Labour wins UK by-election as Farage warns over Brexit

Bloomberg

The main UK opposition Labour Party unexpectedly held onto its Peterborough seat, slowing the march of Nigel Farage’s new pro-Brexit movement which bookmakers’ had expected to win the by-election.
The result will alarm members of the UK’s ruling Conservatives — who were beaten into third place by Farage’s Brexit Party — as they weigh up who should take over from Theresa May, who stepped down as party leader. Tories will look at the Peterborough result and see how the Brexit Party took votes away from them, allowing Labour to win — even though the district’s disgraced previous Labour MP was sent to jail.
While the individual result is no predictor of a general election outcome, it is a scenario that’s likely to raise fears it could be replayed the next time the country chooses a new government. That will focus Conservatives’ minds on choosing a leader who can defeat the dual threats of Farage and Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour.
Farage’s party launched just two months ago with a single policy goal — to take the UK out of the European Union quickly, without a deal. He said the result piled pressure on the
contenders to succeed May, warning that if the Tories don’t lead the UK out of the EU by the Halloween deadline, they will reap the consequences.
“If we don’t leave and leave with a clean Brexit on October 31, the Brexit Party will power on,” Farage told BBC radio. “Whichever way you cut it, we’ve come from nowhere,
produced a massive result, we haven’t quite got over the line, but we’re pretty buoyed by this.”
Yet the result was a disappointment for Farage’s supporters. The Brexit Party had been expected to win the seat, after coming top in European Parliament elections amid a voter backlash against the established political heavyweights.
Both Labour and the Tories were bracing for Farage’s success to continue amid public frustration at Parliament’s failure to deliver Brexit, in a city which voted 61 percent in favour of leaving the EU in the 2016 referendum.

‘Very small’ chance of no-deal Brexit, says Philip Hammond
Bloomberg

There is only a “very small,” chance of Britain leaving the European Union without a deal later this year, according to UK Chancellor Philip Hammond.
“The key thing to remember is that Britain is a parliamentary democracy, and there is a clear majority in Parliament against a no-deal exit,” said Hammond, who was speaking to CNBC on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Japan.
“Parliament will ensure, in my view, that that does not happen.”
Several Conservative leadership candidates vying to succeed Theresa May as party leader and prime minister, including former London Mayor Boris Johnson, have promised to ensure the UK exits the EU on October 31, with or without a deal.
Hammond has previously hinted that he would vote to bring down a government that was pursuing a no-deal Brexit.