Politics

Read about the latest UK political news, views and analysis.

Monday

Steerpike Steerpike

Watch: Leave MP kicked out of Sky News interview

As we get closer to Brexit day in March and the campaigners for a second referendum begin to gain momentum, tensions are starting to run seriously high in the Westminster village. But the most recent spat between two MPs might just be the most remarkable sign yet of how fraught relations have become between Remainers and Leavers. On Sky News, Labour MP and second referendum supporter Anna Turley locked horns with Conservative MP David TC Davies about the impact no deal Brexit would have on the country’s economy. As the two sparred over which economic forecasts by the Treasury should be taken more seriously, Davies – unable to get a

Matthew Lynn

Why business and the City should speak out against a second referendum

Parliament is deadlocked. The cabinet is split down the middle and Brussels won’t compromise on the deal it has already offered to the Prime Minister. As the clock ticks steadily towards March 29th, there seems little way out of the impasse surrounding our tortured exit from the European Union. No one can agree on how to leave, or how to stay either. Against that backdrop, it is probably no great surprise that a second referendum is gaining momentum. It is at least a way out of the mess, and possibly a more decisive one than any of the alternatives. Theresa May has spoken out against that today, even if many

Robert Peston Robert Peston

Can David Cameron rescue Theresa May from her Brexit crisis?

If you want a symbol of the catastrophe Theresa May faces over Brexit here it is: her predecessor David Cameron is advising her how to get some kind route out of the EU – that isn’t the fast one over the cliff – through Parliament. This is like the Pope asking the Chief Rabbi on the true meaning of the Eucharist: when Theresa May became Prime Minister she defined herself by defenestrating all things and people of a Cameroonish hue (including, most notoriously – and some would argue most self-destructively – packing Osborne off to the backbenches). But now the former prime minister has become her personal Brexit-crisis adviser, as she desperately

Brendan O’Neill Brendan O’Neill

Leo Varadkar is being played like a fiddle by Brussels

A few decades ago, Irish people would march through the streets of London to holler at the British government: ‘Hands off Ireland!’ As an Irishman, I wish Irish people would now take to the streets of Dublin to say to Leo Varadkar’s government: ‘Hands off Britain!’ For Varadkar’s meddling in British politics, his and his minions’ attempts to scupper Britain’s break from the European Union, is profoundly anti-democratic. What we have here is a foreign leader interfering in Britain’s domestic, democratic affairs. It was wrong when the British did that to Ireland, and it is wrong for the Irish now to do the same to Brexit Britain. The way Varadkar,

Steerpike Steerpike

Six reasons why revoking Article 50 would kill Brexit, not pause it

Have you noticed how many siren voices are suggesting that Britain rescinds Article 50 to buy time? The Irish Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, tells us that it is in the UK’s gift to avoid a no deal Brexit and buy “more time to decide what it wants” We have Sir John Major saying “We need to revoke Article 50 with immediate effect. The clock must be stopped. It is clear we need the most precious commodity of all: time.” Versions of this can be heard elsewhere. But it’s legal nonsense, for reasons that are not properly understood. The ECJ did not give us carte blanche to revoke the notice and then

Stephen Daisley Stephen Daisley

Opposition to Brexit is sincere, but it has nothing to do with democracy

It seems only fitting, living as we do in the Banter Timeline, that Theresa May won an indecisive vote decisively and Jacob Rees-Mogg refused to accept the will of the electorate. The Prime Minister did not secure the confidence of her party last week; she confirmed their lack of confidence that there is any alternative. Mr Rees-Mogg and 116 of his colleagues know this. I dare say a sight more do too. The net result of last week’s melodrama is that the Prime Minister is both strengthened and weakened and those who want her gone have been defeated and elevated. Those whom the gods wish to destroy they first make

