Eu referendum

As expected, David Cameron has just confirmed that the EU referendum will be on Thursday 23 June. The Prime Minister confirmed – again – in his statement in Downing Street that he will be recommending an ‘In’ vote. The Prime Minister’s statement was largely a reprise of his key themes from last night. He said that ‘the choice goes to the heart of the kind of country we want to be’ and argued that ‘this is about how we trade with neighbouring countries to create jobs, prosperity and security for our families’. He also repeated his line from his Brussels statement about those who want to leave being unable to set

[audioplayer src=”http://rss.acast.com/viewfrom22/spectatorpodcastspecial-davidcameronseudeal/media.mp3″ title=”David Cameron seals the EU deal – but is it any good? Isabel Hardman, James Forsyth and Fraser Nelson discuss” startat=18] Listen [/audioplayer] So in the end, David Cameron’s attempt to renegotiate Britain’s EU membership served to remind us of the case for leaving: the EU is designed in such a way that almost no sensible proposal can be passed. Its negotiations start after dinner, and are designed to drag on until 5am – a formula designed to stifle debate, and to wear people down. The Prime Minister was kept waiting until 10pm to be told that he had agreement on a deal – but one perforated by the bullet holes of

As the night gets going in Brussels, there is some pretty heavy briefing about the progress being made in the talks. British officials say leaders are still stuck on the major issues, including benefits, and that Cameron could walk away from the summit with no deal. There are some major issues to resolve, sources said, adding that while many countries were showing a desire to help, the European Council president Donald Tusk ‘shares the assessment that there are some serious differences’. It is, we have been briefed, going to be a long night as leaders try to hammer out those differences, before the breakfast session tomorrow where it had been

If all goes according to David Cameron’s plan, he’ll have his EU deal by this time next week. But Downing Street still can’t be sure of which Tory heavyweights will be with Cameron come the referendum campaign, and which won’t. Even more than Boris Johnson, Michael Gove is causing Downing Street angst. As I report in The Sun today, Gove is ‘definitely wobbling’ according to one Downing Street source. Downing Street think the chances of him backing Out have increased significantly in the last 10 days or so. Gove himself has been telling people that he won’t make a decision until the deal is done. But those around him are

Eurosceptics may have only a few days before their ministerial colleagues can join them in campaigning for Britain to leave the European Union. But they’re currently very unhappy at the sort of briefing they’ve been hearing about what might happen to those ministers after the referendum. The official line is that the Prime Minister will not sack anyone because of the position they take on Europe. But noises off suggest that this isn’t quite true: James reported in his Sun column last week that the Prime Minister has taken to telling colleagues ‘I’ve said I would have Outers in my Cabinet after the referendum. But I haven’t said they’ll be the

Here is a thought for all those Tory MPs calculating their personal advantage in the forthcoming EU referendum: unless the vote is an absolutely overwhelming Remain, the next leader of the Conservative party — whose day is no longer so far off — will come from the Leave camp. This will happen, obviously, if Leave wins, but also if Leave loses but does well, because most party supporters will only back someone who feels their pain and can reconcile them afterwards. Another thought: why would Nigel Farage want Britain to vote Leave? Then he would be redundant. Study him in the light of this thought and you will see that it explains

The Catholic bishops of England and Wales – and the separate hierarchy for Scotland, for that matter – have long been uncritical, even sycophantic, supporters of the European Union. The question isn’t whether they will try to persuade Catholics to vote to stay in, but how they will go about it – and whether they will succeed. The campaign is already under way. It has been kicked off by Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, the English churchman closest to Pope Francis and a genial fellow who never met a canapé he didn’t like. He has already said… … though Christian churches will not take position on the referendum vote, Catholics should vote for Europe… … which sounds