News and Opinion

Who is on Question Time tonight and where do they stand on Brexit? Here’s your guide… The BBC’s flagship current affairs programme tonight comes from Birmingham, the show’s 47th visit to England’s second city and the first since David Dimbleby announced he would be ceasing his quarter-century bed-blocking at the end of this year. But […]

Anti-Brexit campaigners handed out sweet and savoury treats as part of a protest outside the Houses of Parliament on Wednesday. Anti-Brexit demonstrators campaign opposite the Houses of Parliament in London. Photograph: Yui Mok/PA Wire. – Credit: PA The peaceful protests took place as MPs discussed the Grieve amendment in the latest debate on the EU […]

We cannot abandon our continent and responsibility for its defence and properity says ANDREW ADONIS We cannot abandon our continent and our responsibility for its defence and prosperity, either as a practical or as a moral proposition. Whenever we have attempted to do so in the past, the result has been strife and often war […]

Ireland’s deputy premier has warned the UK there will be no Brexit withdrawal deal without an agreement on the Irish border. Ahead of a visit by European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker to Dublin, Tanaiste Simon Coveney indicated that a no-deal scenario was now being seriously contemplated within the EU. “This is a question many people […]

Brexit rebels failed in their bid to force the government’s hand over a ‘meaningful vote’ – but how did your MP vote? Six Conservative MPs rebelled to support the “meaningful vote” amendment tabled in Tory MP Dominic Grieve’s name to the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill. Four Labour MPs also rebelled to vote against the amendment, […]

Brexit rebels failed in their bid to force the government’s hand over a ‘meaningful vote’ but it took another last-gasp deal to avoid humiliation for Theresa May. A table of food laid out by anti-Brexit demonstrators outside the Houses of Parliament in London Photo: PA / Yui Mok – Credit: PA Wire/PA Images The government […]

The government has advertised for two new top jobs in airspace strategy and Brexit aviation negotiations – stressing that no experience of the complex sector is needed. The roles – officially titled Head of Airspace Strategy and Head of Aviation EU Exit Negotiations – appear on the civil service jobs website. The first role will […]

This is the email Anna Soubry sent to her constituents ahead of a key vote in the House of Commons on the EU Withdrawal Bill. ‘Sir Winston Churchill wrote: ‘The first duty of a member of Parliament is to do what he thinks in his faithful and disinterested judgement is right and necessary for the […]

Prime minister Theresa May is facing yet another close Brexit vote as the EU (Withdrawal) Bill returns to the House of Commons amid divisions over the role of MPs in the final legislation. Here are some of the questions being asked about this week’s votes: What is the purpose of this Bill? The EU (Withdrawal) […]

Britain’s plan for a temporary customs “backstop” to solve the Irish border issue is “not acceptable” and any fall-back option cannot be time-limited, the European Parliament’s chief Brexit co-ordinator has told MPs. Guy Verhofstadt said the government’s position that the backstop of continuing UK alignment with the EU customs union would cease by the end […]

Wearing Thatcher blue, a defiant Theresa May looked steely and confident as she walked into the Commons amid cheers from her MPs. Prime minister Theresa May speaks during Prime Minister’s Questions Photo: PA – Credit: PA Wire/PA Images But Jeremy Corbyn appeared determined as well – going on the Brexit dividend and asking ‘what taxes […]

Ireland’s premier has accused the UK of stalling progress in Brexit negotiations and warned of the consequences of not striking a deal on the border. Taoiseach Leo Varadkar suggested other countries would baulk at signing trade deals with the UK post-Brexit if prime minister Theresa May failed to honour commitments made to the EU on […]

Labour’s deputy leader Tom Watson has reported the prime minister to the advertising watchdog over claims there would be a ‘Brexit dividend’ to fund a cash boost for the NHS. pic.twitter.com/Wbckeum5WH— UK Prime Minister (@10DowningStreet) June 17, 2018 Theresa May has claimed the NHS will get an extra £20 billion a year by 2023 with […]

Donations of £725,000 made by the official Leave campaign in the run-up to the EU referendum should have been treated as expenses, senior judges have heard. The Good Law Project (GLP) is bringing a High Court challenge against the Electoral Commission, arguing the commission should have taken action over spending by Vote Leave Ltd ahead […]

Brexit means there as a “very clear argument” for Gibraltar to have its own MP, a Conservative MP has said. South Thanet MP Craig Mackinlay claimed Brexit provided Britain with an “opportunity to build further on our relationship and to protect further the Rock’s rights and interests, and this is best guaranteed by a closer […]

A Labour MP has called on ministers to back moves to abolish the House of Lords following the latest defeat in the upper chamber for the government’s flagship Brexit bill. Frank Field – one of a small group Labour MPs to campaign for Leave in the EU referendum – has tabled a bill in the […]

