Ministers expect Theresa May to reveal No 10 departure date on Friday

Political reporter(wp/bbc):::

Theresa May is expected to announce the date of her departure from Downing Street on Friday, senior cabinet ministers have told the BBC.

Sources say they expect the PM to give a timetable for her successor to be chosen, with 10 June likely to be the start of the official leadership race.

Mrs May is also due to meet the chairman of Tory backbenchers.

She has been under pressure to resign, after an angry backlash by her own MPs against her latest Brexit plan.

The government was due to publish the Withdrawal Agreement Bill on Friday but this was delayed as criticism mounted.

Andrea Leadsom quit as Commons leader on Wednesday evening saying she no longer believed the government's approach would "deliver on the referendum result".

The government confirmed on Thursday that it planned to publish the bill in the first week of June, after the Whitsun recess.

But Labour's Valerie Vaz said it was "clear that the prime minister does not command a majority in her approach to Brexit and she has failed to accept this political reality".

Mrs May met Home Secretary Sajid Javid and Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt at Downing Street on Thursday where they are understood to have expressed their concerns about the bill.

BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg says several cabinet ministers have said they expect Mrs May to announce her departure on Friday morning, although there has been no confirmation of this from Downing Street.

She says ministers say they hope the campaign for the next Conservative Party leader can be finished by the end of July.

Unless something extremely strange happens in the next couple of days, it is now, really, nearly over.

Most ministers I've talked to today say they hope the campaign for the next prime minister can be compressed, so it's finished by the end of July but there is not yet much clarity about that.

Why now though? It's not as if Theresa May's been having an easy time of it for months.

You guessed it, it's Brexit, and what's accelerated her departure was trying - again - to put her Brexit plans to Parliament.

A leadership contest starting on 10 June would come after the state visit from US President Donald Trump and the Peterborough by-election.

Sir Graham Brady, the chairman of the 1922 committee of Conservative backbenchers, was due to meet the prime minister on Friday morning.

He was thought to be expecting her to name a date for her departure - with the possibility of further moves by Conservative MPs to instigate a vote of no confidence in her, if she did not.

On Wednesday members of the committee held a secret ballot on whether to change party rules, to allow the prime minister to face a vote of no confidence immediately.

Under the current rules, she cannot face another confidence vote within 12 months of the last one, which was in December 2018.

The meeting comes the day after the UK voted in the European Parliamentary elections, two months after it was originally due to leave the European Union. Votes will not be counted until Sunday night, after voting concludes across the EU.

Mrs May had hoped to get a Brexit deal agreed before they took place but the withdrawal agreement she negotiated with the EU has been repeatedly rejected by MPs and Brexit has been delayed until 31 October. That meant the UK had to take part, if it wanted to avoid leaving the EU without a deal on 1 June.

The prime minister has already pledged to set a timetable for a new leader to take over, once MPs have voted on the Withdrawal Agreement Bill.

But calls for her to go sooner than that have begun to come from Conservatives who had, until now, stayed loyal.

Discontent at her leadership grew significantly this week, after she set out plans for the Withdrawal Agreement Bill - the legislation needed to implement the agreement between the UK and EU on the terms of Brexit.

It included a number of concessions designed to attract cross-party support, including new guarantees on workers' rights, environmental protections and the Northern Irish border, as well a customs "compromise".

But Brexiteers in her own party reacted angrily to it, particularly a promise to give MPs a vote on another referendum if they backed the bill.

Oesophageal cancer operation filmed in 360°

Health(wp/bbc):::

This is thought to be the first time an operation to remove a tumour has been filmed in 360 degrees.

The surgery was filmed by Cancer Research UK to highlight a £1.4m ground-breaking research project into oesophageal cancer, one of the most difficult to detect and therefore difficult to treat cancers.

The operation at Southampton General Hospital was carried out by Professor Tim Underwood who is currently undertaking the research.

Janet Jenkins, 65, from north Hampshire, had the eight-hour operation in late March. The charity filmed the day to highlight the work that is being carried out into cancer research.

Five hurt in M1 'multiple-vehicle' crash near Milton Keynes

Staff reporter(wp/bbc):::

Five people have been taken to hospital following a crash which has closed the M1 near Milton Keynes.

The motorway is shut from junction 14 to junction 13 for Bedford due to a "serious collision involving multiple vehicles", Bedfordshire Police said.

The casualties have been taken to Luton and Dunstable Hospital.

Highways England said there were delays of "well over an hour" in the area. Bedfordshire Fire and Rescue Service said the road would remain closed.

It would re-open after police investigations.

Vehicles are able to join the carriageway at junction 13.

Driver chases and pushes over man, 80, in Penge

Crime reporter(wp/bbc):::

An 80-year-old man suffered serious injuries in a "nonsensical" attack by a driver who chased him down and shoved him in the back, police said.

The victim was crossing Parish Lane in Penge, south-east London, on 21 April at about 19:50 BST, when he was almost hit by a silver vehicle, the Met said.

It led to what police called a "verbal altercation", before the car's driver pulled over, chased him and pushed him.

