News and Opinion

Betty Boothroyd has urged peers to use the “entire arsenal of our powers” over Brexit legislation to “limit the damage” to Parliament and the national interest. The former Commons speaker said she could not recall “a comparable crisis of such prolonged intensity and danger to the national interest”, adding that, having campaigned for Remain, she […]

The United Kingdom is a country profoundly divided by class, place, age and values, a comprehensive academic report on Brexit and public opinion reveals today. The report by The UK in a Changing Europe, based at King’s College London, has uncovered deep divisions in British society 19 months after the EU referendum which it warns […]

Brexit minister Steve Baker has been accused of insulting civil servants after claiming their forecasts are always wrong. The FDA, which represents senior public servants, said it was extraordinary that a minister should tell the Commons he would not believe analysis carried out in Whitehall. Quizzed by MPs about leaked assessments on the impact of […]

A former top Whitehall civil servant has said landmark Brexit legislation “strikes a dagger” to his soul. Independent crossbencher Lord Butler of Brockwell, who headed the civil service for a decade, also issued a stark warning over Britain’s “illusory quest for independence” as it is “carried along on a tide of narrow nationalism”. However, he […]

The collapse of Carillion has put the world of public sector outsourcing and contracting in the spotlight. COLIN TALBOT, who has seen such deals from the inside, explains the perils involved. In my career, I have been involved in bidding for contracts, helping design them and working alongside private contractors in several projects. And as […]

A former Liberal Democrat leader has accused Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg of threatening the Lords over Brexit. Lord Campbell of Pittenweem even dubbed the leading Conservative Hard Brexiteer “Robespierre” after one of the most influential figures of the French Revolution. Prominent backbencher Mr Rees-Mogg, the bookmakers’ favourite to be the next Tory leader, has said […]

House of Cards author Lord Dobbs has warned fellow peers it would be “sad and unwise” to try to sabotage what he dubbed “the People’s Brexit”. The Tory said while the role of the House of Lords was to advise and improve legislation, it was not to “obstruct or overturn”. Speaking at the second reading […]

A Labour former minister has accused his party leadership of putting “tribe before country” over Brexit. Lord Rooker told peers there were factions in both Labour and the Tories who had more in common with each other than their party leaders on the issue. He also said he could consider joining a political movement led […]

A Tory former minister has called on the government to consider banning referendums, calling the 2016 EU vote “the most sordid political campaign I can remember in my lifetime”. Lord Higgins urged his frontbench colleagues to speed up the Brexit process by making its own amendments to the Bill to address issues raised by the […]

Labour former Cabinet minister Lord Mandelson has warned against the government taking the UK out of the EU in “just about any vandalistic way it chooses”. In the marathon Lords debate on the EU (Withdrawal) Bill, Lord Mandelson said the only way to maintain “frictionless” trade was to enter the European Economic Area. Highlighting Cabinet […]

Last week’s New European caused waves with its caution over a second referendum. But for columnist PAUL CONNEW, another vote holds no concern. I found myself uncharacteristically at odds with The New European’s cover headline last week urging caution over a second referendum, and editor Matt Kelly’s line that the ‘Brexit mess should be fixed […]

Is it time for another referendum on Brexit? Our readers have filled our mailbag with their own perspectives on what happens next. I agree that referendums are a tool of demagogues and dictators, unsuited to a representative democracy, but now that we’ve gone down that road, it will take one to cure one. Matt Kelly’s […]

International trade secretary Liam Fox’s warning that some Tories will “have to live with disappointment” has drawn a sharp rebuke from fellow leading Brexiteer Iain Duncan Smith. After days of Tory turmoil over the government’s Brexit strategy and questions over whether Theresa May can remain as prime minister, Dr Fox called for an end to […]

Theresa May is facing demands to publish the government’s latest Brexit analysis following a report it had concluded Britain would be worse off whatever deal is struck with Brussels. As the prime minister prepared to fly out on a three-day trade mission to China, opposition MPs said the public were entitled to know the true […]

The government says it is confident peers will be “constructive” over key Brexit legislation as a marathon two-day debate began. Lords leader Baroness Evans of Bowes Park said she did not share concerns that peers would ignore the referendum or use the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill to frustrate the Brexit process. She added she expected […]

Tunisia provided the spark for revolutions in North Africa and the Middle East. As PAUL KNOTT reports, tensions are rising once again. And the West is among those to blame. Tunisia is a small, mostly quiet and often ignored corner of the Middle East and North Africa. It burst into the international limelight in 2011, […]

