All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
Boris Johnson has been criticised for sending the European Union a letter conveying his real opinion about a Brexit extension along with a photocopy of the letter Parliament dictated and forced him to send. Yet the Prime Minister was entirely justified – and right – in doing so. Parliament certainly can – and should –
The important vote today will be on the timetable, or programme motion, for the Withdrawal Agreement Bill, the law that must pass before Brexit. The government wants it on the statute book by 31 October. Labour will try to humiliate the PM by forcing a delay. One minister tells me that the programme motion is
Appropriately, given the length of time it has taken politicians of all colours to continue putting off taking any sort of decision on Brexit, the government has decided to try to break the legislative speed record this week by rushing through the Withdrawal Agreement Bill in just a few days. Leader of the House Jacob
It was hardly a surprise that this afternoon John Bercow ruled out allowing the government to bring back its meaningful vote on Brexit. Still less of a surprise that this ruling took up nearly an hour in the Commons of points of order from MPs on all sides making points which changed the minds of
Short of a miracle, abortion will become legal in Northern Ireland tomorrow. It’s a result of a shabby legislative deal back in July, when English parliamentarians amended the Northern Ireland (Executive Formation etc) bill, to override the entire principle of devolution. In other words, the abortion laws of the north of Ireland will be annulled at the say-so
Is this the week Boris Johnson passes his Brexit deal? As ever with Brexit, there is a chance that what is meant to be a decisive week in terms of the UK’s exit from the European Union ends up leading to more delay and confusion. However, whatever happens in the coming days, senior Tories are
The purpose of the Withdrawal Agreement Bill is to put the Withdrawal Agreement into UK domestic law. Nothing that MPs add to it can change the text of what the UK and the EU agreed last week. For this reason it is wrong, whatever the merits of it, to try and add a customs union
So after Tom Bradby’s documentary on Harry and Meghan: An African Journey last night, what are people talking about? The mines issue, 22 years after Diana walked through a minefield in Angola? Violence against women and girls in South Africa, as evident in the training that girls get to help them fend off attacks, which
Parliament Square was rammed by lunchtime on Saturday. Whistles tooted. Blue flags fluttered in the breeze. An entrepreneur outside Westminster tube station was selling ‘Dump on Trump’ loo paper for £3 a roll. Many Remainers were draped in EU flags. Others wore floppy azure berets bejazzled with golden stars. A vegetarian chef doled out plates of
Back in 2016, thousands of Brits thought they’d struck gold. Word was spreading through WhatsApp and Facebook groups about an exciting new crypto-currency called OneCoin. It was rumoured to be the next Bitcoin – that strange digital currency that had been shooting up in value and minting millionaires. OneCoin’s founder, a Bulgarian-German businesswoman called Dr Ruja Ignatova had impeccable credentials – a degree from
After a remarkable turnaround, Boris Johnson succeeded in brokering a Brexit deal with the European Union last week. Now, he has the difficult task of navigating it through the House of Commons. On Saturday, Boris Johnson pulled a vote on his deal, after MPs backed Oliver Letwin’s amendment, which forced the government to ask for
For the third time, the UK government finds itself at odds with its allies, Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party. The DUP chose to vote against Boris Johnson’s deal on Saturday by supporting the Letwin amendment. They will surely do so again when the meaningful vote is finally taken this week. But this time there is
What happened in Brexit this weekend? Here is the story in one sentence. Boris Johnson asked the EU to extend UK membership, something he said he would never do. The rest is spin. How many times did Boris Johnson promise not to seek an extension of the UK membership of the EU? More than I
Michael Gove – We are going to leave by October 31st The so-called ‘Super Saturday’ session of Parliament yesterday did not quite go as the government had hoped. After an amendment tabled by the now independent MP Oliver Letwin was passed, the government delayed a vote on its new withdrawal deal until it could be
I recently heard the alarming rumour that Mr Speaker Bercow still has it in his power (a power he used on an earlier occasion) to duck out of his promise to retire. He said on 9 September that he would step down on 31 October, but apparently he may decide at the last minute that his
For the latest competition you were invited to step into the shoes of well-known poets and give their reflections on the Apollo 11 moon landing, 50 years on. Cath Nichols’s enjoyable entry looked back on the lot of the Apollo wives through Wendy Cope’s acerbic eye. Nick MacKinnon was also an accomplished Cope impersonator: Bloody
Student politics these days is frequently self-parodying. The Gandhi Must Fall campaign at Manchester university is a perfect case study. Manchester city council has approved plans for a nine-foot statue of Mahatma Gandhi outside Manchester Cathedral. The idea is to promote peace in the wake of the horrific Manchester Arena attack. Who could possibly object
