Politics

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

Friday

22 Mar 2019

Theresa May’s third meaningful vote might now be cancelled

All the talk among Cabinet ministers – who as usual in Theresa May’s government know next-to-nothing about what the PM is actually going to do – is that the bloomin’ meaningful vote won’t be held next week after all. “The DUP don’t look as though they are coming on board,” said one. “It looks as though she’ll lose by a bit more than last time,” said another. “Why would she do that to herself?” If they are right and she does not bring her Brexit deal back for ratification by MPs, then dead too (probably) is the idea she’ll imminently announce the date of her resignation as PM. According to

Steerpike

The Renew party fails to build bridges in Newport, Wales

In these divided times the politics of centrist parties is all about building connections and crossing divides, so what better flyer design for a by-election in Newport, Wales than a local bridge? Unfortunately for the anti-Brexit Renew party, the bridge they chose for their election flyer was the Claiborne Pell Bridge in Newport… Rhode Island, USA: Realising their mistake, the flyer was quickly corrected by Renew, but it’s hardly a great look for a party trying to shake off its middle-class, London-centric image. The party are trying to win a seat in Newport West, which voted leave, and is holding a by-election following the death of Paul Flynn. The Labour

Robert Peston

The EU has no appetite for another Brexit delay

Now that I’ve had the opportunity to review the extraordinary and historic events that took place here in Brussels and talk to people involved in the talks, I have a new take on what happened and why. The big drivers for why the EU 27 leaders came up with their new formula for determining when and whether we Brexit are: EU leaders had – and have – zero confidence that the Prime Minister will win her meaningful vote next week, and they quite rationally decided it was unreasonable for them to determine in conditions of extreme pressure in seven days whether we we are falling out at 11pm on the

The Spectator

Full list: the opposition MPs who back May’s deal

Speaker Bercow may have thrown a grenade in the works with his surprise decision to block a vote on May’s deal, but now the PM has returned from Brussels with an extension, a third meaningful vote looks set to go ahead next week. Before the vote, Coffee House is keeping track of the Tory MPs May needs to win over to pass her deal. Here, we will monitor the opposition MPs she will need to persuade as well. For every rebel within her own party, May will need a similar number of these opposition votes. Below are the Labour and independent MPs who have said they will support the deal, and those Number

Robert Peston

Not even God knows what happens to Brexit now

After yesterday’s historic negotiations between EU leaders here in Brussels – while Theresa May was out of the room – here is what we now know about Brexit. We are not leaving the EU on 29 March 2019, the Brexit day that was supposedly set in stone. We may yet leave on 22 May this year, but only if next week MPs finally – at a third time of asking, and probably on Tuesday – vote for Theresa May’s widely derided Brexit plan. We could leave without a Brexit deal on the new Brexit day, 12 April – if the PM’s vote is lost. Or we could leave at an

Katy Balls

It’s getting harder for Theresa May to pass her deal next week

After eight hours of talks between EU leaders, Theresa May has been granted an Article 50 extension. If the Prime Minister can pass her deal next week, there will be technical extension until 22 May. If the deal fails to pass, Article 50 will be extended only until 12 April so that the UK can set out its next steps – and potentially apply for a longer extension. This offer appears to give backbenchers time to try and – once again – seize control of the process if May fails to pass her deal. The Prime Minister’s problem is when it comes to meeting the first condition of the 22

Cindy Yu

The EU has just given parliament more time to take control of Brexit

Last night, the EU27 unanimously rejected Theresa May’s request for a June Brexit extension and told her 22 May at the latest – or 12 April if she couldn’t pass her deal). This pushes the cliff edge back by just a little, and makes nothing easier for her. If her deal doesn’t pass, she would have to choose a no deal, or a long extension and agree to hold European parliament elections. But that’s assuming that she will still be in control of the process at that point. Crucially, the extension gives time for MPs to take control of Brexit in the next three weeks. If her deal is rejected

Thursday

21 Mar 2019

Katy Balls

The Kay Burley Edition

18 min listen

Kay Burley is a Sky News founding member, host of The Kay Burley Show, and holds the record for hosting more hours of live television than any other news presenter. Kay tells Katy about how she ‘knocked the rough edges’ off her accent, her love for Jane Fonda, and why the BBC couldn’t afford her these days. Presented by Katy Balls.

