Theresa May Pays Tribute To The War Dead

British Prime Minister Theresa May and Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel attended a service at the St. Symphorien Military Cemetery in Mons, Belgium, to lay wreaths at the graves of John Parr and George Ellison, the first and last British soldiers killed in World War One.</s>British Prime Minister Theresa May and French President Emmanuel Macron are set to commemorate their countries' shared sacrifice in the First World War on Friday and discuss the future of their post-Brexit relationship.

The commemoration, just ahead of the 100th anniversary of the end of WWI, will be held at the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme, in northern France, near the Belgian border.

The memorial commemorates 72,337 missing British and South African servicemen who died between 1915 and 1918 in a series of battles along the Somme river and who have no known grave.

May was to start the day with a visit to St Symphorien Military Cemetery in Mons, in Belgium, where she and Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel were to lay a wreath at the graves of the first and last soldiers killed on the Western Front.

"A century ago British forces fought side by side with our allies in Europe on the Western Front. Today in France and Belgium we reflect on our shared history, but also look ahead to our shared future, built on peace, prosperity and friendship," May said in a statement.

Following a reception with British and Belgian serving armed forces in Mons, May will travel to France where she will meet Macron in Albert, a town in the heart of the Somme region which suffered significant bombardment during the First World War.

The leaders will hold a working lunch, where Brexit is expected to be top of the agenda, before laying a wreath at the Thiepval Memorial.

The wreath, made for the occasion, will combine poppies and le bleuet, the two national emblems of remembrance for Britain and France.

France has taken a hard line in Brexit negotiations, with President Emmanuel Macron insistent that Britain should not be allowed to negotiate advantages for itself as it withdraws from the European Union.

Negotiators have been racing the clock to try to agree the outlines of an agreement to settle Britain's exit that could be approved at a summit of EU leaders in Brussels this month.

But hopes of meeting that deadline are fading.

Britain's foreign minister played down the prospect of an imminent deal on Thursday and called for greater efforts to be made in the negotiations to "understand the other's perspective."

On Saturday, May is to attend the Royal British Legion Festival of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall in London.

On Remembrance Sunday, she will lay a wreath at the Cenotaph in London and attend the national service to mark the Centenary of the Armistice at Westminster Abbey.</s>BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Two Belgian police motorcyclists were hurt on Friday when a motorist disrupted a convoy carrying British Prime Minister Theresa May and her Belgian counterpart, an official said.

There was no question of it being an attack, Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel’s spokesman told Reuters, after the incident following a wreath-laying ceremony at a British cemetery to mark Sunday’s centenary of the end of World War One.

“It was an inattentive driver,” the spokesman said.

The motorist began to overtake the speeding convoy on the motorway near Mons but then tried to pull into the convoy’s lane before reaching the front, causing the two escorts guarding the middle of the caravan of vehicles to lose control. As they toppled, their bikes nearly struck the car carrying Michel.

May, in a car traveling in the front of the motorcade, would not have seen the incident, the spokesman said. No one other than police officers was hurt.

While May traveled on toward her next memorial engagement, in France, Michel stopped the remainder of the convoy and waited while medical crews arrived to treat the injured motorcyclists.</s>British Prime Minister Theresa May and French President Emmanuel Macron are set to commemorate their countries' shared sacrifice in the First World War on Friday and discuss the future of their post-Brexit relationship.

The commemoration, just ahead of the 100th anniversary of the end of WWI, will be held at the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme, in northern France, near the Belgian border.

The memorial commemorates 72,337 missing British and South African servicemen who died between 1915 and 1918 in a series of battles along the Somme river and who have no known grave.

May was to start the day with a visit to St Symphorien Military Cemetery in Mons, in Belgium, where she and Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel were to lay a wreath at the graves of the first and last soldiers killed on the Western Front.

"A century ago British forces fought side by side with our allies in Europe on the Western Front. Today in France and Belgium we reflect on our shared history, but also look ahead to our shared future, built on peace, prosperity and friendship," May said in a statement.

Following a reception with British and Belgian serving armed forces in Mons, May will travel to France where she will meet Macron in Albert, a town in the heart of the Somme region which suffered significant bombardment during the First World War.

The leaders will hold a working lunch, where Brexit is expected to be top of the agenda, before laying a wreath at the Thiepval Memorial.

The wreath, made for the occasion, will combine poppies and le bleuet, the two national emblems of remembrance for Britain and France.

France has taken a hard line in Brexit negotiations, with President Emmanuel Macron insistent that Britain should not be allowed to negotiate advantages for itself as it withdraws from the European Union.

Negotiators have been racing the clock to try to agree the outlines of an agreement to settle Britain's exit that could be approved at a summit of EU leaders in Brussels this month.

But hopes of meeting that deadline are fading.

Britain's foreign minister played down the prospect of an imminent deal on Thursday and called for greater efforts to be made in the negotiations to "understand the other's perspective."

