Politics

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

Friday

The Spectator

The EU has just called Cameron’s bluff – and won

[audioplayer src=”http://rss.acast.com/viewfrom22/spectatorpodcastspecial-davidcameronseudeal/media.mp3″ title=”David Cameron seals the EU deal – but is it any good? Isabel Hardman, James Forsyth and Fraser Nelson discuss” startat=18] Listen [/audioplayer] So in the end, David Cameron’s attempt to renegotiate Britain’s EU membership served to remind us of the case for leaving: the EU is designed in such a way that almost no sensible proposal can be passed. Its negotiations start after dinner, and are designed to drag on until 5am – a formula designed to stifle debate, and to wear people down. The Prime Minister was kept waiting until 10pm to be told that he had agreement on a deal – but one perforated by the bullet holes of

Frank Field

Frank Field: this deal is awful. Labour supporters should vote ‘out’

[audioplayer src=”http://rss.acast.com/viewfrom22/spectatorpodcastspecial-davidcameronseudeal/media.mp3″ title=”Isabel Hardman, James Forsyth and Fraser Nelson discuss the EU deal” startat=18] Listen [/audioplayer] What a choice our poor old country faces. There’s widespread support amongst voters across Europe (but not leading politicians) for a fundamental EU reform programme, but our Government never seriously considered leading on this front. Yet the Government so lacked ability that it couldn’t even achieve the minimal reform programme it cobbled together. Holding the referendum in June was clearly more important than winning major reforms. The Government has failed to secure the key renegotiation requirement, namely, that we should regain control of our borders. I shall therefore be campaigning to leave the EU. There

Tom Goodenough Tom Goodenough

Watch: David Cameron hails EU deal as giving ‘special status’ to UK

[audioplayer src=”http://rss.acast.com/viewfrom22/spectatorpodcastspecial-davidcameronseudeal/media.mp3″ title=”Isabel Hardman, James Forsyth and Fraser Nelson discuss the EU deal” startat=18] Listen [/audioplayer] A deal has finally been struck amongst EU leaders in an agreement hailed by David Cameron as giving ‘special status’ to Britain. Speaking at a press conference in Brussels, the Prime Minister said: ‘Within the last hour I have negotiated a deal to give the United Kingdom special status inside the European Union. I will fly back to London tonight and update the cabinet at 10am tomorrow morning. This deal has delivered on the commitments I made at the beginning of this negotiation process. Britain will be permanently out of ever-closer union, never part

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

David Cameron’s final EU deal: the details

[audioplayer src=”http://rss.acast.com/viewfrom22/spectatorpodcastspecial-davidcameronseudeal/media.mp3″ title=”Isabel Hardman, James Forsyth and Fraser Nelson discuss the EU deal” startat=18] Listen [/audioplayer] Finally. In the past few minutes, EU leaders have reached a deal on David Cameron’s renegotiation of Britain’s relationship with Europe which gives the UK ‘special status’ in the EU. As is now traditional, Donald Tusk’s Twitter feed is first with the news. Details of the deal are starting to leak, including a seven-year limit to Cameron’s so-called “emergency brake” on migrant benefits and an addition to the text that makes it clear that references to “ever-closer union” do not apply to the United Kingdom. The leaders have also agreed to a non-euro emergency brake which

Steerpike Steerpike

Straight talking, honest politics? Damian McBride is hired as Lady Nugee’s media adviser

Back in 2009 Damian McBride had to step down from his role as Gordon Brown’s advisor after leaked emails revealed that he had been part of a proposed sex smear campaign against the Tories. The emails showed that McBride was embroiled in a plot to damage the reputations of senior Tories with smears relating to their private lives. While Ed Miliband took steps to distance himself from McBride during his time as Labour leader, it appears there is a space for the disgraced spinner in Corbyn’s ‘straight talking, honest politics’. McBride has been hired as Lady Nugee’s media advisor. The Huffington Post reports that the disgraced spinner applied for the job serving

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

David Cameron cancels Friday night Cabinet

David Cameron had hoped to agree a deal today, return from Brussels this evening, hold a special Cabinet meeting and then start the referendum campaign. So much for that. We have news from the European Council summit, and it’s not about the eating arrangements, apparently (though for those on the edge of their seats about what time ‘breakfast’ will be, it’s currently planned for 8pm). Cameron has cancelled the Cabinet meeting A Number 10 source said: ‘The Council are planning to reconvene at 8pm. Before then, the Prime Minister is likely to have a number of further bilaterals including with the Danish PM, the Czech PM and the Dutch PM. And

