News and Opinion

Labour needs to set out a vision on Brexit that the whole country can get behind, says JOHN LEHAL Parliament may have risen for recess, but the Brexit secretary is already heading back to Brussels. This summer could well see the government’s chickens come home to roost. Far from a relaxing recess, the next few […]

Amid political stalemate a second referendum might be an idea whose time has come, writes BARNABY TOWNS With only 12% of voters backing the government’s ‘Chequers compromise’ in the latest poll, there are increasing calls for a People’s Vote, in which electors would be asked to choose either the government’s Brexit deal, assuming there is […]

A former chairman of Lloyd’s of London has written a letter tearing apart Brexiteer arguments and calling for “terrified” businesses and MPs to speak up. John Nelson, who was chairman of the insurance market from 2011 to last year said: “Never in 50 years of working life have I seen the UK facing such an […]

Sir Elton John has launched a blistering attack on Brexit and the ‘completely ridiculous’ promises made by Leavers. In a Channel 4 News interview the British singer claimed that those who backed Brexit did not know what they were voting for backing in June 2016. He claimed: ‘I don’t think people in Britain were told […]

‘Vote Leave,’ they said. ‘It’ll be great,’ they said. ‘We will give £350m a week to the NHS,’ they said. And the truth? Well, according to government plans to stockpile medicine, blood and even food are under way. Welcome to the sunlit uplands of Brexit folks. The first warning came from the new health secretary, […]

German culture’s enduring and changing relationship with the mythical Dr Faustus and his deal with the devil has coloured how the country views itself, says Ian Walker. Bin ich ein Gott? Mir wird so licht!’ (Am I a God? Light fills my mind); Goethe’s Faust The Faust myth – the story of a man who […]

Theresa May has announced she is to take control of negotiations with the EU, with Dominic Raab’s department effectively relegated to planning for no deal. Just 15 days after replacing David Davis as Brexit secretary – during which Mr Raab boasted he would use August to “intensify” and “get some energy into” talks – Mrs […]

It could be illegal to pay pensions to many retired British expats if the UK crashes out of the EU without a deal, the Association of British Insurers has told MPs. The trade association told members of the Commons Brexit committee that pensioners who receive their payments into bank accounts in their adopted countries could […]

MPs have warned lives are at risk if Britain crashes out of Europe without a deal. In a brutal assessment of preparations being made for security relations with the EU post-Brexit, the Commons Home Affairs Committee said both sides were behaving ‘recklessly’. The report pinpointed Theresa May’s decision to rule out European Court of Justice […]

Jeremy Corbyn has finally come clean over his views on Brexit. In a speech launching his plans to boost British manufacturing, the Labour leader made the extraordinary claim that there has already been a economic ‘benefit’ of Brexit. The address, which will outrage most Labour voters and MPs, also echoed Donald Trump’s protectionist policies by […]

A third of companies have shifted their contracts out of English courts’ jurisdiction since the Brexit vote, it emerged today. 35% of businesses say they had changed their contracts so that legal issues are heard in courts outside of England, according to new research, threatening its position as a world-leading centre for companies to resolve […]

A Tory minister has weirdly mocked calls for a People’s Vote on any Brexit deal by questioning if aliens or farm animals voted to leave the EU. Closing a House of Lords debate, Brexit minister Lord Callanan ridiculed the idea of a People’s Vote, asking “who voted in the first referendum, perhaps aliens or farm […]

Sacha Baron Cohen’s timely new comedy series offers clues as to how to cope with the blurring of truth and fiction in the era of Trump, says Leshu Torchin. The return of Sacha Baron Cohen (aka Ali G, Borat, and Brüno), comes just in time. His new satirical comedy series Who Is America? – filmed […]

The prime minister has revealed how she likes to relax after a day of managing Conservative Party feuds, promoting her Brexit plan, and trying to run the country. In the first leg of her new ‘Brexit tour’ Theresa May tried to restore public confidence in her abilities to negiogiate Brexit by attemping to show her […]

In an era of heightening global tensions, Martin Plaut finds an encouraging instance of two rivals burying the hatchet. He gives the inside story of an apparent instance of quickfire diplomacy Not long before Donald Trump’s eventful stay in the UK, another much-anticipated trip by a foreign leader to a nation with much shared history […]

Politics, pignappings, and prosecco… Charlie Connelly lifts the lid on the world of literary prizes – including his own track record. Kurt Vonnegut never won the Nobel Prize for Literature and he thought he knew why. He once managed a Saab dealership in Cape Cod that went to the wall, he explained before citing what […]

