News and Opinion

Britain will be more like Love Actually than a Mad Max-style dystopia after it leaves the EU, Andrea Leadsom claimed today. The Commons leader and ill-fated Tory leadership contender likened the UK’s life outside the EU to the twee, dated romantic comedy, as she dismissed suggestions that it was heading towards an apocalypse. Brexit secretary […]

Patriotism and duty are strong, guiding, working-class emotions, says YASMIN ALIBHAI-BROWN. We need posters of Jeremy Clarkson saying ‘YOUR COUNTRY NEEDS YOU to be in the EU’ I wonder how London’s weathered cabbies reacted to the recent Jacob Rees-Mogg programme on LBC. I bet they loved the 18th Century throwback just as they do the […]

As tickets for this year’s event go on sale, the dangers posed to it by leaving the EU become ever clearer, says Lib Dem MP CHRISTINE JARDINE Imagine the FIFA World Cup coming to the UK every summer and you begin to understand the value of, and the impact on, the country’s economy that the […]

The UK government has offered to change key Brexit legislation to ensure the “vast majority” of devolved powers returning from Brussels go straight to the devolved administrations in Scotland and Wales. The Holyrood and Cardiff Bay administrations have refused to recommend granting legislative consent for the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill as it stands claiming it […]

Uncertainty related to Brexit is having a negative impact on sailing, skiing and other sports that rely on free movement within the European Union, members of the House of Lords have been warned. Experts representing national governing bodies, players’ associations and sports charities gave evidence today to a sub-committee hearing on what effect leaving the […]

Tories pushing for a Hard Brexit are putting Scottish devolution at risk, the country’s deputy first minister has warned. John Swinney claimed that key legislation necessary for Britain to leave the European Union “undermines the principles of devolution and the powers of the Scottish Parliament that the people of Scotland campaigned so long to win”. […]

Jeremy Corbyn’s position on Brexit is “evolving and deepening”, a shadow cabinet supporter of close ties with the EU has claimed. Shadow Northern Ireland secretary Owen Smith – who challenged Mr Corbyn for the Labour leadership in 2016 – told ITV’s Good Morning Britain he wanted the UK to remain in the single market and […]

If you think you’re too smart to fall for fake news, you are wrong. Advances in technology mean it is about to get a lot more sophisticated. PARMY OLSON reports. Most people have heard the same kind of story from an older relative: ‘We were just turning on the computer,’ they might say, ‘when a […]

Remainers have launched a campaign bus claiming the cost of quitting the European Union will be £2bn a week. The staggering figure is based on analysis of leaked government reports predicting that all Brexit scenarios will significantly hit the economy. Emblazoned with the slogan “Is it worth it?”, the bus will be touring the country. […]

Ministers want the post-Brexit transition period during which Britain will follow EU rules to be determined by how long it takes the government to introduce measures needed for life outside the union, a leaked official document shows. The paper said the length of the “status quo” transition “should be determined simply by how long it […]

Tory MPs have criticised a letter sent by Brexiteer colleagues in the hardline European Research Group aimed at piling pressure on Theresa May. Antoinette Sandbach said the views of the group of “hardline Brexiteers” were in marked contrast to the “vast majority” of her colleagues, while Vicky Ford said the letter risked tying the prime […]

The European Research Group of hard-line Brexit MPs has written to Theresa May setting out their red lines – and it is signed by enough Conservatives to force a leadership challenge. ERG letter page 1 – Credit: Archant The group, led by Jacob Rees-Mogg, sent the letter on February 16 signed by 62 MPs. It […]

Boris Johnson has claimed there will be a “great swollen, throbbing, umbilicus of trade” between the UK and EU, adding each side will be “mutually nourishing the other”. The leading Brexiteers’s remarks came as he also defended his widely-derided suggestion of a bridge across the Channel between the UK and France. Mr Johnson last month […]

Scottish government ministers have warned time is running out to reach a deal over key Brexit legislation. Brexit secretary David Davis is due to host talks in London on Thursday in a bid to resolve the stalemate between Holyrood and Westminster over the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill. And ahead of those discussions the Scottish government […]

Brexiteers are risking fragile peace in Northern Ireland by questioning the future of the Good Friday Agreement, Ireland’s deputy prime minister has said. Simon Coveney, the Republic’s foreign affairs minister, said that the 1998 accord was being undermined in some political circles. Mr Coveney tweeted: “Talking down (the) Good Friday Agreement because it raises serious […]

The New European’s social media pages are alive with debate after the launch of Renew – a new anti-Brexit party which aims to take on the main political parties at the ballot box. Renew, inspired by the rise of Macron’s En Marche! movement in France, hopes to appeal to those who feel ‘politically homeless and […]

