Victoria Atkins has been accused of "hypocrisy on a grand scale" after it emerged that she voluntarily recused herself from speaking for the government on cannabis and other aspects of her drugs brief, because her husband was involved with a legal cannabis farm.   The Home Office minister and former criminal drugs prosecutor has previously spoken out against both legalising and regulating the drug. 

Nicola Sturgeon will consider another vote on independence when Westminster offers greater certainty on Brexit, Scotland’s first minister said Sunday. “Once we get some clarity, which hopefully we will in autumn of this year, about the Brexit outcome and the future relationship between the U.K and the EU, then I will consider again the question of the timing of an independence referendum,” she said on ITV ’s Peston on Sunday program.

Peers are ready to drive lazy lords out of parliament, but only if Theresa May is willing to commit to an overall cap on numbers in the upper chamber. Members of the House of Lords want to start telling colleagues who do not attend often enough that is time for them to step down, The Independent understands. But they argue that to show the push is credible and working towards an officially sanctioned target, the prime minister must clearly commit to capping the number of lords at 600.

Cambridge Analytica has been ordered to hand over all the data and personal information it has on an American voter, including details of where it got the data and what it did with it, or face a criminal prosecution. The UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) served the enforcement notice to the company on Friday in a landmark legal decision that opens the way for up to 240 million other American voters to request their data back from the firm under British data protection laws.

The women and their three children were allowed to return from northern Iraq and will not be arrested. German federal prosecutors say their request for a warrant was denied by the Federal Supreme Court.

Donald Trump is set to face wave of protests when he visits the UK in July as Sadiq Khan warned the US President should expect to see demonstrators exercise “their liberal values of freedom of speech”. On Thursday, the White House announced Trump would make a “working visit” to the UK on July 13 - falling short of a full-blown “state visit”. Downing Street confirmed the US President will hold bi-lateral talks with Theresa May, with further details to be “set out in due course”.

The extent to which savage government cuts have deprived disabled people of legal aid in disputes over their benefit payments is revealed today by new official figures that show a 99% decline since 2011. The total number of disabled people granted legal aid in welfare cases has plummeted from 29,801 in 2011-12 to just 308 in 2016-17, cutting some of the most vulnerable people in society adrift without expert advice in often highly complex and distressing cases.

The Kremlin has warned Boris Johnson that it has a “surprise” in store for those who have the “impudence” to compare Russia with Nazi Germany. In a veiled warning to the Foreign Secretary, Maria Zakharova, a spokesman for the Russian foreign ministry, claimed that the UK is using the Salisbury attack as part of a “black PR” campaign to turn the West against Russia.

UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said Friday it was "overwhelmingly likely" that Russian President Vladimir Putin personally gave the order to use a nerve agent to attack a former spy, in what represents the most direct accusation yet against Russia's leader. Prime Minister Theresa May this week announced that 23 Russian diplomats would be expelled from Britain after concluding it was highly probable that Moscow was behind the poisoning, but stopped short of pointing the finger directly at Putin.

Toxic air in the UK is now a “national health emergency” responsible for 40,000 early deaths and £20bn in economic costs each year, MPs have warned. The Government’s approach to reducing air pollution amounts to little more than “box-ticking” because ministers have failed to show the “national leadership” required, a highly damning joint report by four parliamentary committees found.

British Prime Minister Theresa May says the Russian ex-spy poisoned in England was exposed to a military-grade nerve agent of type produced by Russia. May told lawmakers during an address in parliament on Monday it was “highly likely’ Russia was responsible for poisoning Sergei Skripal, the former Russian military intelligence officer who was convicted of spying for Britain.

Theresa May is expected to point the finger at the Kremlin for the poisoning of double-agent Sergei Skripal and unveil a package of tough sanctions as early as today. She will chair a meeting of the National Security Council where she will be updated on the investigation into the attempted nerve agent assassination of the former Russian spy. Counter-terrorism police and intelligence officers are understood to be preparing to present evidence that Moscow ordered the hit in Salisbury over a week ago.

The Hungarian-American billionaire George Soros has said he is proud to have given £400,000 to an anti-Brexit campaign, saying it was his affection for the UK that prompted his decision.

Homeless people with terminal illnesses who are “dying on doorsteps” will be offered an automatic right to housing under new plans going before Parliament. Former Cabinet minister Sir Ed Davey wants to tackle gaps in the law to make it easier for homeless people with cancer or long-term illnesses to get end of life care and stable housing. Under current laws, many people who are sleeping rough, living in hostels or staying on friends’ sofas are not automatically eligible for long-term housing if they are dubbed “intentionally homeless”...

It's time to stop inviting UKIP onto our TV screens.

MPs have voted against including the European Charter of Fundamental Rights in UK law after Brexit. A Labour amendment, tabled in the name of Jeremy Corbyn, sought to retain the provisions in the Charter but was voted down by 317 votes to 299. The EU Withdrawal Bill, which is currently in its report stage in the House of Commons, will transfer all existing EU law into UK law when Britain leaves the EU in March 2019.

A growing majority of British people now want Theresa May to call a second Brexit referendum if she fails to secure a deal on Britain's exit from the EU. 57% of the British public would want another vote under those circumstances, according to a new BMG poll. Among younger voters the majority is even larger, with 73% of 18-34 year-olds now backing a second vote.

To paraphrase the old joke, there are probably two chances of a second EU referendum right now - slim chance and fat chance. Ladbrokes is currently offering odds of 5/1 on it. At 11/8 the bookmakers think it is more likely that no deal will have been agreed before Britain officially leaves the EU on 29 March 2019. Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn have ruled out a second vote, both essentially arguing that it would be seen as a catastrophic breach of trust with a public already weary of broken promises.

Nigel Farage has said that he thinks there should be a second referendum on Brexit. The revelations came on UK Channel 5 TV show, 'The Wright Stuff'. "What is for certain that the Cleggs, the Blairs, the Adonis' will never give up ... I'm reaching the point of thinking that we should have a second referendum on EU membership."

Jamie Oliver has called on the Government to ban selling energy drinks to children, citing a suspected correlation between consumption and poor scholastic performance. The celebrity chef and campaigner, who has pioneered a longstanding effort to combat diet-related disease in children, is backing calls by the National Education Union to introduce an age limit of 16 on all sales.