Brexit

For her new book, DEBORAH MATTINSON has been talking to voters in Red Wall constituencies. Her research underlines how Brexit remains a totemic issue there. Voters in the Red Wall, in common with voters pretty much everywhere, tend not to follow politics very closely. I once ran a focus group live on TV where one […]

Did you notice Boris Johnson raising those careworn eyes towards the wider world horizon in the past few days? Not once but twice. First, to promise a generous £340 million UK contribution to the embattled World Health Organisation despite it being Public Enemy No 208 to his comrade-in-expediency, Tax Dodger Trump. Second, to pledge Britain […]

Peers will make a fresh attempt to block cheap US food imports such as chlorinated chicken and hormone-fed beef if Boris Johnson refuses to make concessions to Tory rebels. The House of Lords is currently debating stricter laws to govern food production after Brexit. However, critics – including several Tory rebels – fear that the […]

James O’Brien has asked Brexiteers whether they regret voting for Brexit now the UK faced legal proceedings from the EU. The LBC presenter pointed to a letter from the UK’s chief Brexit negotiator David Frost to car manufacturers as proof many of his warnings about the economic impacts of Brexit were in fact true. MORE: ‘Project Fear’ was […]

Nigel Farage has been called a “traitor” after issuing a tweeting defending the EU’s threat to sue Downing Street over breaking the Brexit withdrawal agreement. The Brexit Party leader caused controversy on Thursday when he appeared to suggest the EU was in its rights to take Britain to court after it approved laws explicitly overriding the Withdrawal […]

Arron Banks’ Leave.EU organisation has been forced to apologise to a Labour MP for calling her a “grooming gang apologist”. The unofficial Brexit campaign continue to have a high profile on social media, with the advisers behind the campaign more recently turning their attention to New Zealand politics. But before they turned their attention elsewhere, […]

Financial service firms in the UK have moved 7,500 employees and more than £1.2 trillion pounds worth of assets to the EU ahead of Brexit, a report has claimed. In a report tracking 222 of the largest financial firms in the UK, accounting firm EY said at least 400 relocations had occurred September alone and that many […]

A chemical expert from one of the major manufacturers has said chemicals readily available in the UK will “disappear” after Brexit. Neil Hollis, of the chemical giant BASF, told a Commons committee on the impact of Brexit upon UK industry that government plans to pull out of the EU chemical database, known as REACH, and create […]

UK car manufacturers could be hit hard with tariffs whether or not the government succeeds in getting a Brexit deal. The European Commission (EC) has rejected proposals for components from Japan and Turkey used on UK car production lines to be considered British. According to a letter to the car industry from Britain’s chief Brexit negotiator […]

Britain has backtracked on the issue of fishing rights in UK waters in a last minute attempt to salvage Brexit trade talks. The UK offered the EU a three-year transition period for its fishing fleets to leave British seas beginning from 2021. The idea of a phase-out has been discussed before but details of how […]

Boris Johnson’s controversial Brexit bill has cleared its final Commons hurdle – with Tory critics choosing to abstain. Former prime minister Theresa May and two ex-attorney generals, Geoffrey Cox and Jeremy Wright, were among 21 Conservatives who did not vote for the UK Internal Market Bill at third reading on Tuesday evening. While some, including […]

A former security commissioner has warned that troves of data collected by Britain’s intelligence agencies to tackle terrorism and crime would be deleted in the event of a no-deal Brexit. British intelligence would have to be wiped off EU systems if Brexit trade talks collapse, the ex-EU security chief warned. Sir Julian King, a British […]

More nominees for the worst Brexiteers of the week… ANN WIDDECOMBETV viewers have become used to the messages that run at the end of particularly harrowing shows, advising them to call a helpline “if you’ve been affected by any of the issues raised in this programme”. But one doubts there is a helpline for the issue […]

The Swiss held two important national referendums last Sunday. The first decisively reversed a previous one of 2014 which, by a wafer-thin majority, had sought to end freedom of movement of people with the EU, putting the country’s whole relationship with Europe in jeopardy. The lesson for Brexit Britain, a Swiss friend tells me, is […]

In a field outside the Suffolk village of Barton Mills, a ‘Boris 4 PM’ billboard left over from last December’s general election has finally been replaced. The new advert reads ‘Primevil: Screaming Won’t Help’. There can be no better illustration of how dreams have turned to dread for the prime minister and his inner circle. […]

A former Tory minister has claimed that Boris Johnson “doesn’t really believe in Brexit” and that once he has achieved a deal he will be gone. George Walden, a former minister and Tory MP until 1997, said due to the pandemic the prime minister will deliver on his goal to “get Brexit done”, and that he will […]

