The Catch-up: Boris Johnson’s major Brexit problems

What happened?

Boris Johnson won the race to become the UK's next Prime Minister today. He defeated Tory leadership rival Jeremy Hunt with 66% of the votes cast by Conservative party members. Mr Johnson will officially become PM tomorrow after visiting the Queen, who will ask him to form a Government. At the leadership announcement event, he said: “We are going to get Brexit done on October 31, we are going to take advantage of all the opportunities that it will bring in a new spirit of can-do."

What happens next for Brexit?

Prime Minister Boris Johnson's most pressing challenge will be finding a way to deliver Brexit. However he faces many of the same problems as his predecessor Theresa May, who failed to steer the UK out of Europe. Unless Mr Johnson calls a General Election he is struggling against a wafer thin majority, leaving him vulnerable to rebellions and with an uphill struggle to get a Brexit bill through Parliament.

Mr Johnson fought his campaign on the promise he would be willing to leave the EU without a deal. Parliament has previously voiced its opposition to a no-deal Brexit and a large number of MPs will do all they can to block it. MPs previously passed legislation forcing the PM to seek a Brexit delay instead of leaving without a deal.

Finally, the EU has doubled down on its pledge not to reopen Theresa May's withdrawal agreement, which includes the Irish backstop, for negotiation. Faced with a stubborn EU, a warring party and a Parliament opposed to his Brexit strategy, it is difficult to see how Mr Johnson can break the impasse.

Read more

What Boris Johnson has promised to do about Brexit (Yahoo News UK)

Boris Johnson under pressure to set out Brexit plan this week (The Independent)

Boris Johnson's victory speech: what he said and what he meant (The Guardian)

The controversial expansion of Heathrow will go ahead, the boss of the airport has insisted. Chief executive John Holland-Kaye described plans for a third runway as “a fait accompli”, despite campaigners being given permission to mount a further legal challenge earlier this week. He said the expansion, which was backed in Parliament by MPs last year, will be a “critical part of any new prime minister’s agenda”. Do you agree that Heathrow need to expand? Read the full story and have your say below:

Three dead and two missing on remote Canadian highway

Police in Canada are investigating three suspicious deaths and the disappearance of two teenagers which took place within days of each other along a remote Canadian highway. Officers said the two cases might be linked, despite earlier assurances that there was “nothing to indicate” that the double murder of Australian Lucas Fowler, 23, and US citizen Chynna Deese, 24, was related to the discovery of a burning car and a man’s body 500km south, and the disappearance of two Canadian teenagers. Read the full story here (The Guardian)

Tuesday night set to be ‘hottest on record’

Weather forecasters have predicted tonight could be the hottest on record in Britain. The hottest-ever UK night-time temperature was 23.9C, which was recorded in Brighton on August 3 1990. But the Met Office says it could remain as high as 24C on Tuesday night for parts of south-east England. By Thursday, the all-time UK temperature record of 38.5C, recorded in Faversham in August 2003, could be under threat. It is expected to reach at least 37C in the south-east of England, which would beat the current July record of 36.7°C set at Heathrow in 2015. Read the full story here (The Telegraph)

Boris Johnson, voted next Conservative leader by Tory members on Tuesday, is no stranger to controversy and a colourful quote. Here’s a selection of his most outspoken moments: (Yahoo News UK)

360 rounds

That’s the number of warning shots South Korea claimed to have fired after a Russian warplane violated the country’s airspace. The announcement was quickly disputed by Russia. South Korea said three Russian military planes entered the South's air defence identification zone off its east coast before one intruded in the country’s airspace. Russia said later that two of its bombers were on a routine flight over neutral waters. South Korea said it was the first time a foreign military plane had violated South Korean airspace since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War. (Associated Press) (Evening Standard)