News and Opinion

Can we really leave a whole new generation of Brits with such a broken future, asks FEMI OLUWOLE of Our Future, Our Choice Now we’ve all heard the doom and gloom predictions about how Brexit would screw the economy. Frankly, there have been so many claimed figures around this issue that it’s hard to keep […]

London mayor Sadiq Khan is to urge EU leaders to extend Article 50 and delay Brexit until a second referendum or a new government is formed. He will tell the EU’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier when they meet in Brussels today that an extension is in the interests of both sides to avert a “political […]

Public displays of policy are a powerful thing, argues James Ball. When a politician makes a big and public declaration on a policy, it becomes far more likely that they’re going to do it. Anyone who remembers the 2010 Liberal Democrat election campaign and manifesto will know this is no hard-and-fast rule – after promising […]

It is time for the Baby Boomers to step aside and allow the young to take control, argues Bonnie Greer. In conversation with a much younger friend recently I started to see more clearly than ever before why those of us of the Baby Boomer generation must step aside and allow the young to go […]

This week’s New European podcast is now available. Richard Porritt, Geri Scott and Jono Read return for another episode of Brexit chat. The team dive headfirst into the listener’s mailbag and answer all your burning questions – who went on a jolly charabanc to Brussels, how is Theresa May hanging on and what exactly will […]

Alastair Campbell believes things are only just getting started. Well it was certainly different to the last time we marched in London, a few months ago. Not simply the numbers, which had swelled by a factor of five or six, so that a friend I was going to see at the end did not get […]

Auditors have shocked absolutely no-one by reporting Northern Ireland is not well prepared for a no-deal Brexit in areas such as trade and customs. The ability to plan is also “severely constrained” amid uncertainty surrounding the Irish border, migration and the repatriation of powers from Brussels, comptroller and auditor general of the Northern Ireland Audit […]

Sir John Major has issued another stinging attack on Brexiteers following the release of a report that found a ‘no deal’ Brexit will cost young people up to £108,000 by 2050 – the equivalent of £3,000 a year. The former prime minister was commenting on a report by Oxford economist Tommy Peto, which has been […]

Gina Miller laments that no one in government will debate Brexit with her, the maverick Telegraph star who wants an inquest into the ‘unholy mess’ of Brexit, and Boris Johnson’s £16,846 jolly to the States. Few, if any people, can grasp the detail of Brexit quite like Gina Miller – and that would appear to […]

Apprentice star Lord Sugar has said Brexiteers such as Boris Johnson and Michael Gove should be locked up for the “lies” they told during the EU referendum. And the business tycoon said there was a “good argument” for voiding the result of the 2016 poll because people had been misled. The independent crossbench peer made […]

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 Barrow-in-Furness’ Forum venue, which just tomorrow night will play host to Suggs from Madness. But who will prove themselves One Step Beyond shifting public opinion on Brexit – and who […]

Jacob Rees-Mogg has laughed off claims from Donald Tusk that Brexiteers are ‘100% responsible’ for the lack of progress in negotiation talks. European Council president Tusk made the suggestion on Twitter after a barbed exchange with Nigel Farage in Salsbourg, in which Farage claimed the threat of a hard border in Ireland was a ‘red […]

Andrew Adonis explains how Europe has gone back in time. Those who say it’s far-fetched to say we are back in the 1930s know little of the 1930s – or they are the very people trying to take us back there. A.J.P. Taylor, a great historian of the causes of the 
First and Second World […]

Brexiteer radio host Nick Ferrari has turned on pro-Brexit supporter Sir James Dyson for choosing Singapore over Britain to build his new electric cars. The LBC radio presenter was in disbelief that Dyson had chosen to take £16 million of taxpayers’ money for the development of a new electric car out of the country for […]

Michael White on the increasingly hopeless manoeuvres from all sides as they realise the finish line is near. I don’t think I’ve joined a demonstration down Whitehall since students, ones who had voted in droves for the Liberal Democrats in June 2010, turned against them in November after Nick Clegg’s ministers endorsed that Coalition decision […]

A group of pro-EU activists accused by a Tory of ’rounding’ on him ‘like a mob’ during the People’s Vote march have released photographs of the incident to dispute his claims. https://twitter.com/AndrewRosindell/status/1053975558747578370 The encounter took place as pro-Brexit Andrew Rosindell – who was not on the march – was heading to his office as the […]

A no-deal Brexit may be the “most likely outcome” of negotiations, Nicola Sturgeon has told MSPs. The prime minister said that while the terms of Britain’s withdrawal from the bloc were 95% agreed, there remained an “impasse” over the issue of the Irish border. Sturgeon said she was “increasingly concerned” about the prospect of leaving […]