Billionaire business tycoon and Brexit basher Richard Branson has called leaving the EU a ‘tremendous mistake’ which is ‘already affecting the lives of my countrymen’. And he says he hopes the country has a last minute change of heart and votes against quitting. The Virgin Group founder was unveiling plans for new cruises under the […]

Deselecting the maverick MP is tempting, says Labour activist TESSA MILLIGAN, but won’t solve the hole at the heart of the party’s Brexit policy Kate Hoey is an anti-EU maverick. Being a backbencher gives her the freedom to vote on her conscience. Labour Party whips mean little to her, and nor do pairing agreements by […]

The only person who would welcome a no-deal Brexit is Russian president Vladimir Putin, new foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt has said. Mr Hunt said Mr Putin would rejoice if the UK and its allies failed to reach an agreement. His comments strike a different tone from predecessor Boris Johnson – who said a Brexit on […]

A leading government trade official was paid almost half a million pounds then quit before a single post-Brexit negotiation, it emerged today. Catherine Raines was paid a £62,800 ‘golden goodbye’ when she resigned as director of International Trade and Investment in February, The Sun newspaper reported. She also received a £40,000 performance-related bonus on top […]

TIM WALKER reviews Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre’s production of ‘As You Like It’. Seldom, if ever, can the fates have conspired against a first night in quite the way they did for As You Like It at the Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre last week. No one could have known when they scheduled it […]

Ryanair has warned about the danger of a Hard Brexit, saying that the risk of one was being “underestimated” The airline has warned UK shareholders they may have to lose their voting rights in the event of a Brexit which sees the country crashing out of the EU without a deal next March. Ryanair said: […]

Theresa May’s divided cabinet has headed north in a bid to come together over her Brexit strategy. Brexit secretary Dominic Raab has admitted that even after the resignations of David Davis and Boris Johnson in the wake of the Chequers proposal there remains tension over the plan. He said he still needs to persuade some […]

Jacob Rees-Mogg has suggested it could take half a century for Britain to reap any rewards from Brexit. 'You don't seem to be prepared to put your own future on the line when you're prepared to put everybody else's futures on the line.' This is what happened when we asked leading Brexiteer Jacob Rees Mogg […]

The Tories’ Brexit ‘chaos’ is as big a threat to the future of the UK as the SNP, a Labour MP has warned. The Scottish Labour MP Ian Murray has warned a hard Brexit would spark an existential crisis for the union and could see Scotland leaving the UK. He believes a worst-case scenario would […]

PETER MILLAR reports from the region which could yet trigger Merkel’s downfall We were standing in Neuhauser Strasse, Munich’s busiest shopping street, awash as always with busy locals and the now commonplace smattering of migrants, mostly from Syria and the Miiddle East. ‘Look at that,’ said Dieter, my Berlin friend. ‘I’ve never understood why they […]

As part of his personal campaign to keep Britain inside the EU, the philosopher and academic AC Grayling has sent a letter to all MPs, highlighting two of the central fallacies of Brexit. We reproduce it here Dear MP, I write to alert you to two highly significant considerations which have not figured in the […]

A petition of members of left-wing pressure group Momentum is nearing a key milestone. Almost 4,000 members of the group – formed to back Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership bid and now one of the most powerful voices within the Labour party – have now backed a policy change to support a People’s Vote on the final […]

New Brexit secretary Dominic Raab has admitted the cabinet remains divided over the prime minister’s Chequers plan. Former foreign secretary Boris Johnson and Brexit chief David Davis walked out of government in response to the plan which outlines the UK’s negotiating strategy with the European Union. Now Raab has admitted he is still trying to […]

The German chancellor has become an anachronism from a bygone Europe, writes Paul Knott. Exactly how or when the end might come remains unclear. Yet the growing challenges to German chancellor Angela Merkel’s authority suggest that her 13 years in office are fast drawing to a close. During that period, she has successfully consolidated Germany’s […]

PETER TRUDGILL divides up the continent according to word different languages use to describe the smelly stuff The distribution of words meaning ‘cheese’ in different European languages has an interesting geographical pattern. These words fall into four rather clearly separate zones. In the northern zone, the North Germanic languages have a word for cheese which […]

Does the modern game make it even more difficult than ever for players to come out? Jason Solomons writes about a timely film that puts a sport on the spot Of the 736 players registered as team members in Russia for the recent World Cup, how many were gay? Statistically, the likelihood is quite a […]