Politics

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

Thursday

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Theresa May’s No. 10 intervention backfires

Theresa May heads to Brussels today to plead for an Article 50 extension. The expectation is that EU leaders will only grant one on the condition her deal passes next week on a third vote. This is looking increasingly hard to do following May’s No. 10 statement last night. In an address to the nation, the Prime Minister attempted to lay the blame on MPs – rather than herself – for the fact that it is now very unlikely the UK will leave the EU at the end of March. May said it was a matter of deep ‘personal regret’ to her and went on to add: ‘All MPs have

Katy Balls Katy Balls

They can’t all be right

Has there been a Brexit disaster? It depends on your point of view. When John Bercow ruled that the Prime Minister could not bring the same deal back for a third vote, there were a great number of MPs who seemed delighted. But they were at opposite ends of the Brexit debate. Needless to say, they can’t all be right. Dominic Grieve, who longs for a second referendum, welcomed the decision — thinking that the panic, and the government’s inability to answer the question, would mean the decision being thrown back to the public. Bill Cash, one of the longest-standing Eurosceptics, also seemed pleased — appearing to calculate that Britain

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Will it never end?

The government has lost the ability to run the country. It is no longer in charge of its own destiny, let alone that of the nation. What makes this so humiliating is that power has been ceded not to parliament, but to the European Union. The immediate future of our country will be decided in Brussels and the capitals of the EU, not in Westminster. It will be the EU that decides whether or not to offer the UK an extension to the Article 50 process, and how long it will be. Once the extension has been agreed, then parliament — which has already voted against leaving without a deal

Rod Liddle Rod Liddle

Bercow the brazen

You can buy the latest edition of Thomas Erskine May’s Parliamentary Practice for just over three hundred quid, but I wouldn’t advise it. Short on jokes, in my opinion. A product of its time, fastidious early Victoriana striving desperately for the coming paradigm: scientism. Old Erskine was possibly the bastard offspring of one of our better lord chancellors, the libidinous Whig Thomas Erskine, who was born in Edinburgh and served under Grenville and Fox in the supposed ‘Government of All the Talents’ — as opposed to the one we have now, which is the ‘Government Of No Fucking Clue Whatsoever’. Thomas Erskine was a proponent of parliamentary reform and acted

Wednesday

Johannes de Jong

Why the EU fears a long Brexit delay

In the past I’ve explained why the EU would be happy if the Commons accepted May’s deal. In essence, the Withdrawal Agreement would allow the EU to impose its integration project on the UK, and the UK wouldn’t be able to do anything about it. In contrast, EU federalists have made it pretty clear they fear a Brexit delay. This is consistent with the tough rhetoric coming out of Brussels at the moment demanding a ‘price’ for any long delay. The PM has avoided that by proposing a short delay. There are noises coming out of Brussels that suggest next week there will be an EU Council decision on delaying

Hardeep Singh

Has Britain become an unsafe place for Christian preachers?

In the Middle East, Pakistan, India, North Korea and parts of China – hatred and persecution of Christians is well documented. But who would have thought preaching the gospel would become a risky business on the streets of Britain? Last month saw the wheelchair bound preacher Claudio Boggi being threatened and spat at by a man called Ali Al-Hindawi, who shouted ‘Allah is God’. Al-Hindawi went on to attack another Christian volunteer in Westminster, biting his fingers and assaulting him with a metal bar – he’s thankfully now in jail. Next came the news that an innocent street preacher, Oluwole Ilesanmi, had been arrested for ‘breach of the peace’ outside Southgate

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Jeremy Corbyn makes pointless Brexit meeting all about him

This evening, Jeremy Corbyn walked out of a meeting between opposition party leaders and the Prime Minister about Brexit. The reason for his angry protest had nothing to do with what was being discussed, but his distaste for one of the attendees. Former Labour MP Chuka Umunna was there to represent the Independent Group, and this, according to those present, was too much for the Labour leader to stomach. Labour has since said the the terms of the meeting had changed and that this wasn’t what Corbyn had agreed to when he said he would meet the Prime Minister in her office. But this is an impressive own goal, even

