Brexit

Grave meditations

In 2012 OUP published Geoffrey Hill’s Collected Poems; they could have waited, because they’re now going to need another edition. Between 2012 and his death, aged 84, in 2016, Hill wrote another 271 poems, and here they are — although, given his productivity since the mid-1990s, I wouldn’t be surprised if there were plenty more. But the poems in The Book of Baruch by the Gnostic Justin look as though they are part of a deliberate and ordered sequence, all of them using the same form, of irregular lines, occasional internal rhymes and Hill’s characteristic style, hopping over centuries with semi-cryptic allusions, barks of rage and mordant humour. I say

The Tories angry about May’s deal are missing the point

The Prime Minister’s speech yesterday, in which she announced a ‘ten-point offer’ to parliament for a ‘new Brexit deal’ has gone down like the proverbial cold cup of sick with many Conservative MPs. The rage isn’t just confined to the 28 Brexiteer hold-outs who voted against the deal on 29 March either – so far, another 40 MPs who previously voted for the deal have indicated they will not vote for the proposed Withdrawal Agreement Bill. Overall, with little sign of movement towards the deal from Labour, it seems the Prime Minister is going backwards. A lot of the anger on the Tory side appears to be directed at May’s pledge to hold a

James Forsyth

Theresa May’s time is almost up

Things are moving fast in Westminster. Theresa May’s position is now more precarious than it has been at any point in her premiership and that’s saying something. Three things have changed. First, it is clear that May’s last roll of the dice hasn’t worked—the Withdrawal Agreement Bill isn’t going to pass second reading. As a consequence of that, Tories who want a deal – as well as those who favour no deal – are now moving towards the belief that May should go. The third thing that has happened is that cabinet ministers, who up to now have thought that a delay to a leadership contest was in their interests,

Full list: The Tory MPs who will vote down May’s latest Brexit deal

Theresa May’s latest Brexit bill is set to come back to the Commons early next month, but already the signs are that it won’t be fourth time lucky for the Prime Minister and her Withdrawal Agreement. Here is the full list of 74 Tory MPs who say they will vote it down: Adam Afriyie Lucy Allan Steve Baker John Baron  Guto Bebb Ben Bradley Peter Bone Suella Braverman Andrew Bridgen Conor Burns Bill Cash Maria Caulfield Chris Chope Simon Clarke Geoffrey Clifton-Brown Tracey Crouch David Davis Nadine Dorries Steve Double Richard Drax James Duddridge  Charlie Elphicke Nigel Evans Michael Fabricant Mark Francois Marcus Fysh Zac Goldsmith Chris Green Justine Greening

Ross Clark

The EU’s role in the demise of British Steel

How ironic that British Steel goes into administration on the day before the European elections, putting 4,200 jobs at risk in a leave-voting constituency. And how utterly fatuous to blame Britain’s vote to leave the EU for the failure of the Scunthorpe plant. There is a link with Brexit, but it is not the one mentioned in passing on BBC news bulletins this morning – that our leaving the EU has frightened off European customers. If anything, the fall in the pound since 2016 should have helped British Steel, making its exports to the rest of the EU cheaper. But that has not been enough to counter the mass of

Robert Peston

The utter irrelevance of the Tories and Labour

Call me old fashioned, but I find it impossible to see how any Tory leader could survive crashing to fifth place in a national election and picking up just 7 per cent of the vote – which is what YouGov predicts in the Times. Of course it’s only one survey. The real vote tomorrow may yield a better outcome. And Labour is also set for a humiliating night, with just 13 per cent of votes cast, say the pollsters. But 7 per cent for the supposed natural party of government, for just the past couple of centuries, is the kind of humiliation that few institutions would shrug off. May should

Theresa May’s latest Brexit pitch goes down badly with Tory MPs

Theresa May has made her latest Brexit deal pitch – and it isn’t going down well with Tory MPs. The Prime Minister used a speech this afternoon to say Parliament will get a vote on whether to hold a second referendum if it backs the EU Withdrawal Agreement Bill. But Simon Clarke – a Tory MP who supported the PM’s deal the last time around – has changed his mind and vowed to vote the deal down. Here is what he said: And Simon Clarke wasn’t the only Tory MP to vent his fury at the PM in the aftermath of her speech. Owen Paterson said the offer is a

Katy Balls

Theresa May is on course for an even worse defeat on her Brexit deal

By what margin will Theresa May’s Brexit deal be defeated when it returns to the Commons after recess? The expectation in government is that it will be voted down for a fourth time – and the loss will be greater than on the third vote. The hope in Downing Street is that a bad result for both the Tories and Labour in the European elections will incentivise MPs to take what could be their last shot at passing the Withdrawal Agreement – ahead of a new Tory leader coming in and shaking things up. May is also set to unveil a host of changes – what you could call concessions

