Latest from Coffee House

Latest from Coffee House

All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories

Tom Goodenough

Theresa May’s Brexit deal rejected again by Parliament

Theresa May’s Brexit deal has been voted down for a third time by MPs. Parliament rejected the Prime Minister’s withdrawal agreement by 344 to 286 votes, a margin of 58. May said it is a ‘matter of profound regret that once again we have been unable to support leaving the EU in an orderly manner’.

Full list: the MPs who voted for May’s Brexit deal

MPs have rejected Theresa May’s Brexit deal for a third time in the House of Commons. This time, the Withdrawal Agreement had been split from the Political Declaration, which laid out the future relationship the UK would have with the EU. The deal was rejected by 344 votes to 286 – a majority of 58.

Dominic Raab: why I backed May’s deal

I resigned from the Cabinet because I could not support the government’s Brexit deal. And I still judge it to be a poor deal. But I also recognise that with the government purporting to take no deal off the table, and its acquiescence in the extension of Article 50, that we potentially face an even

Martin Vander Weyer

What is Britain really good at these days?

I invited you to suggest smaller companies that are ‘potential world-beaters’ for the next layer of stocks in our UK Optimist Fund portfolio — and your wide-ranging responses gave rise to one big question. What are we really good at these days? We certainly have strengths in bioscience, where your picks included Angle (blood analysis

Isabel Hardman

The Independent Group becomes a political party: Change UK

The Independent Group has brought forward its plans to become a political party, called Change UK, and appointed Heidi Allen as its interim leader. This is so it can stand candidates in the European elections, should Britain end up having to participate in them. The party will have its inaugural conference in the autumn. This

Martin Vander Weyer

The real winner from ‘Brexodus’ will be New York

How big is Brexodus — the flight of business and people from the City of London in parallel with our exit from the EU? I observed recently that squealing from the Square Mile has been minimal compared to sectors that make and move physical goods — suggesting that banks, insurers and investment houses have quietly

Is New Zealand really such a tolerant country?

For years, New Zealand has been talked of as a beacon of liberalism, a country that other democracies including Britain – and, in particular, Trump’s supposedly intolerant America – should try to emulate. This has been even more pronounced since the massacre of Muslim worshippers at two New Zealand mosques by an Australian white supremacist a

Spectator competition winners: ‘She had the type of fake tan that would be of great service if she ever had to hide in Oak Furniture Land’ – and other bad analogies

Your latest challenge was to come up with toe-curlingly bad analogies. This is an idea shamelessly pinched from the Washington Post, whose contests have produced the impressively so-bad-they’re-good ‘Her hair glistened in the rain like nose hair after a sneeze’ (Chuck Smith) and ‘Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever’ (Jennifer Hart). Yours, too,

The big problem with the ‘Revoke Article 50’ petition

Writing a piece on why the ‘Revoke Article 50’ petition is a waste of time, for an audience consisting of the student body of the fourth most Remain city in the country (Oxford), is not the easiest task. So I’ll try to avoid making the arguments that the petition-signatories amongst you might be expecting me to

The Muslim leader who offers an example on how to tackle Islamism

The Christchurch attack has prompted a considerable degree of soul-searching in the West about the potential impact of anti-Muslim rhetoric. The need to tackle deadly far-right conspiracy theories is clear for all to see and the debate about how to do so continues. But what lessons might we learn from the response to Christchurch in

Robert Peston

The PM is setting herself up for humiliation today

Truthfully I don’t really understand why the prime minister is holding a vote tomorrow to approve the Withdrawal Agreement she negotiated with the EU – other than the symbolism of showing that on the day she originally set as Brexit day, 29 March 2019, she is still working hard to extricate the UK from the

James Kirkup

Nick Boles is a rare hero in a Parliament full of cowards

Failure. A failure of politics, a failure of courage. MPs have failed over Brexit, time and time again. Worse, many MPs fail to realise how badly they’re failing, the harm they are doing.  This isn’t true of everyone in the Commons. There are still some heroes. Nick Boles is one.  His cross-party Common Market 2.0

Steerpike

Lily Allen mulls a European election campaign 

After MPs failed to reach a conclusion last night on their preferred Brexit outcome, and Theresa May’s own strategy stalled without an endorsement from the DUP, it’s looking increasingly likely that Britain will end up extending Article 50 and participating in European elections in May Already Brexiteers are gearing up for the fight, as a

Steerpike

David Lidington’s new nickname

David Lidington found himself briefly trending on Twitter over the weekend after reports began to circulate that May’s de facto deputy was being talked up as a caretaker prime minister. The idea was that Lidington – a former Europe minister who voted Remain – could step in for May and act as a unifying leader

Donald Trump is right about Israel and the Golan Heights

Earlier this week President Trump made one of the most reasonable decisions of his Presidency. His administration formally recognised Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights. Inevitably the move has been welcomed in Israel, condemned in Europe and generally shrugged over in the Middle East. Of course various people have come up with their own explanations

Isabel Hardman

Why John Bercow seems to delight in irritating Tory MPs

Once again, the Commons has concluded its day with rather chaotic scenes involving Tory MPs having a scrap with John Bercow. The Speaker managed to refrain from insulting anyone’s abilities as a whip, but he nevertheless irritated those who want a third meaningful vote by insisting throughout a series of points of order that he

Katy Balls

MPs reject every Brexit option – what next?

When a cross party group of MPs managed to seize control of the Commons and win backing for a plan to hold indicative votes on Brexit options, the hope was that this would show what type of Brexit – or no Brexit – there was a majority for in Parliament. In the end, things didn’t

MPs reject every option: the full results of the indicative votes

Parliamentarians were given the opportunity today to take control of the negotiations, after holding indicative votes on their preferred Brexit strategy. Now, the results are in, and we have found out that they don’t support any option at all. For Oliver Letwin’s vote, each MP was presented with eight Brexit motions, selected by the Speaker

James Forsyth

Boris backs May’s deal – who is next?

Theresa May’s pledge to go before the second stage of the Brexit negotiation if her deal passes, is already reaping some rewards. Boris Johnson has told a meeting of the ERG that he is now backing the deal. His argument is that what is going on in Parliament means there is a real chance of

Tom Goodenough

Theresa May: I’ll quit when Brexit is delivered

Theresa May has said she will step down once Brexit has happened. Speaking to Tory MPs, the Prime Minister said she would not remain in post for the next phase of negotiations with the European Union. May told a meeting of the 1922 committee this evening: ‘I am prepared to leave this job earlier than