Theresa May

Full text: May’s statement calling on MPs to back her deal

Nearly three years have passed since the public voted to leave the European Union. It was the biggest democratic exercise in our country’s history. I came to office on a promise to deliver on that verdict. In March 2017, I triggered the Article 50 process for the UK to exit the EU – and Parliament supported it overwhelmingly. Two years on, MPs have been unable to agree on a way to implement the UK’s withdrawal. As a result, we will now not leave on time with a deal on 29 March. This delay is a matter of great personal regret for me. And of this I am absolutely sure: you

James Forsyth James Forsyth

May says little new in statement as she again attacks MPs for failing to make a decision

Theresa May’s statement tonight wasn’t particularly dramatic. She had no new policies to announce or arguments to make. Rather, she once again attempted to frame the choice before MPs as her deal, no deal or no Brexit. She tried to position herself as the defender of the referendum result and attacked MPs for failing to take a decision. As a political journalist my reaction to the statement was, is that it? But the question is whether the attack on MPs for the endless motions and amendments and for not talking about anything else will resonate with the public, and lead to them putting pressure on their MPs to back the

Robert Peston Robert Peston

Do MPs really have to choose between May’s deal and no-deal Brexit?

Will MPs next week really face a simple choice, between May’s deal and a no-deal Brexit, or is that a bluff? Such a binary choice was what a dozen cabinet ministers – those who hate the idea that the Brexit delay could be nine months or more – were sure they heard from the PM when they met her at lunchtime today (they included the Brexiter veterans, such as Penny Mordaunt, Liam Fox and Andrea Leadsom, as well as the recent converts, Sajid Javid, Jeremy Hunt and Matt Hancock). And it is what the EU president Donald Tusk seemed to be saying in his public statement today. For what it’s

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Donald Tusk doesn’t rule out a long extension

Donald Tusk has just declared that the UK can have a short extension if MPs vote for the Brexit deal next week. The Tusk statement implies that if MPs don’t vote for the withdrawal agreement, then the UK can’t have an extension—and so will leave without a deal. I suspect that we’ll see Number 10 trying to use this line to cajole Labour MPs into voting with the government next week. But I don’t think what Tusk was saying was quite that simple. His message was that if the UK wants a short extension then the meaningful vote needs to pass next week, as per the timetable set out in

James Forsyth James Forsyth

What Theresa May revealed to Boris Johnson

In the House of Commons today, Theresa May indicated that she would quit as Prime Minister if the UK hadn’t left the EU by the 30th of June. She was, in effect, suggesting that if MPs vote down her deal again next week, they’ll be making her departure from Downing Street more likely. But this is the opposite of the promise many Tories want her to give. A growing number of senior figures in the party believe that May should say that she’ll go if her deal passes. In other words, vote for the deal and then you can pick a new Prime Minister. They believe that this carrot might

Lloyd Evans Lloyd Evans

‘Weak, weak, weak’ – May battered from both sides at PMQs

The Brexit kerfuffle has been so much fun that she wants three more months of it. That was the PM’s message to parliament today. At the start of this rowdy session some members seem to think they could terminate May’s career live on TV. Pete Wishart, the first member called, laid into her mishandling of Brexit and flung three blunt syllables at her, ‘weak, weak, weak.’ This struck the wrong note. Too brutal. And rather cheap to use a phrase coined by Tony Blair to undermine John Major. There was a hint that the PM wishes to retain control of her destiny. She laid special emphasis on her official rank

Alex Massie Alex Massie

A changing Britain needs to ask: what kind of country do we want to be?

