Dear @MarkJCarney we want to bring the relationship with Canada to the highest level possible. I would like to work with you on opening the door for Canada to being the first associate member of the EU. And create a common prosperity and economic security space.

I am a One Nation Conservative. Today I am joining the Liberal Democrats. Julian Critchley put it to Charles Kennedy in 1999: make an alliance with the more civilised Tories and you might build a centre force in British politics. Multiparty politics has arrived. People are starting to line up by what they actually think, not by the old labels. Leaving was not easy. I have met a lot of decent, hard-working people in the Conservative Party, and I will go on admiring their commitment. But we don’t do politics to keep our friends happy. We do it because we think it is right for the country. There comes a point when a compromise is a compromise too far, and you have to ask where those values now have a home. In the media and in the grassroots, the demand to get rid of the wets never really went away. It was already there in 1996. Thatcher said that One Nation Conservatism, judged by its views on European federalism, would better be described as No Nation Conservatism. Whoever started it, the split is now past mending. There are irreconcilable differences within the centre-right. I still cannot accept the language used about Muslims praying in public. I still cannot accept the Eurosceptic drag on the country’s future. I still cannot accept the refusal to take environmental politics seriously. The candidate selection filter is deeply unconservative. The Conservative Party is no longer a national party. It has given up speaking for the national community and gone after sectional interests instead. It wants a proper conservatism, and never mind whether that conservatism actually fits the country. Ideology first. The facts later. Some will say this only proves I was a Lib Dem all along. Fine. Call it One Nation 2.0. One Nation Liberalism. Most Tories these days are liberals of one strand or another anyway. One Nation is bigger than one person, one faction, even one epistemology. It doesn’t have a fixed set of policy prescriptions. Its policies have always been disputed and have changed with the times. What endures is the instinct: to build a national community, to look beyond a party’s traditional core, to resist sectionalism, to protect liberty, to strengthen institutions and communities, and govern in the national interest. Yet even Andrew Tyrie’s One Nation Again in 2006 could not settle the Conservative argument over Europe. Those who care about the tradition may finally have to accept that it has schismed. It became diasporic long before my own decision. Party loyalty cannot be the be-all and end-all of the creed. I am not joining the Liberal Democrats because I have stopped believing in One Nation. I am realigning myself with where I think those ideas can actually be represented: in a broad church, in a party that still has the capacity to govern in the national interest rather than act as a vehicle for transient ones. They have not written Europe off. They have a serious offer for business. They would take power out of Whitehall and put it back with communities. And they have not given up on Britain as a decent, plural country, open to the world and at ease with itself. That is why I have joined the Liberal Democrats.

Today we marked the 25th anniversary of the Birmingham Faith Leaders Group with an interfaith service for peace at the Hall of Memory, coming together in reflection and prayer for peace in our city and across the world. The city's faith leaders were joined by the Lord Mayor of Birmingham Councillor Zaker Choudhry, Councillor Jane Baston, Cabinet Member for Equalities, Communities and Social Justice and Deputy Lord-Lieutenant Paul Faulkner. Thank you to everyone who attended and helped us mark this important anniversary.

Farage has always behaved as though the rules apply to everyone but him. These allegations against Reform look like the latest example. Lib Dem Cabinet Office spokesperson @LisaSmartMP has written to the police and the electoral commission asking them to investigate.

Today is Emergency Services Day, which we marked this morning by coming together to raise the Emergency Services flag in recognition of the courage, dedication and compassion of our emergency services family. 1/5

Met Police launches criminal investigation into Reform UK over foreign donor claims bbc.in/46LyL3Z