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The referendum result was initially recognised by the British Government as a decision to take back control of money, laws, borders and taxes, which had to be given effect to. It accepted this meant leaving the EU’s single market and customs union. The three page statement issued at Chequers last Friday on behalf of the
Donald Trump has demanded that Nato members spend four percent of their GDP on defence. He is proposing a doubling of the current Nato target of two percent. This is, obviously, a negotiating tactic: even the US doesn’t, currently, hit this 4 percent mark. I suspect that Trump’s real aim is to highlight how few
The busy Speaker has made two new friends this week. He interrupted PMQs to introduce them to the house. ‘We’re very fortunate,’ he simpered, ‘to be joined in the public gallery by two members of the Osmond family. Jay and Merrill Osmond.’ The Osmonds were five luxuriantly coiffured brothers whose pop success in the 1970s
When Theresa May first met Donald Trump, she was pictured strolling arm-in-arm with the president through the grounds of the White House. But a lot has happened in the 18 months since that meeting, and now it seems May doesn’t even want to touch the Donald’s hand. When Trump greeted the Prime Minister at the
Whether or not England win their World Cup semi-final tonight, one thing is guaranteed: Gary Lineker has plenty to be happy about. The Match of the Day host, who flogs crisps and virtue signals on Twitter when he isn’t on the telly, has topped the BBC’s pay league for the first time. Lineker’s earnings last
Back in May, John Cleese promised to leave England if MPs voting not to go ahead with Leveson 2. At the time Mr S was left asking: is he a man of his word? Happily, Steerpike can confirm that he is. Speaking on Newsnight, Cleese told Emily Maitlis that he had decided to leave the country
It’s day four of the Brexiteer rebellion and Theresa May appears to have shored up her position… for now. The eurosceptics who take the greatest issue with her Chequers blue print – thought to be around 70 Tory MPs – don’t think they have the numbers as of yet to win a no confidence and,
Don’t say you weren’t warned. Ahead of the Nato summit in Brussels today, Donald Trump had spent the last two days tweeting about the iniquity of Nato and the trade deficits between the EU and his country. He had singled out Germany for not contributing enough to Nato’s defence budget, and three times mentioned a
The television cameras may have packed up from College Green but Theresa May’s troubles over her Brexit position are far from over. Suspicion is growing in government that the two Tory vice chair resignations on Tuesday are part of a coordinated campaign by Tory Brexiteers to ramp up the pressure on the PM over her Chequers
Just this weekend, the Tories were joining others in rounding on Labour for trying to politicise the World Cup – with a call for a bank holiday. But with the Conservative party now in the midst of blue-on-blue warfare over Theresa May’s Brexit position, that memo appears to have gone out of the window. Ahead
Last week, Labour managed to surprise for a change with the news that Jared O’Mara was to have the whip restored. The MP for Sheffield Hallam had been suspended over a series of misogynistic posts he had made prior to becoming an MP. Others complained that even when he had the whip he had failed
Theresa May had nearly got to the end of the working day with no resignations. Alas, it wasn’t to be. Two Tory vice-chairs – Ben Bradley and Maria Caulfield – have handed in their respective resignations over the Prime Minister’s Chequers proposals. What will worry No 10 is not that they now need to find
What’s one woman’s life worth as the great battles about Brexit rage? Nothing at all, apparently, as Boris Johnson’s indifference towards the fate of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe shows. The British mother is, you will recall, being held in an Iranian prison on trumped up spying charges. She says she was just visiting Iran, and there is
Uh oh – Poor Theresa. You know that when Donald Trump, the most powerful man in the world, tells the media that you and he have a ‘very good relationship’, it means he doesn’t like you at all. It’s what he said about Theresa May this morning, just before he left for Europe. It’s also
Something rather remarkable happened yesterday: Theresa May had a good day. This counts as news and is itself testament to the miserable time she has endured since she became Prime Minister. Some of this – much of it, in fact – was her own fault. Or at least her own responsibility. If she had called
Theresa May’s bad week just got worse. After two Cabinet Brexiteers – David Davis and Boris Johnson – resigned on Monday, the Prime Minister attempted today to suggest it was business as usual tweeting of a ‘productive Cabinet meeting this morning – looking ahead to a busy week’. However, right on cue, President Trump has arrived
Have you ever met a real misogynist? Probably not, because misogyny is a very strong word. Coming from the ancient Greek misos (hatred) and gyne (woman), it should only be used to define extreme behaviour: woman-hating to be exact. And yet some people seem to think that British streets are full of woman-haters. Misogyny was
