LONDON — Boris Johnson’s bid to become Britain’s next prime minister was bolstered by fresh support from one of his former rivals Monday.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock threw his support behind Johnson, arguing that the former mayor of London’s “unique personality” would help rally support around a deal to leave the European Union.
“Having considered all the options, I’m backing Boris Johnson as the best candidate to unite the Conservative Party, so we can deliver Brexit and then unite the country behind an open, ambitious, forward-looking agenda, delivered with the energy that gets stuff done,” Hancock wrote in op-ed in The Times of London.
Hancock’s endorsement came even though Johnson refused to take part in a televised debate Sunday night alongside his five rivals.
Broadcaster Channel 4 left an empty lectern for Johnson, who has a commanding lead after last week’s first round of voting by Tory lawmakers in the contest to replace Theresa May.
May stepped down as party leader earlier this month after failing to secure Parliament’s approval for her European Union divorce deal.
The House of Commons’ 313 Conservative Party lawmakers will winnow the field of contenders in a series of leadership votes this week, with the final two names put to a postal vote of about 160,000 Conservative members nationwide. The winner, set to be announced in July, will become Conservative party leader and Britain’s next prime minister.
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The EU "would be willing to renegotiate" a Brexit deal, says Tory leadership hopeful Jeremy Hunt, adding "they want to solve the problem".
The EU has previously said the withdrawal agreement reached with the UK cannot be reopened.
Unlike the race frontrunner, Boris Johnson, Mr Hunt did not commit to leaving the EU on 31 October.
Meanwhile, fellow leadership contender Rory Stewart insisted "there is no new negotiation with Europe".
He said the EU had made it clear they would not revisit the withdrawal agreement. Instead he proposed setting up a citizens' jury to break the Brexit impasse.
Under his plan, a group of 50,000 people would be selected randomly from the electoral register. Those people would get a phone call in late July to check they were available to participate.
A polling company would then whittle the number down, making sure the final group was representative of the country. That group would be given three weeks to make recommendations which Parliament would then be able to approve or reject.
Dominic Raab - also running to replace Theresa May and become the next prime minister - told Sky News' Ridge on Sunday programme the Conservative Party "will be toast unless we are out by October".
The UK had been due to leave the EU on 29 March, but EU leaders agreed to delay the date, after MPs repeatedly rejected Theresa May's Brexit deal.
The current date for leaving the EU is 31 October.
Where do the candidates stand on Brexit?
Michael Gove has said he would negotiate changes to the Irish backstop and would accept a "short delay" to Brexit to achieve a deal
Jeremy Hunt also wants to negotiate a new deal with changes to the backstop. He says he would accept a no-deal Brexit if "there is no prospect of a deal by 31 October"
Sajid Javid has proposed "a new digitised" Irish border which would not involve any infrastructure on the border. He stated he cannot envisage wanting to extend the UK's exit date
Boris Johnson has said the "way to get a good deal is to prepare for no deal" and has committed to leaving on 31 October "deal or no deal"
Dominic Raab wants to re-open the withdrawal agreement but has also argued that leaving without a deal "is far better than leaving with a fatally flawed deal"
Rory Stewart prefers trying to push through the current deal, agreed by Theresa May. However he says, if that failed, he would turn to the option of a "Brexit assembly" of citizens to thrash out a compromise
Mr Hunt told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show the EU is open to solutions surrounding the Northern Ireland backstop.
"They say if they were approached by a British prime minister who had ideas on how to solve the Northern Ireland backstop, they would be willing to renegotiate the package."
He also said it would be wrong to commit to leaving the EU by 31 October, but added "if there was no prospect of a deal," he would be prepared to leave the EU without a deal.
Keeping up with Johnson
Analysis by BBC political correspondent Nick Eardley
With Boris Johnson so far ahead when it comes to support from Tory MPs, the other candidates are increasingly pitching to be the other person on the ballot of Tory members.
Jeremy Hunt's claim he can renegotiate the deal will seem overly optimistic to many, and completely impossible to some.
His refusal to guarantee the UK will leave this year will also concern many Tories - who worry about the process going on and on and on.
Hence Dominic Raab's warning his party will be toast unless it delivers in October.
But listen carefully and he's also turning his fire on Mr Johnson - questioning whether the frontrunner has a proper plan on Brexit.
