News and Opinion

Ireland should use its veto on Brexit negotiations if the DUP attempts to use its Westminster influence to impose a new border on the island, Sinn Fein has said. A senior Democratic Unionist has warned the Conservative Government will not be able to rely his party’s votes in Parliament for any Brexit deal that treats […]

Has the constant reel of Brexit news got you pulling your hair out? Comedian and musician MITCH BENN looks at one piece of news this week that has taken minds off of Brexit. Hey folks. Do you sometimes find yourself longing for the days when I – and everyone else – had other things to […]

Viktor Orban, the Hungarian PM, is acting as a Trojan horse, disrupting the EU from within, argues PAUL KNOTT When last in opposition, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán infamously said ‘we have only to win once, but then properly’. True to his word, Orbán has, through extensive and controversial constitutional changes, hollowed out Hungary’s democratic […]

The furore over high street chain Paperchase’s U-turn over advertising with the Daily Mail has caused an almighty row over what is pressure group Stop Funding Hate’s objective. LIZ GERARD investigates ‘The British people relish a good hero – and a good hate.’ Thus spake Sunny Harmsworth, first and only Lord Northcliffe, pioneer of popular […]

It’s Friday, which means the latest episode of The New European podcast is available to download. This week Richard Porritt, Steve Anglesey and Geri Scott share the nation’s outrage at the despicable US president’s retweets of far-right rabble Britain First, ask why Damian Green still has a job and ponder if Labour’s position on Brexit […]

It would be a ‘waste of time’ for the UK to try to seek a trade deal with the US under President Trump, a nobel Prize-winning economist has warned. Joseph Stiglitz said Mr Trump had ‘thrown a hand grenade’ into international trade relationships by putting the future of the North American Nafta free trade deal […]

A return of border checks between Northern Ireland and the Republic appears inevitable after Britain leaves the EU, MPs have warned. The Commons Exiting the EU Committee said it appeared impossible to reconcile the government’s decision to pull out of the single market and the customs union with its declared intention to maintain a “frictionless” […]

Theresa May is planning to rebrand the Conservatives as the ‘caring party’ after internal polling showed they are seen as not caring enough. Several national newspapers report today that backbench Conservative MPs have seen the plans, which aim to improve the party’s electoral fortunes after a disastrous election result in June. The Tories will vow […]

Was Boris Johnson and Michael Gove’s Brexit letter to the Prime Minister really Orwellian? NICK BENTLEY investigates the true sense of the word. Leading Conservative Brexiteers, Boris Johnson and Michael Gove, wrote recently to the Prime Minister, Theresa May, and – surprise, surprise – the text of the letter duly found its way into the […]

Britain has shifted from “go whistle” to “what’s your sort code” over the Brexit divorce bill, MPs were told today. Pete Wishart, the SNP’s Commons spokesman, claimed the total bill “must now come close to hundreds of billions of pounds” as he criticised “chaotic cluelessness” over Brexit. He asked for a parliamentary debate about the […]

STEVE ANGLESEY counts down the worst Brexiteers of the week 10 ALAN BRAZIL Brushing off the departures of the European Medicines Agency to Amsterdam and the European Banking Authority to Paris, the bibulous Talksport host assured listeners that ‘if we get a good Brexit there will be 5,000 jobs created for every 1,000 lost’. So […]

RICHARD PORRITT with the week’s big stories, including some good news on electric planes, some bad news for the Polish economy and some credit for Emmanuel Macron So we have got to that sad moment in the breakdown of any relationship where the shouting is over, the tears have dried up and all there is […]

Do you, like David Davis, find yourself with a lot of time on your hands? Take back control of the infamous Brexit Bus and see how long you can keep it from crashing Since the EU referendum was announced, the value of the pound has been up and down like a yo-yo. Now you can […]

Taxpayers face a £200m annual bill for thousands of extra staff recruited by HM Revenue and Customs to deal with Brexit, its top civil servant has said. Jon Thompson also revealed around 40-60% of his time is now spent dealing with the consequences of the vote to leave the EU. HMRC will play a crucial […]

How did the cult guru convince his followers to kill for him? LINDA DUBROW-MARSHALL and ROD DUBROW-MARSHALL explain Charles Manson, who died this week, was a cult leader par excellence. Back in his heyday, he recruited a devoted set of followers to his ‘family’, some of whom went on to murder people for him. But […]

Remainers are still waiting for evidence of the cunning traps Labour were going to set for the government during this process, writes one reader. Two studies have shown that Labour’s surge at the last general election was mainly due to voters perceiving them as the party who would deliver the softest Brexit, or no Brexit […]

