British Politics

It is simply untrue for Brexiteers to claim that under a no-deal Brexit the UK could simply move to World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules and there would be nothing to fear. Putting aside the major economic damage, the UK will be unable to have frictionless, tariff-free trade under WTO rules for up to seven years […]

Readers have their say on People’s Vote campaigner Alastair Campbell being expelled from the Labour Party. I can’t understand why your editor-at-large is applying to rejoin Labour (TNE #146). The party he feels emotionally close to is dead, Corbyn’s leadership has killed it. Even if they were forced to support to a new referendum, the […]

Ed Davey says resurgent Lib Dems must take a ‘robust’ approach to getting airtime commensurate with their vote share, Paul Dacre’s salary goes up after ceasing to be Daily Mail’s editor, and Rupert Murdoch fixes it for two of his journalists to meet Donald Trump The Lib Dems are to demand a meeting with Lord […]

Ten of thousands of people turned out to protest against Donald Trump’s state visit in London. Protestors get their point across in demonstrations across London against Trump’s state visit. Photo: Mike Kemp/In Pictures/Getty Images – Credit: In Pictures via Getty Images Once again the British people did not disappoint with their creative ways of showing […]

MITCH BENN on why Nigel Farage’s election win was not a call for speeding up Brexit. Right, brace yourself because I’m about to ruin your day. If you’re standing up, sit down; if you’re sitting down, lie down. If you haven’t had breakfast, don’t have breakfast yet and if you have had breakfast, I’m terribly […]

David Cameron’s ‘sorrow’ for Theresa May didn’t extend to putting in a phone call, how Boris Johnson is raking in £1 million a year, and hail and farewell, Sir Vince Cable. Although David Cameron professed on television to have felt “desperately sorry” for Theresa May on the day she made her tearful farewell speech outside […]

MITCH BENN takes a look at the end of an eight year era as Game of Thrones comes to an end and explores how the ending for our own story has not been written. Game of Thrones main city, King’s Landing, is filmed in Dubrovnik. Picture: HBO/IMDB – Credit: HBO/IMDB So, Game of Thrones then. […]

Today editor Sarah Sands repays debt to former Telegraph chief, Nigel Farage all powerful as boss of the Brexit Party Ltd, BJ4PM won’t end well and will it be July 15 when Theresa May finally goes? Lord Heseltine departs after a visit to 10 Downing Street. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA. – Credit: PA Archive/PA Images Sarah […]

TIM WALKER interviews Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, as he tries to remain loyal to Labour’s line on Brexit despite the damage it is causing him politically With the highest personal mandate of any politician in the country when he was elected mayor of London three years ago, Sadiq Khan is undeniably a rock […]

MITCH BENN discusses the parallels between comedians and politicians attracting an audience. As regular readers will know (and as irregular readers won’t, I imagine, be particularly surprised to discover), this isn’t my day job. I’ve mentioned on a number of occasions that in my primary occupation I’ve been toiling away on the lower slopes of […]

Andrew Marr, Laura Kuenssberg and Kirsty Wark are being touted as ‘specialist Brexit speakers’ by a leading speaking agency; Dame Maggie Smith points an accusing finger at Lord Howard; and why Gina Miller knows how to offer relationship advice. If many of the BBC’s top presenters seem to be revelling in the never-ending Brexit saga, […]

Mitch Benn discusses why Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party is not what the UK needs. I have good news and bad news. The good news is: you’re not going mad. The bad news is: you’re not going mad. Yeah, sorry about that. There are times when it might be comforting to be able to dismiss the […]

Steve Bannon appoints Michael Seed as chaplain to his controversial right wing institute, David Cameron competes with his former ‘gatekeeper’ to get his memoirs out first, the Today show silences another Remain voice and the Daily Express says ‘thanks, but no thanks’ to Gina Miller Michael Seed – the so-called ‘priest to the stars’ who […]

The desire to vote against something or someone you oppose will only get you so far, says MITCH BENN, at some point you have to vote for something. I’ve got a lot of time for Tom Watson. I’ve met him a couple of times and he’s always been personable and sincere. He turned up to […]

