Brexit

A host of household names from the world of music have joined several leading industry bodies in calling on the government for an alternative to Brexit. Stars signing the letter drafted by Music4EU include Oscar winner Annie Lennox, Hall of Fame inductee Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders, Brit-award winning pop star Paloma Faith and Grammy […]

An influential committee of MPs has criticised the government for failing to produce any short-term analysis of its Brexit deal and failing to model the Irish backstop. The Treasury Select Committee said it was “disappointed” that the Whitehall paper provided an analysis of the “Chequers” plan set out in the prime minister’s White Paper in […]

Theresa May will bring her botched Brexit deal back before the House of Commons “before January 21”, Downing Street has insisted. The prime minister has embarked on a desperate tour of European capitals to seek reassurances to get her deal through Parliament, after cancelling a vote scheduled for yesterday which she accepted she would lose […]

Leaving the EU without a deal could cost three quarters of a million workers in Britain their jobs, a new academic report says. The study, by the UK Trade Policy Observatory at the University of Sussex, also says a soft Brexit would see almost 400,000 jobs lost around the country. It warns that under a […]

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 Penzance, Cornwall, the home town of Thandie Newton. But who will put in a stellar Solo performance – and whose appearance will be an almighty Crash? Here’s who’s who and […]

Michael Gove tried to speak French in the Commons today – but reverted to speaking English with a French accent instead. The environment secretary and Brexiteer’s ‘Allo ‘Allo moment came as he was answering a question from Tory MP Kevin Foster, who asked about President Emmanuel Macron’s recent comments on fishing rights and demanded a […]

Jacob Rees-Mogg, backbench architect of a botched coup against the prime minister, has dismissed Bank of England governor Mark Carney as “a second-tier Canadian politician”. The famously courteous Jacob Rees-Mogg has dismissed Bank of England governor’s warning that Britain would be plunged into its deepest recession since the 1930s under a no-deal Brexit, saying: “Mark […]

Major disruption at British ports is a “real prospect” if the UK exits the EU without a deal, according to a report. The House of Commons Public Accounts Committee said there was a “real risk” the Department for Transport will not be ready for a no-deal scenario, with time running out to fix it. Meg […]

The government has been accused by the Liberal Democrats of hiding its planning for a no-deal Brexit. Lib Dems say the use of secretive non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) with transport companies is hampering businesses’ efforts to prepare for no deal. It comes after a report by a powerful House of Commons committee said major disruption at […]

Theresa May has turned down a call to host a live bushtucker trial on TV instead of her Brexit debate with Jeremy Corbyn. The prime minister has scheduled the debate with Corbyn, on her Brexit deal with the European Union, for December 9 – the same day as the final of this year’s I’m A […]

A UKIP MEP has quit the party in protest at leader Gerard Batten’s decision to employ “thug” Tommy Robinson as an adviser. Patrick O’Flynn, a former political editor of the Daily Express, said that under Batten the party had become “an impediment to the Brexit campaigning that I have energetically pursued for many years”. He […]

Former Theresa May loyalist Sir Michael Fallon has said that the prime minister’s Brexit deal is “doomed” and called for Brexit to be delayed in order to negotiate a better deal. The former defence secretary described the deal as “the worst of all worlds” and confirmed he would not vote for it in Parliament. The […]

A union which represents migrant and gig economy workers is backing calls for a People’s Vote on Brexit. The Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain (IWGB) said it wanted to protect employment rights introduced under EU law such as holiday pay and discrimination protection. The union said migrant workers had benefited from free movement of […]

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 Cannock, the Staffordshire town in which TV writer Jed Mercurio grew up. But who will be a runaway ratings success like Bodyguard – and who will be a quickly-forgotten ’70s […]

Michael Gove has left Twitter users incredulous after sharing results from an online quiz about TV show Game Of Thrones on his official Twitter account. The tweet, sent at 11.20am today, left many Twitter users asking why the secretary of state for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) was not using his […]

A Labour frontbencher has broken ranks with the party leadership and called unequivocally for the people to have a say on the final Brexit deal. Steve Reed, Jeremy Corbyn’s shadow culture minister, has written in London’s Evening Standard newspaper that a fresh referendum was the only way to unblock the impasse facing Parliament. It comes […]

A Tory MP is reported to have refused to vote with the government after a newspaper columnist said colleagues described him as “thick as mash”. Andrew Bridgen, a Brexiteer MP who last week claimed 48 letters of no confidence in Theresa May had been sent but were being hidden by Sir Graham Brady, chairman of […]