On Saturday, May is to attend the Royal British Legion Festival of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall in London.

On Remembrance Sunday, she will lay a wreath at the Cenotaph in London and attend the national service to mark the Centenary of the Armistice at Westminster Abbey.</s>Theresa May's convoy of vehicles has been involved in a crash in Belgium.

The crash happened on the E42 motorway in Belgium, dhnet reports.

The incident took place while Mrs May was reportedly en route to an Armistice Day memorial.

Two police motorcycles were knocked over by a car in the collision and the officers were taken to hospital.

Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel was also at the scene.

Neither Prime Minister was injured in the accident.

Agreement on a Brexit deal with Brussels will create a "new dynamic" in Parliament which would help secure support for Theresa May's plans, a key ally of the Prime Minister has claimed.

The fragile alliance keeping the Prime Minister in power has been strained as the Democratic Unionist Party railed against measures it fears will create a border down the Irish Sea between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK.

But David Lidington, Mrs May's de facto deputy prime minister, said he hoped that once a deal was on the table MPs would rally behind it.

Hopes of an imminent breakthrough in the Brexit negotiations have so far failed to be met.

But both Mr Lidington and Ireland's Leo Varadkar suggested a deal could be reached between the UK and EU in the coming weeks.

The Taoiseach said: "A successful outcome is not guaranteed but I think it is possible in the next couple of weeks."

Tensions between Mrs May and her DUP allies have been exposed amid concerns about measures aimed at avoiding a hard border on the island of Ireland.

DUP leader Arlene Foster said the Prime Minister appeared "wedded to the idea of a border down the Irish Sea" despite Downing Street's repeated assurances to the contrary.

The response of the DUP has caused frustration in Downing Street, with sources insisting that Mrs May was not hiding behind "weasel words" and had stressed that she would not accept a deal which saw Northern Ireland hived off.

A leaked letter from the Prime Minister in reply to an earlier message from Mrs Foster and her deputy, Nigel Dodds, set out Mrs May's approach.

She wants a "backstop" measure which would create a temporary "joint customs territory" with the EU for the whole of the UK.

But Brussels appears set to insist on a Northern Ireland-only "backstop to the backstop" in case negotiations on a wider UK approach break down or any time limit on it expires.

In the letter, obtained by the Times, Mrs May said: "I am clear that I could not accept there being any circumstances or conditions in which that 'backstop to the backstop', which would break up the UK customs territory, could come in to force."

But she acknowledged that the "unique circumstances" of Northern Ireland "could require specific alignment solutions in some scenarios" on regulations.

The scope of any alignment with Brussels' rules would be limited to what is "strictly necessary" to avoid a hard border.

The DUP has interpreted the wording of her letter to mean that specific Northern Ireland measures will be contained in the Brexit divorce deal despite Mrs May's assurances.

Mrs Foster said: "It appears the Prime Minister is wedded to the idea of a border down the Irish Sea with Northern Ireland in the EU single market regulatory regime."

DUP Brexit spokesman Sammy Wilson told BBC Radio 4's Today programme "we want to trust the Prime Minister" but "you have to judge any promise by what is actually delivered in an agreement".

The party's Westminster leader, Mr Dodds, warned on Sky News: "I think the Prime Minister will hopefully realise what can be got through parliament and what can't."

Any version of the backstop would apply unless and until a wider UK-EU deal on the future relationship solved the issue of how to avoid a hard border with Ireland.

The Prime Minister relies on the support of the DUP's 10 MPs for her Commons majority, votes which will be crucial as she attempts to get a deal through Parliament.

At the British-Irish Council summit in the Isle of Man, Mr Lidington said: "The Prime Minister has always been very clear we won't accept something that involves carving out Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK."

He said a UK-EU deal would involve "compromises, give and take on all sides" but when faced with "product on the table" in the form of an agreement backed by all 28 governments there could be a shift in attitude at Westminster.

"People will need to ask themselves what is it that is going to be in the best interests of those who sent them to Westminster to represent them, to ensure that we maintain living standards and investment and prosperity and employment in our country.

"I hope and I believe that we can secure that majority in Parliament for the agreement."

Mr Varadkar, who was also at the Isle of Man summit, said "it is more likely than not that we will be able to conclude an agreement" in the coming weeks but "lots of things can go wrong" - including having to get a deal through Westminster and the European Parliament.

"Even when all of that is done, then we begin the talks on the future relationship," he added.

"There is no clean break here, Brexit is going to go on for a very long time."</s>Two police motorbikes in Theresa May's convoy were knocked over

Theresa May's trip to Belgium to mark the centenary of Armistice Day was interrupted when two police motorbikes in the convoy she was travelling in were knocked over.

The prime minister was leaving a wreath-laying ceremony with Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel when a traffic collision happened near NATO's headquarters in Mons.

