Brexit

London mayor Sadiq Khan is set to instruct crisis planners to prepare for Britain crashing out of the EU without a deal. He said he had been left with “no choice” but to instruct the London resilience forum, which usually works on contingency plans for terrorism attacks and disasters such as the Grenfell Tower fire, […]

Jeremy Hunt has been mocked after insisting that Britain would “survive and prosper” after a no-deal Brexit, the day after describing it as a “mistake we would regret for generations”. Mr Hunt had been criticised by Hard Brexiteer MPs after an interview with ITV News yesterday in which he appeared to play up the risks […]

Accountancy giant Deloitte has been handed £2.6m to give Liam Fox’s officials a crash course in how to handle trade disputes. The Department for International Trade is set to pay the external consultants roughly £325,000 a month to prepare officials working at the country’s trade authority. The contract, unearthed by news website Politico, commenced in […]

Brexit could be “hugely damaging” to English football, according to the chairmen of Burnley and Stoke City. Burnley chairman Mike Garlick said uncertainty over a deal with the EU was already making it harder for clubs to sign players. And Stoke chairman Peter Coates said that the Premier League could be hit by freedom-of-movement restrictions. […]

The first signs of Labour’s erosion under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership might just be appearing, says JAMES BALL The country, the polls suggest, may finally be starting to seriously change its mind on Brexit. For the first months – and then the first year – after the UK voted to leave, polls stubbornly bounced around within […]

TIM WALKER talks to actor and campaigner Sir Patrick Stewart about politics, Star Trek and a very spiky encounter with the Labour leader Ever since he first stood with a placard bearing the name of his local Labour candidate in Mirfield in the West Riding of Yorkshire in the 1945 general election – at the […]

Just under half of people in Scotland want a referendum on the Brexit deal, according to a new poll. The YouGov poll, commissioned by the People’s Vote campaign calling for a public vote on Brexit negotiations outcome, found 48% of respondents were in favour, with 31% opposed. This is greater than the UK wide-response of […]

The chance of a chaotic no-deal Brexit is now “50-50”, Latvia’s foreign minister said today in a stark warning to Theresa May. Edgars Rink?vi?s said there was a “very considerable risk” of a no-deal scenario but insisted he remained optimistic an agreement with Britain on its withdrawal from the EU could be reached. He said […]

The amount of European funding allocated to British universities has fallen as Brexit approaches. Figures from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy analysing support from the EU’s Horizon 2020 research programme show that the proportion of funds allocated to British universities had dropped to 24.22% by the end of May – down from […]

Jacob Rees-Mogg and his European Research Group are to directly challenge Theresa May with their own blueprint setting out plans for a Hard Brexit. The Times reports today that the group of around 60 to 80 Hard Brexit-supporting Tory MPs have begun work on what is effectively a riposte to the prime minister’s Chequers plan, […]

Fancy an award-winning Belgian White or a German Weisse? Tough – Wetherspoons boss Tim Martin has announced he is looking at getting rid of all EU products The Brexiteer has said his firm was reviewing its “whole range” of products from the EU to see if they could be replaced by alternatives from Britain or […]

Some of the country’s leading disability activists, including Paralympian Tanni Grey-Thompson, have published an open letter calling for the public to have the final say on Brexit. The campaigners say they are convinced that the ‘chaotic, uncertain, and discordant’ Brexit process is going to lead to a ‘reduced quality of life’ for disabled people in […]

An MP has warned we are putting England’s football clubs at a disadvantage after Tottenham Hotspur’s manager blamed their failure to make a summer signing on the pound’s Brexit-driven slump. Mauricio Pochettino said that Brexit, along with the cost of Tottenham’s new stadium, were central to the club failing to sign any new players in […]

Voters would back remaining in the EU by 53% to 47% if a referendum was held now, according to a major poll. Some 45% want a say on the outcome of the Brexit negotiations with 34% opposed, the survey for the People’s Vote campaign found. If talks break down, half of voters said the final […]

Boris Johnson broke ministerial rules when he took on his Daily Telegraph column after quitting as foreign secretary, the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments has said. The committee, known as Acoba, said it was “unacceptable” that he signed a contract with the Telegraph on July 12 – three days after quitting as foreign secretary – […]

With food shortages just one likely outcome of a no-deal Brexit, download and display our poster and Make Britain Rake Again A no-deal Brexit would likely be the most serious economic shock since the Second World War – with even pro-Brexit ministers like Dominic Raab, and even Theresa May herself, admitting that industry should supply […]

