News and Opinion

Failure by Britain and the EU to reach agreement on continuing access to financial markets after Brexit risks creating instability and market fragmentation, a parliamentary committee has warned. The Lords EU Financial Affairs sub-committee said it was in the interests of both sides to reach a deal which allowed the continued free flow of financial […]

James Ball explains why when it comes to Brexit we are all just passengers in the back seat. Imagine, if you will, the United Kingdom as a car on a road. Millions of us are strapped in the back with no real say in where things are going at the moment – except for a […]

Ministers’ failure to address the implications of withdrawal from Euratom could have dangerous consequences, warns MIKE GALSWORTHY. As the clock ticks down to March 29, 2019, more and more European frameworks of collaboration look to be slipping off the Brexit plate. The concept of a ‘no deal’ departure from the EU is dangerous because it […]

Talk of a second referendum has divided pro-EU support in the UK. DENIS MACSHANE asks how it has gone down in Europe itself. Most European countries avoid taking big constitutional decisions by plebiscite. But they are used on the continent, most notably in Switzerland. In February 2014, the Swiss voted in a referendum to ban […]

A London council has become the first in the country to formally call on the government to halt plans for a Hard Brexit and give the British people a second EU vote. Labour-run Hammersmith & Fulham Council has passed a motion asking the government to ‘abandon any plans for a Hard Brexit and give the […]

Lib Dem MP Tom Brake has seen the government’s ‘top secret’ analysis of the impact of Brexit. He reports back on what he found In my 20 years as an MP, I cannot recall any government or parliament embarking on a course of action with such a profound bearing on our economy, security, diplomacy and stature […]

Mitch Benn uses his most tortuous analogy yet to explain why he is not rejoicing over UKIP’s downfall. As I lurch ever further into sullen middle age (notched up another birthday this week; growing old sucks, but let’s face it, it beats the alternative) I find myself taking refuge in nostalgia. BBC Four is rather […]

Steve Anglesey picks out the losers and losers from another week on Planet Brexit – where there are no winners. Rosetta Tickner This Brexiteer Twitter user was outraged by the news that McVitie’s are cutting the number of Digestives in a pack by seven after the falling pound made ingredients more expensive. ‘Aldi & Lidl […]

Former Labour Foreign Secretary DAVID MILIBAND intervenes on Brexit, blasting both Labour and the Tories and calling on Jeremy Corbyn to consider committing to giving voters the final say It is strange to watch the unfolding trauma of Brexit from abroad. As the European economy gathers pace, as America abdicates global responsibility, as the UK […]

Yasmin Alibhai-Brown talks the attempts to silence her and backlash from Brexiters even after the hypocrisy of the Jo Marney scandal. Henry Bolton OBE leader of Ukip is 54, is a married man and father of young children. Jo Marney, his fair young mistress, sent nakedly racist texts about Meghan Markle to a male friend. […]

Remainers have seized on comments made by Brexit secretary David Davis today in which he said he had changed his mind on Customs Union membership – saying the British public could change their mind too. Giving evidence before the Commons Brexit Select Committee today, Mr Davis shrugged off previous comments he had made backing the […]

If there was a second referendum, how could we win it? Mike Hind suggests ten ways. In October 2016 The New European published my ‘How to win the next referendum 10-point plan’. It canvassed expert opinion on how to get it right if there were ever to be a next time. Suddenly, thanks to Nigel […]

The prospect of a soft Brexit may seem to offer some solace to Remainers. But, says former government trade advisor Jim Fanshawe, it is still a path beset with pitfalls. The Irish border deal hammered out to get the Brexit negotiations through the first phase has inadvertently edged Britain towards a softer deal than was […]

The government is heading for a “hotch-potch” Brexit deal amounting to “leaving without leaving” which will not be acceptable to voters, former prime minister Tony Blair has said. He suggested that public opinion may shift far enough to force a second referendum when voters were confronted with the reality that the deal they favoured was […]