Peter Jones

On liberty, trust, and Brexit

The problem with Brexit is that parliament is not designed to do what the people have commanded it to. MPs feel their job is to construct their own manifesto and deliver on that, not on something foisted upon them by an ignorant public in the name of ‘popular sovereignty’. Unlike MPs, however, Cicero understood the importance of that sovereignty, and discussed it in detail in his On the Republic (De re publica). At the heart of the res publica, he argued, was the notion of the public interest, which he defined as ‘people coming together to form a society by agreeing about what justice is, and mutually participating in its

The Spectator

Agony prolonged

For many people, next Friday was supposed to be a celebration. Boris Johnson spoke about an ‘independence day’ marking the beginning of a new era of national self-confidence. But as we approach 29 March, not even ardent Brexiteers can claim that there is anything to celebrate. Theresa May has been reduced to asking, or rather begging, the EU for an extension to Article 50 — something that the EU has said it will grant only if Britain can provide a good reason for needing the extra time. So far, the Prime Minister has not provided one, apart from the prolonging of every-one’s agony. When parliament voted to enact Article 50

Charles Moore

The Spectator’s Notes | 21 March 2019

Angela Merkel says disdainfully, ‘I admit I was not on top of the British parliament’s 17th-century procedural rules.’ Her implication is that they are absurdly out of date. Yet the old rule invoked by Mr Speaker Bercow is surely one that can hold up its head in the 21st century. It is that the executive should not keep putting the same question to parliament until it gets its way. Therefore Mrs May cannot just keep reheating her terrible withdrawal deal. If there were no such rule, there would be no end to the bullying. Isn’t there something quite impressive about the fact that we have an elected assembly which had

Ben Schott

Speaker-speak

Much has recently been written about the incumbent Commons Speaker, from (vigorously denied) allegations of bullying to (less vigorously denied) suggestions of Brexit-foxing chicanery. And to call John Bercow a ‘Marmite politician’ is to state the obvious. A little less obvious is his idiosyncratic style of address — the bizarre collision of a Dickensian clerk with aspirations to eloquence, a stern headmaster out of P. G. Wodehouse, and a contestant on Just a Minute desperate not to hesitate, deviate or repeat. Some of the Speaker’s vocal fireworks are plain to hear. His musical calls of ‘Jer-emy Cor-byn’ have been compiled into an ascending harmonic scale, and his strangled cries of ‘Oaaaaaarderrrrrrrrr’ have achieved social-media

Steerpike

Boris Johnson’s fox-hunting enthusiast donor

With Theresa May’s premiership on the ropes, there’s an expectation of a Tory leadership contest later this year. It follows that Conservative heavyweights are currently working their hardest to lay the groundwork for a future campaign. In that vein, the latest register of interests shows that rivals Boris Johnson, Dominic Raab, Amber Rudd and Michael Gove are among the Tories to get recent donations which could prove helpful in the months to come. However, there is one donation that Mr S suspects could come back to haunt its recipient. Boris Johnson has been given a donation of £16,000 by Johan Christofferson. Christofferson is a hedge fund manager with a history

Steerpike

Watch: fireworks in the Chamber between Bercow and Leadsom

Oh dear, it seems as if the pressure placed on John Bercow after he blocked a third meaningful vote on May’s Brexit deal, may have gotten to the Speaker’s head as of late. In the Chamber today, Bercow appeared visibly angry when he apparently spied an MP behaving in a partisan way, and launched into this tirade against them: ‘Let’s grow up. Do grow up. For goodness sake, this is not a matter of party political hackery. Let’s have some seriousness of purpose and mutual respect… For goodness sake, let’s raise the level.’ This in turn prompted Bercow’s arch-rival, the leader of the house Andrea Leadsom, to respond that she

Robert Peston

What Kwasi Kwarteng’s leaked notes tell us about No. 10’s Brexit strategy

I’ve been passed copies of media briefing notes prepared for the junior Brexit minister Kwasi Kwarteng, who this morning did a round of TV and radio interviews. My source is a political one, not another hack or media person, which I point out to prevent any suspicion that a media company is behaving badly by passing me the document. What is striking – and important – is that Kwarteng has been instructed, presumably by Downing Street, to avoid saying that MPs face a choice between backing the PM’s deal and a no-deal Brexit, even though that is how the PM and the EU’s president Donald Tusk seemed to be framing

James Kirkup

MPs must not use May as an excuse to walk into Brexit disaster

Theresa May has united Westminster. Right across the political spectrum, politicians and journalists agree that her televised statement from No. 10 last night was an epic misjudgement, that seeking to pin public blame on MPs for the failure to agree a Brexit outcome has made it even less likely that they will now reach such an agreement. The PM’s awful statement, it is said, has driven away the very MPs she needs to pass her Withdrawal Agreement next week. Consensus like that deserves scrutiny, because it’s often a cloak under which people can hide inconvenient facts. Consider the assertion that May has alienated MPs who will not now vote for

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

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

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

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