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Cameron is now resigned to losing Michael Gove to the ‘Out’ campaign

[audioplayer src=”http://rss.acast.com/viewfrom22/spectatorpodcastspecial-davidcameronseudeal/media.mp3″ title=”Isabel Hardman, James Forsyth and Fraser Nelson discuss the EU deal” startat=18] Listen [/audioplayer] As the EU Council meeting in Brussels drags on and on, the chances of a Cabinet meeting this evening are receding. But based on discussions I’ve had, the Cameron circle now seem pretty much resigned to losing Michael Gove to the Out campaign once the deal is done. If Gove has gone to Out, it will be a shot of pure adrenaline for the Out campaign. It will give it intellectual respectability and genuine Cabinet heft. The move will also confirm Gove’s status as a conviction politician. No one seems to know what Boris

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

EU summit: Tired European leaders left waiting for their ‘English lunch’

EU leaders have a funny way of going about their negotiations. The best way, it seems, is to conduct most of the talks in the middle of the night in order to create a sense of urgency and pressure, and then spend the next day sleep-deprived and not eating. The ‘working breakfast’ that was originally supposed to start at 10 then became a late breakfast, before turning into a brunch, ‘English lunch’ (which sounded unhealthy), late lunch, and now it is ‘foreseen’ to be at 4pm. This is surely afternoon tea. There are reports that Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tspiras has threatened to veto the whole deal unless there is

Tom Goodenough Tom Goodenough

Briefing: What’s holding up EU leaders in Brussels?

David Cameron is locked in negotiations with the other European leaders at the crunch summit in Brussels. With no sign of a deal, there is a chance the whole thing could drag on until Sunday. But what exactly are the issues that haven’t been agreed? Here are the main areas which are proving a sticking point for the PM: Economic Governance: The Prime Minister wants recognition that the EU has more than one currency and that Britain won’t be disadvantaged by not being within the Euro. As well as this, David Cameron is seeking assurances that British taxpayers will never be liable for propping up the Eurozone. The emergency brake:

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

EU summit could last until Sunday

After three hours’ sleep, David Cameron returned to the European Council summit with the five areas on which he is seeking change still unresolved. As he walked into the summit, the Prime Minister said: ‘I was here until 5 o’clock this morning working through this and we’ve made some progress but there’s still no deal and as I said I’ll only do a deal if we get what Britain needs so we’re going to get back in there, do some work, and I’ll do everything I can.’ Sources are now saying that the summit could, if necessary, go on until Sunday. It might not, but it’s clear that the original timetable is slipping somewhat,

Steerpike Steerpike

Watch: Richard Branson on Brexit – ‘I’m a bit distracted by space’

Richard Branson briefly came down to earth this morning to give his thoughts on the EU summit in Brussels. The Virgin tycoon was asked on Sky News what he thought about the possibility of Britain leaving the European Union. Unfortunately Brand seemed not all there as he admitted he was a ‘bit distracted by space’ — thanks to the launch of his new space rocket later today: ‘Umm… yeah… I’m sort of a bit distracted with space at the moment, but I think it would be a very, very, very, very sad day if British people voted to leave.‘ The billionaire also insisted he loved Great Britain, warning that Brexit would mean the

Tom Goodenough Tom Goodenough

EU summit: David Cameron arrives and vows to ‘get back in there’

It’s been a long night in Brussels and it’s going to be a hard day ahead for David Cameron as he tries to strike a deal with other European leaders at the EU summit. The Prime Minister has now arrived and said he will ‘do everything he can’. He added that ‘some progress’ had been made but there was still no deal: It looked earlier in the day as though Greece could veto the entire summit over the issue of migration. Polish Minister for European Affairs, Konrad Szymański, said it was a serious issue but maintained that he was confident it would be sorted: French President Francois Hollande said this

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

EU summit: Hard day ahead for David Cameron if he wants to seal the deal

If David Cameron still hopes to wrap up his European negotiations by tea time today, he’s got an intense, caffeine-fuelled few hours ahead of him. The Prime Minister left the European Council building just after 5.30am local time after meetings with Donald Tusk and President Hollande. A source said: ‘It’s hard going. Some signs of progress but nothing yet agreed and still a lot to do.’ The talks went on for longer than many expected. Cameron does need to look as though he has fought for these changes, but there are also reports that he is having to demand more from leaders so that his eventual deal isn’t totally underwhelming.