Boris Johnson has written a (signed) letter to the EU saying that a Brexit delay ‘would damage the interests of the UK and our EU partners’. To comply with the Benn Act, the Prime Minister has also sent an (unsigned) letter formally requesting a Brexit extension. Here is the full text of both letters: 10
The Prime Minister will today send, but not sign, a letter requesting a Brexit delay till January 31 2020, and will simultaneously tell EU leaders that Parliament wants the delay, not him or his government. This will put him in all-out conflict with MPs, who have ordered him to ask EU leaders for a three-month Brexit
Here are the important points about today’s emergency vote on Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal – which turned into a vote on whether the Prime Minister should write to the EU requesting a three-month Brexit delay. First, Johnson would have won if Northern Ireland’s ten DUP, his supposed partners in government, had not voted against him. Johnson has paid
Today was meant to be the day that parliament decided on Brexit. But this parliament will always choose to postpone that moment. By voting for the Letwin amendment by 322 to 306, the Commons chose to avoid stating whether it backs the new Brexit deal or not. The next key moment will come on Monday
The government has been defeated in the Commons after MPs backed the Letwin amendment by 322 to 306. The vote means Brexit could be delayed until the withdrawal bill and all relevant legislation has come into force. Ten ex-Tory rebels, including Philip Hammond, Dominic Grieve and Amber Rudd, voted against the government. The Prime Minister responded
Boris Johnson can be forgiven for feeling worried when Theresa May took to her feet in the Commons just now. The former prime minister started with the words: ‘I intend to rebel…’. Fortunately for her successor, she then added: ‘…against all of those who don’t want to deliver Brexit.’ May said she intended to back
Boris Johnson is still pursuing today’s vote as a decisive moment for the Brexit deal, rather than the start of yet another delay, with the Letwin amendment meaning the real meaningful vote could be moved to Tuesday. His opponents are speaking in a similar vein, framing the choice facing those MPs yet to make up
Jeremy Corbyn and Keir Starmer are pretending to believe that the EU is the guardian of workplace rights and that the Brexit deal will lead to wholesale dismantling of workplace protections. But Jeremy Corbyn is well aware that the European Court of Justice (ECJ) is no friend of trade unions. In two landmark cases in
Boris Johnson is in ‘glutinous emollience’ mode today. His opening statement in the debate was not combative but an attempt to cajole and persuade. He said that he would draw on the talents of the whole House in the next stage of the negotiations. In response to Philip Hammond, he accepted the Nandy / Snell
Those expecting MPs to finally make a decision on Brexit today may be left disappointed. This afternoon MPs are due to vote on a government motion – on what has been dubbed ‘Super Saturday’ – to signal their approval of the Prime Minister’s deal. The numbers are tight but there is optimism on the government
The numbers will be tight today. As I say in The Sun this morning, one minister believes that things are so close that there is a real chance that the Speaker John Bercow may end up having to break a tied vote. Though if the Letwin amendment passes, the vote this afternoon will lose some
Today is a historic moment for our country. After 85 days of hard graft, the Prime Minister has brought home a new Brexit deal – and I believe MPs should vote for it. Despite being told it was impossible, we have successfully re-opened the old Withdrawal Agreement and removed the Irish border backstop. In its
There are so many problems confronting our polity this week that it is almost impossible to write about any of them. Between the time of writing and the time you read this, we could have agreed Brexit, destroyed Brexit, called an election, called a referendum, or achieved nothing at all. Here, perhaps, is one thing
As the only person ever to have been elected for Ukip in a General Election, if I was in the House of Commons today I would not just vote in favour of Boris Johnson’s deal. I would do so cheerfully in the knowledge that this is pretty much what I have spent much of my
There is an understandable desire among some Brexiteers to accept Boris Johnson’s deal. Everyone is battle weary. But it is precisely at this point that Brexiteers must, at the very least, be wary of what is presented to them – and vote down the deal. Why? First, the Withdrawal Agreement has been altered, but only
It’s been a hard couple of days for the Extinction Rebellion protestors. First, the group’s disastrous attempt to block the underground yesterday spectacularly backfired, turning the public against them. And today, the ongoing drama in Westminster over Boris’s Brexit deal has overshadowed their protests. Which may explain why one intrepid protestor resorted to more extreme
The inner workings of the European Union can often seem like a chummy club to outside observers – a place where EU bureaucrats, well-enumerated MEPs and Brussels-based journalists work together and fraternise behind closed doors. That clubby atmosphere certainly seemed to be on display today at Jean-Claude Juncker’s final European Council press conference in Brussels,