Brexit

IAN DUNT offers a rallying cry for pro-Europeans. We’re out of the EU. No more Article 50. No more transition. For all intents and purposes, January 1, 2021, is the first true day of Brexit. It’s remarkable that after nearly half a decade it’s still possible to burn with shame and indignation at what is happening […]

This country will continue to suffer from Brexit but we should not despair, says DOMINIC GRIEVE. Geographical and economic realities will make greater co-operation with Europe inevitable. This week the United Kingdom embarks on a new chapter in its relations with its neighbours in the EU. Just as the statue of Janus looks two ways and […]

To say the trade agreement between the UK and the EU weighs in at 1,246 pages is to do it a disservice. The dossier of articles, declarations and annexes totalling some 467,000 words is no-one’s idea of light reading, but would still be less than half the length of Hilary Mantel’s acclaimed Wolf Hall trilogy – an attainable task […]

ALASTAIR CAMPBELL on how the ‘bastard’ tendency which tormented John Major over the Maastricht Treaty has finally got its way. Have a guess where I was in early December 1991, and again in February 1992. Very well done at home, as mega-selling novelist Richard Osman says to viewers of BBC’s Pointless show, if a Dutch city the […]

TIM BALE assesses whether the deal with the EU means politicians on both sides of the debate will finally emerge from the trenches Lieutenant Hiroo Onoda of the Imperial Japanese army took some persuading before he would agree to hand over his sword, his rifle, and the dagger with which he intended to commit suicide […]

Cabinet Office minister and Brexiteer Michael Gove has been accused of insulting EU citizens by claiming that their mandatory applications to the EU Settlement Scheme were a “vote of confidence in Britain”. Appearing in the Commons to support the prime minister’s Brexit bill, he told MPs: “It is important to remember that there are now […]

Left wing advocates of Brexit labour under a number of misapprehensions, says FRANCIS BECKETT – such as a mistaken belief it will make their aims more achievable and that all Remainers are middle class. Paul Embery is one of the brightest stars of Lexit – the faction that says that all proper socialists are Brexiters. […]

A Tory MP has been celebrated for his tweet showing him celebrating Brexit alongside a cardboard cut-out of Margaret Thatcher, inscribed with the message “got Brexit done”. David Amess, the MP for Southend West, took to the social media platform to celebrate the UK’s departure from the European Union. Tweeting a picture of a cardboard […]

Guy Verhofstadt on his sadness as the transition period ends, and his optimism for the future. “There is one case,” wrote Dostoevsky, “and only one, when a man may deliberately and consciously desire something that is downright harmful even stupid, even extremely stupid, and that is: to have the right to desire what is even extremely […]

At the very moment the Irish border reaches its centenary it is about to enter a new era, as Brexit finally comes into full effect. IAN WALKER presents a birthday biography. In May 2018, Jacob Rees-Mogg – then chairman of the hard Brexit Tory pressure group the ERG – declared: “I don’t think my visiting the Irish border is really […]

We don’t know what we’ve got til it’s gone… Roger Casale on the end of free movement. Free movement of people is one of the EU’s most celebrated achievements. According to the December Eurobarometer survey, 81% of Europeans think free movement has benefitted the economy. Yet in Britain, it is often cited as one of the […]

A Labour frontbencher has resigned over her Brexit deal position after she defied Keir Starmer’s call for MPs to vote in support. Shadow Cabinet Office minister Helen Hayes left the opposition frontbench after abstaining on the bill. She tweeted: “I’m grateful to all who’ve contacted me on the EU Future Relationship Bill. I can’t vote […]

As MPs in the House of Commons vote in support of Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal, we look at how each politician voted. In the second and third reading of the bill, the Commons voted by 521 votes to 73 to back the agreement, a government majority of 448. 359 Tory MPs backed the bill – with 162 Labour […]

HYWEL CERI JONES on the government’s decision to reject the EU’s Erasmus scheme as part of the Brexit deal. In finalising its treaty with the EU, to the dismay of many, PM Johnson has confirmed his last-minute negative decision to no longer participate in the EU`s Erasmus programme. This comes as a severe blow to […]

