News and Opinion

Theresa May will bring her botched Brexit deal back before the House of Commons “before January 21”, Downing Street has insisted. The prime minister has embarked on a desperate tour of European capitals to seek reassurances to get her deal through Parliament, after cancelling a vote scheduled for yesterday which she accepted she would lose […]

Nigel Farage and his fellow Leave campaigners were ridiculed during an interview with television host Susanna Reid. Farage used the Good Morning Britain appearance to call for politicians to acknowledge the ‘will of the people’ saying that everyone knew what was voted on in the EU referendum. He said: ‘We didn’t vote for this once, […]

In his latest review, TIM WALKER watches Joanna Murray-Smith’s Switzerland at London’s Ambassadors Theatre. When Christmas approaches – and with it the prospect of big family reunions – the thoughts of the nation always seem to turn inexorably towards murder. No festive season is, after all, complete without Miss Marple making an appearance on television, […]

With her tail firmly between her legs, Theresa May is to go back to the European Union in a bid to renegotiate her Brexit plan. After cancelling the meaningful vote May made a statement to the House of Commons admitting the government did not have the numbers to get it through. The prime minister said […]

Theresa May got a response she did not expect when she asked the Commons if it still wanted to deliver Brexit. As she delivered her speech announcing the delay of the meaningful vote on her Brexit deal, she explained that by voting down her plan would risk no Brexit at all. MORE: ‘EU legislation at […]

Remain MPs have warned Theresa May that she cannot run from democracy, as Downing Street confirmed the meaningful vote on the government’s Brexit plan would be delayed. Liberal Democrat leader Sir Vince Cable said: ‘Theresa May appears to have marched her depleted troops to the top of the hill only to lose her nerve. She […]

Leaving the EU without a deal could cost three quarters of a million workers in Britain their jobs, a new academic report says. The study, by the UK Trade Policy Observatory at the University of Sussex, also says a soft Brexit would see almost 400,000 jobs lost around the country. It warns that under a […]

Theresa May spent almost £100,000 on Facebook adverts promoting the Brexit deal before the vote was pulled. Figures from the social media firm reveal that in the week leading up to the key vote – which has now been pulled – the government spent nearly £100,000 advertising through Facebook and Instagram. MORE: ‘EU legislation at […]

A Tommy Robinson supporter experienced EU legislation at work when he tried to burn the official flag at a protest. The protester was attending a so-called ‘Brexit betrayal’ march in London organised by English Defence League founder Tommy Robinson and UKIP leader Gerard Batten. MORE: Subscribe to The New European for 26 weeks at just […]

Theresa May has been portrayed as Gollum from Lord of the Rings in an unselling video that pokes fun at the way she obsesses over her Brexit deal. The Hollywood actor Andy Serkis donned a Conservative-blue jacket and grey wig for the sketch. ‘Precious … our agreement, this is it. Our deal,’ hisses Serkis as […]

The UK can unilaterally revoke its withdrawal from the EU, the European Court of Justice has ruled. The court found that if the UK does decide to revoke Article 50 and stop the Brexit process it would remain in the EU as a member state and the revocation must be decided following ‘democratic process’. In […]

In the face of a devastating defeat the government has pulled the meaningful vote leaving Brexit in chaos. Even though ministers and Number 10 repeatedly assured the country the vote would go ahead as planned, Theresa May has been forced to perform an embarrassing U-turn. The prime minister’s authority is now in tatters after she […]

MITCH BENN discusses how closely politics and Christmas should be linked. I come to report a disturbing development; in previous years (yes, this is now the third December in which I’ve been writing this column – doesn’t time fly when you’re mired in existential despair) I’ve noted that one bit of reactionary idiocy we’ve thus […]

Lord Heseltine is set to lead a rally in support of a People’s Vote ahead of a crucial vote in the House of Commons. The former deputy prime minister will join politicians including Sir Vince Cable, Anna Soubry, Caroline Lucas and Mary Creagh. He is expected to address the Brexiteers that believe a People’s Vote […]

At the time, the Mafia looked like it had scored its biggest success with the Lufthansa Heist. Forty years on, the reality looks quite different. IAN WALKER reports. The black Ford Econoline 150 van pulled up outside Lufthansa’s warehouse at JFK airport just before 3am. None of the half dozen men in the vehicle were […]

James Ball on the ‘serial and erratic attention-seeker’ Milo Yiannopoulos and his perilous debts. When the far-right fall out, they have a habit of doing it in public – and it’s rarely pretty. The latest spat to explode into public is a war of words between Milo Yiannopoulos – a purveyor of hateful nonsense across […]

