British PM orders employment law review as labor market changes

LONDON -- British Prime Minister Theresa May ordered a review of employment practices on Saturday, saying she wanted to ensure workers' rights were protected under changing business models and a growing trend towards flexible or self-employment.

The review comes ahead of the ruling Conservative Party's annual conference, May's first as prime minister, at which she is expected to make her pitch to reunite a country divided by June's European Union referendum and set our what a successful exit from the bloc will look like.

"We are building a new centre ground in British politics; improving the security and rights of ordinary working people is a key part of building a country and an economy that works for everyone, not just the privileged few," May said in a statement.

Britain's vote to leave the European Union was driven in part by a backlash against the political establishment among working class voters who believed their prospects had been badly damaged by the 2007/08 financial crisis and years of austerity.

The review will look at whether existing employment law can cope with the country's growing number of "non-standard forms of employment", such as self-employment, temporary work or "zero-hours" contracts, which offer employees flexibility, but no guaranteed work.

Earlier this year, politicians condemned British retailer Sports Direct for effectively paying workers less than the minimum wage, while working conditions at taxi firm Uber have come under legal scrutiny.

"New forms of employment have many advantages for workers and consumers but there are challenges and risks," said Matthew Taylor, head of an arts charity and former government policy adviser who has been asked to lead the review.

"We need to approach this issue with an open mind recognising that within our flexible system of employment the same type of contract can have a diverse range of impacts on the people who use them."

(Reporting by William James; Editing by David Gregorio)

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Britain's May wins PM race after pro-Brexit rival quits

LONDON - Interior minister Theresa May will become Britain's prime minister on Wednesday, with the task of steering its withdrawal from the European Union, after rival Andrea Leadsom abruptly terminated her disastrous leadership campaign.

May, 59, will succeed David Cameron, who announced he was stepping down after Britons unexpectedly voted last month to quit the EU. Britain's planned withdrawal has weakened the 28-nation bloc, created huge uncertainty over trade and investment, and shaken financial markets.

May and Leadsom had been due to contest a ballot of grassroots Conservative party members, with the result to be declared by Sept. 9. But Leadsom unexpectedly quit on Monday after a campaign dogged by ill-judged comments about her rival's lack of children and questions about whether she had exaggerated her CV.

"I am honored and humbled to have been chosen by the Conservative Party to become its leader," said May, who favored remaining in the EU but has made clear there is no going back on the result of the June 23 referendum.

"Brexit means Brexit, and we're going to make a success of it."

Earlier, Cameron told reporters in front of his 10 Downing Street residence that he expected to chair his last cabinet meeting on Tuesday and take questions in parliament on Wednesday before tendering his resignation to Queen Elizabeth.

"So we will have a new prime minister in that building behind me by Wednesday evening," he said.

May will become Britain's second female prime minister, after Margaret Thatcher.

Her victory means that the complex process of extricating Britain from the EU will be led by someone from the losing side of the acrimonious referendum campaign. She has said Britain needs time to work out its negotiating strategy and should not initiate formal divorce proceedings before the end of the year.

In a speech earlier on Monday in the city of Birmingham, May said there could be no second referendum and no attempt to rejoin the EU by the back door.

"As prime minister, I will make sure that we leave the European Union," she said.

The White House said U.S. President Barack Obama was confident that the "special relationship" between the United States and Britain would continue after May becomes prime minister.

RELATIVE UNKNOWN

Leadsom, 53, is a junior energy minister who has never served in cabinet and was barely known to the British public until she emerged as a prominent voice in the successful Leave campaign.

She had been strongly criticized over a newspaper interview in which she appeared to suggest that being a mother meant she had more of a stake in the country's future than May, who has no children. Some Conservatives said they were disgusted by the remarks, for which Leadsom later apologized, while others said they showed naivety and a lack of judgment.

Leadsom told reporters she was pulling out of the race to avoid nine weeks of campaign uncertainty at a time when strong leadership was needed. She acknowledged that May had secured much greater backing in a vote of Conservative members of parliament last week.

"I have ... concluded that the interests of our country are best served by the immediate appointment of a strong and well supported prime minister," she said. "I am therefore withdrawing from the leadership election and I wish Theresa May the very greatest success."

Graham Brady, head of the Conservative party committee in charge of the leadership contest, confirmed that May had been elected with immediate effect.

The pound, which has hit 31-year lows since the referendum on concern about potential damage to the British economy, bounced slightly on the news that the Conservative leadership question would be resolved much sooner than expected.

It was trading around $1.2970, up 0.1 percent on the day but still down around 13 percent since the day of the vote. The FTSE 250 index of mid-sized companies rose 3.27 percent.

"Welcome news we have 1 candidate with overwhelming support to be next PM. Theresa May has strength, integrity & determination to do the job," finance minister George Osborne tweeted.


