News and Opinion

Fishing has always been a totemic issue for Brexiteers. But the industry relies on close ties and cooperation with Europe. Could all that be discarded in pursuit of Brexit? PETER HETHERINGTON reports. On the wild and beautiful coastline of north west Scotland, where the majestic Highland peaks roll down to the sea, a once-small port […]

A co-leader of a new party committed to stopping Brexit has likened the organisation to the “more military arm” of the Remain campaign. James Clarke, one of three “principals” at the head of Renew, said the fact the party planned to field candidates across the country at the next general election would put pressure on […]

Boris Johnson, the UK’s most senior diplomat, has compared a dead monkey’s head to a Labour backbencher. The foreign secretary was on a visit to a police unit which confiscates wildlife products. He muttered the remark after asking officers what species a trophy monkey was. A police officer suggested a macaque, but Mr Johnson offered […]

On television, on the big screen and in books, a mythologised view of Britain is becoming endemic, says PETER MILLAR. This month marks the 75th anniversary of the turning point of the Second World War, without which the entire conflict might have ended differently. But if you take your news and history exclusively from British […]

Remainer NICK TYRONE is starting to think a hard Brexit might now be the only answer for Britain. It may sound very strange for a Remainer to say that I think hard Brexit has become necessary. But that’s where I think we might now be. Despite a terrible, shambolic set of negotiations so far by […]

Ukip’s new acting leader Gerard Batten has defended his description of Islam as a “death cult” and insisted a “significant minority” of Muslims were extremists who wanted to be martyred. London MEP Mr Batten, who took over at the head of the crisis-hit party after Henry Bolton was ousted yesterday, said Islam “glorifies death”. He […]

In the wake of the Falcon Heavy rocket launch and the dismissal of The Flat Earth Society, MITCH BENN argues that Brexit is the flat earth theory of politics. I don’t know whether you paid much attention to the launch last week of Elon Musk’s Falcon Heavy rocket; even if you didn’t, you’re bound to […]

Shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry has dismissed calls for Labour members to have a greater say on the party’s Brexit policy, saying it would be “very difficult” to remain in the single market. More than 16,000 people have emailed Labour over the past five days, urging the party to consult members on Brexit after MPs […]

The New Euopean’s Editor-at-Large, ALASTAIR CAMPBELL, challenges John McDonnell to move Corbyn on Brexit. On leaving the ITV studios on Sunday, I sensed that Robert Peston’s production team wished he had let my exchange with John McDonnell go on a little longer. So did I. The Daily Express, never averse to hyperbole, called it a […]

There’s no fool like an old fool – and Henry Bolton must be feeling rather foolish right now. Interim Party Chairman Paul Oakden with ballot boxes ready to be counted, during the UKIP EGM to decide on leader Henry Bolton’s future with the party. – Credit: PA Wire/PA Images The UKIP leader has been ousted […]

The media’s portrayal of mafia women is often that of a passive and exploited character. But the reality is much different, argues FELIA ALLUM. I was once told by a former Italian mafia woman that ‘if a man becomes a mafioso, it is because he has a good woman behind him’. She went on to […]

New European editor MATT KELLY spoke with Chuka Umunna about why he’s decided to front up the grassroots charge against Brexit. Chuka Umunna is leading a rebellion against Brexit, the Grassroots Coordinating Group. It’s an alliance The New European has joined, together with several other leading anti-Brexit groups. The idea? Campaigning against our exit from […]

In his latest stage review, TIM WALKER watches Mad as Hell at Jermyn Street Theatre, London. Mad as Hell Jermyn Street Theatre, London, until February 24 FOUR STARS More than 40 years on, Peter Finch’s anguished cry in the Oscar-winning film Network – ‘I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take it […]

Westminster has been engulfed in lurid tales of unwanted sexual behaviour. But proposals to tackle the problem are flawed, argues JANE MERRICK. At the height of the #MeToo campaign sweeping through Westminster, a woman contacted me asking for advice on whether she should go public with her own allegation about being sexually harassed by a […]

The right-wing media’s furore over George Soros’ donation to the anti-Brexit cause promoted accusations including anti-Semitism. But LIZ GERARD argues the real reason for the outrage was their fears his money could derail Brexit. Is George Soros an international philanthropist making the world a better place or a serial meddler in other countries’ affairs? A […]

In this week’s Brexit Deconstructed, JAMES BALL discusses how chaotic governments can open the door to evil doings. When staff start briefing against the world leader they work for, the results are rarely flattering. Take briefings of one particular head of state, whose personal aides commented he would appear ‘shortly before lunch’, spending the morning […]