At the eleventh hour, we need not only cross-party cooperation but a cross-party government, says JONATHAN CHAPLIN. Theresa May’s tortuously negotiated Brexit deal is now finally on the table but it faces the prospect of almost certain defeat in parliament. What happens then? May declares that parliament faces a binary choice: my deal or no-deal, […]

Fiona Bruce has been confirmed as the new presenter of Question Time. The BBC News and Antiques Roadshow presenter will take up her role on the BBC One show when the new series returns on January 10 next year. She landed the job, replacing veteran presenter David Dimbleby, after candidates hosted a pilot episode of […]

Bonnie Greer’s touching tribute to the Second World War pilot who became an iconic social justice campaigner. ‘Wednesday’s child is full of woe,’ the nursery rhyme goes, and Harry Leslie Smith was born on a Wednesday. What could be called his ‘first life’ began in Barnsley. He was born to a coal miner father who […]

Readers are turning away from the BBC for their Brexit news – CHRIS CLODE explains why they’ve switched over. Having spent my life watching what I took to be BBC’s factual coverage of news, Brexit has cured our family. Now we have switched to Channel 4 for our evening news and for rolling 24-hour news, […]

RACHEL JOHNSON on her encounter with shadow home secretary Diane Abbott and receiving Christmas cards too early. I bumped into Diane Abbott on the way to the Speccie Parliamentarian of the Year awards dinner which was a fizzing occasion. As we walked out of Holborn tube station I said, ‘Can we talk to each other?’ […]

Just two constituencies in Britain would back Theresa May’s Brexit deal with 600 support remaining in the EU. The shock poll found that just two constituencies – the Tory-held constituencies of Broxbourne and Christchurch – would prefer the Brexit deal over alternative options. It found 30 out of 650 supported a no-deal Brexit. MORE: Subscribe […]

The recent rioting in Paris might seem like just the latest outbreak of civil disorder which occasionally erupts across the Channel. But, says PAUL KNOTT, it should not be dismissed so lightly. Could two neighbouring countries currently present more of a mirror image than Britain and France? Britain’s Brexit political crisis is paralysing normal government […]

A second vote IS coming, says ZOE WILLIAMS. But the pro-European campaign must not repeat the many mistakes of the last one. As fascinating as it is to consider what will happen on December 11: by what margin Theresa May will lose in the vote on her deal; what Jeremy Corbyn could and should say […]

A new battlebus is gathering plenty of attention right now. The “Bollocks to Brexit” campaign bus leaves Westminster. Photograph: Steve Parsons/PA Wire. – Credit: PA It is a bright yellow, says ‘bollocks to Brexit’ and is urging us all to write to our MPs demanding a final say referendum. The bus is the brain child […]

An online tool has been created to make it easy for the ‘digital generation’ to urge their MP to vote against Brexit. The Exit Brexit tool locates users’ MPs from their address details and generates a letter of objection, which it then sends to parliamentarians at the click of a button. It was created amid […]

With the prospect of Theresa May’s Brexit deal getting defeated in the Commons the prime minister’s team have discussed a People’s Vote. According to BuzzFeed, Downing Street advisers have urged Theresa May to consider a second referendum or a softer Brexit as options, as her team work out the best response to her deal being […]

STEVE ANGLESEY picks his four worst Brexiteers of the week. You’d expect a direct descendant of Edward II to be wary of anything to do with poker. But Theresa Villiers continues to bluff her way through Brexit. Villiers, whose royal ancestor is said to have met his end with a red-hot iron stuck up his […]

Someone’s organised leaving drinks for the prime minister, scheduled to take place after the big Brexit meaningful vote. It is hard to see how Theresa May will be able to win a vote in Commons on her Brexit deal. With the paraliamentary arithmetic against her, the expected level of defeat would damage what remains of […]

Channel 4 is set to air a proper Brexit debate featuring ‘four high-profile politicians reflecting the main divisions in the House of Commons.’ The broadcaster says in the absence of a debate on the BBC or ITV, it will air ‘The Real Brexit Debate’ which will focus on four options – Theresa May’s deal, a […]

The Lib Dem MP for Eastbourne and Willingdon has announced he is resigning the party whip. He cited ‘irreconcilable differences’ with his party’s voting intentions over the government’s Brexit plan. In a statement to his local newspaper, the Eastbourne Herald, he said: ‘It is with great regret that I am today resigning the Liberal Democrat […]

PM flies out of Heathrow rather than Brize Norton to buy extra time to sell her deal, Liam Fox afraid to talk to Channel 4 News and Mandrake’s part in Sam Gymiah’s resignation. Theresa May loftily informed the Commons committee inquiring into the practicalities of Brexit last week that she ‘had a plane to catch’. […]