Britain will have to obey the EU rulebook in full during a transition period after Brexit while having no voice in decision-making bodies, under proposals agreed by the remaining 27 member states. In a brief meeting in Brussels, the EU27 gave their approval to new guidelines for chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier, ahead of talks […]

PAUL CONNEW takes a look at the unique circumstances surrounding the US government shutdown. It wasn’t so much ‘America First’ as a double first for America. The first time that a US president’s first inaugural anniversary was commemorated by a government shutdown triggered by a congressional stalemate over the funding to keep it fully functioning. […]

MICHAEL WHITE on whether a tapestry is all we get from Le President. Cyber warfare and cuts to armed forces leave UK vulnerable to Russian attack. Illustration: Gary Barker. – Credit: Archant When Emmanuel Macron made his grandiose offer to lend Britain the Bayeaux Tapestry during his Sandhurst summit with Theresa May, one wag suggested […]

Sexism in the media is deep-seated and progress on the issue is glacial, says LIZ GERARD. Sexism is sewn into the fabric of the media, just as it is in politics, big business, banking, the police and the Forces. Which is not to say that these sectors mean or want it to be. Most men […]

Jeremy Corbyn disappointed Labour members and supporters today as he explicitly ruled out supporting a second EU referendum. A week after a poll showed 51% of Labour’s potential pool of support backs a second referendum on the final Brexit deal, against 23% who oppose the idea, the leader told the BBC’s Andrew Marr that the […]

This week, The New European revives Tim Walker’s Mandrake diary column – three years after the much-feared political diary was shut down by the Daily Telegraph. Cameron takes on the paper tigers Although it’s hard to feel enthusiasm for David Cameron’s forthcoming memoirs – it’ll be like hearing from an ex after a messy break-up […]

The New European’s Editor-at-Large, Alstair Campbell, on the reasons why French president Emmanuel Macron is the real heir to Tony Blair. France’s President Emmanuel Macron. Photo: Eric Vandeville/ABACA. – Credit: ABACA/PA Images To Paris, to speak at a conference on geopolitics, en français bien sur, where I was asked to answer this simple question: ‘The […]

Finland is trialling a revolutionary system of giving people a basic income, regardless of whether they are in work or not. WikiTRIBUNE’s LYDIA MORRISH visits the country to see how the experiment is working. Every month, 560 euros (£495) appears in Marja-Liisa Lähteinen’s bank account, courtesy of the Finnish Social Insurance Institution. Lähteinen, 32, who […]

We need to confront the Angry White Man (AWM) emergency before it is too late, says BONNIE GREER. The following is one of the variety of reasons that Toby Young used to explain the campaign directed against him over his appointment to a new government quango: ‘I’m a middle-aged white male so don’t tick any […]

Jacob Rees-Mogg has been ambushed with his own words and forced out of the second referendum closet, says ANDREW ADONIS. This is the week that Mogg was Mogged and the path to a referendum on Theresa May’s Brexit deal became clear. Earlier this month the de facto Prime Minister, Nigel Farage, came out for such […]

Failure by Britain and the EU to reach agreement on continuing access to financial markets after Brexit risks creating instability and market fragmentation, a parliamentary committee has warned. The Lords EU Financial Affairs sub-committee said it was in the interests of both sides to reach a deal which allowed the continued free flow of financial […]

James Ball explains why when it comes to Brexit we are all just passengers in the back seat. Imagine, if you will, the United Kingdom as a car on a road. Millions of us are strapped in the back with no real say in where things are going at the moment – except for a […]

Ministers’ failure to address the implications of withdrawal from Euratom could have dangerous consequences, warns MIKE GALSWORTHY. As the clock ticks down to March 29, 2019, more and more European frameworks of collaboration look to be slipping off the Brexit plate. The concept of a ‘no deal’ departure from the EU is dangerous because it […]

Talk of a second referendum has divided pro-EU support in the UK. DENIS MACSHANE asks how it has gone down in Europe itself. Most European countries avoid taking big constitutional decisions by plebiscite. But they are used on the continent, most notably in Switzerland. In February 2014, the Swiss voted in a referendum to ban […]

A London council has become the first in the country to formally call on the government to halt plans for a Hard Brexit and give the British people a second EU vote. Labour-run Hammersmith & Fulham Council has passed a motion asking the government to ‘abandon any plans for a Hard Brexit and give the […]

Lib Dem MP Tom Brake has seen the government’s ‘top secret’ analysis of the impact of Brexit. He reports back on what he found In my 20 years as an MP, I cannot recall any government or parliament embarking on a course of action with such a profound bearing on our economy, security, diplomacy and stature […]