All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
I always shudder when I hear people say, ‘Let’s stop Brexit’. They say it so casually, so cavalierly. It rolls off the tongue as if it were no big deal. They seem utterly unmoved by what ‘stopping Brexit’ would entail and the consequences it would have. It would mean blocking the largest act of democracy
This podcast was recorded from the midst of the Brexit omni-shambles. Katy Balls talks to Tim Montgomerie, Sienna Rodgers, and James Forsyth on the latest. But first, something just as monumental is happening on the other side of the world. Watch this: That was the announcement that technology journalist James O’Malley heard when he travelling
Michael Gove is staying as DEFRA Secretary. Yesterday, Theresa May offered him the job of Brexit Secretary. Gove said that he could only do that job if he was given the opportunity to pursue his own course. May said that she wanted the Brexit Secretary to stay on the exact same course she had plotted.
Theresa May has just been doing her best to sell her Brexit plan to voters. But the Prime Minister’s pitch didn’t go down well with those calling into LBC. The PM’s first call came from a Tory councillor who urged her to stand down and let someone else negotiate with the European Union. And she
Theresa May spent three hours on her feet in the Commons defending her Brexit deal. Unfortunately, the Prime Minister’s perseverance did little to persuade her parliamentary colleagues to back her plan. It was an hour before any Tory MPs publicly supported the PM. A total of 135 MPs spoke during the debate – and only 15
Dear Sir Graham, A few weeks ago, in a conversation with the Chief Whip I expressed my concern that the Prime Minister, Mrs. Theresa May, was losing the confidence of Conservative members of Parliament and that it would be in the interest of the party and the country if she were to stand aside. I
Dear Prime Minister, This is very difficult letter to write. One which I never expected to compose. It has been an immense honour to support you in delivering the historic opportunity of leaving the EU as a Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Exiting the European Union. It has, in many ways,
Midway through coffee a soldier came running in. ‘Tzeva adom!’ ‘Red colour!’ Cups clattered, chairs shrieked across slate floor. There is a calm exodus to an improvised bomb shelter — the cafe’s concrete reinforced bathroom. Soldiers at the front, paramedics behind, civilians at the back. Two dozen faces are lit by the insistent flashes of
Serving in high office is an honour and privilege. It is also a heavy responsibility. That is true at any time – but especially when the stakes are so high. And negotiating the UK’s withdrawal from the EU after 40 years, and building from the ground-up a new and enduring relationship for the good of our
Nigel Farage was back on the airwaves today, and somewhat unsurprisingly, he was not a fan of Theresa May’s Brexit proposal. So much does he hate it in fact, that he told viewers: ‘There’s only one thing to do, when this, the worst deal in history, and that is to put it in the bin.
Brexit has many theme tunes but the Rolling Stones’ “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” is as good as any. If only the Brexiteers could understand this; if only they could grasp that compromise means exactly that. But, consumed by their own monomania, they cannot for they are blind to everything except their own
So, where are we? There is now an open effort to get the 48 letters required to force a vote of no confidence in Theresa May. Personally, I don’t think it is a racing certainty that this succeeds. The ERG WhatsApp group has had some influential people urging caution, and telling people not to put
Rory Stewart has already been caught out claiming wrongly that 80 per cent of the public back Theresa May’s Brexit plan. Now another of the Prime Minister’s defenders has come unstuck while trying to support May’s withdrawal deal. Alan Duncan was asked whether the government had a problem if the majority of the public don’t
One of the more surreal moments of Theresa May’s day so far has been the Prime Minister having to break off from the meltdown of her party to join Prince Charles’s birthday celebrations at Buckingham Palace. The Prime Minister can’t have felt particularly like waving a champagne flute around to salute the heir to the
Theresa May is on course to face a confidence vote according to the Conservative party’s arch-Brexiteers. Senior members of the European Research Group today publicly called for her departure. After Dominic Raab’s resignation this morning, members of the group of Eurosceptic backbenchers gathered in the committee room corridor to discuss their options. Brexiteers were seen
Theresa May’s supporters are resorting to some desperate measures to try and salvage the Prime Minister’s Brexit deal. Step forward, Rory Stewart. The prisons minister claimed just now on BBC 5 Live that 80 per cent of the British public support the deal. The only problem? He was making that number up. Stewart was quickly
My my. Tensions are flaring across this Conservative Party this morning, as the Tories tears themselves apart over Theresa May’s Brexit deal with the European Union. Scottish secretary David Mundell, who has come out in support of Theresa May’s deal, was being interviewed on ITV news this afternoon, and didn’t exactly pull his punches when