Brexit supporters are used to getting a hard time when they appear on TV, but enough was enough for Iain Dale when he popped up on Newsnight last night. After being introduced as a Brexit supporter – in contrast to Matthew Parris and Rachel Shabi, who were called a ‘Times columnist’ and a ‘Labour-supporting columnist’ –
In the dark, foggy night that is the Brexit debate, immigration is the dog that has not yet barked. The Chequers agreement contains a promise to formally end free movement, but also to replace it with a “mobility agreement” that could well mean EU migration continues at more or less its current level. Would that
There has been a Remainer coup. Remainers now inhabit virtually all of the highest offices in the land. Overnight, adherents to this minority political viewpoint seized the final levers of political power. This is the one downside — and what a downside it is — to the belated outbreak of principle among the cabinet’s Brexiteers:
After reciting the usual homilies about the need to interpret the American Constitution as it was written, President Trump appeared visibly bored once his nominee for the Supreme Court, Brett Kavanaugh, took the podium. Who could blame him? There was little Trump could do to inject much excitement into the proceedings and it’s never as
After a day of high drama in Westminster, tensions are running high in Parliament. And also, it seems, in the buildings attached to Parliament – like Westminster Underground. This is the ‘service information’ message on today’s board: ‘Tricks and treachery are the practice of fools that don’t have enough brains to be honest’ Who ever
It would be easy to dismiss the Independent Commission on Referendums as a branch of the lobby trying to overturn the Brexit result – even if it does contain a token Leave campaigner, Gisela Stuart. Its pretentious title could easily lead people to mistake it for an official, government-sanctioned inquiry rather than a unsolicited piece
I was notified of my appointment with Pervez Musharraf by a text from his PR man: ‘General sahib has granted your request and wishes to see you in the afternoon.’ At the entrance to a gleaming skyscraper with views of the Burj Khalifa, I was greeted by a security guard in black sunglasses: ‘Welcome sir!
Theresa May’s mini emergency reshuffle is complete. After David Davis and Boris Johnson resigned over the Prime Minister’s Brexit position, No 10 appointed Dominic Raab Brexit Secretary and moved Jeremy Hunt from Health to the Foreign Office. Now Matt Hancock – the Culture Secretary – has been appointed Health Secretary. This is a big promotion
You couldn’t get a stronger contrast between the new Foreign Secretary and his predecessor. Jeremy Hunt is a minister who has earned the absolute trust of two Prime Ministers in an extremely politically charged job. He was brought in by David Cameron to clear up the mess after Andrew Lansley’s Health and Social Care Act
Jeremy Hunt is the new Foreign Secretary, replacing Boris Johnson. Having secured a new funding settlement for the NHS, Hunt has—finally—agreed to move jobs. I suspect it will be quite some time before anyone beats his record as the longest serving Health Secretary ever. Hunt was a Remainer during the referendum campaign. But since he
Having lost two of her most senior Cabinet Ministers, Theresa May went to address her MPs in a stuffy, hot room. But the occasion went off fairly-well for her. The vast majority of the questions were supportive and even the veteran Eurosceptic Edward Leigh made clear that the 1990s showed that a leadership contest wouldn’t
The good news, one Tory conceded to me today, is that there is a measure of clarity now. Open warfare has replaced the clandestine skirmishing that has hitherto occupied the attention of the cabinet and the Conservative parliamentary party. You are either with the prime minister, for all her faults and shortcomings, or you are
In happier days when Britain was not on the brink of disintegration, David Davis told me a story about the 19th century French politician Alexandre Auguste Ledru-Rollin. Little did I suspect that soon he would be living it. The Francophiles among you will recall the apocryphal tale of Ledru-Rollin enjoying his lunch at a Parisian
The list of things about the European Commission that many people at Westminster don’t understand is long. My favourite is that in quite a lot of the EU, the Commission, regularly accused in Britain of spewing out red tape, has often been accused of wanting to deregulate domestic markets and expose cosy economic arrangements to
Dear Theresa It is more than two years since the British people voted to leave the European Union on an unambiguous and categorical promise that if they did so they would be taking back control of their democracy. They were told that they would be able to manage their own immigration policy, repatriate the sums
Trump says he likes things ‘nice and complicated’ – well, in that case, he couldn’t be coming to Britain at a better time. Theresa May’s newly hatched soft Brexit plan, announced on Friday, has triggered two major resignations from her cabinet and another political crisis in Britain. David Davis, the Brexit Secretary, went late last