News and Opinion

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Andrew Adonis argues Brexit has all the morbid symptoms of being in its death throes I don’t have direct experience, but from my increasingly frequent observation as a 55-year-old, there is no such thing as a ‘good death’. Just death, which is always horrible and sometimes horrendous in its final stages. Brexit is no exception. […]

The Breunion Boys are not targeting the hearts of teenage girls – but the 17.4m Brits who voted to leave the EU. At first glance, the Breunion Boys could be any other boy band. There’s the muscly one and the sensitive one and the one with glasses he probably doesn’t need. Except these guys are […]

More than half of grassroots Conservative members want Theresa May’s Brexit deal to be ditched in favour of no deal, a survey has found. About 57% of the rank and file are convinced that leaving the EU without a deal is better than their own leader’s Brexit plan, according to a poll funded by the […]

Michael White says the home secretary’s overreaction to the migrant drama at Dover was too tempting for a vote-hungry politician to resist After Theresa May’s latest near-death experience at the hands of Tory MPs in mid-December there was some talk of a Brexit Christmas truce, like that staged by soldiers in the mud of Flanders […]

A woman broke down on live television as she described the emotional impact that Brexit has had on her life. "We're going to struggle to put food on our table because a few of you don't like foreigners."We got an emotional call from a mum this morning, who reckons her family is going to suffer […]

The New European’s editor-at-large on why January is set to be the biggest month in Brexit since June 2016 ‘Do you not worry,’ asked the LBC presenter as the New Year neared, ‘that the campaign for the People’s Vote is losing momentum?’ It’s funny how media moods develop, without much evidence of a change to […]

James Ball says Chris Grayling’s £14m ferry farce suggests it’s time to stop taking a collective nap and start panicking Transport Minister Chris Grayling. Photo: Getty Images – Credit: Getty Images If it weren’t a portent of the possible collapse of our country in three months’ time – Happy New Year everyone! – the case […]

The government has been accused of “distracting from the gaping flaws in its own deal” after launching a massive publicity drive to prepare the public for a no-deal Brexit. Whitehall departments and the health regulator are to begin publishing guidance on how the public can get ready for issues that would arise from a disorderly […]

Theresa May has been urged to delay the “meaningful vote” on her Brexit deal for a second time. Former Brexit secretary David Davis has speculated the vote could be put off if May looks likely to lose it. His comments come as the prime minister prepares to meet EU leaders and seek further “clarifications” in […]

The firm handed a £13.8m deal to run ferry services in the event of a no-deal Brexit despite having no ships has been accused of cutting and pasting its terms and conditions from a takeaway website. Seaborne Freight was one of three firms awarded contracts totalling £108m last week to lay on additional crossings to […]

Awarding a £13.8m contract for no-deal Brexit ferry services to a company with no ships is an example of the government “supporting new business”, Chris Grayling has said. The beleagured transport secretary defended the decision to do a deal with Seaborne Freight, despite it never having run a Channel service. It was one of three […]

Jeremy Corbyn has refused to back a second EU referendum despite a poll suggesting almost three-quarters of Labour members want one. A survey of more than 1,000 party members found that 72% would like to see their leader throw his weight behind a People’s Vote. But Corbyn has long resisted such calls and, asked today […]

Jeremy Corbyn is facing further pressure to back a second Brexit referendum after polling showed support among Labour members for another vote. The Labour leader has resisted calls from within his party to back a referendum, instead calling for a general election and promising to strike his own “jobs-first” Brexit deal with Brussels retaining all […]

Gilda Gray built an entire career on the shimmy, the dance she developed as a teenager, writes CHARLIE CONNELLY in the most recent Great European Lives. ‘A ripple here, a quiver there and a 
shudder or two – then I shake all the 
way up from my feet, with everything.’ Gilda Gray built an entire […]

Theresa May has used her New Year’s message to desperately call for MPs to back her Brexit deal, as Downing Street admitted ‘there is still work to do’ within the next 9 days. May has urged MPs to back her Brexit deal saying that passing it into law will allow the UK to ‘turn a […]

Jeremy Corbyn has used his New Year’s message to attack Theresa May and the government for making a ‘mess’ of Brexit. The Labour leader said that the prime minister’s efforts to force through her Withdrawal Agreement in a crunch Commons vote next month, were ‘letting people down all across the country, whether they voted Leave […]

