Row over university fees shows UK’s ‘reset’ with EU may not be so simple

This week is “Brexit reset” week for the British government, as ministers engage in a flurry of activity intended to highlight their determination to forge closer ties with Brussels almost 10 years after the country first voted to leave the EU.On Monday, Nick Thomas-Symonds, the Cabinet Office minister in charge of negotiating the government’s reset with the EU, will arrive in Brussels for a meeting of the joint EU-UK parliamentary partnership assembly. He travels mob-handed, to be joined by the Europe minister, Stephen Doughty, and the trade minister, Chris Bryant.A day later, the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, will give her second Mais lecture to the finance industry, during which she will argue that closer alignment with the EU forms a central part of the government’s growth agenda.But even as ministers put the finishing touches to their pro-European messages, a fresh row is breaking out over Brussels’s demand for lower university tuition fees for European students

Digital ID won’t work if you live in rural areas | Letters

What needs to be spelled out to the politicians looking to consult people about digital ID is that you cannot have a universal digital anything until you have universal phone coverage (UK digital ID scheme to have limited use before next general election, minister says, 10 March). When the old copper phone lines are switched off, we will be cut off because no provider will invest in our area, and this is not untypical of large areas of Devon.That means that any digital ID accessed by phone will not be available to us unless we go and park in a layby every day where we can get signal. Does Darren Jones, the prime minister’s chief secretary, even understand this point? We are not refuseniks. We just live near a hill, and so we won’t be able to do our car tax, get our medical records or anything else as things stand

Row over tuition fees cut for European students threatens Starmer’s EU reset

Britain is in a standoff with Brussels over a demand to cut university tuition fees for European students, in a row that threatens to scupper Keir Starmer’s planned EU reset.EU officials say European students should pay “home” fees of about £9,500 a year in England and Wales as part of the negotiations over a youth mobility scheme, rather than the higher international rate, which can rise above £60,000. European students would also pay the domestic rate in Scotland, which is set at £1,820 a year, although most Scottish students qualify for free tuition. Fees for Irish students In Northern Ireland are generally capped at £4,855.However, British negotiators say they have been blindsided by the demand, which they say was not mentioned in the framework agreement signed last year and would cost British universities an estimated £140m a year

UK needs nuclear deterrent independent from US, Ed Davey to say

Britain should have a completely independent nuclear deterrent as it can no longer rely on the US, Ed Davey is expected to say on Sunday.In a speech at the Liberal Democrats spring conference, the party leader will argue that the UK should manufacture and maintain its nuclear weapons in Britain, a move that Davey acknowledges will cost billions.Davey’s speech will come amid his claims that the US president, Donald Trump, has made his support for European security “conditional” on his personal whims.“While Trump is in charge, we certainly cannot rely on America as a dependable ally in the way we used to,” Davey will say. “And we can no longer bet our nation’s security on the hope that the US won’t produce new versions of Trump in the future

Reform UK government would replace top civil servants with those ‘more likely to implement party’s priorities’

A Reform UK government would expect to dismiss the top civil servant in every government department and replace them with people seen as more likely to implement the party’s priorities, the Guardian has learned.Senior Reform figures have concluded that the current crop of permanent secretaries, the lead civil servant in each department, are not up to the necessary standard. Some would be replaced by outsiders, and others by existing officials viewed as more suitable.The plan has prompted warnings that a shift towards a less stable and more politicised civil service could result in the loss of significant expertise and of institutional memory, and would make government less effective.Nigel Farage’s party has promised it will enact a radical programme

Phil Woolas, former Labour minister, dies of brain cancer aged 66

The former Labour MP minister Phil Woolas has died of brain cancer, his family and close friends have announced.Woolas, 66, was elected to parliament to represent Oldham East and Saddleworth as part of Labour’s landslide victory in the 1997 general election. He remained in Westminster for New Labour’s entire 13-year stretch in power.In government, Woolas held several ministerial roles, including being the minister of state for local government, the environment, and borders and immigration, positions that he held sequentially until Labour’s fall from power.In a statement announcing his death on Saturday, his family and close friends said: “For more than a year he battled the brain cancer glioblastoma