Ross Clark

Brexit and the tragedy of Philip Hammond

It is still a few hours before Philip Hammond makes his speech to the CBI this evening but so much of it has been trailed in advance that delegates might as well just read the newspapers – and then book some entertainment from a juggler or fire-eater instead. We know he is going to attack what he calls the “populist right”. We know, in a thinly-veiled attack on Boris, he will say:  “There is a real risk of a new prime minister abandoning the search for a deal, and shifting towards seeking a damaging no-deal exit as a matter of policy.”  Then he is going to go on and accuse

The case against Boris Johnson

In the old days, if the Tory party was in trouble, old hands who had seen it all before would attempt to steady the buffs with a traditional rallying-cry: ‘pro bono publico – no bloody panico.’ Today, that message is needed as never before, but would the MPs take any notice? In the nineteenth century, an Irish Parliamentarian lamented that: ‘Ireland’s cup of troubles is overflowing – and it is not yet full.’ For Ireland, read the Tory party. It seems quite likely that on Thursday, the Tories will come fifth in the Euro elections, behind the Brexit Party, Labour, the Liberals and the Greens, struggling to get into double

The truth about the Brexit Party’s ‘dark money’

I have a question. How come when someone like Bernie Sanders or Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez funds themselves through small donations it’s a sign of how engaged and democratic they are, but when the Brexit Party does the same thing it’s proof of how sinister and shady that party is? I think we all know the answer to this question. It’s because the liberal elite is staggeringly hypocritical and now applies a double standard to everyone in politics. If you’re on their side, you’re pure and clean; if you’re on the opposite side, you’re dirty and ‘dark’.  This is the news that the Brexitphobic sections of the political and chattering classes have

Sunday shows round-up: Both no deal and referendum should be legally ‘off the table’, says Stewart

Jeremy Corbyn – Labour supporters voted ‘both Leave and Remain’ With the European elections taking place next Thursday, several senior political figures took to the TV studios to reiterate their case, including a handful of party leaders. One of these was Jeremy Corbyn, whose Brexit position has been criticised for its lack of clarity. Speaking to Andrew Marr, Corbyn defended his strategy of not picking a side: JC: Labour supporters voted both Leave and Remain, and every other party in this European election is appealing to either one side or the other, defining everybody on 2016. We’re not. We’re defining people as hopefully supporters of us – but also, people who

Meet the secret Brexiteers

Much has been made of the Brexit Party’s insurgency amongst people in Leave-voting communities, who have been subject to disparaging and patronising establishment contempt ever since they dared to vote the ‘wrong’ way in the EU referendum. But far less attention is given to the minority of Leave voters who work and live in the professions and other areas where support for Remain is the default position. One woman who approached the Brexit Party stall in Chester last week told me his: “I am a solicitor; my friend here is a physiotherapist and we are both fed up of being shunned by colleagues because we voted Leave. I just don’t

Behind the scenes at a Brexit Party rally: why Labour and the Tories should be terrified

In a small town in the Black Country last night, a political rally took place which should have the two main parties feeling extremely nervous. Willenhall, on the outskirts of Wolverhampton, doesn’t even have a train station. Yet well over a thousand supporters packed out a wedding venue to see the Brexit Party’s latest rally, filling every seat, standing in the aisles and exhibiting a greater enthusiasm than has been seen in British politics since the rise of Jeremy Corbyn. The Brexit Party launched only a few weeks ago but already this is looking like a movement which could have a profound effect on Britain’s politics. “I’ve never seen anything like this,”

What Macron and Salvini get wrong about the future of Europe

French president Emmanuel Macron and Italy’s deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini don’t have much in common, but on the importance of the upcoming European elections they agree. For Macron, the vote will be “decisive for the future of our continent”. And for the leader of Italy’s right-wing populist Lega, “May 26 is a referendum between life and death. Those who are still sleeping should wake up.” Yet Macron and Salvini are wrong. Both have misinterpreted these elections and their significance for Europe’s future. And the argument that these votes are a binary and existential struggle between pro-EU forces, led by Macron, and right-wing populists, led by Marine Le Pen and Salvini, is

Robert Peston

Revealed: Theresa May’s secret plan for indicative votes

I’ve been passed a document headed: ‘Indicative votes before second reading of the WAB’ (Withdrawal Agreement Bill). It is an official summary of what the government is hoping to agree with Labour by way of a Brexit compromise, and how to test the will of the House of Commons on what kind of customs union or arrangement would be appropriate for the UK. Strikingly it shows Theresa May and her cabinet trying to achieve two other things: they want to use so-called indicative votes by MPs in just the next few days to prove MPs do not want a confirmatory referendum, and that they do want to leave the EU

Matthew Lynn

Jeremy Corbyn and the Project Fear we should all be afraid of

Factories would move abroad to escape punitive tariffs. The ports would be blocked up. The hospitals would run out of medicines and fruit would remain unpicked on trees. Over the last three years, we have become used to wildly over-the-top predictions about all the terrible things that would happen to the British economy if we ever get around to leaving the European Union. But if you thought that was bad, and global investors were nervous about putting money into the UK markets, wait until you see what happens as they start to get to grips with the plans should Jeremy  Corbyn and John McDonnell ever move into Numbers 10 and