Brexit

MICHAEL WHITE on a pitied prime minister whose weakness may turn into a negotiating strength Jeremy Corbyn has come a long way at the Commons dispatch box since his first fumbling sessions of Prime Minister’s question time. And when he quoted Liam Fox back at Theresa May after her latest statement on the Brexit negotiations […]

A Brexit minister today quit citing health reasons, two years after suffering an injury leaping out of a helicopter. Baroness Anelay, who was only appointed minister of state at the Brexit Department in June, said she was “calling time” on her career. The 70-year-old injured her ankle in an accident getting out of a Black […]

Steve Anglesey, Matt Withers and Geri Scott discuss the week in Brexit, including David Davis’ dismal week and Chris Heaton Harris and Paul Dacre’s joint assault on universities In addition, the team talk the worst Brexiteers of the week, the sad death of a TNE institution, Jared O’Mara, what Jeremy Corbyn and Theresa May smell […]

STEVE ANGLESEY picks out the worst Brexiteers of the week 10 Henry Bolton Fresh from declaring that he could strange a badger with his bare hands, UKIP’s new leader has admitted that since the party is skint and his position is unpaid, he’ll probably have to sell his home to get by. No worries, Henry […]

Our editor-at-large writes the speech he fantasizes Jeremy Corbyn delivering to a rally of his faithful Momentum followers Last week I wrote a speech for Theresa May, which concluded with an announcement that she had decided Brexit was impossible to deliver. Sadly, she didn’t listen, and so onwards she leads us towards the cliff-edge. This […]

RICHARD PORRITT with the week’s big stories Thanks to concerned readers in academia, The New European was among several media outlets to receive a copy of Chris Heaton-Harris’ sinister letter to universities this week. Did this dunderhead Tory really think he could fire off veiled threats to vice-chancellors up and down the country in an […]

The department for exiting the EU has executed a screeching u-turn on whether MPs will get a vote on a final deal before the UK departs the union. Just hours after Brexit secretary David Davis MPs told MPs they may not get to vote on the terms of departure until the UK has already left, […]

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 […]