That point is made much more directly by Rory Stewart who says simply that he doesn't think Mr Johnson can deliver.
In this race, it's fast becoming about how to stay in the race with Mr Johnson - even if that involves trying to trip him up.
Mr Hunt said Boris Johnson was "effectively committing the country to no-deal or an election" by saying he would definitely leave the EU on 31 October,
The foreign secretary also said he had "profound issues" with Theresa May's approach to getting a deal through Parliament.
"I did not think we should be trying to persuade Parliament to accept the backstop," he said.
'It begins to come off the rails'
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Dismissing the idea of getting new deal from the EU, Mr Stewart said other candidates "who are promising what they can't deliver are going to let people down terribly".
He said the tactic of threatening no deal in order to secure a better deal with the EU was unrealistic.
"The EU is not scared of it because it is not a credible threat," he said.
He challenged Mr Johnson - who won support from 114 MPs in the first leadership ballot - to reveal his Brexit tactics in the BBC debate on Tuesday.
"As soon as I sit down with him and ask how are you going to deliver Brexit, then it begins to come off the rails," he told Marr.
Mr Stewart has ruled out serving in Boris Johnson's cabinet, if the ex-London Mayor becomes prime minister.
On Tuesday 18 June BBC One will host a live election debate between the Conservative MPs who remain in the race.
If you would like to ask the candidates a question live on-air, use the form below. It should be addressed to all of them, not a specific politician.
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Up to 40,000 more Spanish police will be deployed to tourist hotspots in the popular holiday location to provide more protection amid threats from the terror group, the Daily Star Online reports. Officers will be positioned at key tourism locations such as stations, hotels, beaches and restaurants and will remain there until the end of the peak season. The additional officers have been brought in as part of Operation Summer, a mission with an aim to “take full action to obtain information in order to prevent terrorist acts” while also “reinforcing security measures at events and places that will attract a large number of people”.
Police have raised the terror threat level to four out of five, with the higher number being the most severe.
The UK Foreign Office want that terror attacks in Spain are “likely”.
The Government said in a statement: “Terrorists are likely to try to carry out attacks in Spain.
“Attacks could be indiscriminate including in places visited by foreigners.
The Spanish authorities take measures to protect visitors but you should be vigilant and follow the instructions of the local authorities.”
Al-Muntasir, another terrorist organisation has issued three threats to Barcelona in a month.
It has done through a handful of social media accounts.
The news comes after ISIS threatened to attack the Notre Dame cathedral with another blaze in a sick message for Spain’s neighbour France.
An edited image shows the church ablaze with the warning, “wait for the next”, Mail Online reported.
Many speculated ISIS started the fire in April but there have been no reports of ISIS being responsible for the fire on Monday which ravaged the 850-year-old monument.
The vicious propaganda was revealed by terrorist monitors, SITE intelligence.
The image suggests ISIS members are looking to attack the cathedral in the future, the news outlet reports.
Al-Muntasir shared an image of the flames with the words “Have a good day”.
The Paris public prosecutor said the fire was likely to have been the result of an accident and there was no sign it was caused on purpose.
US President Donald Trump claimed ISIS was on the verge of being “wiped out”.
The foreign secretary has branded Jeremy Corbyn "pathetic", after he questioned whether the UK had "credible evidence" Iran was behind attacks on two oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman.
Jeremy Hunt said responsibility for Thursday's attacks "almost certainly" lies with the Iranian regime.
The Labour leader said the UK should "ease tensions" in the region rather than "fuel a military escalation".
Mr Hunt criticised Mr Corbyn for not backing British intelligence.
It is the second time in the past few weeks that tankers appear to have been attacked in the region and comes amid escalating tension between Iran and the United States.
The US military released video footage which it said proved Iran was behind Thursday's attacks on the Norwegian and Japanese tankers - something Iran has categorically denied.
Although Iran has denied being behind the explosions, experts believe it could be a response to US sanctions intended to stop other nations from purchasing Iranian oil.
After the sanctions were tightened last month, Iran announced that "if it could not export its oil, no other country would be allowed to export theirs", Dr Aniseh Bassiri Tabrizi, from the Royal United Services Institute, said.