Thursday

Amol Rajan

Diary – 18 February 2016

I knew, the minute my job was first mooted, on the steps of San Francesco church in the sun-drenched, mafia-infested Sicilian town of Noto, that I would be the last editor of the (printed) Independent. This fact was reinforced at 17.21 on my first day, when the daily email from our circulation department put the figure for our paid-for circulation at 42,000. The closure of the Independent’s print edition was a long time coming but that doesn’t stop it being a painful shock. Introspection is inevitable. Was it my fault? How did I do? There are three parts to the job these days — editorial, commercial, digital — and one

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Cameron ‘could leave with no deal’ as sources cite ‘serious differences’ between EU leaders

As the night gets going in Brussels, there is some pretty heavy briefing about the progress being made in the talks. British officials say leaders are still stuck on the major issues, including benefits, and that Cameron could walk away from the summit with no deal. There are some major issues to resolve, sources said, adding that while many countries were showing a desire to help, the European Council president Donald Tusk ‘shares the assessment that there are some serious differences’. It is, we have been briefed, going to be a long night as leaders try to hammer out those differences, before the breakfast session tomorrow where it had been

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Cameron: Britain’s place in the EU has been ‘allowed to fester for too long’

This is from tonight’s Evening Blend, a free email round-up and analysis of the day’s events. Subscribe for free here. Good evening from the Justus Lipsius building in Brussels, where David Cameron is tonight trying to persuade European leaders of the merits of his renegotiation of Britain’s relationship with the EU. For a deal that has underwhelmed almost everybody in Britain, it’s taking a remarkably long time to sign off. A working session, in which the Prime Minister told leaders that this was the ‘opportunity to settle this issue for a generation’, has just broken up, and talks on the migration crisis are starting over dinner. Cameron told leaders that

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Cameron’s EU summit: Long night ahead in Brussels

Journalists are waiting in the glass smoking pen at the Justus Lipsius building for the next development in the negotiations over Britain’s EU deal and the migration crisis. There’s a working session focused on the renegotiation followed by a working dinner this evening, where leaders will discuss migration. Nigel Farage is also strolling around the building, though he has yet to start puffing away in the smoking pen. Hacks from all the EU member states are trotting across the press room to take part in huddles – clusters of journalists around a spokesperson who briefs them on or off the record – about how the talks are going and the negotiating

Bruce Anderson

Whatever the deal, it will never satisfy the Brexit bunch

In Thursday’s Times, Tim Montgomerie announced that after 28 years, he was leaving the Conservative party. Such a momentous decision requires an equally momentous explanation. Tim has failed to provide one. The gravamen of his charge was that David Cameron is no Margaret Thatcher. Without in any way casting doubt on Lady Thatcher’s achievements, or on her right to be regarded as our greatest peacetime Prime Minister, the reality is more complex than Tim’s hagiographic version would have us believe. ‘It wasn’t just the colour of her politics, but the strength.’ True, she was strong, on many occasions. But what about the Rhodesia/Zimbabwe settlement, the handover of Hong Kong, the

Douglas Murray

Tim Montgomerie has put his country before his party. Will others do the same?

In the wasteland of principles that is Westminster, Tim Montgomerie has always been an exception.  The area is filled with ambitious, bland careerists whose idea of taking a stand (as with most of the commentariat) consists of trying to locate two ‘extremes’ before comfortably wedging themselves equidistant between them.  But in resigning from a lifetime’s membership of the Conservative party, Tim Montgomerie has demonstrated that there is still room for principles in politics. Because nothing has so highlighted Westminster’s prevalence of careerism over principle than the aftermath of the great EU renegotiation charade.  In private absolutely nobody thinks that David Cameron achieved anything real with his ‘renegotiation’.  Yet in public

Tom Goodenough Tom Goodenough

Today in audio: The EU summit as it unfolds

EU leaders have been arriving in Brussels for the crunch summit where Britain’s reform demands will be thrashed out. David Cameron arrived earlier today where he did his best to make a bullish entrance, reassuring those back home he was ‘battling for Britain’: He’ll be trying to convince other European leaders that its worth their while signing up to the deal first though. The President of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz, said he was ‘relatively optimistic’ about an agreement being made: Whilst Donald Tusk said whatever happened it was a ‘make-or-break’ summit: And Jean-Claude Juncker said he was also optimistic about a deal, adding that he was sure Britain would