News and Opinion

Here are some of the key details contained in the government’s summary of the Brexit plan Theresa May’s Cabinet agreed at Chequers. At the core of the proposal is the establishment of a “free trade area for goods” to “avoid friction at the border, protect jobs and livelihoods, and ensure both sides meet their commitments […]

Theresa May appears to have faced down Brexiteer Cabinet ministers after securing agreement on plans which will keep the UK closely aligned to Brussels. The proposals, which will now be assessed by the European Union, would result in the creation of a new UK-EU free trade area for goods, with a “common rulebook”. But under […]

Two years on from the referendum, the public call for a People’s Vote vote is clear. Some 48% of voters now say they want a second poll on the final deal Theresa May negotiates with the EU, compared to just 25% who disagree. This is hardly a surprise. A report from the Centre for European […]

Does Tony Blair help the cause to remain in the European Union – or does he hinder it? I was pleased to read Alastair Campbell’s article in last week’s TNE defending the Blair government’s record. I am astonished how much liberal vitriol there is against Blair until I realise that it largely comes from younger […]

Labour will not rule out a referendum on the final Brexit deal, Sir Keir Starmer said as he acknowledged leaving the EU would mean “things will get worse” in the short-term. The shadow Brexit secretary told a private meeting that Labour was not explicitly calling for a public vote on the final deal and respected […]

There is no Brexit dividend. There is only Brexit debt. If our net payments to the EU are about 0.5% of GDP, we’ve already dug a bigger hole than that thanks to the referendum – losing 2% of GDP growth over the last two years. If we do actually pull the plug on our net […]

Public health in the UK has been underpinned by a network of cross-border initiatives. But they are all now at risk. Professor MARTIN McKEE reports • PLAGUES AND PESTILENCE Infectious diseases don’t respect borders. In 1348 the Black Death swept through Europe killing a third of the population. The flu epidemic in 1918 killed more […]

Spanish nurse Joan Pons Laplana talks to KATHRYN BREITNER about the experiences of EU staff on the front line For 17 years, Joan Pons Laplana has been working as a nurse in the NHS. For him, the UK is home. But just recently he has not been feeling so welcome here. He says this shift […]

Its European staff have long been a backbone of the NHS. But, as Dr MIKE GALSWORTHY explains, Brexit has had a chilling effect For a while last autumn, controversy raged over whether or not Brexit was driving EU nurses and doctors away from working in the UK. But no longer. It is clear that NHS […]

MICHAEL WHITE on more infighting at home and abroad as leaders wobble but won’t fall down, just yet. Do you feel relieved, or ever so slightly disappointed, when you open the morning paper or switch on the radio to learn that nothing sensational has happened anywhere overnight? Since the headline-hungry resurgence of authoritarian and nationalist […]

The idea that the NHS could in any way benefit from Brexit is a myth. But, as DR MIKE GALSWORTHY explains, there is plenty of work to be done to drive this message home. During the referendum the NHS was successfully used as leverage to increase support for Brexit, despite warnings from the majority of […]

Voters must be given a say on the final outcome of Brexit talks between Britain and the rest of the EU, a senior member of the Scottish Government has said. Mike Russell, the constitutional relations secretary in Nicola Sturgeon’s cabinet, said that people “require” such a ballot. The comments appear to be among the strongest […]

ANDREW ADONIS discusses Theresa May’s latest inanity, designed to get her through a week when different thirds of her cabinet threatened to resign each day. Theresa May’s latest inanity, designed to get her through a week when different thirds of her cabinet threatened to resign each day, should be interpreted as follows: ‘Brexit for me […]

I discovered I was truly European a long time ago. I am 87 now and was 20 then. We were cycling in Holland and Belgium and there was devastation everywhere. Among the ruins of Rotterdam, which the Germans had flattened, the piledrivers were at work. My family had earlier been bombed out in London and […]

STEVE ANGLESEY rounds up the losers and the losers (because there are no winners) of another crazy seven days on Planet Brexit THERESA MAY The prime minister told the Commons: ‘There has been much jocularity around the term ‘Brexit means Brexit’ but it does mean Brexit.’ What’s next, ‘I am the Brexitman, they are the […]

The president’s protectionist agenda poses a very real threat to the NHS, warn HOLLY JARMAN and TAMARA HERVEY As he tears up trade deals and international agreements, the world is being left in no doubt about exactly what Donald Trump means by his much-trumpeted America First policy, and the risks it entails. Few on this […]

