Politics

Early this morning at around 2am, the Commons witnessed some of the most extraordinary behaviour seen in the Chamber in living memory, as MPs attempted to protest the prorogation of parliament. Below are the strangest moments from the morning: 1. Labour MPs attempted to stop the Speaker John Bercow from leaving his seat as he was called to the Lords to carry out the formal procedure for proroguing parliament. The left-wing MP for Brighton Kemptown and famed mace swinger Lloyd Russell-Moyle briefly lay across Bercow’s lap before being pulled off by a member of Commons staff. 2. Bercow made one of his signature verbose pronouncements, declaring the government’s prorogation ‘an act of

An awful lot of Theresa May’s resignation honours list is awful. In no particular order: Knighting Geoff Boycott would be a horrible act for any PM, let alone one who actually did some good on domestic violence. Who cares if he punched a woman repeatedly in the face, he played great cricket, eh? A gruesome choice, even though he continues to deny the offence. Knighting the communications Director who failed to communicate your central policy would be a misjudgement at the best of times. But Theresa May adds hypocrisy to the mix: she once cruelly and very publicly mocked David Cameron’s press chief for precisely the same honour. I was

Now that John Bercow has announced his imminent departure, an inevitable political bun fight will surely follow. The outgoing Speaker told colleagues that he would be stepping down from his post by 31 October, the day the UK is supposed to leave the European Union. The move comes after the Business Secretary Andrea Leadsom told the Mail on Sunday that the Tories were planning to break with convention and field a candidate in his Buckingham constituency at the next election. So who will replace the controversial Commons referee? The most likely runners and riders are outlined below: Lindsay Hoyle (Lab) The most obvious choice for the next Speaker of the

Amber Rudd’s resignation has clearly been a blow to the government, but it wasn’t a huge surprise that she went after a week in which many of her closest political allies were booted out of the Tory party. What is more of a surprise is that she accepted a cabinet job with Boris Johnson in the first place. MPs who were being offered jobs when the Prime Minister took over had conversations with Johnson’s top aide Dominic Cummings in which he warned that there would be what he termed ‘collateral damage’ to the Conservative party as a result of his efforts to get Brexit sorted. They can’t believe Rudd didn’t

It’s very interesting that former Supreme Court judge, Jonathan Sumption, says a court could authorise a civil servant to sign a letter asking the EU for a Brexit extension, and could rule that the letter is in effect from the Prime Minister, whether or not the PM agrees. Which sounds like Boris Johnson could be stitched up like the proverbial kipper. Except that I simply don’t know whether the EU27 leaders could and would grant the requested three-month Brexit delay, when the request comes from a state whose government would be conspicuously paralysed. Robert Peston is ITV’s Political Editor.

The rebel MPs kicked out of the Tory party held a phone conference last night to plot their next move, I understand. The group, now numbering 22 after Amber Rudd’s resignation, is keen to work across the Commons to get a deal past MPs that the European Union would accept, and it wouldn’t be a million miles away from what Theresa May tried – and failed – to get MPs to approve. There’s another meeting today, this time of the group ‘MPs for a Deal’, which is being led by Rory Stewart from the ex-Tory side, and Labour’s Caroline Flint and Stephen Kinnock. They don’t want a ‘carbon copy of