Tim Farron has committed another U-turn over whether he believes gay sex to be a sin. And Liberal Democrat activist and LGBT right campaigner Mathew Hulbert thinks it might be the end of his political career. Mea Culpa. Mea Culpa. Mea Culpa. Sometimes, in political commentary as in politics and indeed life itself, when you […]

Paul Connew looks at Donald Trump’s refusal to be interviewed by Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller and the storm it could cause. U.S. President Donald Trump is creating a storm for himself. Picture: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images – Credit: Getty Images Let’s adopt the lexicon of the most profane POTUS ever to disgrace the White House. A […]

Why are we so cynical about the foreign secretary’s motives, asks STEVE ANGLESEY? Probably for two reasons: everything he’s said and everything he’s done News that Boris Johnson is to demand in Cabinet a £100m-a-week ‘Brexit dividend’ for the NHS has been greeted with a mixed reception. In some quarters there’s disbelief. In others derision. […]

New laws in Germany are causing anguished debate on the issue of free speech, as well as the country’s dark history. Gavin Fearnley reports. Boris Becker. Picture: PA – Credit: PA Archive/PA Images When he was hanged, Barthel Schink was just 16 years old. His killing in 1944, carried out by fellow Germans in broad […]

Embattled Ukip leader Henry Bolton has resisted calls to quit, insisting that he was focusing on the fight for Brexit. Despite a vote of no confidence in his leadership by the party’s national executive committee (NEC) and the resignation of a series of key figures, Mr Bolton insisted he would fight on. Mr Bolton hit […]

Criticism from Catherine Deneuve and other French writers and actors of the #MeToo movement expose differing national attitudes towards feminism, says Mary Harrod. The recent publication in Le Monde of an open letter by female writers and actors in defence of men’s right to pick up women has left many people bemused. The letter, signed […]

Banning hidden credit and debit card charges was not a Conservative government measure but the result of an EU directive. Our readers set the record straight. It was intriguing to note so many Conservatives, including the Prime Minister, claiming credit for banning hidden charges for paying with credit or debit cards. This was in fact […]

Almost three decades on from the end of apartheid, will South Africa finally get the transformative leader it so desperately needs? Paul Knott reports. Memories of the inspiring way in which apartheid was overcome make it hard not to see South Africa as a ray of sunshine in a stormy world. But even the rosiest-tinted […]

Ukip leader Henry Bolton is facing growing pressure to stand down as a series of senior party figures announced they were quitting over his refusal to resign. Deputy leader Margot Parker, trade and industry spokesman William Dartmouth and immigration spokesman John Bickley said his position had become untenable and urged him to go. The resignations […]

Brexiteers have reacted with fury after the Cabinet Office said there were no plans for Big Ben to chime to mark Britain leaving the EU next year. With not much than a year until Britain formally leaves the bloc, Conservative hardliners have shifted their attention from a lack of postage stamps to commemorate the move […]

Michael Wolff’s explosive book on Donald Trump’s White House has sent shock waves through Washington and beyond. PETER BALE met the author You say in your book, Fire and Fury, that the Trump side was ready to lose with ‘fire and fury’ but I’ve assumed the title comes from his warnings to North Korea, yes? […]

Between the gung-ho calls for regime change from the US, and the muted response from Europe, there is another way to respond to the protests in Iran, says Labour MP Mike Gapes. Ever since the Iranian Revolution of 1979 the world has faced a dilemma about how best to deal with the Islamic Republic. That […]

French President Emmanuel Macron believes the UK will get a bespoke deal – but hopes Brexit can be reversed. Macron said he would ‘love’ to welcome the UK back into the European Union and insisted the group of member states will become 27 ‘unhappily’. Mr Macron said on Thursday that France would not give in […]

The answer is not a second referendum but a first on Tories’ bad deal for Britain says Editor-at-Large Alastair Campbell. So what is Nigel Farage up to? Is he, as some of his fellow Brextremists believe, so incurably addicted to grabbing headlines that he couldn’t resist giving legs to the idea of a ‘second referendum’? […]