News and Opinion

Jeremy Hunt has been pilloried for comparing the costs of a no-deal Brexit to the money spent bailing out banks after the 2008 financial crisis. In a series of tweets devoted to the Tory leadership hopeful’s spending plans, he justified having to put aside enormous support funds for key industries. “We spent just over £1 […]

A new Brexit Party MEP has only been in the job a month, but he has already taken to Twitter to complain about the commute involved to get to the European parliament. https://twitter.com/drdavidbull/status/1145597763998142465 David Bull, a Brexiteer MEP who once presented TV’s Most Haunted, was criticised for posting a video on social media where he […]

Both Jo Swinson and Ed Davey in the Liberal Democrat leadership contest have ruled out a coalition with Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party under any circumstances. Taking a question off viewers of the Sky News debate about whether the Lib Dems could work with Jeremy Corbyn, Jo Swinson replied: “No. Jeremy Corbyn? Absolutely not. He’s a […]

Tory leadership contender Jeremy Hunt has been criticised by the business community for claiming he would be able to look family businesses ‘in the eye’ over no-deal Brexit job losses. Speaking on The Andrew Marr Show on BBC One, he said: “At the beginning of October, if there is no prospect of a deal that […]

Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage has been criticised for using air raid sirens as his introduction at the ‘Big Vision’ rally. Supporters of Farage posted the video to social media praising the bizarre entrance. “Epic entry from Nigel Farage” claimed MEP Martin Daubney, as he tweeted a video of the moment. “Brexit Party’s Martin Daubney […]

Ealing studio’s film comedies were far more challenging and subversive than their reputation for cosy eccentricity suggests. As one of the series’ classics is re-released, JAMES OLIVER re-evaluates a British institution. The Ladykillers (Photo by John Springer Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images) – Credit: Corbis via Getty Images It’s always hard to pinpoint the precise moment […]

Both Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt have been told that if the country leaves without a deal, there will be no extra cash to cover the major spending pledges that both have announced. Johnson wants to slash tax for people earning over £50,000 a year – a move that will cost an estimated £9 billion […]

Nigel Farage has announced plans to launch a pro-Brexit newspaper because he appears to think there is a gap in the market for one. But rather than compete with other pro-Brexit newspapers including the Times, Mail, Express, Telegraph and The Sun on the shelves, Farage’s newspaper is to be given away at street stalls… Judging […]

Liberal Democrat leadership candidate Jo Swinson said she thinks the party could win the keys to Number 10 in the event of a general election. Speaking on Sky’s Sophy Ridge programme, Swinson said that she would not want to put any limits on the party’s ambitions. The current deputy leader of the party, Swinson is […]

The poll that demonstrated overwhelming union support for a second referendum is ‘absolute nonsense’, said Unite chief and close Corbyn ally Len McClusky. He dismissed the YouGov poll that found that two thirds of members of the three biggest unions all support a remaining in the EU, because it had been commissioned by pro-Remain group […]

The New European’s new columnist on the contentious nature of multiculturalism in the Cité radieuse, Marseille. Last week Multicultural Man savoured the delights of the English Cotswolds, where he discovered cottages that cost more than £1.5 million and look like fresh-baked scones, and which are lived in by picayune Englanders with half-baked ideas. But this […]

Drastic measures to get Brexit through are still on the table for Boris Johnson because ‘politics has changed’. Boris Johnson says he doesn't want to prorogue Parliament, but doesn't rule it out: "I don't like the idea of proroguing. I'm not remotely attracted to it, but MPs have got to understand it's their responsibility to […]

If you’re making excuses for someone on your team you wouldn’t make for someone on theirs, you’re part of the problem says MITCH BENN. Let’s get one thing straight before we start; I don’t know what was going on in Carrie Symonds’ flat in Camberwell the other night, and neither do you. Nor indeed do […]

Stephen Fry has pointed out how astounding it is that the UK is swopping membership of the EU’s powerful negotiating bloc for a chance at deals with Trump’s America. He made the comments in the context of a discussion of the advance of machine learning and artificial intelligence, and the dangers they pose on personal […]