FORGING NEW ROLE

The 52-to-48 percent vote to quit the EU after 43 years of membership was a stunning rebuke to Britain's political leaders and especially Cameron, who had argued that breaking away would bring economic disaster.

Britons ignored his warnings, swayed by the arguments of the Leave campaign that 'Brexit' would enable them to regain 'independence' from Brussels and clamp down on high immigration, something hard to achieve under EU rules allowing people to live and work anywhere in the bloc.

May's leadership hopes had appeared at risk of being damaged by her failure, in six years as interior minister, to bring immigration down, and the fact she found herself on the losing side of the referendum campaign.

But her two best-known rivals on the Leave side were felled by political back-stabbing when Justice Secretary Michael Gove brought down former London mayor Boris Johnson and was then punished for his perceived treachery by being eliminated from a ballot of Conservative MPs.

In her speech in Birmingham on Monday, May set out her vision for the economy, calling for "a country that works for everyone, not just the privileged few".

In a pitch for the political center, she said she would prioritise more house-building, a crackdown on tax evasion by individuals and companies, lower energy costs and a narrowing of the 'unhealthy' gap between the pay of employees and corporate bosses.

"Under my leadership, the Conservative Party will put itself completely, absolutely, unequivocally, at the service of ordinary working people ... we will make Britain a country that works for everyone," she said.


LABOUR DISARRAY

May's biggest challenge will be to map out the course of Britain's withdrawal, a process still clouded in uncertainty, and to sort out new terms of trade with the other 27 EU nations.

"We will have difficult negotiations with Britain, it will not be easy," said German Chancellor Angela Merkel who insisted that Britain would not be able to get free access to the EU's single market without accepting free movement of people.

European Economics Commissioner Pierre Moscovici said: "We should open the negotiations as quickly as possible in order to limit uncertainty."

More than 1,000 British lawyers said in a letter to Cameron that members of parliament should decide whether Britain leaves the EU because the referendum was not legally binding.

Opposition members of parliament, responding to the impending appointment of May, demanded a general election.

"It is crucial, given the instability caused by the Brexit vote, that the country has a democratically elected prime minister," Labor party election co-ordinator Jon Trickett said.

Labour too has been thrown into upheaval by the referendum, with leader Jeremy Corbyn widely criticized for failing to make a sufficiently passionate case in favour of staying in the EU.

Minutes before Leadsom's announcement, Labour lawmaker Angela Eagle launched a leadership challenge to Corbyn.

"Jeremy Corbyn is unable to provide the leadership that this party needs -- I believe I can," Eagle said.

Corbyn was elected last year with overwhelming support from grassroots Labor activists. He has ignored a vote of no confidence from the party's lawmakers, saying he has a responsibility to carry out that mandate.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Muslim women must learn English or risk deportation: British PM

LONDON - Muslim women who fail to learn English to a high enough standard could face deportation from Britain, Prime Minister David Cameron announced Monday.

He also suggested that poor English skills can leave people "more susceptible" to the messages of groups like Islamic State (IS).

Cameron's comments came as his centre-right Conservatives launched a £20 million ($28.5 million, 26 million euro) language fund for women in isolated communities as part of a drive to build community integration.

Immigration rules already force spouses to speak English before they come to Britain to live with their partners.

But Cameron said they would also face further tests after two and a half years in the country to make sure their language skills were improving.

"You can't guarantee you will be able to stay if you are not improving your language," he told BBC radio. "People coming to our country, they have responsibilities too."

Cameron's government estimates that around 190,000 Muslim women in England -- about 22 percent of the total -- speak little or no English.

There are estimated to be around 2.7 million Muslims in England out of a total population of some 53 million.

'DISGRACEFUL STEREOTYPING'

Cameron said that a lack of language skills could make Muslims in Britain more vulnerable to the message of extremist groups.

"I am not saying there is some sort of causal connection between not speaking English and becoming an extremist, of course not," he told BBC radio.

"But if you are not able to speak English, not able to integrate, you may find therefore you have challenges understanding what your identity is and therefore you could be more susceptible to the extremist message."

His comments drew criticism from Muslim groups and opposition parties.

Mohammed Shafiq, chief executive of the Ramadhan Foundation, which campaigns for better community relations, accused Cameron of "disgraceful stereotyping".

"David Cameron and his Conservative government are once again using British Muslims as a political football to score cheap points, to appear tough," he added.

Andy Burnham, home affairs spokesman for the main opposition Labour party, accused Cameron of a "clumsy and simplistic approach" which was "unfairly stigmatising a whole community."