Sunday

Matthew Taylor

Sunday shows round-up: loss of a confidence vote

Liam Fox – Parliament could have a free vote on Brexit The International Trade Secretary joined Andrew Marr this morning to discuss Brexit’s next steps following a turbulent week which saw the Prime Minister win a vote of confidence by 200 votes to 117. With the date for Parliament’s ‘meaningful vote’ on the Brexit deal now pushed back until mid-January, Liam Fox entertained a potential course of action still open to the government: AM: Shouldn’t Tory MPs… be allowed a free vote? LF: Well that’s not something that we have considered. I have to say, personally I wouldn’t have a huge problem with Parliament as a whole having a say

Saturday

Ivan Rogers

The nine lessons of Brexit

The stakes could not be higher now. We face the biggest political crisis for at least a couple of generations. The risks are now both a democratic crisis and an economic one. We just cannot go on as we have been: evading and obfuscating choices – indeed frequently denying, against all evidence, that there are unavoidable choices. And the public will understandably not, for a very long time, forgive a political class which on all sides of the divide fails to level with it on the choices being made. This feels a rather unseasonal theme but as we are approaching Christmas I thought I would therefore talk about nine lessons

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Where does May go from here?

How does Theresa May break the Brexit logjam? Well, as I write in the Sun this morning, there are three ways to do this being discussed by Cabinet Ministers—the situation is now such that ministers don’t feel there’s anything disloyal about discussing contingency plans. The first option would see the government back an amendment to May’s deal when it comes to the Commons for a vote in January. The government would accept an amendment that added a sunset clause to the backstop, this would mean that it would expire after a defined period of time unless parliament voted to keep it going. With that change, May’s deal would have a

Ross Clark Ross Clark

The simple solution to Theresa May’s Brexit dilemma

For once, I think Jean Claude-Juncker might have a point. “Nebulous” was a pretty good description of Theresa May’s mission to Brussels. What, exactly, was she expecting from EU leaders that was also going to please her own backbenchers? She must have known the EU would stonewall her over the backstop. She seemed merely to be asking for ‘reassurances’ rather than a legal guarantee that Britain could not be trapped in the backstop – in spite of knowing full well that reassurances are not going to be enough to win over her Commons critics. To adapt Winston Churchill, May’s strategy has become a nebula trapped inside a smog, hidden within

Friday

Cory Doctorow

The EU’s bid to police the internet is going badly wrong

The copyright in the single digital market directive combines the deadliest ingredients in public policy: it is important, boringly complicated, and its effects are a long way off. This week, it was supposed to take a major step towards becoming law, but it has foundered – for now. The directive is largely technical tweaks to European copyright, which were last revised in 2001. But two clauses are so controversial that they’ve spurred more than four million Europeans to write to the Parliament to object to them and ‘save the internet!’. The changes have also been denounced by copyright experts, Tim Berners-Lee, the UN, movie companies and football leagues. At issue is

Steerpike Steerpike

Watch: Juncker vs May, Part II

Oh dear. Theresa May has had a wretched time at the EU Council summit – not helped by the face Jean-Claude Juncker appeared to take a personal swipe at the Prime Minister by calling her nebulous. The pair clashed this morning over the apparent comments. Now the European Commission President has attempted to smooth things over. Only Mr S suspects he may have done the opposite. Asked in his press conference, what the pair said to one another when May confronted him, Juncker said they ‘were not dancing’ in reference to Theresa May’s ‘Dancing Queen’ days. He insisted he did not mean that May was ‘nebulous’ – the comment was

Katy Balls Katy Balls

A nebulous press conference: Theresa May insists progress made on backstop

After a nightmare EU Council summit, Theresa May attempted to put on a brave face in her summit press conference. The Prime Minister told hacks that despite the fact the EU had refused to agree to her request for a 12 month limit to the backstop, progress had been made. As for that heated exchange between May and Jean Claude Juncker in which she appeared to call the European Commission president out for describing her as nebulous, that was merely the type of ‘robust’ conversation good friends can have. While there is reason to believe Juncker was being disingenuous in calling May ‘nebulous’ over her requests (the UK side insist