Non-UK EU nationals make up more than a quarter of the construction workforce in London, according to official analysis. It found 28% of those employed in the industry in the capital are from one of the 27 other EU member states. Nationally, around one in 14 construction workers are non-UK EU citizens – referred to […]

Rebel leader Dominic Grieve has heaped more pressure on the prime minister as she attempts to avoid a potentially devastating Commons defeat. Tory Brexit insurgent Grieve has pushed Theresa May to agree to an 11th-hour deal to avoid the humiliation of defeat when a new Lords’ amendment on a meaningful vote is debated on Wednesday. […]

The UK will not be able to take part in the European Arrest Warrant after Brexit, Michel Barnier said today as he hit out at British politicians who sought to blame Brussels for the consequences of the Leave vote. The European Union’s chief negotiator said Theresa May’s “red lines” meant it was impossible to remain […]

A Labour shadow minister has backtracked on support for a vote on a final Brexit deal just 48 hours after pledging it. Shadow Northern Ireland minister Stephen Pound filmed a video message on Saturday in which he clearly and unambiguously backed a People’s Vote, saying there was a need “to have a cold evaluation”. But […]

At 7pm tonight, as the eyes of England turn to the World Cup opener against Tunisia, self-styled patriot Jacob Rees-Mogg is giving a speech. The hardline Brexiteer and Tory leadership hopeful will be speaking on ‘Brexit and beyond: Britain’s place in the world in the 2020s’ as part of Commons speaker John Bercow’s lecture series […]

Embattled Theresa May today channeled her predecessor John Major as she begged rebel MPs in her Conservative party not to tie her hands on Brexit. The prime minister insisted Parliament must not be able to “overturn the will of the British people” as she faced a fresh battle over her Brexit legislation. With the EU […]

Are protests in Jordan the precursor to more Arab Spring turmoil or an encouraging sign that the region might finally be moving in the right direction, asks PAUL KNOTT. The Middle Eastern Kingdom of Jordan has long been a beacon of stability and reasonableness in a region short on such attributes. But massive demonstrations have […]

Pro-European activists today unveiled billboards and ad vans in the constituencies of four leading Labour MPs they accuse of failing to oppose the Tories’ approach to Brexit. Pro-European youth movement Our Future, Our Choice (OFOC) displayed the ads in the constituencies of shadow chancellor John McDonnell, shadow home secretary Diane Abbott, shadow defence secretary Nia […]

There’ll always be two Englands, says Yasmin Alibhai-Brown. World Cup fever and hopes rise. Eng-er-land is hailed, cheered, baptized with anthems. Listening in on conversations on Tubes and buses about the team and its prospects gives you insights beyond football. The nation is nervy, unsure of itself, veering between optimism and grim pessimism, between being […]

In the second part of an exclusive serialisation of his book How Britain Really Works broadcaster and journalist STIG ABELL focuses on the NHS. The scale of the NHS The NHS is both a simple, fetishised ideal, and a complicated, borderline inexplicable bureaucracy. Its size – its comprehensiveness – is of course both its strength […]

The New European columnist CAROLINE CRIADO PEREZ on a scandal in the legal system that is allowing domestic abusers to torment their victims. Her abuser interrogated her in the witness box for three hours. He had raped and beaten her for six years. The trial was just his final flourish, overseen by bland-faced court officials, […]

ALASTAIR CAMPBELL: Paul Dacre is the worst of British values posing as the best One of my favourite polling factoids of the New Labour era is that our share of the vote among Daily Mail readers rose between our first election win in 1997, and the second four years later. This was despite the fact […]

National newspaper veteran LIZ GERARD on the legacy of the Daily Mail’s departing editor On St Valentine’s Day in 1997, the Daily Mail put a rogues’ gallery of photographs on its front page and accused five men of the murder of 18-year-old Stephen Lawrence, four years earlier. It was arrogant, bold, contemptuous. The very definition […]

In the audience for the Britain’s Got Talent final, EMMA JONES, has something akin to a religious experience. Celebrity and religion are very similar, according to umpteen showbiz reporters and the odd philosopher. Both are run like the Wizard of Oz. Only showbiz does it better. And often has an actual curtain. A few years […]

JAMES BALL deconstructs Corbyn’s economically illiterate talking heads If Brexit is the biggest issue affecting your life then you must be doing alright. I'm happy for you. Most people have to worry about more pressing issues than the UK's post-Brexit institutional arrangements. Stop confusing your only concern with the country's main priority — Matt Zarb-Cousin […]

Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership was built on democratic foundations, it’s time for him to give us a say on Brexit, writes Antony Thomas. As a long-time socialist and Jeremy Corbyn supporter (from the days when it was unfashionable to be one), I am mystified not just by Labour’s response to the absolute Tory chaos of Brexit, […]