Jeremy Hunt says Brexit deal can still get through parliament if Irish backstop issue is clarified December 28, 2018 Foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt has said Theresa May’s Brexit deal can get through parliament if the EU clarifies the so called Northern Irish backstop will be temporary. The backstop, an insurance policy to prevent the return of border checks between Ireland and Northern Ireland, has been a major sticking point in securing the Brexit divorce [...]
Jeremy Corbyn: Brexit will go ahead if Labour win a snap election December 22, 2018 Leader of the opposition Jeremy Corbyn has said that Brexit would go ahead if Labour won a snap election in the New Year. Corbyn has insisted he would try and secure a better deal with Brussels should Labour take power but refused to rule out a second EU referendum. "My proposal at this moment is [...]
Here are all the predictions I got wrong in 2018 December 21, 2018 I should have given up making predictions in June 2017. Three months earlier, I had spoken at a conference on Brexit and suggested that the best way forward for Theresa May would be to call a snap election and strengthen her negotiating hand. I don’t know how the Prime Minister got word of my advice, [...]
Labour MP Ivan Lewis resigns from party over antisemitism concerns December 20, 2018 An MP has resigned from the Labour Party citing the party's failure to tackle antisemitism within its ranks. Ivan Lewis, who was suspended from the party a year ago over sexual harassment allegations, accused Corbyn of being unwilling to allow Jewish people the right of “self-determination in their own state.” The MP for Bury South [...]
Jeremy Corbyn accused of calling Theresa May a ‘stupid woman’ at PMQs December 19, 2018 Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has been accused of calling Theresa May a "stupid woman" during Prime Minister's Questions today, as calls mounted for him to apologise. The Prime Minister was mocking Corbyn during a clash over the government's Brexit deal, at which point he was caught on parliamentary cameras muttering words to himself. Speaker John Bercow was [...]
Government ramps up planning for ‘no-deal’ Brexit December 18, 2018 The government is to implement its no-deal plans "in full" after cabinet agreed it should be the top priority in light of the uncertainty surrounding Theresa May's deal. Downing Street confirmed that cabinet ministers' respective departments would be expected to make no-deal planning their main priority, with departments such as the Home Office and the Department for Environment, [...]
Another day of unforced errors from Jeremy Corbyn December 17, 2018 For anyone wondering how on earth this government still finds itself ahead in the polls, yesterday's showing from the Labour leadership should prove informative. Around mid-afternoon the opposition let it be known it was calling a vote of no confidence in Theresa May if the Prime Minister did not confirm the date of parliament's meaningful [...]
Jeremy Corbyn calls for vote of no confidence in Theresa May December 17, 2018 Jeremy Corbyn has called for a vote of no confidence in Theresa May, but pulled back from trying to force a general election. After an afternoon of confusion, the Labour leader announced he wanted a Commons vote because of the way May had handled the vote on her Brexit deal. The Prime Minister cancelled a [...]
The new Brexit Wars episode is out: May the force be with you December 17, 2018 Maybe it’s just me, but the Stormtroopers in the new Star Wars movies never seem to have the same menace as the old ones. Last week, Jacob Rees-Mogg and his colleagues in the eurosceptic European Research Group (ERG) of the Conservative party looked like they believed that they had gone old-school – Empire Strikes Back. [...]
So what does the DUP really, really want? A no-deal Brexit December 14, 2018 “So tell me what you want, what you really, really want,” sang the Spice Girls in their debut single in June 1996, the same month that multi-party talks were established to kickstart the Irish peace process. Now, 22 years later, it is a question that could well be asked of the DUP. This week, all [...]