The UK Foreign Office said it was "almost certain" that a branch of the Iranian military - the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps - attacked the two tankers on 13 June, adding that "no other state or non-state actor could plausibly have been responsible".
"These latest attacks build on a pattern of destabilising Iranian behaviour and pose a serious danger to the region," Mr Hunt said.
However, in a tweet, Mr Corbyn questioned that assessment, saying that "without credible evidence", the government's rhetoric "will only increase the threat of war".
Mr Hunt criticised the Labour leader's comments, tweeting that they were "pathetic and predictable".
Mr Hunt said there was "video evidence" suggesting Iran's responsibility and Mr Corbyn's comments showed Labour was "in the grip of virulent anti-Americanism".
"For Jeremy Corbyn it's all America's fault. And this is the same man by the way who refused to condemn Putin after the Salisbury Novichok attacks," he said.
His stance attracted some criticism, including from a number of his own MPs, although the Labour leader did subsequently say that the evidence clearly pointed to the Russian state.
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Mr Hunt's fellow Conservative leadership candidates, including Rory Stewart, Sajid Javid, Michael Gove and Dominic Raab, also condemned Mr Corbyn's recent comments.
Shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry said it was important to establish independent evidence on who was behind the tanker attacks.
She told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that developments in the region were "extremely dangerous" and cautioned against becoming "enmeshed" in a war.
There is the narrowest of differences in how the US and its closest ally, Britain, are ascribing blame over the tanker attack.
President Trump says "Iran did it", while Jeremy Hunt says the Iranian regime was "almost certainly" behind it.
So is Britain blindly following the US into what could become a costly conflict?
Whitehall officials insist the evidence has been studied closely and they have reached the same conclusion as Washington: there are no other credible suspects apart from Iran.
It mined the entrance to the Gulf in the 1980s but strongly denies any role in this attack.
Yet a strange discrepancy has emerged with the owner of the Japanese tanker disputing the ship was hit with a limpet mine. Instead, he says, the crew reported "flying objects".
If military action does eventually break out, conclusions reached today - behind closed doors - will one day be scrutinised in public.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said the truth needed to be "clearly established", while Russia has warned against drawing "hasty conclusions".
The blasts came a month after four oil tankers were damaged in an attack off the coast of the United Arab Emirates. The US blamed Iran for that attack, but did not produce evidence. Iran also denied those accusations.
Tensions between the US and Iran have escalated significantly since President Trump took office in 2017.
He abandoned a nuclear deal that was brokered by Barack Obama's administration and significantly tightened sanctions on Iran.
The Committees of Advertising Practice (CAP) -- the United Kingdom's advertising regulatory agency -- enacted a rule Friday prohibiting ads from employing gender stereotypes that were "harmful" or implied only one gender engaged in particular activities.
The regulation, announced in December, took effect on Friday and gave the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) the ability to review ads for objectionable gender-based stereotypes. The ASA prompted the regulation after conducting a study in which it concluded stereotypes could "restrict" people's choices and prevent them from "fulfilling their potential," according to the BBC.
British broadcasters are bound by the terms of their licenses to comply with the agency's rulings.
Happy confident woman going to work and her husband cooking dinner.
According to the ASA's announcement, the rule wouldn't prevent ads featuring only one gender, a woman doing the shopping, attractive people or lifestyles, or the use of gender stereotypes in order to "challenge their negative effects."
It's likely to censor content that emphasizes distinctions between boys' and girls' stereotypical personalities (daring versus caring), belittles men for engaging in stereotypically female activities or suggests women are solely responsible for cleaning houses.
"There is significant evidence," the agency's report read, "that gender inequality leads to real-world harms for adults and children. These unequal outcomes might affect different people in a variety of practical, social, emotional and economic ways."
1950s wife using vacuum.
The rule also applied to ads that harped on physical attractiveness and warned against ads that tie physical attractiveness to social and romantic success. "The ad should not imply that their physique is a significant reason for them not being successful, for example in their romantic or social lives," the agency said.
"An ad aimed at new mums which suggests that looking attractive or keeping a home pristine is a priority over other factors such as their emotional well being," another guideline read.
During an interview on talkRADIO, Shabnum Mustapha of ASA defended the idea that ads could lead to "real-world harm."