Only a handful of MPs have spoken up in support of Theresa May’s Brexit deal in the Commons. But the criticism from a certain Tory backbencher will worry her more than most. Jacob Rees-Mogg took to his feet in the Commons to ask why he shouldn’t now hand in a letter of no confidence in
Ahead of the crunch Cabinet meeting No. 10 aides privately admitted that the one minister they could not afford to lose was Dominic Raab. It wasn’t just that losing a second Brexit Secretary would send a very bad signal about the government’s Brexit policy. More importantly, Raab is regarded as a pragmatic Brexiteer and there
With permission, Mr Speaker, I would like to update the House on our negotiations to leave the European Union. First, I want to pay tribute to my Rt Hon Friends the Members for Esher and Walton and Tatton. Delivering Brexit involves difficult choices for all of us. We do not agree on all of those choices but I
If you think performing stand-up sounds like your worst nightmare, imagine standing in front of several hundred hostile MPs while your government falls apart. Such is Theresa May’s lot as she currently gives a statement to parliament about her Brexit deal. Fortunately for the PM, her speech provided no short of laughs, especially with this
It will be reasonably low down on Theresa May’s agenda this morning, but replacing the ministers who have resigned so far is something she will have to think about soon. The Prime Minister has always tried to maintain a balance of Brexiteers and Remainers in cabinet in order to keep both wings of her party
It’s been a busy morning in Westminster, with ministers fleeing from Theresa May’s government like rats from a sinking ship. Fear not though, Mr S is on hand to help keep you keep track. Keep an eye on this post, it will be updated throughout the day as the resignations keep on rolling in. These
Esther McVey has quit the government. The Work and Pensions Secretary has long known to be unhappy with Theresa May’s Brexit policy and at yesterday’s Cabinet pushed repeatedly for a vote, so she could register her objection to the withdrawal agreement. Having been denied that vote, she realised that the only way a Cabinet Minister
Dear Prime Minister, There is no more important task for this Government than delivering on the United Kingdom’s decision to leave the European Union. This is a matter of trust. It is about the future of our country and the integrity of our democracy. The deal you put before the Cabinet yesterday does not honour
This is a PM who has shown herself capable of surviving extraordinary personal humiliations. But to lose two two Brexit secretaries – David and now Raab – in fairly rapid succession is a set back of a different magnitude. They were supposed to be in charge of Brexit. And yet both have resigned rather than
Dear Prime Minister, It’s been an honour to serve in your government as Justice Minister, Housing Minister and Brexit Secretary. I regret to say that following the Cabinet meeting yesterday on the Brexit deal, I must resign. I understand why you have chosen to pursue the deal with the EU on the terms proposed, and
If Tory MPs are right when they tell me that by lunchtime today there will be 48 letters of no-confidence in Theresa May lodged by them with Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the 1922 backbench committee, what does that actually mean? Well it is all about how they hate the Brexit plan she unveiled yesterday
Dominic Raab has resigned as Brexit Secretary following yesterday’s cabinet meeting. This is a bigger blow to Theresa May and her hopes of passing a Brexit deal than the resignations of David Davis and Boris Johnson after Chequers. It now seems almost impossible that this deal can pass the Commons without wholesale Labour support. Indeed,
A note leaked to the Times written by the EU’s deputy chief negotiator shows that the EU has no intention of releasing the UK from the customs union if May’s deal is signed. This attitude should come as little surprise to those close to the deal. Throughout the process, the EU have wished to hamper
Five hours of cabinet discussion produced several memorable moments. Esther McVey’s push for a formal vote, I understand, went on for several minutes and ended with Mark Sedwill, the new Cabinet Secretary, looking up the rules on procedure. Perhaps more worryingly for No. 10, both Jeremy Hunt, the Foreign Secretary, and Dominic Raab, the Brexit Secretary,
‘White is the new green’, said Michel Barnier as he held the draft Brexit withdrawal agreement aloft at a press conference in Brussels tonight. The EU’s chief negotiator was referring to the chunks of text that had previously been coloured in where there had been disagreement. Not too long ago, the white sections were few
After a five-hour Cabinet meeting, Theresa May emerged from Number 10 to say that the Cabinet have decided to back the withdrawal agreement and the political declaration. She admitted that the debate had been ‘impassioned’, which is presumably code for an argument. I gather that about a third of the Cabinet spoke against her deal.
The Cabinet has just had a long, detailed and impassioned debate on the draft Withdrawal Agreement and the Outline Political Declaration on our future relationship with the European Union. These documents were the result of thousands of hours of hard negotiation by UK officials, and many, many meetings, which I and other ministers held with