A new YouGov poll has put the levels of Brexit ‘regret’ at the highest since the pollster started recording opinions on the vote. Polling found that 50% of the country now thinks Britain was wrong to vote to leave the European Union – the highest reported by the pollster. In hindsight, do you think Britain […]

European Commission vice president Maros Sefcovic has reiterated calls for the UK to withdraw provisions in the Internal Market Bill overriding the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement by the end of the month. Following a meeting of the Joint Committee on the implementation of the agreement in Brussels, Sefcovic said the UK’s position was still “far apart” […]

More than 50% of Britons do not believe Boris Johnson will negotiate a good Brexit deal with the EU, a poll has revealed. A survey by Ipsos MORI found that 58% of the public think Britain will not receive a good Brexit deal, the Evening Standard has reported. Just 26% think the government is well-prepared […]

A leading Tory Brexiteer has been branded a hypocrite after accusing the government of trying to remove people’s liberties. Steve Baker, a former chair of the hard-line Eurosceptic Westminster group the European Research Group (ERG), said it was “only fair” MPs got a vote on coronavirus laws that would take away people’s liberties before they came into effect. Brexiteer […]

Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey has not ruled out voting down a possible Brexit deal between the UK and EU “if it harms our economy”. Appearing on LBC, Davey was asked if he would vote for a future trade deal, despite criticisms that Johnson had failed to secure the deal he had promised at the last […]

Jamie Oliver has joined fellow chefs and celebrities to warn the government about opening the floodgates to urge the government against diminished food standards after Brexit.  In a short video posted on social media they warn Boris Johnson over the impact of low-quality food imports under post-Brexit trade deals. Urging Johnson to make a “Brand Britain, […]

Thousands of UK citizens living in the EU are being warned their bank accounts could close due to Brexit. Lloyds Bank, Barclays and Barclaycard and Coutts – which is owned by NatWest Group – are all warning UK customers their accounts will close by December 31. Lloyds, alone, has written to 13,000 customers saying it will not be […]

The UK’s richest Brexiteer has officially moved to tax-free Monaco, saving himself nearly £4 billion in tax payments. Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who had an estimated fortune of £17.5 billion, has left Britain for the sunny principality in the south of France. He changed his tax domicile from Hampshire to Monaco, the sovereign city-state that has a laxed […]

Dominic Cummings’ data protection shake-up threatens billions of pounds in trade with the EU, Brussels has warned. Cummings’ radical “pro-tech” plan to rewrite Britain’s data protection laws could jeopardise the flow of data between the UK and the EU, the Guardian has revealed. The government released its new data strategy report which promises a “transformation” of the UK’s […]

DR ROB DAVIDSON, director of Trade Deal Watch, says the UK’s government new trade deal with Japan is far from a cause for celebration. It is the first sign of our poorer future following Brexit. In the suburbs of Tokyo, it is unlikely that many people will be celebrating the hard fought terms for Stilton cheese […]

The latest Conservative attack lines over Brexit have backfired, after it tried to accuse Labour of taking the side of “the EU” in parliament by voting against Boris Johnson’s bill. Moments after the Internal Market Bill passed its second reading – designed to override the Withdrawal Agreement bill and international law – the Tories claimed […]

A fact checker has dismissed Liz Truss’ claims surrounding the new free trade agreement between the UK and Japan. The international trade secretary last week triumphed the deal as the first major trade deal made by the UK since it left the EU. The department said that the deal will deliver a £1.5 billion boost to […]

A Tory MP – who previously claimed they had ‘got Brexit done’ – was ridiculed when she tweeted again to say she had voted again to get it done.Dehenna Davison, the representative for Bishop Auckland, sent the tweet after the Internal Market Bill passed – which could override key aspects of Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal.The […]

STEVE ANGLESEY looks at the Brexiteers of the Week – including Kirstene Hair, who has become an adviser for the Scottish Tories, despite finding the EU referendum too “difficult”. KIRSTENE HAIRPeople are crying “foul” at football referee turned Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross’ big new signing, an adviser who will help him reach swift decisions […]

Liz Truss has bowed to public pressure and released meetings she had with an influential pro-Brexit think tank which were removed from the public register. Labour accused the trade secretary of performing a “shambolic” U-turn and claimed Truss had been caught trying to bypass rules to stop the “secret lobbying” of ministers. In August, Truss […]

A Tory Brexiteer has been given a haranguing online after posting a speech justifying Boris Johnson’s violation of the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement (WA). Desmond Swayne MP said it was fine for a country to break international law “when that obligation is interpreted in such a way as to undermine the very integrity of that country”. […]