Ex-Conservative Party co-chair Sayeeda Warsi said her former boss's idea was "lazy and misguided" and a "stereotyping of British Muslim communities"

"My parents came to this country with very little English -- my mum's English still isn't great, even though she has been to English language classes," she told BBC Radio 4's World at One.

"I think it is lazy and sloppy when we start making policies based on stereotypes which do badly stigmatize communities."

Shuja Shafi, secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, backed Cameron's call, but questioned his tactics.

"The prime minister's aim to have English more widely spoken and for better integration falls at the first hurdle if he is to link it to security and single out Muslim women to illustrate his point," he said.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Several Britons missing after Philippines typhoon

Several British nationals are missing following the typhoon that has killed thousands in the Philippines, British Foreign Secretary William Hague said on Saturday.

"The foreign secretary confirmed that a number of British nationals remained unaccounted for," the foreign ministry said in a statement.

A ministry spokesman declined to specify how many Britons were missing.

In a phone call to his Philippine counterpart Albert del Rosario, Hague offered his condolences in the wake of the devastating Super Typhoon Haiyan of November 8 and asked for "every possible assistance" to be given to Britons caught up in the disaster, the ministry said.

Britain's Channel Four News had on Friday reported that British pharmacist Colin Bembridge, 61, had gone missing with his Filipino partner Maybelle and their three-year-old daughter while visiting relatives near the now-devastated city of Tacloban.

British Prime Minister David Cameron on Saturday announced that Britain was providing a further £30 million ($48 million, 36 million euros) to help the relief effort, in addition to the £23 million already pledged.

A British warship, HMS Daring, is due to arrive at the Philippines' Cebu island on Sunday after making its way from Singapore.

Helicopter carrier HMS Illustrious -- the largest ship in the British navy -- was also due to be deployed along with a Royal Air Force C-17 transport aircraft.

Authorities in the Philippines have put the official death toll at 3,633, with 1,179 people missing and nearly 12,500 injured.

The UN has put the number of dead at 4,460 and said Saturday that 2.5 million people still "urgently" required food assistance.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

UK PM wants film makers to focus on box office hits

LONDON - British Prime Minister David Cameron on Wednesday urged UK film makers, whose critical hits often fail to translate into commercial success, to focus more on the box office.

The movie industry is worth an estimated 4.2 billion pounds ($6.5 billion) to the British economy each year, but much of that comes from blockbusters like the Harry Potter franchise that are bankrolled by Hollywood studios.

The government wants to see that change, after recent British hits like "The King's Speech" and "Slumdog Millionaire" proved that small budgets can be turned into box office gold.

"The UK film industry, the skills and crafts that support it, and our creative industries more widely, make...an incalculable contribution to our culture," Cameron said.

"Our role, and that of the BFI (British Film Institute), should be to support the sector in becoming even more dynamic and entrepreneurial, helping UK producers to make commercially successful pictures that rival the quality and impact of the best international productions," he added.

"Just as the British Film Commission has played a crucial role in attracting the biggest and best international studios to produce their films here, so we must incentivise UK producers to chase new markets both here and overseas."

Cameron's remarks came ahead of a visit to Pinewood studios, the spiritual home of British cinema, where he was due to meet small and medium-sized businesses involved in film.

A review of the government's policy on the movie industry was also due to be published next week.

"Golden era"?

Experts debate whether British cinema ever had the kind of "golden era" Hollywood enjoyed from the 1920s to 1960s, although it has regularly punched above its weight in terms of awards and ticket sales.

Most recently, "The King's Speech" won four Oscars including best picture in 2011, and earned $414 million in global ticket sales from a production budget of just $15 million, according to Boxofficemojo.com.

Two years earlier, "Slumdog Millionaire" was the big winner picking up eight Oscars including best picture and hitting $378 million at global box offices from a $15 million budget.

Official figures show that UK films accounted for 14 percent of the global 2010 box office tally of $31.8 billion. However, 12.6 percent was accounted for by UK movies wholly or partly financed and controlled by U.S. studios.

Some directors, including Ken Loach a long-time critic of Cameron's Conservative party, have argued that focusing on mainstream movie making could stifle the creativity for which British cinema is renowned.

"Nobody knows who's going to see it (a film) until it's made," Loach told BBC Radio in response to Cameron's remarks.

"If everyone knew the film that was going to make money before it was made we'd have no problem. I mean that's silly isn't it?"

Loach also said that next week's review by former Labour culture minister Chris Smith was likely to miss an opportunity to loosen the grip of multiplex cinemas over what films audiences see.

"If you want to fulfil the possibility that cinema has then you have to allow the films to be seen," he said. "At the moment they are not seen."

But Loach conceded that one positive aspect of the recommendations expected in the review was that revenues from publicly funded films would go back to producers rather than the body that issued the funds in the first place. - Reuters

source:gmanetwork.com