Brexit

The UK’s professional services industry is at risk of losing £225 billion in value because of Brexit, a parliamentary committee has warned. A report by the House of Lords’ EU services subcommittee, published on Tuesday, said Britain’s professional firms – including accountants, lawyers, and recruiters – have largely been ignored in negotiations with the EU. MORE: More than […]

MPs voted 332 to 279 to overturn a House of Lords amendment to the Agriculture Bill which would have required agricultural and food imports to meet domestic standards. The Lords had made the change to block the import of foodstuffs produced abroad with lower animal welfare standards, amid warnings over chlorinated chicken or hormone-treated beef […]

Tory MPs have overturned measures aimed at protecting UK food standards after Brexit – despite signs of some rebels in Boris Johnson’s party. The House of Commons voted 332 votes to 279, majority 53, to disagree with a Lords amendment to the Agriculture Bill which would have required agricultural and food imports to meet domestic […]

Microsoft said UK firms risk losing their competitiveness because of the impacts of the coronavirus and Brexit. The tech giant was “ringing the alarm bell” after it said almost half of companies are struggling to remain competitive. New research by Microsoft, alongside academics at Goldsmiths, University of London, showed that 46% of UK companies have seen […]

Rob Davidson of Trade Deal Watch looks at Boris Johnson’s Internal Market Bill and says the result of it will determine how history remembers the era of “Johnsonism”. The people of the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland are about to pass a terrifying deadline set by our Prime Minister. Boris Johnson proclaimed that we should […]

Farmers are to hold a protest outside parliament to make their voices heard over the threat of Brexit deals to their livelihoods as MPs prepare to vote on the government’s Agriculture Bill. In a warning to the risk of Brexit to food standards, farmers will assemble at New Covent Garden from 1pm on Monday as […]

Jamie Oliver has called on the government to respect the sovereignty of parliament and abandon any plans to water down Britain’s food standards via secondary legislation. Oliver, who owned his own chain of restaurants and has his own cooking show, said he staunchly opposed to the use of secondary legislation to bypass parliamentary scrutiny and that could lead […]

The deadline for the post-Brexit trade talks between the EU and the United Kingdom UK looms, and with it concerns about a no-deal. The outcome is being closely monitored in South Africa – and elsewhere – where it will have significant implications. The EU as a regional bloc is South Africa’s largest trade partner, and […]

Nine writers from across the continent tell us what ‘Europe’ means to them… Ana Pessoa, Portuguese authorEurope is about multilingualism and multiculturalism. We might not speak the same language, we might not share the same cultural background. Perhaps we don’t laugh at the same jokes even and we live very different lives. But we share […]

A former Brexit Party MEP who has refused to apologise for historical support of the IRA bombing in Warrington that killed two children has taken her seat in the House of Lords. The appointment of Claire Fox to the unelected chamber has sparked controversy, with Labour branding it “an insult to the people of the […]

Liz Truss has accidentally announced that new post-Brexit trade deals will “undermine” British farmers during a debate in the Commons. The international trade secretary was answering a question on whether a new trade deal with the US would severely impact British pig famers. Shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry asked: “Can [Truss] please tell us which law prevents the import […]

Polling for the upcoming New Zealand election has put the Brexiteers’ choice of candidate on as little as 1% of support. New Zealand First’s Winston Peters has reportedly hired key allies of Nigel Farage from Leave.EU to help with his communications strategy during the country’s election. Peters is currently a coalition partner in Ardern’s government […]

Almost half of all people who voted for the UK to Remain in the European Union appear to disagree with the spirit of the EU’s freedom of movement rules, a new study has found. 48% of Remain voters were in favour of having EU citizens apply to come to Britain rather than under existing provisions. That number almost doubles among […]

The government’s Brexit strategy threatens to drive the UK down a “very slippery slope” towards “dictatorship” or “tyranny”, one former supreme court judge has warned. Ex supreme court president Lord Neuberger condemned Boris Johnson’s internal market bill during a seminar with legal professionals. He told lawyers on Wednesday that “Once you deprive people of the […]

The Scottish parliament has overwhelming voted against Boris Johnson’s Brexit bill and called on the UK government to abandon the “deeply damaging” piece of legislation. SNP, Labour, Green and Liberal Democrat MSPs all united to vote against the bill, with just the Tories backing it. While the vote – by 90 votes to 28 against […]

Labour’s Keir Starmer has called on Boris Johnson to guarantee high food and farming standards after Brexit by putting protections into law through the government’s agriculture bill. Ahead of a visit to National Farmers’ Union president Minette Batters’ farm in Wiltshire, Starmer warned that without action to protect standards there was a “real risk” of […]

