying that it would be up to the Electoral Commission whether the rules had been broken. It is investigating.’ – The Times
Editorials
>Yesterday:
‘Theresa May is under pressure to launch an inquiry into the NHS and social care crisis. Almost 100 MPs have written to the Prime Minister urging her to set up a Parliamentary Commission on the long-term funding. This would establish whether to raise taxes and, specifically, if there should be a ring-fenced levy for health and social care. Yesterday Health and Social Care Secretary Jeremy Hunt said tax increases were the only way to provide extra cash for such services.’ – Daily Mail
>Today: ToryDiary: We cannot tax our way to prosperity – or better public services
>Yesterday: WATCH: Hunt backs 10-year NHS budgets – “It takes seven years to train a doctor, you need…to plan for that”
‘Councils have called for more cash to sort out the roads as the Government announced an extra £100million will be spent on filling in potholes. Following the damage caused by Storm Emma, Transport Secretary Chris Grayling announced the cash would help repair almost two million potholes and protect roads from further bad weather. He said: ‘People rely on good roads to get to work and to see friends or family. We have seen an unusually prolonged spell of freezing weather which has caused damage to our local roads’…Although the extra cash was welcomed, one motoring campaigner described it as ‘raindrop in the ocean’. And councils said the extra funding amounted to just over 1 per cent of the £9.3 billion they needed to sort out a 14-year backlog of potholes.’ – Daily Mail
‘The head of Britain’s equality watchdog has warned companies that they could be pursued through the courts if they fail to report their gender pay gap. Issuing a stark warning to the 5,000 companies that have yet to provide data on the difference between the amount they pay male and female employees, Rebecca Hilsenrath, chief executive of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, said those that failed to make the deadline on 4 April “can’t row back” and would be named and shamed. For the first time this year, all companies and public bodies with more than 250 employees are legally obliged to publish their gender pay gap, their bonus pay gap and to reveal the proportion of men and women in each quartile of their business. “Let me be very very clear: failing to report is breaking the law,” Hilsenrath said. “We have the powers to enforce against companies who are in breach of these regulations. We take this enormously seriously. We have been very clear that we will be coming after 100% of companies that do not comply.” Around 3,700 companies have revealed their gender pay gap on the Government Equalities website, but with only 10 days before the cut-off around 5,300 are yet to do so.’ – The Guardian
‘The threat this time is not from Tory MPs, many of whom were appalled by his decision to break his pledge to quit and have long been trying to oust him amid claims of his political correctness and bias, particularly against Brexit. In the bitterest of ironies for Mr Bercow — who secured his elevation to Speaker by promising to improve working conditions for female MPs — it is now coming from the Labour sisterhood. Despite introducing a Commons creche and more family-friendly hours, Mr Bercow’s popularity has plunged among the 119 Labour and 67 Tory women MPs since allegations emerged earlier this month on Newsnight, the flagship BBC2 current affairs programme, that he bullied a senior Commons clerk, Kate Emms. The bullying, which Bercow emphatically denies, was allegedly so sustained and intense that Ms Emms, who started to work for him in May 2010, survived for less than a year before quitting. She was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, and now works as a Parliamentary adviser to the Leader of the House of Commons, Andrea Leadsom.’ – Andrew Pierce, Daily Mail
‘The former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont is to appear in court following his arrest in Germany, which triggered a wave of protests in Catalonia where thousands of separatists confronted police. Puigdemont, who has been living in self-imposed exile in Brussels since October, was travelling in a car on the way from Finland to Belgium on Sunday when he was detained, having visited Finnish lawmakers in Helsinki. German police arrested him after he crossed the border from Denmark, under a European arrest warrant reactivated on Friday by Spain, where he is wanted on charges of sedition, rebellion and misuse of public funds. Puigdemont will be brought before a German judge on Monday to confirm his identity. The court will then decide if he is to remain in custody pending extradition proceedings. The news sparked protests in Catalonia that turned violent, with three arrests and at least 52 people injured in Barcelona.’ – The Guardian
‘A porn star who claims to have had an affair with Donald Trump agreed not to disclose the story after she was frightened into silence following threats to herself and her family, she said in an interview aired last night. Stormy Daniels told the 60 Minutes news programme that she was first warned when a man approached her and threatened her infant daughter in 2011, five years after the alleged affair. “A guy walked up on me and said to me, ‘Leave Trump alone. Forget the story,’ ” Ms Daniels claimed. “And then he leaned around and looked at my daughter and said, ‘That’s a beautiful little girl. It’d be a shame if something happened to her mom.’ And then he was gone.” She did not go to the police because she was too afraid, she said.’ – The Times