The Sunday Telegraph - 01.09.2019

The Sunday Telegraph Sunday 1 September 2019 FINAL 9

No 10

advisers were suspected of leaking.

‹A rescued Jack Russell puppy is to

become the newest resident at No 10, it

was reported last night.

Mr Johnson and Carrie Symonds

will welcome the unnamed 15-week-

old puppy to Downing Street as soon as

tomorrow, The Mail on Sunday said.

It was rescued by Friends of Animal

Wales after being abandoned by a

Welsh farmer for having an undershot

and misaligned jaw, meaning it could

not be sold.

Last month, Mr Johnson polled staff

on whether to get a dog and received

an overwhelming “yes” from his team.

Javid to bolster

defence budget in

spending review

By Edward Malnick

SAJID JAVID will announce

an increase in UK defence

spending this week, as he

commits the county to keep

playing a “leading role on

the global stage” after Brexit.

The Chancellor is ex-

pected to announce a mod-

est increase in the 2.1 per

cent of the UK’s gross do-

mestic product (GDP) that is

currently spent on defence.

He has said he will keep

within the Government’s

budgetary rules when he an-

nounces a one-year “spend-

ing round” for its

departments on Wednesday.

But yesterday the Resolu-

tion Foundation, a promi-

nent think tank, claimed

that he was on course to

break the fiscal rules on pub-

lic borrowing, on the basis of

spending and tax cuts cur-

rently planned by ministers.

The decision to increase

defence spending comes af-

ter Boris Johnson pledged to

“exceed the minimum 2 per

cent Nato spending target”

and “fund defence fully”,

during the Tory leadership

campaign.

In a Commons statement

Mr Javid will make on

Wednesday, he will also in-

crease expenditure on

schools, the police and NHS.

Last night, the Treasury

said the announcement

would also include a

£90 million boost for UK

embassies and consulates

around the world, and

£60 million on a campaign

promoting trade with Brit-

ain. The statement is ex-

pected to include a boost to

the overall defence budget,

exceeding the current com-

mitment to increase spend-

ing by 0.5 per cent above

inflation. However, MPs

claim that defence spending

has fallen below 2 per cent

and the Ministry of Defence

is using pension contribu-

tions to mask its true figure.

Mr Javid said: “Britain has

thrived as an open, free-

trading nation. As we leave

the EU, we are committed to

playing a leading role on the

global stage. That means bol-

stering alliances, celebrating

our culture, building new

trading relationships and

making sure we can act

when needed to keep our

people safe.

“We shouldn’t be ashamed

of being proud of our place

in the world – we are and will

remain a great nation with

fantastic assets.”

The Chancellor had been

due to give a speech in Bir-

mingham on Wednesday last

week but cancelled it the day

before.

Last night, The Sunday

Times said the Government

has scrapped plans to end

freedom of movement at

midnight on Oct 31 after law-

yers warned ministers they

risked losing a legal chal-

lenge that could derail no-

deal preparations.

‘Stop whingeing ... the majority voted

Leave’, Archbishop tells Remainers

By Edward Malnick

SUNDAY POLITICAL EDITOR

THE Archbishop of Canterbury has

called for Remainers to “stop whinge-

ing” and accept the result of the Brexit

referendum.

The Most Rev Justin Welby said

those who voted to stay in the EU must

now “take seriously the fact that the

majority voted Leave”, stating: “We

may not like it, but that is democracy.”

Last week, it emerged that the Arch-

bishop was in talks to chair a proposed

“citizens’ forum” intended by MPs to

help avoid a no-deal exit from the EU.

It prompted Mark Francois, a promi-

nent Conservative Brexiteer, to suggest

the Archbishop was joining politicians

lecturing voters “about why we should

overturn their democratic decision”.

But in comments made during a

question-and-answer session two days

before it emerged that he was in talks

to chair the forum, the Archbishop

stated that he was a “democrat” and did

not support the campaign for a second

Brexit referendum.

In remarks reported by the Church

Times, he added: “We have to take seri-

ously the fact that the majority voted

Leave. We may not like it, but that is

democracy; and that means we have to

stop whingeing about it, and do some-

thing about reuniting the country.”

Addressing the Greenbelt faith and

arts festival last weekend, he said the

Church of England could help to facili-

tate a process of reconciliation be-

tween Leave and Remain voters.

Britons must unite behind a “vision for

this country that is outward-looking,

done top-down, middle-out, and bot-

tom-up,” he said. “The Church is one of

those institutions that can do that.”

He suggested that MPs were being

“broken” by “hatred and division” over

Brexit, the Church Times reported.

The Archbishop, who succeeded Dr

Rowan Williams in 2013, insisted that a

“People’s Vote”, the name given to the

campaign for a second referendum,

was not the answer.

“Do I know how we move forward?

No, I don’t, but I’m a democrat, and I’m

Anti-Brexit

protesters with

European Union

and UK flags at a

demonstration

outside Downing

Street yesterday

GETTY IMAGES

sticking to it,” he said. The Archbishop

was invited by a cross-party group of

MPs to chair a citizens’ assembly that

would be convened this month and be

tasked with submitting proposals to

Parliament on solving the Brexit im-

passe. MPs on both sides of the debate

said they hoped it would help prevent a

no-deal exit.

But in his response to the invitation,

the Archbishop set out a series of con-

ditions, including that the forum

“should not be a Trojan horse intended

to delay or prevent Brexit in any par-

ticular form”.

But he added: “In the past this kind

of gathering has, in many places and in

difficult situations, opened the way for

careful deliberation, if at the right time

and genuinely representative.”

The MPs behind the initiative in-

clude Yvette Cooper, the former La-

bour minister, and Dame Caroline

Spelman, the former Conservative en-

vironment secretary, both of whom

have spearheaded efforts to block a no-

deal exit from the EU.

In a letter first reported by The

Times, the MPs wrote: “Since the refer-

endum, there has been no government

process to involve people in the detail

of the debate or to bring people to-

gether.”

The group said that the assembly

could be a “helpful supplement” to the

work of parliament.

The MPs suggested that a forum of

100 people could meet at Coventry Ca-

thedral, where the Archbishop previ-

ously headed a global centre for

reconciliation before coming a bishop.

Welby defends democracy

and wants Church to begin

process of reconciliation

between the two factions

To the streets

Demonstrators brought

parts of London to a halt

yesterday in protest

against the Prime

Minister’s suspension of

Parliament. Thousands

poured into Downing

Street before stopping

traffic in Trafalgar Square

for two hours. Joining

them was shadow Brexit

secretary Sir Keir

Starmer (far left).

Protesters also halted cars

on Westminster Bridge,

shouting: “If you shut

down our Parliament, we

shut down your bridge.”

Caroline Russell, a Green

Party London Assembly

member, is thought to

have been among three

people arrested. Tens of

thousands gathered in

other cities – including

York, Manchester,

Newcastle and Bristol – to

demand Boris Johnson

reverse his decision to

prorogue Parliament for

up to five weeks ahead of

the Oct 31 Brexit

deadline. Anti-Brexit

campaign group Another

Europe Is Possible has

called on supporters to

continue protests across

the UK at 5.30pm every

day, starting tomorrow.

Jeremy Corbyn, the

Labour leader, speaking

at a People’s Assembly

Defend Democracy event

in Glasgow, said:

“Demonstrations are

taking place everywhere

because people are

angered and outraged.”

‘Sonia is a

Birmingham

girl done

good, a

proper

Brexiteer.

Why hurt

someone

like that?’

£90m

Funding for UK embassies

and consulates around the

world included in the review

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