The latest episode of The New European podcast is available now. This week Richard Porritt chats to journalist and broadcaster Neil Perry about Boris Johnson’s bizarre Brexit keynote – more carrots than clarity. The pair also have a snigger at the expensive of Number 10 chief of staff Gavin Barwell’s Twitter account and recall their […]

MICHAEL WHITE on the negotiation countdown, the Norway model and why we can’t just muddle through. Are there really only 413 days left if Britain formally leaves the European Union as scheduled on March 29, 2019, with or without a clear exit map of its future direction and final destination? Actually, it’s fewer than that […]

In this week’s diary column, the BBC continue to overlook The New European and fracked off playwright digs out Boris Johnson. James Chapman, former chief of staff to David Davis, says that the Daily Mail has to be ‘prised’ out of the hands of John Humphrys as the Radio 4 Today programme goes on air […]

President Trump’s plans for a mammoth military procession would represent ‘a toxic combination of genuine alarm and mockery marching side by side’, writes PAUL CONNEW. Let me paint you a picture. Tanks, intercontinental nuclear ballistic missile launchers and heavy artillery weapons rolling down the street, tens of thousands of troops marching, jet fighters screaming overhead, […]

Boris Johnson plays politics like the Roman Emperors he so admires. But with the Tory civil war escalating danger lurks around every corner, writes ANDREW ADONIS. Margaret Thatcher said that she only wanted consensus behind her own ideas. At least she was honest. And we knew what those ideas were, notably the war she unleashed […]

STEVE ANGLESEY names the worst Brexiteers of the week. JOHN REES-EVANS More bad luck for the UKIP deserter who once famously claimed he had prevented a gay donkey from raping his horse. First, his new Democrats And Veterans party have chosen the abbreviation D&V – which turns out to be medical shorthand for ‘diarrhoea and […]

Most British firms want the UK to remain in the customs union after Brexit, a survey has indicated. The Harvard Kennedy School study was carried out by researchers including former shadow chancellor Ed Balls and involved interviews with more than 80 small and medium-sized firms and trade associations. Mr Balls said: “It is the most […]

Liberal Democrat president SAL BRINTON believes the crisis facing the NHS is being compounded by Brexit and a divided government that can’t deal with our public services falling apart Last Friday on Any Questions Therese Coffey MP was the latest Remain voter and Minister trying to defend Theresa May’s position on Brexit. Like the country, […]

Theresa May’s visit to China laid bare one of the founding myths of Brexit, argues JONATHAN LIS. We are retreating from the world, not reaching out into it, If you needed a clear sign that Brexit was in trouble, we got another one recently when the prime minister, pursued to China by a cortege of […]

Parliament has reasserted its strength in the EU debate, says STEPHEN DORRELL. Now MPs must exercise their power The big political story of 2018 is that the government’s Brexit policy is unravelling and the primary reason is that parliament has taken control of the process. By passing Dominic Grieve’s amendment to the EU Withdrawal Bill […]

We got stag parties, carrots and vacuum cleaners – but what was Boris Johnson actually talking about? Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson wipes sweat from his brow as he delivers his speech – “road to Brexit, a United Kingdom”, as part of the government’s road map on Brexit, at the Policy Exchange, London. – Credit: PA […]

A century on from women’s suffrage, EMMA JONES talks to two veteran campaigners about a more recent victory for women’s rights, and battles still to be won. ‘I washed 18 shirts this morning, and hung them out to dry,’ laughs 86-year-old Diane Munday. Not words you would expect from a feminist pioneer, who played a […]

The German government has called on Theresa May to present her squabbling government’s plans about the future relationship between Britain and the EU after it leaves. A spokesman for Chancellor Angela Merkel said today: “It’s important for us that Britain concretise its plans… time is running out.” Mrs Merkel is meeting with Mrs May in […]

Boris Johnson today fired another salvo at Philip Hammond, claiming it would be “mad” to end up with a Brexit settlement that did not allow the UK to enjoy the “economic freedoms” of leaving the EU. Signalling the need to diverge from EU rules after leaving the bloc, the foreign secretary insisted that the UK […]

Comedian, musician and writer MITCH BENN considers Twitter as the area to open discussions on Brexit. I spend a lot of time on Twitter, and I make no apologies for this. Quite apart from the fact that my time on the site has done me some good (I got this job via Twitter, I got […]

Boris Johnson’s keynote Brexit speech should not be taken seriously “given everything he said about that bus”, former Labour minister Yvette Cooper has said. The foreign secretary is expected to insist that leaving the bloc is a cause for hope, not fear, as he sets out his vision for a post-Brexit Britain. To make Brexit […]