Former Brexit secretary David Davis has said the treaty agreed by Boris Johnson is “much better than would have been achieved under the previous strategy”, but warned there are “issues to deal with” on Northern Ireland, fishing and Gibraltar. He told the Commons: “It’s not over. All will lead to uncomfortable decisions in the near […]

Tory Brexiteer Mark Francois has quoted Nigel Farage, Mel Gibson and the prophet Isiah in his speech on the government’s Brexit deal – claiming his colleagues in the ‘Spartans’ could now “lower our spears”. Francois, who chairs the European Research Group, told MPs: “Thanks to this agreement on New Year’s Eve we will finally leave […]

Despite claiming he had secured a “fantastic” trade deal with the EU for Brexit, just 17% of voters think it will be “good” for the country. The new YouGov polling found that the public enthusiasm for the deal was low – with 21% thinking it was a bad deal, and 31% thinking it was neither […]

Ed Davey on why he is rejecting Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal – and why his Liberal Democrat colleagues will join him in doing so. In a week when the Prime Minister interrupted the holidays to finally announce the long overdue terms of the UK’s future relationship with the EU, you would think he would be […]

Conservative former prime minister Theresa May has criticised opposition parties for not supporting her Brexit deal when it was proposed – claiming it was better than the one Boris Johnson is offering. She said: “I welcome this deal and I will be supporting it today and I welcome the fact that the official opposition will […]

The SNP’s Westminster leader Ian Blackford has claimed proponents of Brexit were guilty of an “enormous con job” to fishermen after analysis of the deal showed stocks for Scotland will fall. Speaking to the BBC’s Good Morning Scotland programme, Blackford said: “We’ve been told by the Tories over the course of the last four and […]

English could be ditched as an official language of the European Union as the United Kingdom leaves the bloc following the Brexit trade agreement. European and Scottish affairs correspondent Udo Seiwert-Fauti claims that the language is set to become downgraded to a “working language” after member states opted against using it for translations of documents. […]

Jacob Rees-Mogg has been reminded that he once claimed that Unionists should listen to the words of the DUP before deciding how they would vote on any Brexit deal, as he looks set to break the commitment. In March 2019 he claimed that he could not vote for a deal “under any circumstances” if the […]

A leading Tory Brexiteer has insisted he will continue to fight for Brexit even after Boris Johnson’s deal has passed. Mark Francois, the chairman of the European Research Group (ERG), vowed to keep fighting for their cause in the House of Commons and said his group would not “just put our feet up”. He told […]

A pollster has warned that Keir Starmer’s vote in support of Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal is likely to make the fight in Scotland even more difficult. Sir John Curtice, a leading pollster and professor of politics at Strathclyde University, said the SNP’s opposition to the Brexit deal could help the SNP win a majority at […]

Labour leader Keir Starmer has ruled out fighting the next general election on issues surrounding Europe, claiming he wants to focus on “Bitain in the 2030s” rather than the views of 2016. In an interview with the Guardian, Starmer dismissed talk of campaigning on Europe in 2024 despite the Brexit deal giving a break clause […]

Boris Johnson is set to tell MPs that the UK will be the “best friend and ally the EU could have” as politicians are set to vote for his Brexit deal. Parliament will be recalled to give its ruling on the trade agreement reached more than four years after the In/Out referendum in 2016. The […]

Most Remainers want MPs to vote in support for Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal rather than vote against. Opinium polling found that with the ‘don’t know’ option removed 50% of those that voted Remain in the EU referendum support the prime minister’s deal agreed with the European Union to avoid a no-deal Brexit situation. By comparison just 19% […]

Labour’s Nadia Whittome has indicated that she will abstain in the vote on Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal in the Commons. The Nottingham East MP said she would not vote for a deal which “fails to protect jobs, workers’ rights, migrants, the environment, our NHS, and my generation’s future”. On Twitter, Whittome wrote: “While I understand […]