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The Times •

Parliament in decay: MPs endure flooding, rats and broken toilets

When Queen Elizabeth died last year, visitors queued for hours to make their way through Westminster Hall to see the monarch lying in state and soak up the atmosphere.

Parliamentary cleaners were left soaking up something very different, as the antiquated plumbing which snakes around the Palace of Westminster buckled under the pressure, providing yet another example of the crumbling mess at the heart of Britain’s democracy.
The Times •

Wakefield’s Conservatives fear the writing is on the red wall

When Allan Couch went to bed on Wednesday night, the red wall outside his home in Wakefield was intact. By the time he woke next morning it had crumbled, perhaps due to nearby tree roots, and he was left picking up the bricks.

Couch, a former Conservative council candidate who quit the local association, fears the red wall his party snatched three years ago could start to suffer a similar fate this week.
The Yorkshire Post •

Freeports ready for takeoff: Could Yorkshire be at the forefront of post-Brexit trade?

As negotiations with the EU appear gloomy, the way in which the UK trades with other countries and remains prosperous come 2021 has yet again been up for discussion. The creation of up to 10 freeports, where goods can be imported without paying customs duties, is seen as somewhat of a panacea. But opinion on them is split, with little understanding in the public consciousness of what benefits they may actually bring, as Geraldine Scott reports.
The Yorkshire Post •

Abuse, rebellions, and reflections: The two Yorkshire MPs at the forefront of the Brexit debate - but on opposite sides

Albeit on different sides of the argument, two Yorkshire MPs have been at the forefront of the Brexit debate for the last three and a half years - and before. On the UK’s first day outside of the EU for decades, Hilary Benn and Andrea Jenkyns speak to Westminster Correspondent Geraldine Scott to reflect on the struggle, and look at what comes next.