In a new video series, The New European meets some of the 3 million EU citizens living in the UK. Here we meet ANA MOREIRA, a Zumba instructor from Portugal. The fewer than 100 days left until the UK leaves the European Union and there is not a clear path in sight. While all eyes […]

A decision to award a ferry contract in the case of a ‘no deal’ Brexit to a company that owns no ships has been ridiculed by opposition parties. Seaborne Freight was one of three companies awarded contracts totalling £108 million to ease the pressure on Dover if Britain pulls out of the EU without a […]

Ahead of the airing of Brexit: The Uncivil War actor BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH makes a pitch for why we should tune into the drama which looks at those who operated behind-the-scenes during the 2016 EU referendum. You play Dominic Cummings in Brexit: An Uncivil War. Why did you want to take the part? I wanted to […]

Vote Leave boss Dominic Cummings believes the government was wrong to trigger Article 50 how it did, the writer behind Brexit: The Uncivil War has revealed. Award-winning writer James Graham, who wrote both This House and Coalition, has produced the script for the new Channel 4 film to air on January 9th. As part of […]

Almost 200,000 Irish passport applications were received from the UK this year. The number from England, Scotland and Wales increased by more than a fifth compared to 2017, Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs said. Minister Simon Coveney said the total had risen since the Brexit vote in June 2016. Out of the total number of […]

The Scottish Government will work “to protect Scotland’s place at the heart of Europe” in 2019, Nicola Sturgeon has said in a New Year message. Scotland’s first minister said she believed the reputation for being a hospitable country “has never been more important”, and said EU nationals who had made Scotland their home would always […]

A caller has been labelled a ‘bigot’ in a heated radio phone-in debate about the Home Office’s new video for EU nationals. LBC Radio presenter Afua Hirsch reacted angry after caller David claimed ‘you don’t value being British’. Hirsch responded furiously by saying that David summarised ‘everything that is toxic with the Brexit debate’. The […]

Jeremy Hunt has been accused of wanting to turn Britain into “a bargain basement for business” after he said the UK should follow the example of low-tax Singapore after Brexit. In what will be seen as an obvious bid to burnish his leadership credentials with Tory hard Brexiteers, Hunt hailed the south-east Asian city state […]

Jean-Claude Juncker has called on the UK to “get your act together” over Brexit, branding some Britons “entirely unreasonable” for expecting Brussels to put forward a solution. The European Commission president also rejected claims of a plot to keep the UK in the EU “by all possible means” and revealed he fears the majority of […]

It provided the inspiration – and name – for the race, but Greece’s Marathón also has a fascinating linguistic history. PETER TRUDGILL reports. The men’s race at the Athens marathon (marathónios in Greek) was won this year by the Kenyan athlete Misoi Brimin Kipkorir of Kenya, in two hours 10 minutes and 56 seconds; the […]

International trade secretary and Brexiteer Liam Fox has claimed that there is now just a 50% chance of Britain leaving the EU if Theresa May’s deal is rejected. Speaking in the Sunday Times, Fox said that voting for the prime minister’s Brexit plan was the only way to be ‘100% certain’ that the UK will […]

An outspoken Brexiteer who was awarded a knighthood in the New Year’s Honours list says it will have ‘no bearing whatsoever’ in how he votes on Theresa May’s Brexit plan. The controversial decision by Theresa May to give John Redwood an honour has been criticised as ‘desperate’ and has been seen by some as an […]

A People’s Vote – or a second referendum – is the opportunity to give Britons that second chance to stop and think, writes BOB HALE. How many times have we heard someone say ‘in hindsight I would not have said that or in hindsight not done this’? Those of us supporting a People’s Vote are […]

A government department has spent more than £100m on ferries to ease potential problems in the event of a no-deal Brexit. Documents outlining the £107.m agreements say increased border checks in UK ports after Brexit could “cause delivery of critical goods to be delayed” in the event of no deal. The move was described as […]

A pioneering partnership between Google and a leading Dutch museum has brought together every surviving Vermeer painting for the first time ever and exhibited them online. FLORENCE HALLETT considers what it means for art. View of Delft, 1660-61, Mauritshuis. – Credit: Archant Turning towards us, her lips slightly parted as if about to speak, or […]