Britain will “meet our obligations” as it leaves the EU and pay for financial commitments made as a member, a Brexiteering Cabinet minister has said amid reports that a “divorce bill” of much as £50bn has been agreed. Transport secretary Chris Grayling refused to comment on “speculation” about the final figure but acknowledged “the price” […]

There aren’t many greater symbols of the UK’s ties to Europe than the Channel Tunnel – a transport operator many are desperately trying to keep on track after Brexit Thirty years ago this month, the first spade broke ground on the Channel Tunnel, for so long a metaphor used by Europhiles and Eurosceptics alike for […]

Ministers could trigger a new Commons vote to rule out having to release their secret papers on the economic impact of Brexit in full. Brexit minister Robin Walker today faced repeated demands from Conservative MPs to develop a revised motion guaranteeing that commercial, market and negotiation-sensitive information would be excluded from material given to the […]

David Davis sent his junior minister Robin Walker to answer Labour’s Urgent Question over the Brexit impact papers this lunchtime. [View the story 'Urgent Question granted on Brexit impact papers' on Storify] MPs from across the political divide used the opportunity to turn on the government over its handling of the papers, with a number […]

The Government has been warned it could be in contempt of Parliament unless it hands full details of its assessment of the potential impact of Brexit on the economy to MPs. Brexit secretary David Davis faced a furious backlash after passing an edited version of the documents, looking at 58 sectors of the economy, to […]

Critical Brexit talks mean Britain is facing its most perilous period since the Second World War, with the stage set for a pre-Christmas crisis. But, says JONATHAN LIS, there are grounds for optimism You would not necessarily know it from reading the news, but this country is currently facing its most perilous fortnight since the […]

International Trade Secretary Liam Fox used a speech in Australia today to launch a series of volleys at voters who backed Britain remaining in the EU. At a business event in Sydney to discuss how the two countries could work together in the future Dr Fox said Remainers were “wrong” and “unable to come to […]

David Davis’s Department for Exiting the EU has finally handed over to a parliamentary committee its secret papers on the economic impact of Brexit. The handover of the documents to the Commons Committee on Exiting the EU, chaired by Labour MP Hilary Benn, came a day ahead of the deadline agreed by the Brexit Secretary. […]

He is the man many blame for Brexit. So how is David Cameron coping with the infamy, asks JANE MERRICK? At the Remembrance Sunday service in Whitehall earlier this month, David Cameron joined his fellow ex-Prime Ministers to commemorate the war dead by laying a wreath at the Cenotaph. It was a rare public appearance […]

This week’s New European features a powerful essay on how we can still be a force for good in the world – if we can end the neurosis and introspection. Michael Jary makes the compelling argument that Britain is neither a fading power nor a chauvinistic example of historical exceptionalism. Michael Jary is senior partner […]

Brexit-backing Labour MP Kate Hoey has been mockingly compared to Donald Trump after saying Ireland will have to pay for a physical border with Northern Ireland if Britain leaves the EU with no deal. She claimed “we won’t be putting up the border” to govern EU-UK business through Northern Ireland, even if Britain leaves without […]

Russia trolls, American bots; uber-rich non-doms, ultra-poor left-behinds. Who knows exactly who drove the UK to vote to leave the EU? And now we have reached the cliff, are we any the wiser about who is at the wheel? Will they take us over the edge or find a magical bridge that leads to nirvana? […]

The Irish border stalemate has deepened with Liam Fox saying a final decision cannot be made until a trade deal is struck. https://audioboom.com/posts/6512537-spreadsheet-phil-s-budget-mrs-may-prepares-to-make-the-eu-an-offer-and-another-brexiteer-of-the-week-is-crowned The International Trade Secretary said a final position could not be reached until it was known what the ‘end state’ of the UK-EU relationship after Brexit would be. His comments look likely […]

There is at least a 20% chance Brexit will not happen, according to Liberal Democrat leader Sir Vince Cable. The former Cabinet minister believes there is a ‘distinct possibility’ the UK could remain in the bloc even though the Article 50 has been triggered. Sir Vince acknowledged that there could be an ‘amicable divorce’ with […]

Judge Roy Moore, a 70-year-old, far-right GOP Senate candidate, has been accused of a string of historical sexual assaults and sexual harassment offences, including one involving a 14-year-old girl. And in American politics right now, he is getting an even worse press than the president. The allegations focus on a period when Moore, then a […]

Morrissey – who declared the vote to leave the EU as “magnificent” – has never voted in an election and considers himself “non-political”, he has said. The singer and former Smiths frontman, who often treats the public to his political views, told The Sunday Times Magazine: “I’m non-political. I always have been. I’ve never voted […]