Brexit

MPs may not get to vote on the terms of the UK’s departure from the EU until it has already left, Brexit secretary David Davis warned today. He told the House of Commons’ Brexit Select Committee that the negotiations could drag on to the “59th minute of the 11th hour” and would be “very exciting […]

The Conservative MP who wrote to universities asking for the names of lecturers teaching courses on Brexit and the content of their lessons was doing research for a book, a minister has claimed. Chris Heaton-Harris, a government whip and member of the pro-Brexit European Research Group of Conservative MPs, wrote to vice-chancellors earlier this month […]

An influential committee of MPs has written to Facebook asking for any evidence it had of Russia using it to meddle in the Brexit referendum. Members of the House of Commons’ Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee have called on the social media giant to hand over evidence of paid-for activity by accounts linked to […]

A Conservative MP and leading Brexiteer has written to universities across the UK asking for the names of lecturers teaching courses on Brexit and the content of their lessons. Chris Heaton-Harris, a government whip and member of the pro-Brexit European Research Group of Conservative MPs, wrote to vice-chancellors earlier this month asking for the names […]

The outcome of the Brexit negotiations are “up to the UK”, European Council president Donald Tusk said today. In an update to the European Parliament following last week’s EU summit he said the UK would be responsible for whether there would be a “good deal, no deal or no Brexit”. The former Polish prime minister […]

Former – and perhaps future – No. 11 occupants are using uncertainty over Hammond to push their own agenda, says MICHAEL WHITE Under crushing pressure from many sides Philip Hammond made two mistakes in recent days, three if you include dining with George (‘dead woman walking’) Osborne in a public restaurant. In a Sky interview […]

It’s the living, not the dead who should decide this country’s future, says Have I Got News For You writer NATHANIEL TAPLEY The Walking Dead is back on this week. A country in the grip of the undead, whose mindless consumption has caused the end of civilisation as we know it and thrown the world […]

Our editor-at-large on his new party piece: the speech the PM should have made to her party conference Whether talking to a business, a charity, a conference, school or college, I involve the audience in a show of hands exercise, which I will now ask you all to join. I am heading well into the […]

The ‘missing billions’ are a red herring, says ANGELA JAMESON. There are bigger things to worry about My friend is miserable. We are trying to arrange dinner at a venue that can be accessed from all parts of the city. Our favourite gastro pub, it turns out, has shut down because of difficulties trading and […]

The Leave trajectory has run into the sand, says JANE MERRICK. Now it is not just a ‘no deal’ that is on the cards, it’s a ‘no Brexit’ The morning after the referendum, after the initial shock of the result had subsided, the mood of Leave campaigners could not have been more confident or optimistic. […]

Theresa May’s refusal to tell a radio phone-in show how she would vote in a new Brexit referendum was a new low for the Maybot. Her interrogator IAIN DALE recalls the moment he put the question to her, and his surprise at her failure to answer it ‘I know how I would vote in a […]

RICHARD PORRITT on the week’s big talking points The chlorinated chickens have come home to roost for the Brexiteers this week. First lobby group TheCityUK says Britain stands to lose as much as £10bn in lost investments if a transitional deal is not worked out. Then the Resolution Foundation warned millions of families face shelling […]

STEVE ANGLESEY rounds up the losers and losers (because there are no winners) of another crazy seven days on Planet Brexit 10 Gerard Batten ‘English is not taught in our schools and hasn’t been for decades,’ claimed the UKIP MEP on Twitter, surprising hundreds of English teachers across the nation and enraging thousands of pupils […]

Why ‘no deal’ doesn’t work as a negotiating tactic, says JONATHAN POWELL – the man who helped negotiate peace in Northern Ireland At the beginning of the negotiations more than a year ago the Brexiteers breezily assured us a negotiated deal with the EU would be a piece of cake. It was in the Europeans’ […]

A second referendum that reverses Brexit would have a “positive” and “significant” impact on the UK economy, which is on track to be crippled by its EU divorce, an influential think tank claimed today. The latest UK economic survey by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) projects economic growth of just 1% next […]

People have been asking me if I know Simon Brodkin, the character-comedian/prankster who interrupted the Prime Minister’s conference speech to hand her a mock redundancy notice. I wouldn’t go so far as to say ‘know’; we’ve bumped into each other a few times on the comedy circuit over the years. I remember being quite impressed […]

Don’t believe the government’s bluff that it is preparing for a ‘no deal’ outcome to negotiations, says anti-Brexit campaigner GINA MILLER. It has no plan. There are times in life when we just need to stop the pretence, stop the bluffing, stop the wishful thinking and face facts – when we need to speak in […]