The man suffered injuries including a broken wrist, nose and cheekbone.

was found unconscious by paramedics.

Meanwhile, the suspect, wanted on suspicion of causing grievous bodily harm, got back into the car and drove off.

He is described as a man in his 40s, who also had a female passenger in the car.

Det Con Luke Thomson, the investigating officer, said: "The victim has suffered horrific injuries as a result of a nonsensical attack, which could have cost him his life.

"There is no place in society for unlawful and aggressive acts such as this."

May's Brexit gambit fails as her premiership fades

Political reporter(wp/reuters):::
Prime Minister Theresa May’s final Brexit gambit was in tatters on Wednesday just hours after her offer of a vote on a second referendum and closer trading arrangements failed to win over either opposition lawmakers or many in her own party.

Nearly three years since Britain voted 52% to 48% to leave the European Union, May is trying one last time to get her divorce deal approved by the British parliament before her crisis-riven premiership ends.

May on Tuesday appealed to lawmakers to get behind her deal, offering the prospect of a possible second referendum on the agreement and closer trading arrangements with the EU as incentives.

Conservative and Labour lawmakers lined up to criticise May’s Withdrawal Agreement Bill, or WAB, legislation which implements the terms of Britain’s departure. Some upped efforts to oust her.

“We are being asked to vote for a customs union and a second referendum,” Boris Johnson, the bookies favourite to be Britain’s next prime minister, said.

“The Bill is directly against our manifesto - and I will not vote for it. We can and must do better - and deliver what the people voted for,” he said.

The deadlock in London means it is unclear how, when or even if Britain will leave the European club it joined in 1973. The current deadline to leave is Oct. 31.

Britain’s labyrinthine crisis over Brexit has stunned allies and foes alike, and with deadlock in London, the world’s fifth largest economy faces an array of options including an exit with a deal to smooth the transition, a no-deal exit, an election or a second referendum.

The pound weakened 0.2 percent to a 4-month low at $1.2681.

As Britain headed again into Brexit turmoil, U.S. investment bank JPMorgan raised its probability of a no-deal Brexit to 25% from 15%, saying its base case was that Johnson would become prime minister followed by a general election.

JPMorgan raised the probability of an Article 50 extension to 60% versus 50% before and cut the probability of exit on the terms of May’s Withdrawal Agreement to 15% from 35%.

“ADMIT DEFEAT”

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said his party could not vote for the Withdrawal Bill, describing May’s new offer as “largely a rehash of the government’s position” in talks with the opposition that broke down last week.

“It’s far too weak. It doesn’t really offer anything new or anything bold,” Labor’s Brexit spokesman Kier Starer said.

“It’s already pretty clear that it’s heading for a pretty big loss and I think frankly the prime minister would do well to just admit defeat and I think she should announce today that she’s not going to put the vote because it’s clearly heading in the wrong direction.”

May wrote to Corbyn, asking him to compromise so that Brexit could take place.

“I have shown today that I am willing to compromise to deliver Brexit for the British people,” May wrote. “The WA is our last chance to do so,” May said.

“I ask you to compromise too so that we can deliver what both our parties promised in our manifestos and restore faith in our politics,” she said.

Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party, which props up May’s minority government, said the “fatal flaws” of her original deal remained. They fear the divorce deal could see Northern Ireland split from the rest of the United Kingdom.

Such is the discord that some Conservative Party lawmakers have begun a new push to oust her even earlier so that she doesn’t have the chance to put her Brexit plan to a vote in parliament, the BBC’s political editor Laura Kuenssberg said.

British Steel forced into liquidation but will continue to trade

 Industrial reporter(wp/reuters):::

British Steel was forced into liquidation on Wednesday though Britain’s second largest steelmaker will continue to trade and supply its customers, the official receiver said.

“The company in liquidation is continuing to trade and supply its customers while I consider options for the business. Staff have been paid and will continue to be employed,” the official receiver said.

“The court also appointed Special Managers to assist me with my work and they are engaging with staff and their representatives to keep them informed, as well as contacting British Steel’s customers.”

The High Court of England and Wales has appointed Hunter Kelly, Sam Woodward and Alan Hudson of EY to act as special managers to assist the Official Receiver with his duties as liquidator.

UK watchdog says currency and crypto scams hit £27 million

Finance reporter(wp/reuters):::

Scams in Britain involving currencies and crypto assets like bitcoin totalled £27 million in the last financial year, with average losses of 14,600 pounds per victim, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said on Tuesday.

Reports of scams more than tripled in the year that ended in April to 1,800 as fraudsters often used social media to promote their “get rich quick” online trading platforms, according to an FCA statement.

“Investors will often be led to believe that their first investment has successfully made a profit,” it said.

The fraudster then contacts the victim to invest more money with a false promise of greater profits. The customer account is later closed and the scammer disappears, the FCA said.

The FCA said it would run advertsising to raise awareness of online trading scams.

“We’re warning the public to be suspicious of adverts which promise high returns from online trading platforms,” said Mark Steward, the FCA’s executive director of enforcement and market oversight.