Brexit

Insurance tycoon Arron Banks has bizarrely claimed that “Brexiteers are not welcome in the Tory party” after his latest bid to join the Conservatives failed. The former Ukip donor who bankrolled the unofficial leave campaign, along with his spin doctor Andy Wigmore, had sought to join the Tories in North West Leicestershire, the constituency of […]

Some 2.6m voters who backed Leave in 2016 have switched to Remain, new analysis shows. According to the analysis for the Best for Britain campaign group, another one million former Remain voters have moved in the opposite direction and now back Brexit. It means an overall shift of 1.6 million voters in favour of continued […]

A Brexit deal must be signed by “November at the latest”, the EU’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier warned today. He told a press conference in Brussels there would be no agreement unless an operational “backstop” arrangement for the Irish border can be agreed. But he said was “determined” to reach an agreement ahead of the […]

Sinn Fein has called for the creation of a EU constituency for Northern Ireland post-Brexit. Sinn Fein MEP Martina Anderson said it was crucial that Northern Ireland citizens retained democratic representation in the European Union, especially as the majority of Northern Ireland voted to remain. Sinn Fein published its submission to the Constituency Convention dealing […]

The only Brexit options are Theresa May’s Chequers plan or no deal, de facto deputy prime minister David Lidington has told a French business conference. The comments are likely to embolden Brexit hardliners in the Tory parliamentary ranks who are implacably opposed to Chequers and would prefer to crash out and trade on WTO terms. […]

The health secretary’s plan to set aside six weeks’ worth of vital medicines to avoid supply disruptions in the event of a no-deal Brexit could cost up to £2bn, it was warned today. Anti-Brexit campaign group Best for Britain used figures collated by think-tank the King’s Fund earlier this year to suggest the cost of […]

Brexit ‘poses an existential threat to the UK’s anti-slavery efforts’, it was warned today as Theresa May arrived in Nigeria with people-trafficking on the agenda. The prime minister will hold talks with President Muhammadu Buhari in the capital, Abuja, with the threat of Boko Haram in west Africa expected to be discussed. She will then […]

A bad Brexit deal could “jeopardise patient care” in hospitals, nurses have warned. In a letter to party leaders, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) claimed Brexit poses an “immediate risk to the provision of safe and effective care”. The warning comes as the RCN calls on all political parties to back a referendum on […]

The international trade secretary has joined in rubbishing the chancellor’s no-deal Brexit economic forecast, calling it “hard to swallow”. Fox, who is in Singapore touting UK trade opportunities to Asian governments and businesses, said the chancellor’s warning, that GDP could fall and borrowing could be around £80bn a year higher by 2033/34 if Britain resorted […]

The trolling of Brexit Britain by countries remaining in the EU has begun with these posters referencing the classic WW2 slogan spotted at Copenhagen airport, writes STEVE ANGLESEY When/if we officially leave the EU, Britons will lose their automatic right to travel anywhere in the EU just by presenting a passport. Instead we will be […]

Anti-Brexit activists are to hand out 20,000 EU flags at this year’s Last Night of the Proms after sparking anger with a similar stunt last year. Remain campaigners claimed a publicity victory in 2017 when BBC TV pictures showed a sea of blue and gold stars at the traditionally patriotic event, with Nigel Farage accusing […]

Labour moderate Chuka Umunna has described claims that the campaign for a second Brexit referendum is cover for the creation of a new centrist political party as “utter bollocks”. Allegations that the People’s Vote group calling for another poll on Britain’s relationship with the EU was a smokescreen for disaffected MPs to breakaway under his […]

Shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer today performed a massive u-turn on Labour’s policy on leaving the EU, saying a second referendum was still “on the table”. Two days after shadow international trade secretary Barry Gardiner said that holding another referendum could lead to “civil disobedience”, Sir Keir Starmer told the Today programme he had […]

In the March 15 edition of The New European, the Mandrake diary item written by Tim Walker and titled ‘Mum’s the word’ contained a number of inaccuracies. Firstly, the diary item said that the Legatum think tank was being wound up. In fact, the Legatum entity which was wound up in the Cayman Islands was […]

The North East of England, which voted overwhelmingly for Brexit in 2016, is now an exact 50/50 even split about whether to leave or stay, according to a new YouGov poll. It comes as the People’s Vote campaign, which is calling for a referendum on any final deal, publishes a detailed impact study on how […]

Business leaders have warned that papers outlining government planning for a no-deal Brexit must provide “clarity” so they can continue to trade freely if Britain crashes out of the EU. Tomorrow will see the publication of the first in a series of “technical notices” setting out what businesses and citizens need to do in the […]