Since the murder of her son Stephen, Doreen Lawrence has fought for justice and racial harmony. EMMA JONES hears what she thinks Britain still needs to do to combat discrimination. It is almost 25 years since Stephen Lawrence was murdered in south east London in a sickening racist attack. He would now be 43. Now […]

MICHAEL WHITE on why the fat fibber is best left in office where he can do himself maximum harm. That went well, didn’t it? Still tottering after her near-death experience on the party conference circuit, Theresa May turned up at the House of Commons to reassure MPs that there is slow but steady progress in […]

PAUL KNOTT finds unlikely inspiration for the anti-Brexit cause in a 40-year-old document from behind the Iron Curtain which succeeded in exposing the flaws inherent in a doomed system. Among 2017’s many notable anniversaries – from the Reformation to the Russian Revolution – is another in danger of slipping by without due attention, and one […]

This week’s podcast looks at the the Racial Disparity Audit and the Brexiteer of the Week. A review of the week’s Brexit news with host Richard Porritt, joined by Steve Angelsey and Geri Scott. Richard, Steve and Geri round up another week in politics, take a look at the Racial Disparity Audit and crown another […]

The government’s latest intervention in the housing market is a yet another symptom of a distracted administration failing to grasp the right solutions, says ANGELA JAMESON. Our housing market is broken, even the Government admitted as much earlier this year. So why then, is Theresa May pumping more tax payers’ money into the Help to […]

Steve Anglesey rounds up the losers and losers (because there are no winners) of another crazy seven days on Planet Brexit. 10. Katie Hopkins The peroxide hate machine appears to have gone Full Icke after last Saturday’s road traffic accident near London’s Natural History Museum. Having initially deleted tweets including ‘dear tourist, right now London […]

Even before it has happened, Brexit is reducing Britain’s power in Europe and so our standing in the world. Diplomats and civil servants know it. Business leaders know it. Our Prime Minister knows it, and probably looks so strained and ill because having – unlike her clownish Foreign Secretary – gone into the detail she […]

RICHARD PORRITT with this week’s big stories. ‘What could possibly go wrong?’ asked a depressed Number 10 staffer at the news Theresa May was to do an LBC phone-in. She wanted to talk about the government’s newly-announced race audit but the callers wanted to talk about that and much more. One asked about whether she […]

It’s not a stretch to say that the economics of digital advertising are to blame for disasters like Brexit and Trump. It sounds simplistic, but the means by which the news and opinion that sway public opinion get disseminated is dictated by which is likely to generate revenue for news publishers. Unfortunately, over the past […]

For decades, European migrant labour has been part of the British rural landscape. Now, in pursuit of a fantasy, Brexit risks leaving the soft fruit and veg industry to decay. SIMON WATKINS reports. The landscape is straight out of The Darling Buds of May, or perhaps Nigel Farage’s English pastoral fantasy. Rolling hills, touched with […]

The deluded fantasies of Leavers must have been inspired by the big screen says Have I Got News For You writer NATHANIEL TAPLEY. Here, he brings you the most Brexity films of all time. Back in the distant reaches of history – the late 1990s – entertainment was a very different thing. Before streaming services […]

The real question of the Age is the question of authenticity. Jeremy Corbyn is authentic. Theresa May is not. During the US presidential election, for many, Donald Trump was authentic. For many, Hillary Clinton was not. Boris Johnson is seen as ‘Boris-is-Boris’. Authentic. Philip Hammond is ‘Spreadsheet Phil’, the Remainer, slowing down the Brexit juggernaut. […]

This week’s podcast looks at the calamitous Tory conference in Manchester, an odd few days with UKIP and the Brexiteer of the week. A review of the week’s Brexit news with host Richard Porritt, joined by Steve Angelsey and Geri Scott. Richard, Steve and Geri review the calamitous Tory conference in Manchester, an odd few […]

Once the darling of Tory members Boris Johnson is playing a high-risk game, says RICHARD PORRITT. For Theresa May the Conservative Party conference was a round robin apology. At behind-closed-doors meetings, again and again she apologised for the Tories who lost seats or had big majorities almost wiped out in June’s general election. Although she […]

As conference season draws to a close, former Tory candidate turned radio talk show host IAIN DALE charts the fortunes of those who have been on manoeuvres – and makes some tentative predictions/ Back in early April, Theresa May was mistress of all she surveyed. Her first eight months had been a success. She was […]