Parliament will not accept a no-deal Brexit, Cabinet minister Amber Rudd has said. And she warned Tory rebels that Brexit may not go ahead if MPs reject Theresa May’s withdrawal agreement in a House of Commons vote expected next month. The work and pensions secretary was speaking as May came under pressure from TBrexiteers to […]

The number of antidepressants prescribed in England rose after the EU referendum compared with other drugs, a study says. National events, such as elections and financial crises, can affect mental health, researchers said. So they set out to examine whether there was a rise in antidepressant prescriptions in England after the Brexit referendum in June […]

24 Tory MPs have so far publicly declared they have no confidence in Theresa May as prime minister. Here’s who they are Steve Baker 47, Wycombe Short-lived Brexit minister and Tory hardliner who is sceptical about climate change and opposed to same-sex marriage. A co-founder in 2015 of Conservatives for Britain, a group of 50 […]

Jacob Rees-Mogg has defended his Dad’s Army operation to unseat Theresa May as PM, saying “I’ve always admired Captain Mainwaring”. Speaking at a press conference in Westminster, the leader of the European Research Group (ERG) of hardline Tory MPs denied he was trying to mount a “coup” against May, insisting he was using the legitimate […]

Theresa May’s unravelling Brexit deal hit a new roadblock today as Spain’s prime minister threatened to vote it down over Gibraltar. Pedro Sanchez said his country woulf vote against the divorce agreement between the EU and the UK if Gibraltar’s future was not considered a bilateral issue between Madrid and London. The UK and the […]

Jeremy Corbyn has again disappointed supporters who want him to back a People’s Vote by saying a “good Brexit plan” would be a “catalyst for economic transformation” in the UK. The Labour leader told business leaders his Brexit plan would include a “radical programme of investment” and fundamental changes to the way the economy works. […]

A hike in the charge to immigrants entering the UK is short-sighted to the bigger picture, argues OLIVIA BRIDGE Brexit is passing through its most precarious waters to date. High-profile MPs are abandoning ship last minute and Theresa May is tasked with persuading the remaining 27 EU member states and Parliament to agree to the […]

Maxime Xavier is the painter behind the picture of the prime minister on a lion which went viral Reverend Richard Coles did not know what he was unleashing when he treated his Twitter followers to a quite incredible painting of Theresa May riding a lion, apparently discovered in a charity shop in Poole. The Saturday […]

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 Milford Haven’s Torch Theatre, which next February plays host to Max Boyce. But will the panel be speaking their minds – or will they all have spin doctors’ papers? Here’s […]

Theresa May was dealt a blow this morning as a junior minister no-one had ever heard of quit a job no-one knew he had in the first place in protest at her Brexit deal. Shailesh Vara quit as Northern Ireland minister, saying he could not support May’s Brexit agreement, which he said “leaves the UK […]

The customs expert who wrote a report for the European Parliament on the solution to the Irish border post-Brexit did not actually visit it. Former Swedish customs official Lars Karlsson presented a 46-page report to the European Parliament last year showing how technological solutions could maintain as open an Irish Border as possible and remove […]

Leading Brexiteers have launched ferocious attacks on Theresa May’s reported Brexit deal, accusing her of “a betrayal of the Union” and calling for a Cabinet mutiny. A deal has been reached by negotiators in Brussels and go before a crunch Cabinet meeting tomorrow. But the hardline Leavers in May’s party have already pounced on her […]

Labour MP PAUL WILLIAMS and Conservative MP SARAH WOLLASTON on why, as clinicians in Parliament, they want a People’s Vote The message from the overwhelming majority of clinicians and scientists is clear: Brexit is bad for our health. It will be harmful for people who rely on the NHS, research, social care and public health […]

A Brexit deal has apparently been reached by negotiators in Brussels and will go before a crunch Cabinet meeting tomorrow. Downing Street said in a statement: “Cabinet will meet at 2pm tomorrow to consider the draft agreement the negotiating teams have reached in Brussels, and to decide on next steps. “Cabinet ministers have been invited […]

Brits travelling to EU nations after Brexit should not have to get an entry visa even if Britain leaves without a deal, the European Commission has said. Senior officials today discussed whether UK nationals should be treated as “third country” nationals as part of its no-deal planning, which would require travellers to buy a €60 […]