News and Opinion

Editor-at-large ALASTAIR CAMPBELL’s excoriating essay on the virus spreading through the Labour Party If you are one among the many thousands who have recently joined the Labour Party to get a vote in the leadership election, you will have received a ‘welcome’ booklet for new members. Inside you will find a potted history of this […]

Green Party MEP Catherine Rowett on some fundamental questions raised by the bushfires. Recently, the group of Green MEPs were considering what topics to propose as ‘urgent resolutions’ for the Strasbourg plenary session of the European parliament. These call on the EU to take action in response to urgent human rights abuses and crisis situations […]

The fall out between American progressives will only help Trump, aruges BONNIE GREER. While most registered Democrats and just plain “We’re voting Dem in November because we want to beat Trump” people are paraphrasing Martin Luther King Jr’s speech at the 1963 March on Washington (“Impeached at last! Impeached at last! Thank God almighty Trump’s […]

Pro-Europeans are set to gather in Oxford to celebrate the EU – and to mark Brexit day with a candlelit vigil. Oxford for Europe, Oxford European Association and European Movement (Oxford Region) will all join together to protest the Brexit departure date, as it is “very much against the will of the people of Oxford”. […]

Trump’s crimes are far worse than Nixon’s, but unlike his political hero he is going to get away with it, says JAMES BALL. If headlines are any indication of the era we’re living in, 2020 is off to something of a slow start: a wealthy couple are going to move house and change their jobs, […]

Emily Thornberry has denied ‘sneering’ at the working class and Brexit voters in a sustained grilling from Andrew Neil on the BBC. Doing something that Boris Johnson has so far yet to manage, Thornberry sat in front of the BBC broadcaster to discuss her ambition to replace Jeremy Corbyn. The shadow foreign secretary denied she […]

Despite it being a long way from being completed, Boris Johnson has claimed we have reached the ‘Brexit finish line’. The prime minister called for the “rancour and division” to be left behind over the UK’s departure from the EU after peers ended a legislative battle. The Lords had tried to secure additional rights including […]

TERENCE BLACKER has recorded a heartfelt musical farewell to the European Union alongside Italian and German musicians. Here he explains why. It was when I was sitting in a recording studio in southern Italy that the Brexit blues really struck. Like many of us, I have experienced many shades of blue since 23 June 2016, […]

Who is on Question Time tonight? Here’s your guide… The BBC’s flagship current affairs programme tonight comes from Stoke Newington – the bohemian London village which was home to Eric “The Crafty Cockney” Bristow. But who will polish off the political equivalent of a nine-dart finish – and who will get stuck in the madhouse? […]

Defiant MPs have overturned the House of Lords’ amendments to Boris Johnson’s Brexit bill. The House of Commons reversed five changes made by the Lords to the Withdrawal Agreement Bill as the legislation entered the “ping-pong” phase where it moves between the two Houses until agreement is reached. Peers had defeated the government on the […]

The Labour Party’s chairman has called for Sir Keir Starmer to stand aside in the leadership race to allow a woman leader. Ian Lavery, introducing Rebecca Long-Bailey at her latest campaign event, called on her only male rival Sir Keir Starmer, the shadow Brexit secretary, to stand aside and let a woman win. He urged: […]

Nigel Farage has suggested he is ‘open’ to appearing on I’m A Celebrity! Get Me Out Of Here in a future series. The pro-Brexit politician told This Morning that ITV bosses had considered the MEP for the line-up in the past but that he was too “busy” to do it. But asked if he’d consider […]

Tory Brexiteer and culture minister Nigel Adams has backed calls for freedom of movement, at least for musicians, despite the fact his government is planning to take it away. Adams was talking specifically to Music Week about the importance of freedom of movement for artists. He explained: “Touring is absolutely the lifeblood of the industry […]

Jess Phillips has endorsed Ian Murray as he bids to become Labour’s new deputy leader. Phillips, who yesterday ended her own campaign to become Labour leader, said Murray had put forward a “positive vision” for the party. The Edinburgh South MP is up against Dawn Butler, Angela Rayner, Richard Burgon and Rosena Allin-Khan in the […]

