News and Opinion

Former Labour Foreign Secretary DAVID MILIBAND intervenes on Brexit, blasting both Labour and the Tories and calling on Jeremy Corbyn to consider committing to giving voters the final say It is strange to watch the unfolding trauma of Brexit from abroad. As the European economy gathers pace, as America abdicates global responsibility, as the UK […]

Yasmin Alibhai-Brown talks the attempts to silence her and backlash from Brexiters even after the hypocrisy of the Jo Marney scandal. Henry Bolton OBE leader of Ukip is 54, is a married man and father of young children. Jo Marney, his fair young mistress, sent nakedly racist texts about Meghan Markle to a male friend. […]

Remainers have seized on comments made by Brexit secretary David Davis today in which he said he had changed his mind on Customs Union membership – saying the British public could change their mind too. Giving evidence before the Commons Brexit Select Committee today, Mr Davis shrugged off previous comments he had made backing the […]

If there was a second referendum, how could we win it? Mike Hind suggests ten ways. In October 2016 The New European published my ‘How to win the next referendum 10-point plan’. It canvassed expert opinion on how to get it right if there were ever to be a next time. Suddenly, thanks to Nigel […]

The prospect of a soft Brexit may seem to offer some solace to Remainers. But, says former government trade advisor Jim Fanshawe, it is still a path beset with pitfalls. The Irish border deal hammered out to get the Brexit negotiations through the first phase has inadvertently edged Britain towards a softer deal than was […]

The government is heading for a “hotch-potch” Brexit deal amounting to “leaving without leaving” which will not be acceptable to voters, former prime minister Tony Blair has said. He suggested that public opinion may shift far enough to force a second referendum when voters were confronted with the reality that the deal they favoured was […]

Tim Farron has committed another U-turn over whether he believes gay sex to be a sin. And Liberal Democrat activist and LGBT right campaigner Mathew Hulbert thinks it might be the end of his political career. Mea Culpa. Mea Culpa. Mea Culpa. Sometimes, in political commentary as in politics and indeed life itself, when you […]

Paul Connew looks at Donald Trump’s refusal to be interviewed by Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller and the storm it could cause. U.S. President Donald Trump is creating a storm for himself. Picture: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images – Credit: Getty Images Let’s adopt the lexicon of the most profane POTUS ever to disgrace the White House. A […]

Why are we so cynical about the foreign secretary’s motives, asks STEVE ANGLESEY? Probably for two reasons: everything he’s said and everything he’s done News that Boris Johnson is to demand in Cabinet a £100m-a-week ‘Brexit dividend’ for the NHS has been greeted with a mixed reception. In some quarters there’s disbelief. In others derision. […]

New laws in Germany are causing anguished debate on the issue of free speech, as well as the country’s dark history. Gavin Fearnley reports. Boris Becker. Picture: PA – Credit: PA Archive/PA Images When he was hanged, Barthel Schink was just 16 years old. His killing in 1944, carried out by fellow Germans in broad […]

Embattled Ukip leader Henry Bolton has resisted calls to quit, insisting that he was focusing on the fight for Brexit. Despite a vote of no confidence in his leadership by the party’s national executive committee (NEC) and the resignation of a series of key figures, Mr Bolton insisted he would fight on. Mr Bolton hit […]

Criticism from Catherine Deneuve and other French writers and actors of the #MeToo movement expose differing national attitudes towards feminism, says Mary Harrod. The recent publication in Le Monde of an open letter by female writers and actors in defence of men’s right to pick up women has left many people bemused. The letter, signed […]

Banning hidden credit and debit card charges was not a Conservative government measure but the result of an EU directive. Our readers set the record straight. It was intriguing to note so many Conservatives, including the Prime Minister, claiming credit for banning hidden charges for paying with credit or debit cards. This was in fact […]

Almost three decades on from the end of apartheid, will South Africa finally get the transformative leader it so desperately needs? Paul Knott reports. Memories of the inspiring way in which apartheid was overcome make it hard not to see South Africa as a ray of sunshine in a stormy world. But even the rosiest-tinted […]

Ukip leader Henry Bolton is facing growing pressure to stand down as a series of senior party figures announced they were quitting over his refusal to resign. Deputy leader Margot Parker, trade and industry spokesman William Dartmouth and immigration spokesman John Bickley said his position had become untenable and urged him to go. The resignations […]

Brexiteers have reacted with fury after the Cabinet Office said there were no plans for Big Ben to chime to mark Britain leaving the EU next year. With not much than a year until Britain formally leaves the bloc, Conservative hardliners have shifted their attention from a lack of postage stamps to commemorate the move […]