David Cameron is not prepared to risk a promotional tour for his memoirs that coincides with Brexit happening, Michael Gove builds up war chest for leadership campaign, BBC irks staff by putting in for diversity and inclusion award and how Greta Thunberg rendered Lord Lawson speechless. Swedish environmental campaigner Greta Thunberg. (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty […]

Rupert Murdoch has been told to shut up about Brexit on Twitter by Jerry Hall, the politicisation of the BBC press office, how Mandrake got a passport emblazoned with the words European Union… and how Annunziata Rees-Mogg has been struggling for a role in life. Annunziata Rees-Mogg, sister of Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg, speaks at […]

MITCH BENN on the benefit of taking some time to regroup and plan. Ian Cognito, who died on stage. Picture: Contributed – Credit: Archant Some people have expressed alarm that, having fixed upon the in-no-way significant or ominous date of October 31 as the new deadline for resolving Brexit (one way or another), parliament then […]

Like Trump fans, Leave voters aren’t dismissing themselves as less intelligent. It’s their own leaders who think they’re ignorant. As active and vocal Remainers, we are often reminded of the importance of not yielding to the temptation of dismissing Leave voters as stupid or ignorant (and, moreover, of congratulating ourselves on our supposed intellectual superiority) […]

Gina Miller reacts with chutzpah to a petition to silence her, Nigel Farage knows Dad’s Army scripts by heart and Christopher Booker sets an example for Telegraph colleagues. Although somewhat pre-occupied at the present time, Theresa May is being invited to consider whether Gina Miller should keep her thoughts about Brexit to herself. A change.org […]

Mitch Benn says the Remain movement is still in full voice as Brexiteers call for the government to get on with it. It’s exhausting, this Brexit thing, isn’t it? Even if you’re not tasked with following and commenting on the whole slowly unravelling fustercluck on a semi-professional basis, just trying to keep up with each […]

MITCH BENN says there should be awkward questions for the people who’ve been making a living peddling so-called ‘polite racism’. I found myself being interviewed on Turkish television last week, on the subject of Brexit in general and Mr Tragical Misery Tour himself, Nigel Farage. I was asked if I thought Nigel Farage was a […]

Life as a Brexit true believer would be so much easier, writes MITCH BENN, but self-righteousness helps no-one in the long run. Something remarkable – indeed perhaps unprecedented – happened on last weekend’s Andrew Marr Show. A Brexiter told the truth about Brexit. Jeremy Hunt – for ’twas he – reflected on how easy it […]

Steve Anglesey on the commemorative tat celebrating Brexit and the Brexiteers of the Week. ‘A delay to Article 50 is not inevitable,’ declared the soothsayer Liam Fox the other day, prompting Expedia’s servers to crash as scores of political journalists began searching for ‘cheap holidays around March 29’. If Mr Easiest-Deal-In-Human-History says something is on […]

While much of the country consists of the sort of constituency wherein, to quote the late great Alan B’stard, they’d elect a hatstand if you stuck the right colour rosette on it, hatstands is what we’ll get. Events are developing at a dizzying rate, and I’m currently suffering the after-effects of some not entirely successful […]

‘If TIG should call by-elections so should the MPs in the ERG or linked to Momentum’ Labour and Tory representatives say MPs in the Independent Group (TIG) should call by-elections in their seats as they were originally elected on another party’s manifesto. If this is the case, why is it that MPs such as those […]

Why The Independent Group must work to earn the support of Remainers. There is, as they say, nothing new under the sun; every event, however startling and novel, has its roots and causes in previous events, and similarly, every event, however unusual, will find its echo somewhere in subsequent events. It’s not often, however, that […]

We are writing as active and committed members of the Labour Party because we feel our voice is being ignored by our own party. We enthusiastically voted for Jeremy Corbyn precisely because he promised to listen to his members and put them at the heart of everything he did. We believed that and went on […]

There’s precious little in the news other than Brexit, but not much in the overall situation is actually changing. I think I’m experiencing a kind of Brexit numbness. On the one hand, there’s precious little else in the news right now, as is entirely appropriate given that we’re about six weeks away from an act […]