Blue passports, a commemorative 50p coin… and now a stamp. The government is looking into Brexiteers’ latest demands to mark the UK leaving the European Union. The government is reportedly in talks with Royal Mail bosses over the issuing of stamps to mark Britain’s departure of the European Union, with Boris Johnson formally requesting it […]

A PMQs on the day Terry Jones’ death was announced brought one Monty Python sketch to mind It was during today’s PMQs that the sad death of Terry Jones was announced. And one particular Monty Python sketch came to mind, a series two skit called ‘Face the Press’, in which Eric Idle’s interviewer quizzes the […]

Home Office ministers have denied that Extinction Rebellion has been classified as an ‘extremist group’, despite being listed as a terrorist threat by police. Last week the home secretary Priti Patel was criticised for defending the police move to put XR on the list of extremist ideologies. In an interview with LBC she acknowledged that […]

A Brexiteer politician has raised concerns that fishes could become ‘bargaining chips’ in post-Brexit talks – and claimed they could be punished for their stance. June Mummery issued a video about the fishing industry. Photograph: Twitter. – Credit: Archant After a tweet from Brexit Party MEP June Mummery went viral for expressing concerns about the […]

The UK is facing a constitutional crisis after the three devolved administrations voted against the Brexit bill, the SNP’s Westminster leader has said. Ian Blackford spoke after the Welsh Assembly voted yesterday to reject the European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Bill, following in the footsteps of the Scottish Parliament and the Northern Ireland Assembly. The SNP […]

Labour leadership contender Lisa Nandy has slapped down Piers Morgan for his comments about Meghan Markle after he insisted she was not a victim of racism. The Good Morning Britain host used the interview with the Labour MP to dominate the conversation by continuing his verbal assaults on the Duchess of Sussex. Nandy said the […]

Former Tory party chair Baroness Warsi has warned people have been given ‘a licence to be racist’ since Brexit. Speaking during a guest lecture at King’s College university, the Conservative peer said the “toxic” Leave campaign had encouraged racism and that she had experienced it first-hand. Baroness Warsi, who is from a family of Pakistani […]

Former Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull has expressed his exasperation over Britain’s attempts to negotiate trade deals after Brexit. Turnbull was asked about comments by his predecessor Kevin Rudd back in 2019 about post-Brexit trade deals in which he said “for the UK to substitute European trade with Commonwealth trade is utter bollocks”. Asked by […]

The government suffered five defeats in the House of Lords over the Brexit bill as it returns to the House of Commons for debate. The Lords has backed two more amendments to the Withdrawal Agreement Bill on Tuesday, following three defeats on Tuesday on the rights of EU workers legally residing in the UK to […]

Politicians in Wales have joined those in Northern Ireland and Scotland to reject Boris Johnson’s Brexit bill. On Tuesday, 35 assembly members from Labour and Plaid Cymru rejected the Bill, while 15 backed it. First minister Mark Drakeford told the assembly: “It is a bad deal for Wales because it would clearly damage our economy, […]

TIM WALKER reviews Coming Clean – a performance at Trafalgar Studios in London until February 1st. If there’s one actress it’s always enlightening to interview, it’s Dame Eileen Atkins. “Infidelity,” she told me, “is one of the last things you should fall out with someone over.” That’s not the modus vivendi agreed by Tony (Lee […]

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen has restated her position that the UK’s access to the single market would be weakened if it diverged from Brussels’ rules. Speaking at the World Economic Forum at Davos, the commission president said the “next negotiations will start in February with our British friends” and promised that officials […]

The GMB union has backed Lisa Nandy in the Labour leadership contest. Just as the contest looked like it was going to become a two-horse race, Lisa Nandy managed to secure the support of another union She has already received the support of the NUM – the National Union of Mineworkers – meaning she just […]

The organiser of a pro-EU rally on January 31 says he does not care if the media want to compare it to Nigel Farage’s Brexit celebration. Peter French is the man behind ‘À bientôt EU, See you soon’, a procession from Downing Street to the European Commission in Central London taking part on Brexit Day […]