Brexit secretary David Davis will today seek to reassure businesses about Brexit, saying Britain would not become “a Mad Max-style world borrowed from dystopian fiction”. In a keynote speech in Vienna today, Mr Davis will deny ministers are preparing a programme of sweeping deregulation and say the UK wants to maintain “close, even-handed co-operation” with […]

Fishing has always been a totemic issue for Brexiteers. But the industry relies on close ties and cooperation with Europe. Could all that be discarded in pursuit of Brexit? PETER HETHERINGTON reports. On the wild and beautiful coastline of north west Scotland, where the majestic Highland peaks roll down to the sea, a once-small port […]

A co-leader of a new party committed to stopping Brexit has likened the organisation to the “more military arm” of the Remain campaign. James Clarke, one of three “principals” at the head of Renew, said the fact the party planned to field candidates across the country at the next general election would put pressure on […]

Boris Johnson, the UK’s most senior diplomat, has compared a dead monkey’s head to a Labour backbencher. The foreign secretary was on a visit to a police unit which confiscates wildlife products. He muttered the remark after asking officers what species a trophy monkey was. A police officer suggested a macaque, but Mr Johnson offered […]

On television, on the big screen and in books, a mythologised view of Britain is becoming endemic, says PETER MILLAR. This month marks the 75th anniversary of the turning point of the Second World War, without which the entire conflict might have ended differently. But if you take your news and history exclusively from British […]

Remainer NICK TYRONE is starting to think a hard Brexit might now be the only answer for Britain. It may sound very strange for a Remainer to say that I think hard Brexit has become necessary. But that’s where I think we might now be. Despite a terrible, shambolic set of negotiations so far by […]

Ukip’s new acting leader Gerard Batten has defended his description of Islam as a “death cult” and insisted a “significant minority” of Muslims were extremists who wanted to be martyred. London MEP Mr Batten, who took over at the head of the crisis-hit party after Henry Bolton was ousted yesterday, said Islam “glorifies death”. He […]

In the wake of the Falcon Heavy rocket launch and the dismissal of The Flat Earth Society, MITCH BENN argues that Brexit is the flat earth theory of politics. I don’t know whether you paid much attention to the launch last week of Elon Musk’s Falcon Heavy rocket; even if you didn’t, you’re bound to […]

Shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry has dismissed calls for Labour members to have a greater say on the party’s Brexit policy, saying it would be “very difficult” to remain in the single market. More than 16,000 people have emailed Labour over the past five days, urging the party to consult members on Brexit after MPs […]

The New Euopean’s Editor-at-Large, ALASTAIR CAMPBELL, challenges John McDonnell to move Corbyn on Brexit. On leaving the ITV studios on Sunday, I sensed that Robert Peston’s production team wished he had let my exchange with John McDonnell go on a little longer. So did I. The Daily Express, never averse to hyperbole, called it a […]

There’s no fool like an old fool – and Henry Bolton must be feeling rather foolish right now. Interim Party Chairman Paul Oakden with ballot boxes ready to be counted, during the UKIP EGM to decide on leader Henry Bolton’s future with the party. – Credit: PA Wire/PA Images The UKIP leader has been ousted […]

The media’s portrayal of mafia women is often that of a passive and exploited character. But the reality is much different, argues FELIA ALLUM. I was once told by a former Italian mafia woman that ‘if a man becomes a mafioso, it is because he has a good woman behind him’. She went on to […]

New European editor MATT KELLY spoke with Chuka Umunna about why he’s decided to front up the grassroots charge against Brexit. Chuka Umunna is leading a rebellion against Brexit, the Grassroots Coordinating Group. It’s an alliance The New European has joined, together with several other leading anti-Brexit groups. The idea? Campaigning against our exit from […]

In his latest stage review, TIM WALKER watches Mad as Hell at Jermyn Street Theatre, London. Mad as Hell Jermyn Street Theatre, London, until February 24 FOUR STARS More than 40 years on, Peter Finch’s anguished cry in the Oscar-winning film Network – ‘I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take it […]

Westminster has been engulfed in lurid tales of unwanted sexual behaviour. But proposals to tackle the problem are flawed, argues JANE MERRICK. At the height of the #MeToo campaign sweeping through Westminster, a woman contacted me asking for advice on whether she should go public with her own allegation about being sexually harassed by a […]

The right-wing media’s furore over George Soros’ donation to the anti-Brexit cause promoted accusations including anti-Semitism. But LIZ GERARD argues the real reason for the outrage was their fears his money could derail Brexit. Is George Soros an international philanthropist making the world a better place or a serial meddler in other countries’ affairs? A […]