News and Opinion

Tony Blair has slammed the government for still being in ‘cake and eat it mode’ over Brexit. The former prime minister said Theresa May’s top team are yet to face the binary choice facing them over Brexit. Blair said the reality is that Britain will have to follow Brussels’ rules if it wants a close […]

Jeremy Hunt has revealed Britain will quit the customs union putting the government on a collision course with Tory Brexit rebels. The health secretary said the cabinet has agreed to pursue a Brexit policy which will put Britain outside a customs union with the European Union but would match Brussels rules in certain sectors in […]

‘Divergence won the day’ screamed the Brexiteers after the war cabinet ended its marathon meeting. But isn’t this just more fudging from a Prime Minister who is increasingly resembling a clown spinning plates? Sooner or later one is going to smash. The nonsense soundbite that came from the meeting was ‘ambitious managed divergence’ – the […]

The New European podcast is live – and it has a stellar cast. This week Richard Porritt speaks to Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn – but does he finally clear up his party’s true Brexit position or just offer yet more fudge? Lib Dem MP Norman Lamb is also in the studio attacking both the government […]

In this week’s diary column, Farage’s wealth remains a mystery and the BBC finally acknowledges The New European. One question Nigel Farage could usefully be asked when he makes his 32nd appearance on Question Time this week is how much money he is actually trousering each year. The accounts that the former UKIP leader, pictured, […]

DICK TAVERNE was deselected as an MP over his pro-Europe views in the 1970s. He has some advice to those on both sides of the House now facing similar threats. Deselection of MPs because their views clash with those of their local or national party has been a rare event in British politics. But there […]

The New European’s Editor-at Large, Alastair Campbell, on why he feels European and why you should too. ‘If you love Europe so much why don’t you just f**k off and live there?’ It has become the Brextremist social media jibe of choice. It has yet to replace ‘war criminal,’ or ‘Blairite scum’ in my own […]

MITCH BENN has taken the words of David Davis to heart and is now ready for dystopia. Like, I imagine, a lot of you, I’ve been spending this week stocking up on crossbow bolts, carefully removing one sleeve from my old black leather bike jacket, and fitting my Toyota Aygo’s engine with an illegal nitrous […]

Jeremy Corbyn does not appear to agree with this week’s New European front page. Presented with a copy during an interview with this paper he brushed it aside saying: ‘Labour is the party that looks after everybody, we will invest in young people for the future.’ The front page suggests time is running out for […]

Readers respond to Andrew Adonis’ call for a referendum on Europe – exclusively for members of the Labour Party. The article by Andrew Adonis last week stated that there are 600,000 Labour members. Well, as of Saturday, there are now at least 600,001. That was the day I joined the Labour Party for the first […]

David Davis sought to calm business jitters with Brexit looming this week but, as ANGELA JAMESON explains, fears persist. So leaving the EU is not going to plunge the UK into some sort of Mad Max-style dystopia. Leaving aside the questionable film reference, the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union was not particularly […]

Remaining in the single market would leave many voters feeling the referendum result had been ignored, Labour’s shadow chancellor John McDonnell said today. Dismissing polls which have shown that an overwhelming majority of Labour members and supporters support Britain remaining in the customs union and single market after leaving the EU, Mr McDonnell insisted wider […]

The Iran nuclear deal is hanging by a thread, says former diplomat PAUL KNOTT​, who worked on the agreement. If it fails, the world becomes a much more dangerous place. The Iran nuclear deal of 2015 has been a success. Its sole purpose was to stop the country’s development of nuclear weapons, and that is […]

Steve Anglesey names the worst Brexiteers of the week MALCOLM PARKER Tweeting under the handle @mbiranek, this lesser-known Brexiteer declared: ‘We want our sovereignty back from the unelected EU baccarats.’ Readers of a certain age will be unable to stop themselves singing ‘Yes sir, I can Brexit, but I need a certain song…’ THERESA MAY […]

Progressives expect great things from Emmanuel Macron and Justin Trudeau. But can the telegenic leaders actually deliver, asks PAUL KNOTT Handsome, charismatic, liberal and francophone. French President Emmanuel Macron and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau could be caricatures of a New European reader’s dream political leader. Critics with different perspectives have dismissed the duo as […]

Britain will be more like Love Actually than a Mad Max-style dystopia after it leaves the EU, Andrea Leadsom claimed today. The Commons leader and ill-fated Tory leadership contender likened the UK’s life outside the EU to the twee, dated romantic comedy, as she dismissed suggestions that it was heading towards an apocalypse. Brexit secretary […]