A Belgian government source told Sky News the leaders were travelling in separate armoured Mercedes.

Image: Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel got out of his car to check the officers' injuries

Another car entered the convoy around them without instructions, causing the motorbikes to manoeuvre and crash into each other.

Mr Michel, who is a motorcyclist himself, got out of his car and knelt on the road to check the police officers' condition.

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The two motorcyclists were taken to hospital but no-one else was injured.

Image: Mrs May's message: 'They were staunch to the end'

Earlier, Mrs May had been in Saint-Symphorien to visit the graves of the first and last British soldiers to be killed in World War One.

John Parr of the Middlesex Regiment died on 21 August 1914, while Private George Ellison of the Royal Irish Lancers was killed on the Western Front on 11 November 1918 - 90 minutes before the armistice came into effect.

First and last British WWI casualties honoured

In the note left by the resting place of Private Parr, Mrs May quoted a line of wartime poetry The Soldier, written by Rupert Brooke.

She wrote: "There is in that rich earth a richer dust concealed."

At the grave of Private Ellison, also in blue pen on a headed Downing Street card attached to the garland of poppies, Mrs May wrote: "They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted ... We will remember them."

Image: The prime minister also laid a wreath to George Ellison

The line was from a poem written by Laurence Binyon and published in September 1914, which is often quoted in Remembrance Sunday services.

Mrs May later travelled to Albert, the town at the heart of the French Somme region, where she was seen smiling and waving with President Emmanuel Macron.

The leaders held a private meeting and working lunch, before they are due to depart for a wreath-laying ceremony at the nearby Thiepval Memorial.

The site bears the names of more than 72,000 members of the armed forces who died in battle and holds an annual commemoration for the Missing of the Somme.</s>A car has smashed into a convoy carrying the prime ministers of the UK and Belgium, injuring two police officers

The convoy was leaving a British military graveyard where Theresa May and Belgian prime minister Charles Michel had been laying wreaths to soldiers who fell in World War One, Reuters reported.

A spokesperson for prime minister Michel described the event as an “unfortunate accident” according to local media reports.

The car reportedly knocked down two police officers on motorbikes who had been escorting the convoy. The pair have been taken to hospital, and no one else was injured, local media said.</s>
• A car crashed into a convoy carrying UK Prime Minister Theresa May and Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel in Belgium on Friday, local media reported.
• Neither May nor Michel were injured.
• Two police officers on motorbikes were reportedly mildly hurt.
• Local media said it was an accident.

A car crashed into UK Prime Minister Theresa May’s convoy in Belgium on Friday, local media reported.

May, who was travelling with Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel to a World War I memorial in Mons, in the country’s southwest.

It’s not clear if May and Michel’s car was directly hit. Neither were hurt, according to Belgian outlets SudInfo and De Standaard.

Two police, who were travelling on motorbikes, were hit and taken to hospital with mild injuries, SudInfo reported.

Belgian newspapers Le Soir and De Standaard both reported the crash to be an accident. The identity of the driver who crashed into the convoy is not yet known.

Michel ordered the convoy to stop immediately after the crash to check on the police officers, before continuing on the journey, Belgian newspapers La Dernière Heure and De Standaard reported.</s>BENOIT DOPPAGNE via Getty Images Theresa May and Charles Michel (far left) attend a ceremony to commemorate Armistice Day in Belgium.

A vehicle in a convoy carrying Prime Minister Theresa May to an event marking Armistice Day in Belgium has been involved in a crash.

Charles Michel, the Belgian Prime Minister, was also part of the convoy at the time of the incident on Friday morning, the De Standaard newspaper reported.

It is believed two outriders were injured in a collision during the journey to the St Symphorien Military Cemetery in Mons, south east of Brussels.

Reports said the incident occurred on the E42 motorway and that the two outriders were police officers. May and Michel were not harmed in the incident.

HuffPost UK understands that May’s vehicle was ahead of the incident when it occurred.

Both leaders were later pictured paying tribute to fallen soldiers killed in World War I by laying wreaths, including on the grave of John Parr, the first British soldier to die in the conflict.</s>A motorcade carrying British Prime Minister Theresa May and her Belgian counterpart Charles Michel to a World War I memorial ceremony in Belgium was involved in a motorway accident on Friday, but neither leader was hurt.

Police and officials said two Belgian police motorcycle escort riders were injured when a car hit the leaders’ convoy. Michel’s spokesman, Barend Leyts, described it as “an unfortunate accident,” while Downing Street said May’s vehicle had already gone past when the incident occurred.

Local media said the accident happened near Mons in southwest Belgium, after May and Michel had visited the Saint-Symphorien cemetery to pay homage to soldiers who died in the war, as part of this weekend’s 100th anniversary of the Armistice.

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A convoy accident involving British Prime Minister Theresa May and Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel interrupts an Armistice Day trip after two police motorbikes were knocked over.