Politics

The Prime Minister’s plans B, C , D and E are all the same: run the clock as close as possible to 29 March, Brexit Day, so that enough of the critics to her Brexit plan blink at the risk of either crashing out with no deal or seeing Brexit cancelled such that it passes at the last. In two words, the Brexit strategy is ‘Tick Tock’. Yesterday’s conference-call cabinet meeting was a masterclass in Theresa May as bulldozer and ministers ‘sitting back’, according to one of them. She outlined as her preferred course the only approach that stands a chance of keeping her party together, which I’ve been reporting

Are we suffering a national humiliation? There has been a lot of commentary – not least from elements of the Remain-supporting press – about how the UK has become an international laughing stock. Papers in other countries have joined in the chuckling. Recent events have not been good for our reputation for stability and sanity. However, the one thing that the UK could do to destroy what international credibility it has left, is to change its mind on Brexit, and go back to the EU asking whether we can stay after all. Our national humiliation would be complete. We would be the employee who stormed out publicly, insisting to everyone

When Labour released the party political broadcast Our Town, it was enough to worry aides in No.10. The slick video saw the party zone in on voters in towns that had voted heavily to Leave. Filmed in areas including Mansfield, the video sent a clear message: Jeremy Corbyn is on a mission to appeal to the Brexit voters on whom the Tories now rely. Last week, the party released the next video in that series, Our Country. Although Corbyn’s confidence vote against the government stole the limelight at the time of release, the video does shed some light on how Labour plans to fight the next election (ideally this year):

Immediately after the government’s crushing defeat on Tuesday night, a slew of Cabinet Ministers thought that it was inevitable that Theresa May would have to make some kind of concession on the customs union to get a deal through parliament. But, as I say in The Sun this morning, this option has run into two obstacles. First, Corbyn and McDonnell aren’t playing ball. Without their blessing, there is no way you could get 116 Labour MPs to vote with a Tory PM. Secondly, it has become clear that agreeing to a customs union would not only split the Tory party, lead to at least one Cabinet resignation, but would also—according

An unexpected outcome of the tortuous process of Brexit negotiations has been the enhancement of Britain’s reputation as a parliamentary democracy. For many years, it has seemed as if political debate was draining away to the TV and radio studios, or even to social media — with MPs reduced to simply rubber-stamping decisions which have already been made elsewhere. This week, the Commons reasserted its authority in the most dramatic way imaginable, inflicting the largest ever government defeat on a substantive motion. The rejection of the Prime Minister’s Brexit deal is a humiliation on a scale which confounded the government’s attempts at expectation-management. To Mrs May’s credit, she immediately conceded

Theresa May managed to make history this week by breaking the record for largest government defeat. With no clear Plan B, speculation is rising that we could be heading towards an early election. This week Cabinet Secretary Sir Mark Sedwill asked Whitehall chiefs to draw up contingency plans for a snap poll in the event that May decides to go to the country. Meanwhile, Tory MPs – including ministers – have warned their local associations to prepare for the prospect of a vote as early as next month. As I write in the i paper, an election is a scenario that government figures now see as a potential way – if not