Patriotism and duty are strong, guiding, working-class emotions, says YASMIN ALIBHAI-BROWN. We need posters of Jeremy Clarkson saying ‘YOUR COUNTRY NEEDS YOU to be in the EU’ I wonder how London’s weathered cabbies reacted to the recent Jacob Rees-Mogg programme on LBC. I bet they loved the 18th Century throwback just as they do the […]

As tickets for this year’s event go on sale, the dangers posed to it by leaving the EU become ever clearer, says Lib Dem MP CHRISTINE JARDINE Imagine the FIFA World Cup coming to the UK every summer and you begin to understand the value of, and the impact on, the country’s economy that the […]

The UK government has offered to change key Brexit legislation to ensure the “vast majority” of devolved powers returning from Brussels go straight to the devolved administrations in Scotland and Wales. The Holyrood and Cardiff Bay administrations have refused to recommend granting legislative consent for the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill as it stands claiming it […]

Uncertainty related to Brexit is having a negative impact on sailing, skiing and other sports that rely on free movement within the European Union, members of the House of Lords have been warned. Experts representing national governing bodies, players’ associations and sports charities gave evidence today to a sub-committee hearing on what effect leaving the […]

Tories pushing for a Hard Brexit are putting Scottish devolution at risk, the country’s deputy first minister has warned. John Swinney claimed that key legislation necessary for Britain to leave the European Union “undermines the principles of devolution and the powers of the Scottish Parliament that the people of Scotland campaigned so long to win”. […]

Jeremy Corbyn’s position on Brexit is “evolving and deepening”, a shadow cabinet supporter of close ties with the EU has claimed. Shadow Northern Ireland secretary Owen Smith – who challenged Mr Corbyn for the Labour leadership in 2016 – told ITV’s Good Morning Britain he wanted the UK to remain in the single market and […]

If you think you’re too smart to fall for fake news, you are wrong. Advances in technology mean it is about to get a lot more sophisticated. PARMY OLSON reports. Most people have heard the same kind of story from an older relative: ‘We were just turning on the computer,’ they might say, ‘when a […]

Remainers have launched a campaign bus claiming the cost of quitting the European Union will be £2bn a week. The staggering figure is based on analysis of leaked government reports predicting that all Brexit scenarios will significantly hit the economy. Emblazoned with the slogan “Is it worth it?”, the bus will be touring the country. […]

Ministers want the post-Brexit transition period during which Britain will follow EU rules to be determined by how long it takes the government to introduce measures needed for life outside the union, a leaked official document shows. The paper said the length of the “status quo” transition “should be determined simply by how long it […]

Tory MPs have criticised a letter sent by Brexiteer colleagues in the hardline European Research Group aimed at piling pressure on Theresa May. Antoinette Sandbach said the views of the group of “hardline Brexiteers” were in marked contrast to the “vast majority” of her colleagues, while Vicky Ford said the letter risked tying the prime […]

The European Research Group of hard-line Brexit MPs has written to Theresa May setting out their red lines – and it is signed by enough Conservatives to force a leadership challenge. ERG letter page 1 – Credit: Archant The group, led by Jacob Rees-Mogg, sent the letter on February 16 signed by 62 MPs. It […]

Boris Johnson has claimed there will be a “great swollen, throbbing, umbilicus of trade” between the UK and EU, adding each side will be “mutually nourishing the other”. The leading Brexiteers’s remarks came as he also defended his widely-derided suggestion of a bridge across the Channel between the UK and France. Mr Johnson last month […]

Scottish government ministers have warned time is running out to reach a deal over key Brexit legislation. Brexit secretary David Davis is due to host talks in London on Thursday in a bid to resolve the stalemate between Holyrood and Westminster over the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill. And ahead of those discussions the Scottish government […]

Brexiteers are risking fragile peace in Northern Ireland by questioning the future of the Good Friday Agreement, Ireland’s deputy prime minister has said. Simon Coveney, the Republic’s foreign affairs minister, said that the 1998 accord was being undermined in some political circles. Mr Coveney tweeted: “Talking down (the) Good Friday Agreement because it raises serious […]

The New European’s social media pages are alive with debate after the launch of Renew – a new anti-Brexit party which aims to take on the main political parties at the ballot box. Renew, inspired by the rise of Macron’s En Marche! movement in France, hopes to appeal to those who feel ‘politically homeless and […]

Brexit secretary David Davis will today seek to reassure businesses about Brexit, saying Britain would not become “a Mad Max-style world borrowed from dystopian fiction”. In a keynote speech in Vienna today, Mr Davis will deny ministers are preparing a programme of sweeping deregulation and say the UK wants to maintain “close, even-handed co-operation” with […]