The government will walk away from Brexit talks with the EU next week if there is not a visible path to a deal. Boris Johnson had previously set a deadline of 15 October to make progress, with high levels talks expected next week, before a top-level meeting between European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen. […]

It would be a “monumental failure of politics and diplomacy” if the government’s Brexit bill is pushed through and ends up in court, an Irish minister has claimed. Ireland’s foreign affairs minister Simon Coveney said that such a court case would be a “folly”. The EU and the UK have clashed over the British government’s Internal Market […]

Former Labour MP Gisela Stuart, who supported “no change” for EU citizens after Brexit, has supported the Tory’s immigration bill in the House of Lords. The newly-elevated peer, a former leader of the Vote Leave campaign, had previously signed a statement saying: “There will be no change for EU citizens already lawfully resident in the […]

Devolved administrations in Wales and Scotland are furious after leaked documents showed the government had withheld important Brexit documents from them. The documents, which show a deliberate attempts by Westminster to hide plans to break with Withdrawal Agreement, were leaked by Guido. In a dossier named “Transition period planning assumptions (central case)“, ministers were warned against sharing information […]

Dyson founder and leading Brexit supporter James Dyson has denied he has abandoned Britain since the EU referendum after his Singapore move. The entrepreneur was accused of “jumping ship” after Brexit when he announced the company was relocating to Singapore – a country which has a trade deal with the European Union. It was reported […]

The Scottish parliament is expected to vote down Boris Johnson’s Internal Market Bill after the constitution secretary urged MSPs to “stand up and defend devolution” by rejecting the controversial UK legislation.  Mike Russell called on MSPs at Holyrood to vote against the UK government’s Brexit bill amid repeated claims from Scottish government ministers that it […]

Two major foreign car manufacturers have called on the UK government to reimburse them for additional customs charges if it failed to reach a Brexit deal with the EU. Japan’s two biggest car makers, Toyota and Nissan, want the government to cover an expected 10% tax on car imports from Britain that the EU could impose […]

MPs have approved a longer autumn recess for the House of Commons. The chamber will adjourn after business has concluded on Friday October 23 and return on Monday November 2. The motion detailing the recess was supported unopposed. MPs will be unable to challenge ministers in the Commons chamber during this period over coronavirus restrictions, […]

The UK Government is pressing ahead with draft legislation to override its commitments to the EU on Northern Ireland, which it admits will break international law. Yet it has – paradoxically – signalled it will only apply that legislation consistently with international law. This mixed messaging may be designed to encourage some its hard-line supporters […]

Brexiteer and former cricketer Sir Ian Botham has taken his seat in the House of Lords. Baron Botham, more used to the surroundings of Lord’s Cricket Ground, wore the traditional scarlet and ermine-trimmed robe for the brief formal introduction ceremony. The clerk referred to him as Baron Botham of Ravensworth after his home village. The […]

A front cover from the Daily Express featuring comments from health secretary Matt Hancock suggesting Brexit can “save lives” has been criticised. Under the headline “BREXIT GIVES UK FREEDOM TO FAST-TRACK WONDER DRUGS”, the newspaper reports that Hancock had insisted that Brexit will help save lives by allowing new drugs to be approved faster. The […]

A former Brexit Party MEP has suggested the Tory manifesto contained lies on Brexit – claiming there was not a “single accurate thing” in the section on leaving the EU. Ben Habib, an ex-Brexit Party politician who represented the seat of London in the European Parliament for six months before it was abolished in January this […]

The Green Party’s leadership has avoided referencing Brexit or membership of the European Union as it pitched its vision to supporters as part of this year’s virtual conference. Co-leaders Jonathan Bartley and Sian Berry instead used their conference speech to focus on the pandemic response.  Bartley said the action taken in response to the crisis had […]

Analysis of the impact of a no-deal, or weak deal, has focused on the impact on trade. But, says DR MARK AVERY, it will also bring consequences for the environment. Four years after the Brexit vote, and almost nine months through the one-year transition period, we are still unclear as to the impacts of Brexit […]

Former Brexit secretary David Davis has claimed the government should “shrug off” the EU threat of legal action over the Internal Market Bill which breaches international law. The Brexiteer told talkRADIO: “I don’t think it’s something we should take terribly seriously. “The first thing to understand is this was going to happen. “If the EU […]

Northern Ireland will mark 100 years of its existence on May 3, 2021. In the meantime the government of the Republic has launched a radical new policy calling for “A Shared Island”. This new emphasis on sharing points to a United Ireland as an aspiration rather than a policy. In parallel, the United Kingdom has […]