LONDON (Reuters) – BP Plc, the British government and the European Union lobbied U.S. lawmakers to have a BP-led project exempted from proposed new U.S. sanctions which seek to stop Western companies doing business with Iran, sources close to the matter said.

U.S. lawmakers are mulling new sanctions to constrict the funding that Western nations suspect Iran is using to develop nuclear weapons.

LONDON (Reuters) – Britain scrapped an inquiry into whether its security services knew about the torture of terrorism suspects overseas, because police have launched a separate investigation into whether London illegally sent detainees to Muammar Gaddafi’s Libya.

Prime Minister David Cameron announced in July 2010 he was setting up an inquiry, led by retired appeals court judge Peter Gibson, to investigate whether British agents had worked with foreign security services who abused detainees.

LONDON, Jan 17 (Reuters) – An Israeli minister called
Britain’s Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg irresponsible and
ill-informed on Tuesday for condemning Israeli settlements as
“deliberate vandalism” of efforts to establish a Palestinian
state.

Visiting Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon said
Clegg’s comment gave the Palestinians an excuse to set
pre-conditions for entering negotiations with Israel on a Middle
East peace settlement.

LONDON (Reuters) – The Labour Party toughened its stance on combatting the country’s budget deficit on Saturday in an attempt to regain the trust of voters sceptical about its economic policies.

In a significant policy switch, shadow chancellor Ed Balls said the party backed years of pay restraint for public sector workers and that it would make no promises to undo the government’s tax rises or spending cuts if it regained power.

LONDON, Jan 15 (Reuters) – British Prime Minister
David Cameron offered on Sunday to hold talks with Scottish
leader Alex Salmond to thrash out their differences over
arrangements for a referendum on Scottish independence that
could lead to a breakup of the United Kingdom.

His offer followed a day of manoeuvring between the British
government and Salmond’s devolved Scottish administration as
both sides competed for the high ground in an increasingly
acrimonious debate over the future of the 300-year-old union
between Scotland and England.

LONDON, Jan 15 (Reuters) – Standard & Poor’s decision
to cut the sovereign credit ratings of nine euro zone countries
shows Europe must step up its efforts to kick-start growth,
Britain’s foreign minister said on Sunday.

William Hague also said Britain’s Foreign Office had
contingency plans for a variety of scenarios in the euro zone
while declining to confirm media reports that his department had
drawn up plans to aid Britons living in euro zone countries if
the currency collapsed.

LONDON (Reuters) – The Labour Party toughened its stance on combating the country’s budget deficit on Saturday in an attempt to regain the trust of voters sceptical about its economic policies.

In a significant policy switch, Labour’s shadow chancellor Ed Balls said the party backed years of pay restraint for public sector workers and that it would make no promises to undo the government’s tax rises or spending cuts if it regained power.

LONDON, Jan 14 (Reuters) – Britain’s opposition Labour
Party toughened its stance on combatting the country’s budget
deficit on Saturday in an attempt to regain the trust of voters
sceptical about its economic policies.

In a significant policy switch, Labour’s finance spokesman
Ed Balls said the party backed years of pay restraint for public
sector workers and that it would make no promises to undo the
government’s tax rises or spending cuts if it regained power.

LONDON, Jan 10 (Reuters) – The British government set
out conditions on Tuesday under which Scotland would be allowed
to hold a referendum on breaking away from the rest of Britain,
a move which it strongly opposes.

Any referendum must be limited to a straightforward
yes-or-no question on independence, excluding the option of
asking whether Scotland should be given greater devolved powers,
and should be held as soon as possible, the British government
said.

LONDON, Jan 8 (Reuters) – British Prime Minister David
Cameron said for the first time on Sunday he would veto a
European-wide financial transaction tax unless it was imposed
globally, deepening a confrontation with European Union
heavyweights France and Germany.

He said France should be free to go it alone and introduce a
financial transactions tax if it wished.