Michael Wolff’s explosive book on Donald Trump’s White House has sent shock waves through Washington and beyond. PETER BALE met the author You say in your book, Fire and Fury, that the Trump side was ready to lose with ‘fire and fury’ but I’ve assumed the title comes from his warnings to North Korea, yes? […]

Between the gung-ho calls for regime change from the US, and the muted response from Europe, there is another way to respond to the protests in Iran, says Labour MP Mike Gapes. Ever since the Iranian Revolution of 1979 the world has faced a dilemma about how best to deal with the Islamic Republic. That […]

French President Emmanuel Macron believes the UK will get a bespoke deal – but hopes Brexit can be reversed. Macron said he would ‘love’ to welcome the UK back into the European Union and insisted the group of member states will become 27 ‘unhappily’. Mr Macron said on Thursday that France would not give in […]

The answer is not a second referendum but a first on Tories’ bad deal for Britain says Editor-at-Large Alastair Campbell. So what is Nigel Farage up to? Is he, as some of his fellow Brextremists believe, so incurably addicted to grabbing headlines that he couldn’t resist giving legs to the idea of a ‘second referendum’? […]

Henry Bolton has insisted he will not quit as UKIP leader, and warned the party ‘is probably over’ if he is forced out as he prepares to face down critics at a meeting of its ruling body. The former Army officer has faced a volley of calls to resign since his now former girlfriend was […]

Michael White looks at the flip-flopping Nigel Farage as the noose tightens on leave options. Wolves have been seen again in northern Belgium, wild ones, whose numbers are rising across Europe. But where are Nigel Farage and Henry Bolton, his latest stand-in as leader of UKIP, when you need them to denounce something? Fooling about, […]

How much more can Donald Trump say before the US labels him a racist? MITCH BENN investigates So, the American people, the western media and the human race in general have spent the last few days reeling from the shock revelation that the man who opened his Presidential run by announcing that ‘Mexicans are rapists’; […]

James Ball gives a quick dummies guide to trade within Brexit, as it appears that there are plenty of dummies who need it. In two months time, the UK and the EU will begin negotiating their future trading relationship, and the excitement seems to be initiating a whole new wave of Brexit falsehoods, from the […]

Despite the damage caused by Brexit, businesses still need convinving on reasons to hold another vote, says Angela Jameson. Peter Stringfellow is one of only a few business people who have openly called for a second referendum. Not many from the City or the business community are rushing to follow the well-known, but somewhat unconventional, […]

With Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson conceding Brexit is no longer inevitable, politics are catching up with reality, says Andrew Adonis, and we need allies. This week, Emmanuel Macron met our Prime Minister for a tour of Sandhurst and a discussion about the future of UK-French military co-operation. Our elite military academy – genuinely the […]

It’s that time of the week again – download the podcast or listen now here. This week Richard discusses the potential dangers of a second referendum with Editor Matt Kelly in the wake of Nigel Farage’s bombshell comments. Also Geri concludes that the course of true love never does run smooth as the team delve […]

Ahead of the French president’s UK visit for an Anglo-French summit Emmanuel Macron called for Britain to reconsider Brexit. Just hours before he arrived in the country Mr Macron’s aide said that France would ‘look with kindness’ if Britain decided to reverse its decision to exit the European Union. Previously the French president called Brexit […]

Steve Anglesey ​picks out the losers and losers from another week on Planet Brexit – where there are no winners. Andy Pemberton News that Donald Trump won’t be visiting the UK after all has caused heartbreak in the Tendring peninsula, where former UKIP councillor Andy Pemberton was leading a one-man bid to lure the deranged […]

Bosses of Facebook in the UK have told a parliamentary inquiry into ‘fake news’ that it will expand its investigation into whether or not Russia tried to influence the Brexit vote using social media. In a letter to Damian Collins, chair of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) Committee, Facebook’s head of policy in […]

Nearly 50 Labour MPs backed calls for the UK to stay in the single market and customs union after Brexit last night. While the party’s frontbench abstained on the amendment, 48 Labour MPs voted for the proposals tabled by the SNP. They were joined by one Conservative MP, Europhile former chancellor Ken Clarke. Amendment 59, […]

Irish Taoiseach’s Leo Varadkar has hit back at Nigel Farage by claiming that it would not be undemocratic to hold another Brexit referendum. After addressing the European Parliament in Strasbourg, Mr Varadkar was challenged by the former Ukip leader who accused him of trying to overturn the UK’s split from Europe. The Taoiseach declined to […]