United Kingdom

In election pitch, UK PM Johnson backs his deal over no-deal Brexit

LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has put his Brexit withdrawal deal at the centre of his election campaign, rejecting an electoral pact with the Brexit Party that would mean he would have to embrace leaving the European Union without a deal.

Johnson had previously pledged to take Britain out of the European Union with or without a deal on Oct. 31, before lawmakers voted to force him to seek an extension until Jan. 31.

UK defends Brexit deal after Trump trade warning

1 November 2019; AFP: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's office has defended his Brexit deal with the EU, after US President Donald Trump warned it would make it impossible for the two nations to strike a future trade agreement.

The president, whose impeachment in the US has moved a stage closer following a key vote in Congress, waded into the British election campaign on Thursday to criticise Johnson's divorce terms with the European bloc.

Healthcare may trump Brexit in battle for British vote

LONDON (Reuters) - As Britain’s “Brexit election” campaign swings into action, it may not be the country’s exit from the European Union which takes centre stage but another national obsession - the health service.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has cast the Dec. 12 election as necessary to break the deadlock in parliament over Brexit, telling voters that only by returning his Conservatives with a majority can the country finally quit the European Union.

Brexit Party tells Johnson: drop Brexit deal or we contest every seat

LONDON (Reuters) - Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage told Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Friday that he must drop the Brexit deal he struck with the EU and agree to a leave alliance for the Dec. 12 election or face a fight over every seat in Britain.

Farage, who as UKIP leader pushed then-Prime Minister David Cameron to call the Brexit referendum and then helped lead the campaign to leave the EU, said on Friday Johnson had until Nov. 14 to agree to his demands.

UK election campaign begins with Corbyn attack on 'rigged system'

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s opposition Labour Party leader, Jeremy Corbyn, kicks off his election campaign on Thursday with a vow to take on Britain’s “rigged system”, which he said was run by a privileged elite of tax dodgers, billionaire owners and bad bosses.

On the day Britain was supposed to leave the European Union, both Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his main opponent, Corbyn, are on Thursday pitching their starkly different visions for world’s fifth largest economy ahead of a Dec. 12 election.

UK parties spar in election that may settle Brexit _ or not

LONDON (AP) — Finally, Britain’s political ice floes are moving. After three years of Brexit impasse, an election in six weeks may break the logjam. Or it may just rearrange the ice pack, keeping the U.K. trapped half in and half out of the European Union.

Official campaigning for the Dec. 12 poll hasn’t even started yet, but Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson and opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn were already laying out their key arguments for a Brexit-dominated election as they sparred Wednesday in the House of Commons.

Divide and conquer: PM Johnson launches high-risk election strategy

LONDON (Reuters) - The phoney war is over. After months of rehearsing his election strategy, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is poised to run a high-risk campaign designed to exploit divisions over Brexit despite his public appeals for national unity.

Ahead of the Dec. 12 vote, he will focus on portraying his new Brexit deal with the European Union as a victory for a leader who many said would be unable to win concessions from Brussels and would instead leave without an agreement.

Brexit ballot: UK lawmakers back December 12 election

LONDON (AP) — Britons will be heading out to vote in the dark days of December after the House of Commons on Tuesday backed an early national vote that could break the country’s political impasse over Brexit — or turn out to be merely a temporary distraction.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson hopes electing a new crop of lawmakers will give his Conservative Party a majority and break the stalemate that blocked his plan to take Britain out of the European Union this month. This week the EU granted Britain a three-month Brexit extension until Jan. 31.

Brexit election nears as UK opposition backs early poll

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain was heading toward a December election on Tuesday after Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s bet on breaking the Brexit deadlock with an early vote gained support from opposition parties.

As the European Union finalizes a third delay to the divorce that was originally supposed to take place on March 29, the United Kingdom, its parliament and its voters remain divided on how or indeed whether to go ahead with Brexit.

Driver of truck found with 39 bodies appears in British court

CHELMSFORD, England (Reuters) - The driver of a truck in which 39 people were found dead appeared in a British court via video link on Monday charged with manslaughter and conspiracy to traffic people.

The discovery of 39 bodies in a refrigerated truck on an industrial estate east of London has shone a spotlight on the illicit global trade in people which sends the poor of Asia, Africa and the Middle East on perilous journeys to the West.

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