News and Opinion

Who is on Question Time tonight and where do they stand on Brexit? Here’s your guide… The BBC’s flagship current affairs programme tonight comes from Penzance, Cornwall, the home town of Thandie Newton. But who will put in a stellar Solo performance – and whose appearance will be an almighty Crash? Here’s who’s who and […]

Adrift and rudderless… It’s a matter of urgency. Bonnie Greer summarises the UK’s draft Withdrawal Agreement. The draft Withdrawal Agreement Theresa May brought back from Brussels should trouble us all. It does two things: it reveals something lurking in the shadows of Brexit – a deep, troubling and dangerous irrationality; and it is also the […]

The Labour leader’s ultimate ambition is to restore power to Labour members. The only way to do this is to come off the fence and support a People’s Vote, says ANDREW ADONIS. Jeremy Corbyn’s essential problem with the EU is that it isn’t a Latin American liberation movement. It is far too unrevolutionary, boring, democratic […]

The date and time of the BBC’s televised Brexit debate has been announced – but so far only Theresa May is signed up. The BBC’s debate will air on Sunday 9 December – most likely at 8pm – a time which would clash with the final of I’m A Celebrity. Jeremy Corbyn’s team have yet […]

Advocates of a People’s Vote may not like it, but the way out of this constitutional crisis is ‘Norway Plus’, says Labour MP STEPHEN KINNOCK Let’s be clear: Theresa May’s Brexit deal is a thumping victory for the EU, whichever way you slice it. On March 29, 2019 our country will effectively become a vassal […]

Michael Gove tried to speak French in the Commons today – but reverted to speaking English with a French accent instead. The environment secretary and Brexiteer’s ‘Allo ‘Allo moment came as he was answering a question from Tory MP Kevin Foster, who asked about President Emmanuel Macron’s recent comments on fishing rights and demanded a […]

Nigel Farage appears to be maneuvering away from the possibility of a no-deal Brexit – urging the EU to renegotiate with the UK. Speaking in the European Parliament he warned that there was now a ‘strong chance’ of the UK leaving on World Trade Organisation rules with a ‘no deal’. However he told Michel Barnier, […]

Jacob Rees-Mogg, backbench architect of a botched coup against the prime minister, has dismissed Bank of England governor Mark Carney as “a second-tier Canadian politician”. The famously courteous Jacob Rees-Mogg has dismissed Bank of England governor’s warning that Britain would be plunged into its deepest recession since the 1930s under a no-deal Brexit, saying: “Mark […]

We need a strategy to win the People’s Vote – which looks increasingly likely. Many former Brexit voters are bound to be very uneasy about the wisdom of their vote in 2016 but we must not patronise or insult them in the course of arguing for the remain option. The truth is that the voters […]

I am struck by the comments of Theresa May that her Brexit plan will stop EU migrants ‘jumping the queue’ when it comes to working in the UK. How low the UK has sunk that its Brexiteer government is now resorting to spreading resentment towards European citizens, classing them as ‘queue jumpers’? These individuals took […]

MARK LEMON has voted Labour since 1979 but feels he will not be able to vote for the party any longer if it does not changes its stance on Brexit. I am disgusted by Jeremy Corbyn’s attitude to a People’s Vote. Most Labour voters, MPs and party members want a chance to vote on any […]

Former government minister Jo Johnson has urged the Tories to vote down Prime Minister Theresa May’s ‘worst of all worlds’ Brexit. Johnson, whose surprise resignation caught Westminster off guard, is to use a speech to try and rally opposition to Mrs May’s EU withdrawal agreement. MORE: Now even a Daily Mail poll backs a People’s […]

The DUP have waded into the row over the publication of the Brexit legal advice by asking what the government has to ‘hide’ by not publishing it. DUP Westminster leader Nigel Dodds said listening has been the ‘problem all along’ with Conservative government, as he and Labour pushed for the publication of the full legal […]

ALASTAIR CAMPBELL analyses Theresa May’s ‘Mendacious’ Brexit letter and exposes eleven of the lies within. There was something truly Trumpian in the prime minister’s ‘Letter to the Nation,’ the main points of which – ‘strong and stable’-like – she has repeated ad nauseam ever since the nation received it, and is now taking on a […]

With her leverage curtailed, the PM has upped the stakes to a dangerous level, writes JAMES BALL. When the ‘eurosceptic’ Conservative MP John Hayes was given a knighthood last week, his colleagues in parliament seemed less than delighted at his good fortune. Much of the reason for the discontent appears to be the suddenness of […]