After Christchurch, I found myself thinking about East London. Not because I was wondering if it could happen here because, frankly, of course it could but because what’s happening in East London is going to change Britain and, because of that, is going to have to change the way we think about this country. Consider a pair of pioneering schools in East London. Last year pupils at Brampton Manor academy, most of them from ethnic minorities, received 41 offers from Oxford and Cambridge. Another Newham school, the London Academy of Excellence has a claim to be the best-performing sixth form college in England. While selective, around half its places are

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Theresa May hints she’ll quit if no Brexit by end of June

After a morning of rumours and heightened tension over the terms of the Article 50 extension Theresa May will seek, No. 10 have finally released the letter. The Prime Minister has asked the European Commission for a brief delay to Brexit until the end of June. In the letter, May makes clear that she has plans to ask MPs to vote on her deal for a third time – and hopes this extension will allow time for this to happen and the subsequent legislation to pass in an orderly fashion. Speaking at Prime Minister’s Questions, May confirmed that she would put her Brexit deal to a third vote in the Commons

Charles Moore Charles Moore

The problem with Speaker John Bercow

The trouble with Mr Speaker, even when he makes the right decision, is his motives. Fame is the spur and so is his love of hurting the Conservative party which nurtured him. However natural these feelings, they are completely wrong for the Speakership. The occupant of the chair is supposed to be a pillar of the constitution, not its talking gargoyle. A sad feature of the Brexit story has been how so many people with important official roles have not seemed to understand or, in some cases, even to care, what those roles entail. The Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Governor of the Bank of England are supposed to

Theresa May

Full text: May’s letter to Donald Tusk requesting a Brexit extension

Dear Donald, The UK Government’s policy remains to leave the European Union in an orderly manner on the basis of the Withdrawal Agreement and Political Declaration agreed in November, complemented by the Joint Instrument and supplement to the Political Declaration President Juncker and I agreed on 11 March. You will be aware that before the House of Commons rejected the deal for a second time on 12 March, I warned in a speech in Grimsby that the consequences of failing to endorse the deal were unpredictable and potentially deeply unpalatable. The House of Commons did not vote in favour of the deal. The following day it voted against leaving the

Robert Peston Robert Peston

Corbyn’s strategy for a softer Brexit

Probably the most important event at yesterday’s shadow cabinet was a presentation by Labour’s campaigns director Niall Sookoo of polling that purported to show that ‘our support has fallen because we back a People’s Vote’ – according to a frontbencher. The party’s chairman Ian Lavery, who opposes Labour backing a Brexit referendum, was thrilled and crowed ‘I told you so’, according to my source. The shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry, who backs a People’s Vote, ‘ripped it to shreds’. Another source said: ‘There was a presentation to the shadow cabinet updating on the local election and the impact of support for a second referendum on our levels of support, including

Katy Balls Katy Balls

May tries to avoid Tory meltdown by only requesting short Brexit delay

After much speculation, a furious Cabinet and the threat of another backbench rebellion, No. 10 has finally confirmed what type of Article 50 extension Theresa May will seek at Thursday’s EU council summit. Downing Street has said May will not ask for a long delay. Instead, the Prime Minister will seek a brief extension of a couple of months. The source added that May shares the public’s ‘frustration’ at the failure by Parliament to ‘take a decision’. May’s decision comes after her position looked increasingly under threat were she to seek a long extension – potentially of up to two years. At Cabinet on Tuesday, ministers made clear their displeasure

Robert Peston Robert Peston

The huge Tory revolt to stop a long Brexit delay

There is a huge Tory revolt under way to stop Theresa May asking the EU for a Brexit delay of nine months or more. She has been requested to address the 1922 Committee of Conservative MPs at 5pm on Wednesday where she will be told in no uncertain terms that the delay must not be longer than the end of June. Meanwhile, many MPs have told me that Brexiter members of Cabinet, led by Andrea Leadsom and Penny Mordaunt, have also sought a meeting with the PM on Wednesday morning to express the same concern. Neither minister has responded to my enquiry. Also, several MPs have said there is a