News and Opinion

Government departments are being ‘overly secretive’ about the £97 million it has spent on Brexit consultants, a parliament’s financial watchdog has claimed. The influential Commons Public Accounts Committee (PAC) said departments had generally failed to meet the government’s own transparency standards in regards to the spending. The PAC reported that Whitehall had spent at least […]

He seems the quintessential American writer, but Truman Capote’s career hinged on spells he spent in Europe. RICHARD LUCK explains how the continent played a key role in shaping Capote’s life, his writing and his masterwork, In Cold Blood. Yes, Truman Garcia Capote first came to Europe in the hope of winning the affections of […]

Boris Johnson has denied lying to the Queen in order to secure the suspension of parliament. Scotland’s highest civil court ruled has that the five-week prorogation was unlawful because it was obtained for the “improper purpose of stymying parliament”. However, the prime minister insisted he had sought the suspension so that the government could set […]

The government has refused to provide Dominic Grieve with private communications between ministers and advisers over the government’s ‘unlawful’ plans to prorogue parliament. Former attorney general Dominic Grieve’s had demanded for all written and electronic contact about the temporary suspension of parliament and the Operation Yellowhammer documents since July 23 to be released. It was […]

The government has published a summary of its Operation Yellowhammer documents in the event of a no-deal Brexit following a vote from MPs demanding they are released to the public. The six-page documentation makes the claim that it is the “reasonable worst case planning assumptions” and features 20 points. There is one which is partially […]

Three years after the EU referendum Boris Johnson appears finally appears to have accepted his ‘£350 million a week’ claim about EU membership was wrong. Standing in the House of Commons, the prime minister attacked Labour for refusing to vote for a general election and instead supporting a delay to Brexit. He told MPs: “Opposition […]

A new poll has showed that more people living in Northern Ireland support Irish unification than do not. And if there were a referendum tomorrow, how would you vote? pic.twitter.com/muhAdZ5LUh— Lord Ashcroft (@LordAshcroft) September 11, 2019 The poll, published by Lord Ashcroft, found that if a border poll was held 45% would vote to stay […]

ANDREW ADONIS praises speaker John Bercow for asserting parliamentary supremacy at a moment of great peril for the institution and the nation. The outpouring of tributes to John Bercow from almost everyone who isn’t a right-wing extremist is about more than his exemplary service to the House of Commons. He has become a hero of […]

Opposition MPs have called for parliament to be recalled after the highest civic court in Scotland ruled Boris Johnson’s prorogation plans were ‘unlawful’. The government has appealed the decision in the Court of Session which made the ruling, with the appeal hearing expected on Tuesday. But MPs have already seized on the court ruling with […]

An depiction of Boris Johnson as a criminal has been projected on to the side of the Houses of Parliament. Campaign group Led By Donkeys unveiled the image in response to the prime minister’s suspension of parliament – which a Scottish court has found was unlawful. A video widely shared on Twitter of the animated […]

The court of session in Edinburgh has ruled that Boris Johnson’s prorogation of parliament for five weeks is ‘unlawful’ – with MPs demanding an immediate recall. A group of around 70 parliamentarians had appealed against a ruling by a judge at the court that Boris Johnson’s prorogation of parliament is lawful after Judge Lord Doherty […]

A government minister has said that releasing full documents that look at the repercussions of a no-deal Brexit would ‘concern people’ and therefore should not be released. Explaining why the government will ignore a demand from MPs to release the Yellowhammer documents, Andrea Leadsom appeared on BBC Breakfast to claim they were not “a prediction […]

Boris Johnson will not be able to silence critics of a no-deal Brexit, Sir Keir Starmer is to warn. Sir Keir Starmer will tell the Trades Union Congress (TUC) in Brighton that opposition MPs “will be ready” to fight a no-deal exit when the Commons sits again in October. On a looming general election, he […]

A new poll from ComRes has put the Tories just one percent ahead of Labour – which would leave Boris Johnson well short of a majority. The polling of Westminster voting intention, published in the Daily Telegraph, gives the Tories 30% of support compared to Labour’s 29% of support. The Lib Dems are on 17% […]

Labour’s deputy leader Tom Watson is to call on the party to back a People’s Vote to be held before any general election. In a speech on Wednesday in London, Watson will say a single-issue Brexit election may not break the deadlock in parliament – something only a second referendum can achieve with certainty. He […]

After a night dining in South London, WILL SELF found himself thinking about our brave new isolationist world… over lemonade. This week I dined – as I do most – at Taro restaurant near the Oval cricket ground. I began eating at another branch of Taro, in Soho, about five years ago, and noticed after […]