Almost two-thirds of Tory supporters lack confidence in Theresa May’s handling of Brexit, a poll has shown. Some 64% of Conservatives said they did not back the prime minister to secure a good deal, up 11 points from last month. Overall, 78% of people surveyed by Ipsos MORI were pessimistic about the prime minister’s ability […]

A member of Jacob Rees-Mogg’s European Research Group was asked six times if they had support for a hard Brexit in the House of Commons, and each time refused to answer. Anne-Marie Trevelyan, Conservative MP for Berwick-upon-Tweed, was questioned by Labour’s Chuka Umunna about the Tory right’s plans for a hard Brexit that would see […]

A senior Tory MEP has been forced to apologise after comparing Socialists in the European Parliament to Nazis. Syed Kamall, who leads the European Conservatives and Reformists Group to which Theresa May’s party belongs, backed down after his remarks caused outrage in the chamber and a rebuke from the parliament’s president Antonio Tajani. Tajani was […]

Nigel Farage has made a rare appearance in the European Parliament to attack his own country’s civil service, accusing it of being “the enemy within”. The Ukip MEP for South East England turned up for work to denounce the UK negotiating team under Olly Robbins as attempting to sabotage Brexit and said Britain was heading […]

Theresa May’s argument against a People’s Vote was succinctly destroyed on BBC News in just 40 seconds. https://twitter.com/Scientists4EU/status/1054440271860195328 The counterargument was made by prominent anti-Brexit campaigner Dr Mike Galsworthy. He was interviewed by the BBC’s Chi Chi Izundu during the People’s Vote march in London about the potential for having a final say on Brexit. […]

Sadiq Khan has called on the speaker to make sure the government offers MPs a proper ‘meaningful vote’ on Brexit – calling the current offer from Theresa May a ‘scam’. Speaking during a telephone debate on LBC he gave his predictions for what happens next with Brexit. He said: ‘I think Theresa May will still […]

The European Parliament’s Brexit negotiator has poured cold water on Theresa May’s claims of progress, saying it was zero percent until the Irish border issue was resolved. May told Parliament on Monday that 95% of the Brexit withdrawal agreement were settled as she sought to assuage MPs in her own party that she was making […]

A group of pro-Leave MEPs have turned up in force to debate in the European parliament in Strasbourg – because the subject of their entitlements after Brexit was on the agenda. Despite UKIP MEPs turning up to fewer votes than any other party in Europe – just 62.3% of votes before Brexit – a majority […]

The New European Editor MATT KELLY says Remain is now the biggest movement in Europe. There is a taboo about Brexit, rarely broken for fear of the backlash that always goes with doing so. It is to say the people were wrong. Theresa May relies on it now. It’s her final justification for the absurd […]

Britain’s ability to deal with threats from animal and plant diseases could be “seriously compromised” by a no-deal Brexit, a Lords committee has said. Peers expressed concern at the prospect of the UK losing access to “vital” EU safety alerts after it leaves the bloc. Animal and plant diseases, along with invasive non-native species, present […]

A host of measures to prepare the UK border for Brexit may not be ready for a no-deal scenario, a watchdog has warned. The government faces a race against time to replace critical IT systems, boost Border Force staffing levels and build new infrastructure to track goods, according to the National Audit Office. It said […]

A People’s Vote backer branded a “pathetic cretin” by an ex Tory MP for tweeting a picture of his stepson in hospital has demanded an apology. Anthony Hobley called on Stewart Jackson, a former Peterborough MP and ex-chief of staff to David Davis when he was Brexit secretary, to say sorry after the comments sparked […]

A committee of MPs has questioned whether there will be enough time to make the necessary arrangements to avoid large-scale disruption if Britain leaves the EU without a deal. The Commons European Scrutiny Committee warned that a no-deal Brexit and an abrupt departure from the single market and customs union on March 29 next year […]

Commemorative stamps, the return of the Spitfire, and a festival of Brexit Britain – now Brexiteers want to add a new Royal Yacht Britannia to their list of demands. Tory Brexiteers have long-dreamed of Britannia returning to ‘rule the waves’, and having seen trade secretary Liam Fox hold a series of events on board HMS […]

David Davis’ former chief of staff and prominent Brexiteer Stewart Jackson has been accused of trying to block all Remainers on Twitter. The former Conservative MP made headlines after the People’s Vote march for commenting on a social media image of a boy in a hospital bed wearing an EU flag with the message: ‘what […]