Ministers have been accused of breaking a ‘solemn promise’ to release the full legal advice given to the government about its political declaration. Remain Tory MP Anna Soubry said that analysis was promised to them ‘at that despatch box and in private’ in return for pulling an amendment that would have bound the Treasury to […]

Most Britons think Brexit is not worth it if it means a lower rate of economic growth, a new poll has revealed. The Sky Data polling comes after figures released by the Treasury suggest the economy could be 3.9% worse off after 15 years as a result of the government’s proposed Brexit deal. Just over […]

MICHAEL WHITE on the dark forces that circle as the hunt continues for a way out. Even before Theresa May began her nationwide media offensive to sell the half-cabinet’s Brexit deal to a weary electorate over the heads of bickering Westminster, I should have spotted that there were two cartridges in her shotgun. One is […]

Shadow chancellor John McDonnell has said that a People’s Vote now appears to be ‘inevitable’. There had been speculation that senior Labour figures were preparing to back a People’s Vote if Theresa May’s deal was defeated – with Robert Peston claiming that Corbyn would make his party the ‘champion of another referendum or People’s Vote’. […]

A Remainer who is pushing through Brexit versus a eurosceptic whose party desperately wants to stay in the EU – these are very strange times. And Theresa May’s denial – even in the face of mounting gloomy financial forecasting – that Britain will be worse off after Brexit was Trumpian. Hopefully if we do get […]

They promised sunlit uplands – now Brexiteer Michael Gove has been forced to assure us that UK drinking water will be safe after Brexit. The environment secretary was quizzed by the DEFRA committee over a news report which suggested there might be a shortage of chemicals used to treat water if the UK left the […]

A poll printed in the Daily Mail – once the bible for Brexit ultras – has revealed most Britons now back a new referendum. The Survation survey asked: ‘Should there be a People’s Vote – a referendum – on Mrs May’s Brexit deal?’ A whopping 48% backed a new vote with only 34% opposing the […]

Brexiteers have warned they are ready for a People’s Vote – and they have a new battlebus ready to tour the country. Leavers appear to have conceded that a fresh referendum is now the most likely option if Theresa May’s deal fails in the House of Commons in December. Now they are already recruiting volunteers […]

Veteran anti-austerity and anti-Brexit activist Harry Leslie Smith has died aged 95. Smith, from Barnsley in South Yorkshire, appeared at the Labour Party conference in 2014 to speak about life before the NHS. He fought in World War II and lived through the Great Depression, and called himself the ‘world’s oldest rebel’. Writing for The […]

The government has finally admitted that under all Brexit scenarios we will be left worse off, with the chancellor admitting we would better off staying in the EU. Phillip Hammond admitted on Radio 4’s Today programme that analysis of May’s Brexit plan shows the economy will be ‘slightly smaller’ under her preferred option. The chancellor […]

The government has become embroiled in a fresh row over the publication of the attorney general Geoffrey Cox’s legal advice on the Withdrawal Agreement. Labour’s shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer is pressing ministers to comply with a binding Commons motion to publish the full advice after ministers dropped their opposition to the motion to […]

Major disruption at British ports is a “real prospect” if the UK exits the EU without a deal, according to a report. The House of Commons Public Accounts Committee said there was a “real risk” the Department for Transport will not be ready for a no-deal scenario, with time running out to fix it. Meg […]

The government has been accused by the Liberal Democrats of hiding its planning for a no-deal Brexit. Lib Dems say the use of secretive non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) with transport companies is hampering businesses’ efforts to prepare for no deal. It comes after a report by a powerful House of Commons committee said major disruption at […]

Boris Johnson has said that the proposed television debate between Corbyn and May would be a ‘false choice’ between two Remainers. The former foreign secretary turned vocal backbench Tory critic said that it needed ‘someone who believes in Brexit’ – but fell short of putting himself forward. His intervention came after May had rejected calls […]

A caller has told Nigel Farage that he is personally responsible for the loss of a ‘common sense’ approach – the very thing he claimed to stand for under UKIP. Katherine told Nigel Farage that she believes her right to live and work in European Union countries will be taken away from her as a […]

More than 150 young anti-Brexit campaigners from across the UK took over the lobby of the House of Commons to get their voices heard. The young people, aged between 16 and 28, travelled from as far away as Northern Ireland Scotland to demand meetings with their MP to communicate the message that they do not […]

Theresa May has turned down a call to host a live bushtucker trial on TV instead of her Brexit debate with Jeremy Corbyn. The prime minister has scheduled the debate with Corbyn, on her Brexit deal with the European Union, for December 9 – the same day as the final of this year’s I’m A […]