Without even showing up, Roman Polanski managed to dominate the 76th Venice Film Festival. Of course, if he had appeared, the 86-year-old film-maker and fugitive rapist might have been extradited to the US to face the charge he fled in 1977. That would have been some drama. Louis Garrell as Alfred Dreyfuss and Jean Dujardin […]

The Treasury has been mocked for promoting claims that there will be a return of duty-free shopping if there is a no-deal Brexit. https://twitter.com/hmtreasury/status/1171454868277489664 Chancellor Sajid Javid said that those visiting EU countries would no longer have to pay duties on cigarettes and alcohol purchased at airports, with the Treasury’s social media account now producing […]

Downing Street looks set to ignore parliamentary sovereignty after MPs demanded to see communications between ministers and officials over the prorogation of parliament. MPs voted by 311 to 302 in favour of Number 10 handing over communications – including WhatsApp, Facebook and text messages – surrounding plans to suspend parliament, as well as the Operation […]

The latest polling from two different companies casts doubt on claims that the North of England are ‘Brexit heartlands’. https://twitter.com/josephmdurso/status/1171373442349895681 Asked how the public would vote in a second referendum, 40% of the UK public said it would vote to Leave while 46% said it would vote to Remain. But while voters in the South […]

Labour Brexiteer MP Kate Hoey has said she could remain in the House of Commons if the UK has not left the EU by the time the next election takes place. In July the long-standing MP said she was resigning as an MP and would not seek re-election as a Labour candidate when the next […]

A Tory Brexiteer MP has approached a foreign government asking it to veto the UK’s attempts to extend Article 50. According to the MP’s local paper the Shropshire Star, Daniel Kawczynski said: “Remain MPs wishing to overturn the will of the British people are using every subterfuge going to kneecap the prime minister ahead of […]

Gibraltar’s government is considering chartering an aeroplane to bring in food and medicines after concerns that a no-deal Brexit could bring about a ‘situation of siege’. The rock’s top officials warned a no-deal Brexit will radically affect the delivery of fresh food and pharmaceuticals not produced on the rock, waste disposal, as well as the […]

A Lib Dem MP and former Tory MPs have joined forces with rebel Labour MPs to campaign for a Brexit deal. Stephen Kinnock during a press briefing held by MPs for a Deal. Photograph: David Mirzoeff/PA Wire. – Credit: PA The new group includes former Tory MPs Nick Boles and Rory Stewart, Lib Dem MP […]

A new opinion poll suggests that Labour voters prefer the Lib Dem leader Jo Swinson to Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn. The poll, carried out by Opinium, looked at net approval ratings for the main party leaders. It found that with Labour voters in the 2017 general election more back Jo Swinson over Jeremy Corbyn. According to […]

An anti-Brexit campaign group has launched a tactical voting scheme to deliver a pro-second referendum Commons majority, and has already backed some Labour and Liberal Democrat candidates. In what campaign group People’s Vote describe as “the biggest tactical voting operation ever undertaken in Britain”, an online ‘voting hub’ will, they say, offer a clear guide […]

The Liberal Democrats look set to campaign to cancel Brexit by revoking Article 50 to allow the UK to remain in the European Union, party leader Jo Swinson has said. The proposal will be voted on by party members at the Lib Dem annual conference which starts on Saturday in Bournemouth. Swinson said: “The Liberal […]

Geoffrey Boycott has claimed that the judge that convicted him of domestic violence is one of the reasons he wants to leave the EU. Boycott, who had been given a knighthood of by Theresa May, appeared on BBC Radio 4 Today and was expressing his pleasure at being awarded the honour. But the mood soon […]

A group of MPs have staged a protest in the House of Commons as the official ceremony to suspend parliament took place. Signs with “silenced” written on them were held by some Labour MPs and Green MP Caroline Lucas. Lloyd Russell-Moyle appeared to try to hold on to speaker John Bercow at the point he […]

As the Third Man turns 70, JAMES OLIVER considers a movie often called the greatest British film ever made. 1947: Orson Welles (1915 – 1985) plays the elusive Harry Lime during the hunt through the Vienna sewers from the post-war thriller ‘The Third Man’. (Photo by Ernst Haas/Ernst Haas/Getty Images) – Credit: Getty Images Allied […]

The BBC has empty-chaired the government after it refused to put up a minister to talk about the prorogation of parliament. The Victoria Derbyshire programme tried to form a panel of guests to talk about what happens next after the House of Commons and Lords were suspended for five weeks. The host explained that she […]

The journalist behind an infamous Daily Mail piece attacking the judiciary in the wake of a landmark Brexit ruling has just been named in Theresa May’s honours for service to the public. James Slack, who now works at Number 10 as Boris Johnson’s official spokesperson, was political editor at the Daily Mail between October 2015 […]