The UK's Brexit negotiations have not begun well amid "differences" inside the cabinet, a former head of the diplomatic service has said. Sir Simon Fraser, chief mandarin at the Foreign Office until 2015, said the UK side had been "a bit absent" from formal negotiations in Brussels. Sir Simon, who now advises businesses on Brexit, said he was concerned the UK had not put forward a clear position.

A second referendum to decide if the British people wish to plough ahead with Brexit is becoming more likely, says David Cameron’s former politics tutor. The further vote will become a “life raft” for Theresa May and the only solution to her mounting problems over the terms of EU withdrawal, Vernon Bogdanor predicted.

Theresa May has revealed she shed a "little tear" when she learned the result of the election exit poll suggesting she would lose her majority. The prime minister said her husband Philip told her the news - and it came as a "complete shock". "It took a few minutes for it to sink in," she told BBC Radio 5 Live's Emma Barnett, because "we didn't see that result coming".

The Scottish and Welsh governments have threatened to block the key Brexit bill which will convert all existing EU laws into UK law. The repeal bill, published earlier, is also facing opposition from Labour and other parties in the Commons. Ministers are "optimistic" about getting it through and have promised an "ongoing intense dialogue" with the devolved administrations.

The UK is officially the slowest-growing advanced economy on earth, official statistics confirmed on Friday. GDP grew at just 0.2 per cent in the first three months of the year; down from 0.7 per cent in the previous quarter, and confirming previous estimates, the Office for National Statistics reported.

Huw Parkinson turns to the fallout from the recent UK general election, which left Theresa May facing complicated Brexit negotiations having lost her government majority.

A new poll shows that 69% of respondents disagree with the Prime Minister's "Hard Brexit" policy of leaving the European Union customs union. The poll, carried out by polling organisation Survation and published in The Mail On Sunday, found that core parts of the Prime Minister's Brexit strategy are unpopular amongst the public.

The Conservative Party -- and free market ideologues -- have waged a long war on "safety culture," insisting it was a nonsensical, incoherent regulation that acted as a drag on every business except no-win/no-fee lawyers, who exploited these rules to victimise poor corporations with punishing lawsuits.

The number of Britons becoming German citizens jumped 361% last year, according to the German Federal Statistics Office, on concerns Brexit will make it harder to work and travel within the European Union. A total of 2,865 Britons took German citizenship in 2016, the same year as the referendum to leave the EU. Around 110,000 people became German citizens last year, up 2.9% on 2015, with Britons by far the biggest risers.

Britain’s food production depends on seasonal migrant labour from the EU. What will happen to those workers after Brexit? And how will it change the industry?

US bank JP Morgan is buying a landmark office building in Dublin in a significant boost for the Irish capital following the Brexit vote. The new premises will be able to house 1,000 staff – double the number of personnel the US bank currently employs in Dublin. The move is regarded as the first major expansion in Ireland by a financial services firm since the UK’s referendum.

Theresa May has accused European politicians and officials of deliberately misrepresenting the UK’s position over Brexit in an attempt to affect the result of the general election at the formal launch of the campaign. Speaking in Downing Street a few minutes after meeting the Queen following the dissolution of parliament, the prime minister said that “some in Brussels” did not want the UK to succeed with Brexit.

Retail sale volumes slumped in March, seeming to confirm doubts about the robustness of the consumer-led economy in the wake of last Summer's Brexit vote. According to the Office for National Statistics sales were down 1.8 per cent in the month, against City expectations of a 0.2 per cent decline.

All the key characteristics of Britishness – self-restraint, determination and courage in the face of adversity – in one verbal exchange

Britain’s high street banks processed nearly $740m from a vast money-laundering operation run by Russian criminals with links to the Russian government and the KGB, the Guardian can reveal. HSBC, the Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds, Barclays and Coutts are among 17 banks based in the UK, or with branches here, that are facing questions over what they knew about the international scheme and why they did not turn away suspicious money transfers.

Ministers have been accused of deliberately making it hard for 400,000 predominantly young and poor people to vote – while spending millions on helping rich expats to cast their ballots. Election chiefs have protested over rules which prevent those without a permanent home from registering to vote online, a process quicker than “boiling an egg” the Government boasts. Instead, they must print out and return a form, when – as one electoral administrator pointed out – they are the people least likely “to have a printer, never mind the room to house it”.

The British government faces a €2bn (£1.7bn) fine for negligence that allowed criminal gangs to flood European black markets with illegal Chinese goods, EU anti-fraud investigators have said. The European anti-fraud office (known as Olaf from its French name, Office de Lutte Anti-Fraude) has recommended the UK pay €1.98bn into the EU budget to compensate for lost customs duties, as a result of a failure by British customs officials to crack down on criminal gangs using fake invoices and making false claims about the value of clothes and shoes imported from China.

I used my British passport for the first time on a January morning in 2002, to board a Eurostar train to Paris. I was taking a paper on the French Revolution for my history A-level and was on a trip to explore the key sites of the period, including a visit to Louis XIV’s chateau at Versailles. When I arrived at Gare du Nord I felt a tingle of nerves cascade through my body: I had become a naturalised British citizen only the year before. As I got closer to border control my palms became sweaty, clutching my new passport.

A woman married to a British man for 27 years has been sent back to Singapore. Irene Clennell told the BBC she has been removed without warning. She had been living near Durham with her husband, and has two British sons, as well as a granddaughter, in the UK. Periods spent abroad caring for her parents are thought to have invalidated her residential status. It is understood Mrs Clennell has spent most of her life in Singapore. The Home Office said it expected all those without leave to remain to exit the country once their visa expires.

Theresa May is next month poised to announce the end of free movement for new EU migrants on the same day that she formally triggers Brexit negotiations. The Prime Minister is expected to say that EU citizens who travel to Britain after she triggers Article 50 will no longer have the automatic right to stay in the UK permanently. They will instead be subject to migration curbs after Britain leaves the European Union, which could include a new visa regime and restricted access to benefits.