Robert Peston Robert Peston

Theresa May now faces a humiliating choice over Brexit

Here is the measure of Theresa May’s failure last night, according to an observer of her request to EU leaders for “assurances” that UK membership of the EU backstop would be finite and of short duration. They were ready to help. They assumed a process of officials agreeing a text over coming week would start today, to give her the necessary words that would persuade Tory and DUP critics of her deal to ultimately support it. But it was during the course of questioning her that they concluded such a process – such an extension of talks – would be a total waste of time. Why? Well according to one

Matthew Lynn

The myth of the Brexit cliff edge

The ports will be clogged up with lorries. The shelves at Tesco will be empty. Doctors will be rationing antibiotics, and the army will be called out to deliver food. As we approach the deadline for our departure from the European Union, as the Prime Minister returns empty handed yet again from yet another catastrophic round of negotiations in Brussels, and as the cliff-edge gets closer and closer, the conventional wisdom is that the pressure on Britain to agree to something – anything! – becomes more and more intense. And yet, as so often in the through-the-looking glass world of Brexit, that conventional wisdom is a bit off target. And

Steerpike Steerpike

Caption contest: the Theresa May vs Juncker death stare

Theresa May has just had a humiliating night, as EU leaders rebuffed her bid for concessions on the Irish backstop, and told her the withdrawal agreement was no longer negotiable. The bleak response she received from the EU27 may explain this rather icy moment between Theresa May and Jean-Claude Juncker which was caught on camera at the beginning of the day: This doesn't exactly look like an exchange of pleasantries between Theresa May and Jean-Claude Juncker as the Brexit summit gets underway. #EUCO pic.twitter.com/l0r4NwDj8h — Philip Sime (@PhilipSimeITV) December 14, 2018 UPDATE: Mr S is happy to provide an update for those wondering what the PM and Juncker were saying.

Robert Peston Robert Peston

Theresa May’s catastrophic night in Brussels

It has been a catastrophic night for the Prime Minister here in Brussels. She was rebuffed by EU leaders in her request for a few weeks of fresh work by officials to formulate words of what she called “reassurance”, such that Tory Brexiter and DUP MPs could be confident that the backstop they hate would only ever be short lived if implemented. “We do not want the UK to think there can be any form of renegotiation whatsoever” said EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker. This means that the PM knows that, as and when she puts her Brexit plan to the Commons for a vote, more than 100 of her

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Brussels reject Theresa May’s plea for backstop concessions

Theresa May’s week has gone from bad to worse. In order to win the confidence vote tabled against her on Wednesday, May had to make several promises to her MPs: not to fight the next election, to get the DUP back on side – and to find a legally binding solution to the Irish backstop. The latter pledge appears to have already hit the buffers after a disastrous night for May at the EU council summit. The Prime Minister attended the summit on Wednesday evening in the hope of securing new concessions to her Brexit deal. She asked the EU 27 to ‘work together intensely’ to tweak the deal –

Thursday

The Spectator

Barometer | 13 December 2018

Crisis at Christmas MPs were warned that they might have to give up part of their holidays to deal with Brexit. Here are some other political crises from Christmases past: 1066 William I was crowned on 25 December. Trouble was expected from the English so the streets of Westminster were lined two deep with soldiers. The service was interrupted by a boisterous crowd and houses near the abbey were set alight. 1974 Embarrassment for Harold Wilson on Christmas Eve — his former postmaster general John Stonehouse turned up in Australia, having faked his own death. 1989 Deposed Romanian president Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife Elena had their festive season curtailed

Charles Moore Charles Moore

The Spectator’s notes | 13 December 2018

Earlier this month, the Quorn and Cottesmore hunts took separate votes on merging. The Quorn voted for, the Cottesmore against. So the merger will not take place. The fact that the Quorn wants a merger is, given its history, astonishing. For a century and a half, it was the epitome of fast, grand hunting — with too much ‘leaping’ for hunting purists, but any amount of swagger. Melton Mowbray was to hunting what St Moritz is to skiing. The place was full of louche, rich, grand persons, chancers, hucksters, poules de luxe, all so well satirised by Surtees. There the future Edward VIII met Mrs Simpson. People would take a ‘box’