The pound slumped more than one per cent to a three-month low this evening, on fresh concerns the government is preparing to pursue a hard Brexit. As market trading resumed in Australia and New Zealand, sterling fell by as much as 1.6 per cent to $1.1983, taking it below $1.20 for the first time since the October flash crash. The pound's fall has come off the back of reports in Sunday newspapers that later this week Prime Minister Theresa May will say the UK is prepared to leave the Single Market, customs union and the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice.

A well-heeled businessman stunned staff at an Indian restaurant in Northern Ireland by leaving a £1,000 tip for a £79 meal. Inside the world’s most beautiful restaurant. After finishing dinner at The Indian Tree in Portadown with his family, the man, who wishes to remain anonymous, “pulled Babu [chef] aside and said he would like to say thank you and that he had a small token,” restaurant director Luna Ekush told Belfast Live.

Theresa May has said the UK "cannot possibly" remain within the European single market, as staying in it would mean "not leaving the EU at all". But the prime minister promised to push for the "freest possible trade" with European countries and to sign new deals with others around the world. She also announced Parliament would get to vote on the final deal agreed between the UK and the EU.

Today’s speech on Brexit was yet another hopeless attempt by the prime minister to mask the fact that the government has absolutely no strategy when it comes to the most defining issue facing our country for decades. It was a mixture of vague fantasies, and toothless threats to our nearest neighbours. Britain needs friends more than ever at the moment, and Theresa May has succeeded in uniting the rest of Europe against her, guaranteeing an even harder path for the United Kingdom in its negotiations.

One of Britain's most important post-Brexit trade partnerships could be at risk due to Theresa May's refusal to reform visa restrictions for Indian citizens. The Prime Minister has insisted leaving the EU would allow Britain to find other partners abroad and India, the world’s fastest growing major economy, was the first country she visited, accompanied by a large business delegation, outside Europe after the referendum.

A man on trial with his father accused of forcing a Polish couple to work for £4 a day has been acquitted. Khuram Riaz, 27, denied forcing or compelling Margorsha Bienick and Michal Czesniawski into labour in Nelson, Lancashire. Her Honour Judge Beverley Lunt directed the jury at Burnley Crown Court to record not guilty verdicts for Mr Riaz Jr saying he had no case to answer. The case against his father, Mohammed Riaz, 62, continues.

There could be a one in three chance that Brexit negotiations will end with no deal between the UK and the European Union, resulting in "serious economic disruption and a degree of legal chaos", the author of Article 50 has warned. Lord Kerr also suggested that leaving the EU could result in a "decade of delay and disruption" for Britain, which would damage investment, economic growth and employment.

Theresa May has told leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos that the UK will be a "world leader" on trade. But the prime minister also warned that inequality blamed on globalisation was aiding the "politics of division".

Police officers Tasered their own black community relations champion after they mistook him for a wanted man, it has emerged. Two officers were filmed by a passer-by confronting 63-year-old Judah Adunbi, whose job is to create better relations between police and the black community. The officers, who stopped him near his home, in Easton, Bristol, demanded to know his name but he refused, saying: "I'm not telling you my name. I've done no wrong."

Billionaire investor George Soros said it’s unlikely that U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May will remain in power as the nation prepares to secede from the European Union. "It is, in my opinion, unlikely that Prime Minister May is actually going to remain in power," Soros said in an interview on Bloomberg Television from Davos on Thursday. "I think she will not last."

The headline cost of increased fees might be £9,250. But repaid with interest over 30 years it could be much higher.

Young voters aged 18 to 34 believe that reducing immigration is the least important issue Theresa May should focus on as she prepares to take the UK out of the EU, a new poll has found. The survey by Opinium found that people in this age group put reducing numbers coming into the UK last out of 22 priorities, with the availability of jobs, protection of human rights and well-funded public services their main concerns.

In the 1960s, the French novelist Alain Robbe-Grillet became so frustrated by the manner in which his nouveau roman movement was framed and discussed in public that he devised a rule of thumb: whatever you hear or read about it, presume that the exact opposite is true. The same rule might be applied to recent British political events. A coup orchestrated and bankrolled by hedgefund managers, media tycoons and privately educated politicians is described, time and again, as an “anti-establishment uprising”.

The appearance of fake news on websites and social media has inspired scientists to develop a "vaccine" to immunise people against the problem. A University of Cambridge study devised psychological tools to target fact distortion. Researchers suggest "pre-emptively exposing" readers to a small "dose" of the misinformation can help organisations cancel out bogus claims.

Britain told EU peers it would stick to an end-March deadline to trigger its exit clause from the bloc, a senior EU diplomat said, after Britain's top court ruled that London must seek parliamentary approval before invoking the so-called Article 50. "The UK representative here made it very clear that he is going to prepare a short legislative bill to go to the parliament but he does not foresee any problems to stick to the deadline ... before the end of March," Malta's Deputy Prime Minister and EU minister Louis Grech, whose country hold the EU's rotating presidency, told Reuters.

British Prime Minister Theresa May on Saturday refused to condemn an order by US President Donald Trump suspending refugee arrivals, saying Washington was responsible for its own refugee policy. "The United States is responsible for the United States' policy on refugees. The United Kingdom is responsible for the United Kingdom's policy on refugees," May said at a news conference in Ankara, after being repeatedly pressed to give her opinion on Trump's executive order.

A severely disabled woman, with the mental age of a toddler, had her benefits stopped by the Department of Work and Pensions because she “missed an appointment”. Georgina Ball has aicardi syndrome, a rare brain abnormality which means she suffers from severe epileptic seizures and learning disabilities, and is unable to walk, talk, read or write. The 26-year-old claims Employment Support Allowance but this was stopped in December after her mum received a letter to say that her daughter had missed an appointment, to be medically assessed for work.

Two people have been arrested in Lancashire after allegedly trying to disarm warplanes bound for Saudi Arabia. The Rev Dan Woodhouse, a Methodist minister in Leeds and Sam Walton, a Quaker, are accused of entering the BAE Systems site in Warton to disarm planes. Police said they were being held on suspicion of criminal damage. In a statement, Rev Woodhouse said stopping warplanes "would save lives".

The U.K. government intends to pass legislation allowing it to trigger Article 50 by March 9, the Times reported Tuesday. Prime Minister Theresa May had said she would formally invoke the two-year mechanism for Britain’s exit from the European Union by the end of March but had declined to reveal an exact date.

A fresh legal challenge over Brexit and exactly how the UK would leave the single market has been blocked by the High Court. The case was brought by campaigners pushing for a 'soft' Brexit, with the hope of forcing the Government to seek MPs' permission if it wanted to leave the trading bloc. Refusing to give the go-ahead to the new challenge, the judges said they would giver their reasons later. During the application hearing they had expressed concerns the court action might have come too soon.