Post-Brexit Britain is pinning its hopes on a US-UK trade deal. Such a deal would open the door to the destruction of the NHS as we know it, says Youssef El-Gingihy America First... NHS last for Trump We have yet to win the battle over the NHS red bus mythology The proximity of the 70th […]

Some consumer and business protection laws risk not being in place by the time Britain leaves the EU, the head of the National Audit Office has warned. Sir Amyas Morse said that preparing for Brexit was not easy with so many “what ifs” remaining over the UK’s future relationship with Brussels, and subsequent pressure on […]

Scottish ministers have submitted their own “realistic and workable” Brexit proposals to the UK government ahead of crunch Cabinet talks at Chequers. They include a plan to retain membership of the European single market and remain part of the customs union. Scotland’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon said “the time is fast approaching for the prime […]

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 the Alive Corn Exchange in King’s Lynn, Norfolk. A heart carved on the wall of the town’s market place commemorates the burning of an alleged witch, Margaret Read, in 1590, […]

The diary also focuses on open secrets in David Davis’s Brexit dept, David Cameron’s refusal to be provoked by Danny Dyer and the Goves’ love of lucre writes TIM WALKER It’s a measure of the McCarthyite times in which we live that Sir David Attenborough – without question the nation’s most revered broadcaster – has […]

How journalism sheds light on a murky referendum, Editor-at-large, ALASTAIR CAMPBELL writes Does the name Jim Fitzpatrick ring any bells? You may have heard of Jim Fitzpatrick the American actor. If you’re into Westminster politics, you might know there is a Labour MP of the same name. If you’re into your culture, you may have […]

As Vote Leave are found guilty of campaign overspending, whistleblower CHRISTOPHER WYLIE on why the UK still seems unconcerned by allegations of referendum wrongdoing ‘In elections, as in sport, those who win by cheating have not properly won and are disqualified. Nor is it of any avail for the candidate to say ‘I would have […]

Sometimes it takes a voice far removed from the debate to change its direction. Queen Vic landlord Danny Dyer might have done that argues JANE MERRICK When Theresa May and her cabinet ministers go into seclusion at their Chequers away day, they will be cut off from the outside world until they reach a united […]

Independence Day this week only served as a grim reminder that in 2018 America has an unprecedented president who considers himself independent of all the norms of domestic and international behaviour, writes PAUL CONNEW Independence Day this week only served as a grim reminder that in 2018 America has an unprecedented president who considers himself […]

In a provocative article, former UKIP official GAWAIN TOWLER describes the significant shift which has taken place in Brussels, as the EU blinks first over immigration. Over in Brussels the panjandra of the European institutions have been in a bit of a tizzy over two things: populism and immigration. Really, though, Europe’s finest are (finally) […]

TIM WALKER gives five stars to The Lieutenant of Irishmore at London’s Noël Coward Theatre The Lieutenant of Irishmore Noël Coward Theatre, London, until September 8 ***** (Five stars) Over the years, Daniel Radcliffe, Nicole Kidman, Jude Law and Ben Whishaw have all been only too happy to tread the boards for the director Michael […]

Britain’s most senior police officer has warned that international crime fighting systems will be “clunkier, clumsier and more expensive” after Brexit if investigators are left with reduced access to information. Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick told a committee hearing at London’s City Hall that forces in the UK are “big users of a lot of […]

Theresa May has insisted she has a “strong” Cabinet ahead of its Brexit showdown, in remarks she appeared to actually believe. The prime minister seemed to genuinely praise her team after Tory Brexiteer, Cabinet minister and badger botherer Owen Paterson suggested she judge her ministers against the election promise that the UK would leave the […]

You wait years for a bus question at PMQs and then six come along all at once. Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn during Prime Minister’s Questions – Credit: PA Wire/PA Images And fair play to Jeremy Corbyn. He is right to use his unique opportunity to quiz the prime minister every week to highlight the […]

Establishing a new customs system for the UK after Brexit could take up to five years, according to government papers. Documents sent to businesses as part of a consultation over the government’s post-Brexit customs model reveal it is likely to take between three and five years to put in systems in place. The upper end […]

More Tory Brexiteers are threatening Cabinet ministers not to keep the UK closely tied to Brussels ahead of a crunch meeting at Chequers. Theresa May is trying to force through a compromise that will secure support from both wings of her Cabinet at the gathering on Friday, but the Conservatives’ hardline Brexiteer backbenchers are calling […]