"It's cumulative," she said, noting that advertisements contributed to other aspects of media to hurt women's potential.
CAP also warns against ads that stereotype culture, race, religion and belief, gender and sexual orientation, disability or illness, and age.
The regulation came as UN Women announced a new campaign focused on achieving "gender equality."
"Despite some progress, real change has been too slow for most women and girls in the world, and we see significant pushback in many places," the agency's executive director, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, said in May.
"Women continue to be discriminated against and their contributions undervalued," she added. "They work more, earn less and have fewer choices about their bodies, livelihoods and futures than men — and they experience multiple forms of violence at home, at work and in public spaces."
Mlambo-Ngcuka said the General Equality campaign is aimed at speeding systematic change "on the laws, policies and outdated mindsets that must no longer curtail women's voice, choice and safety."
The Committees of Advertising Practice (CAP) -- the United Kingdom's advertising regulatory agency -- enacted a rule Friday prohibiting ads from employing gender stereotypes that were "harmful" or implied only one gender engaged in particular activities.
The regulation, announced in December, took effect on Friday and gave the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) the ability to review ads for objectionable gender-based stereotypes. The ASA prompted the regulation after conducting a study in which it concluded stereotypes could "restrict" people's choices and prevent them from "fulfilling their potential," according to the BBC.
British broadcasters are bound by the terms of their licenses to comply with the agency's rulings.
Happy confident woman going to work and her husband cooking dinner.
According to the ASA's announcement, the rule wouldn't prevent ads featuring only one gender, a woman doing the shopping, attractive people or lifestyles, or the use of gender stereotypes in order to "challenge their negative effects."
It's likely to censor content that emphasizes distinctions between boys' and girls' stereotypical personalities (daring versus caring), belittles men for engaging in stereotypically female activities or suggests women are solely responsible for cleaning houses.
"There is significant evidence," the agency's report read, "that gender inequality leads to real-world harms for adults and children. These unequal outcomes might affect different people in a variety of practical, social, emotional and economic ways."
1950s wife using vacuum.
The rule also applied to ads that harped on physical attractiveness and warned against ads that tie physical attractiveness to social and romantic success. "The ad should not imply that their physique is a significant reason for them not being successful, for example in their romantic or social lives," the agency said.
"An ad aimed at new mums which suggests that looking attractive or keeping a home pristine is a priority over other factors such as their emotional well being," another guideline read.
During an interview on talkRADIO, Shabnum Mustapha of ASA defended the idea that ads could lead to "real-world harm."
"It's cumulative," she said, noting that advertisements contributed to other aspects of media to hurt women's potential.
CAP also warns against ads that stereotype culture, race, religion and belief, gender and sexual orientation, disability or illness, and age.
The regulation came as UN Women announced a new campaign focused on achieving "gender equality."
"Despite some progress, real change has been too slow for most women and girls in the world, and we see significant pushback in many places," the agency's executive director, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, said in May.
"Women continue to be discriminated against and their contributions undervalued," she added. "They work more, earn less and have fewer choices about their bodies, livelihoods and futures than men — and they experience multiple forms of violence at home, at work and in public spaces."
Mlambo-Ngcuka said the General Equality campaign is aimed at speeding systematic change "on the laws, policies and outdated mindsets that must no longer curtail women's voice, choice and safety."
Ms McCarthy, 81, paid tribute to her "gracious" mother.
"I never dreamt when I was a little girl that my mother would be the talking point of the whole country," she said.
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"I used to say to my friends 'she is a piece of history gift-wrapped'.
"She was wonderful and had a lovely sense of humour... and that's something somebody should have.
"Never let that fade away because if it does it starts a downward trend and you become rather dull."
Ms McCarthy said last year her mother was invited on to TV shows, including Good Morning and Strictly Come Dancing.
"I kept thinking to myself 'she'll get that Equity card yet'.
"She took it [the attention] in her stride. She sat there to do interviews at her party and everyone was lined up in the hall at Buckland Manor to do their piece ready for the evening [news] programmes.
"Mother sat there looking so serene and gorgeous, really dressed up beautifully and each person came in, all the boys with their cameras and lighting and she thought that was great.
"She conducted herself so nicely and answered everything, and then on the last one for Channel 5 she suddenly said 'I'm hungry; when is teatime?'."