Ruth Davidson has backed calls for Boris Johnson to apologise over his “gratuitously offensive” comments on the burka. The Scottish Conservative leader said she believed the former foreign secretary should say sorry for comparing women wearing face-covering veils to bank robbers and letter boxes. Ms Davidson is the latest senior Tory to condemn Mr Johnson […]

Border Force staff could face having time off blocked if Britain leaves the EU without a deal. Proposals were reportedly sent to home secretary Sajid Javid as the government explores emergency arrangements for a no-deal scenario. Under one option, time off would be blocked for officers in the four weeks from March 24 – five […]

Consultant Andy Pardy packed in his job, bought a van and embarked on a very unusual anti-Brexit mission As a passionate pro-European mourning the potential of Britain’s last summer in the EU, Andy Pardy was looking for some kind of project to vent his frustration at Brexit. The epiphany came as he was running, and […]

Labour has warned of a rise in far-right politics after Boris Johnson made inflammatory comments about Muslim women who wear face veils. Lumping the former foreign secretary in with ex-English Defence League (EDL) leader Tommy Robinson and a group described as fascists who stormed a left-wing bookshop, John McDonnell called for a campaign of resistance. […]

STEVE ANGLESEY introduces the drink Leavers will cheer… until they read the bottle Not to everyone’s taste, but intoxicating to some and the cause of many headaches and much regret later on. It seems like whiskey and Brexit were made for each other. So thirsty Leavers will no doubt be cheering the arrival of Brexit […]

There would be a risk to the public from a Hard Brexit, police chiefs have warned. Police and crime commissioners have written to the home secretary to express concern over what withdrawing from the EU will mean for security measures. They have asked Sajid Javid to confirm the Home Office has developed a contingency plan […]

Farmers have called on the government to make food security a top priority on the day the country’s cupboards would run bare if households relied only on British produce. A long-term decline in self-sufficiency that has stagnated at around 60% in recent years means around three quarters of the shortfall is imported from the rest […]

Ministers in Liam Fox’s trade department still haven’t visited a number of countries they want to strike post-Brexit deals with, it has emerged. Despite having identified them as targets for trade deals once Britain leaves the EU, no minister from the Department for International Trade has visited countries including Ukraine, Algeria, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic […]

Labour grassroots members have turned against Brexit, with nearly 200 constituency parties pushing for a policy shift at the autumn conference next month. A motion to “stop Tory Brexit and win a radical Labour government” will be put forward by the unprecedented number of Constituency Labour Parties (CLPs). Supporters want to see Labour vote down […]

Care workers must be prioritised under new migration rules to stop a post-Brexit shortfall in provision that would leave women quitting work to look after elderly relatives, according to a leaked government report. In the “worst case scenario” where EU migrants were stopped from coming to the UK, there would be a shortage of 6,000 […]

A successful deal with the EU remains the “most likely outcome” of ongoing Brexit talks, Downing Street has insisted after Liam Fox said the UK was odds-on to crash out without one. Theresa May’s official spokesman repeated the prime minister’s earlier warning that the UK’s European partners should not let ideology or bureaucracy get in […]

Michael Gove has been forced to deny reports he privately discussed a Norway-style solution to Brexit in the likely event that Theresa May’s Chequers strategy fails. The Financial Times reported the environment secretary and Brexiteer talked of “parking” the UK in the European Economic Area (EEA), like Norway, to avoid the chaos of a disorderly […]

Theresa May has been warned not to expect a Brexit breakthrough in talks with Emmanuel Macron tomorrow. The UK’s former ambassador to France said Mr Macron was “the last person” to want to break ranks with the rest of the EU to push for a softer stance from Brussels. Lord Ricketts also criticised foreign secretary […]

Warnings over the consequences of Brexit for the NHS have emerged from a hospital serving the Brexit secretary’s own constituents. Documents from Kingston Hospital NHS Foundation Trust outline how NHS officials have highlighted the possibility of staff shortages and distractions, that costs “may go up” and that the quality and pricing of food could be […]

Claims by disgraced former minister Priti Patel that Remain campaigners breached spending rules have been rejected by the Electoral Commission. Former international development secretary Priti Patel claimed that three videos from lead Remain campaign group Britain Stronger in Europe (BSIE) should have been declared as “joint spending”. Ms Patel, who resigned in disgrace after secret […]

Councils across the UK are drafting emergency plans for delivering public services after a nightmare no-deal Brexit, it has emerged. A Sky News report revealed yesterday that Dover District Council and Kent County Council are preparing for a 13-mile Brexit lorry park on the M20 southbound to be in place for at least four years. […]