Uk politics

David Cameron faces MPs today after returning from Brussels with his European Union reform deal. At 3.30 in the Commons, the Prime Minister will give a statement on the outcome of the European Council meeting, and take questions from MPs, including many on his own side who think the deal is a load of tosh. It will be interesting to see how many of them choose to tell him that, and what sort of language they use. There is a risk that this referendum campaign becomes very personal and furious, even while everyone involved is pontificating about the importance of the Tory party getting along well after the vote. Ministers

If Boris Johnson had behaved and backed David Cameron’s ‘in’ campaign, he would have been foreign secretary by the summer. Instead, he chose to join Michael Gove in the ‘out’ campaign – informing the Prime Minister by text message at 4.40pm shortly before informing the reporters who gathered around his house shortly afterwards. So what does this mean for the race, and do we now have a Tory leadership contest running in parallel to the EU Referendum campaign? James Forsyth, Isabel Hardman and I discuss this in our latest podcast:- Listen to more episodes of the Spectator podcast here and click here to subscribe through iTunes.  SPECTATOR EVENT: EU REFERENDUM – THE

At Cabinet this morning, every minister spoke in strict order of Cabinet seniority. This meant that Michael Gove was the first person to make the case for Out. I’m told that his argument to Cabinet was essentially the same as the hugely powerful statement he put out afterwards, which you can read in full here. The theme of the Cabinet discussion was, broadly, the trade-off between sovereignty and access to the free market. According to one of those present, where you fell on that question determined your position in the debate. One IN supporting Cabinet minister tells me that Oliver Letwin was the most persuasive speaker for that side of

[audioplayer src=”http://rss.acast.com/viewfrom22/spectatorpodcastspecial-davidcameronseudeal/media.mp3″ title=”Isabel Hardman, James Forsyth and Fraser Nelson discuss the EU deal” startat=18] Listen [/audioplayer] Finally. In the past few minutes, EU leaders have reached a deal on David Cameron’s renegotiation of Britain’s relationship with Europe which gives the UK ‘special status’ in the EU. As is now traditional, Donald Tusk’s Twitter feed is first with the news. Details of the deal are starting to leak, including a seven-year limit to Cameron’s so-called “emergency brake” on migrant benefits and an addition to the text that makes it clear that references to “ever-closer union” do not apply to the United Kingdom. The leaders have also agreed to a non-euro emergency brake which

As the night gets going in Brussels, there is some pretty heavy briefing about the progress being made in the talks. British officials say leaders are still stuck on the major issues, including benefits, and that Cameron could walk away from the summit with no deal. There are some major issues to resolve, sources said, adding that while many countries were showing a desire to help, the European Council president Donald Tusk ‘shares the assessment that there are some serious differences’. It is, we have been briefed, going to be a long night as leaders try to hammer out those differences, before the breakfast session tomorrow where it had been