Conservative HQ has barred the Best for Britain campaign from publishing an entry in the official party programme for its conference in Birmingham. Eloise Todd, CEO of the anti-Brexit campaign group, branded the decision to ban the notice for ‘Do we need a people’s vote? The Conservative case for a final say on the Brexit […]

Campaigning GP Dr Phil Hammond has been sacked as a BBC presenter after revealing he is planning to run against Brexiteer MP Jacob Rees-Mogg at the next election. Dr Hammond, who presented Saturday Surgery on BBC Radio Bristol, was fired hours after announcing he plans to stand against Rees-Mogg in his North East Somerset constituency. […]

International trade secretary Liam Fox has complained about the focus on Britain’s departure from the EU, saying people are talking about “Brexit and Brexit and Brexit”. The disgraced former defence secretary said the country needed to have a less “narrow bandwidth” and look at the wider global picture to boost international trade. Fox said Britain’s […]

More people in Wales favour staying in the EU than crashing out of the bloc in the event of no deal, a new poll has shown. The poll, by YouGov on behalf of Plaid Cymru, shows a clear lead for those who wish to remain in the EU (48%), compared to those who believe we […]

MPs are calling for a rise in their allowances, claiming their workload has risen due to Brexit. The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa), the expenses watchdog, disclosed that it had received representations from MPs to raise their staffing budget. Under current rules, MPs can claim £150,900 a year for staffing costs, rising to £161,550 in […]

How Britain’s best-selling newspaper covered up its own huge finding. By STEVE ANGLESEY If a major opinion poll commissioned by Britain’s best-selling newspaper revealed huge support for the statement ‘Brexit is an historic mistake and only now are people realising it’, you’d imagine it would be pretty big news, right? Well, the first bit happened. […]

London mayor Sadiq Khan is set to instruct crisis planners to prepare for Britain crashing out of the EU without a deal. He said he had been left with “no choice” but to instruct the London resilience forum, which usually works on contingency plans for terrorism attacks and disasters such as the Grenfell Tower fire, […]

Jeremy Hunt has been mocked after insisting that Britain would “survive and prosper” after a no-deal Brexit, the day after describing it as a “mistake we would regret for generations”. Mr Hunt had been criticised by Hard Brexiteer MPs after an interview with ITV News yesterday in which he appeared to play up the risks […]

Accountancy giant Deloitte has been handed £2.6m to give Liam Fox’s officials a crash course in how to handle trade disputes. The Department for International Trade is set to pay the external consultants roughly £325,000 a month to prepare officials working at the country’s trade authority. The contract, unearthed by news website Politico, commenced in […]

Brexit could be “hugely damaging” to English football, according to the chairmen of Burnley and Stoke City. Burnley chairman Mike Garlick said uncertainty over a deal with the EU was already making it harder for clubs to sign players. And Stoke chairman Peter Coates said that the Premier League could be hit by freedom-of-movement restrictions. […]

The first signs of Labour’s erosion under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership might just be appearing, says JAMES BALL The country, the polls suggest, may finally be starting to seriously change its mind on Brexit. For the first months – and then the first year – after the UK voted to leave, polls stubbornly bounced around within […]

TIM WALKER talks to actor and campaigner Sir Patrick Stewart about politics, Star Trek and a very spiky encounter with the Labour leader Ever since he first stood with a placard bearing the name of his local Labour candidate in Mirfield in the West Riding of Yorkshire in the 1945 general election – at the […]

Just under half of people in Scotland want a referendum on the Brexit deal, according to a new poll. The YouGov poll, commissioned by the People’s Vote campaign calling for a public vote on Brexit negotiations outcome, found 48% of respondents were in favour, with 31% opposed. This is greater than the UK wide-response of […]

The chance of a chaotic no-deal Brexit is now “50-50”, Latvia’s foreign minister said today in a stark warning to Theresa May. Edgars Rink?vi?s said there was a “very considerable risk” of a no-deal scenario but insisted he remained optimistic an agreement with Britain on its withdrawal from the EU could be reached. He said […]

The amount of European funding allocated to British universities has fallen as Brexit approaches. Figures from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy analysing support from the EU’s Horizon 2020 research programme show that the proportion of funds allocated to British universities had dropped to 24.22% by the end of May – down from […]

Jacob Rees-Mogg and his European Research Group are to directly challenge Theresa May with their own blueprint setting out plans for a Hard Brexit. The Times reports today that the group of around 60 to 80 Hard Brexit-supporting Tory MPs have begun work on what is effectively a riposte to the prime minister’s Chequers plan, […]