Boris Johnson has joked that Stormzy got thousands of Glastonbury revellers in the audience to shout ‘back Boris’ rather than ‘fuck Boris’. https://twitter.com/UsmanA__/status/1144736387872243713 Stormzy took aim at the Tory leadership candidate during his song Vossi Bop, which includes the lyrics ‘fuck the government’ and ‘fuck Boris’. He became the first black British performer to headline […]

A Conservative Brexiteer MP was one of the many to attend the latest People’s Vote ‘Let Us Be Heard’ rally as it took place in Cheltenham. Alastair Campbell at the People’s Vote rally in Cheltenham. Photograph: Fionna O’Leary. – Credit: Archant Local MP Alex Chalk joined a capacity crowd in Cheltenham where he heard calls […]

On Armed Forces Day army veteran STUART THOMSON gives a personal account about why he is campaigning against Brexit, and why our membership of the European Union matters. I’ve been scared shitless quite a few times during my service career. Whether it was the alarms sounding for incoming rocket or artillery, the chemical alarms for […]

Without irony a spokesman for Downing Street has condemned moves by MPs to stop a no-deal Brexit as ‘grossly irresponsible’. Tory former attorney general Dominic Grieve and Labour grandee Dame Margaret Beckett have tabled an amendment which would deny departments access to funding in the event of no-deal unless it has been specifically approved by […]

What optimism there is for the Remain cause is now tied to the fate of the Liberal Democrats – and to see it through, they need to make a genuine appeal to the Left. Recent polls show that the Lib Dems have achieved twice in a month what they couldn’t do for over a decade […]

Labour Party officials have expressed their dismay that the party is ‘haemorrhaging members’ – and it has ‘accelerated’ since the European elections. According to The Times an insider told the newspaper that the reduction in membership is leaving a budget shortfall of £1 million. They claim that the total number of members has dropped to […]

A new poll has revealed how the Liberal Democrats could become victorious in the next general election. The survey, which was conducted by YouGov for the New Statesman, comes as the Tories and Labour fell behind the Lib Dems and Brexit Party in voter intention polls for three weeks running. The hypothetical survey asked voters […]

Fifty years on from the moon landings, MICK O’HARE asks whether this monumental achievement – the ‘giant leap for mankind’ – was ultimately worth it Buzz Aldrin takes soil samples on the surface of the Moon during the Apollo 11 mission. (Photo by © Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images) – Credit: Corbis via Getty Images It’s […]

One reader thinks he has the answer to solving Brexit – and it involves David Cameron. All Boris Johnson has to do to get us out of this Brexit mess is ask the EU to go back to David Cameron’s deal. That took the UK out of ever-closer union, and reinforced our ability to limit […]

In the early hours of June 28, 1969, unrest broke out around a venue on Christopher Street, in the Greenwich Village area of Manhattan. It was the first of a six-night series of protests that became known as the Stonewall riots. Four days earlier, on June 24, a police unit led by deputy inspector Seymour […]

Another poll suggests that the public back Jeremy Hunt to be the next prime minister over Boris Johnson. Foreign secretary Hunt is the favoured successor to Theresa May among the public at large, by 41% to 29% for Johnson, according to the YouGov poll. But the research puts Johnson ahead by 48% to 39% among […]

MICHAEL WHITE on the truth behind Johnson’s supposed asset – his charisma. OK. Let’s try to sort this one more time. Boris Johnson, self-proclaimed World King, has spent years telling anyone who would listen that his charisma and the “enthusiastic positivity” of his character constitute his unique selling point, the USP on which his Churchillian […]

Alarm bells are ringing for Donald Trump in Florida, says Bonnie Greer. The moment that I turned my face to the wall as the count rolled in on election night 2016 was when Florida was called. Florida was the defining moment, the signal in the noise that told us all who would become the next […]

The EU’s chief negotiator has denounced Boris Johnson’s ‘false promises, pseudo-patriotism, and foreigner bashing’ in a piece ridiculing ‘buccaneering’ Brexiteers. Guy Verhoftstadt said that Johnson “duped” the British public with the £350million-a-week NHS funding promise and continues to do so by claiming that he can tear up a non-negotiable withdrawal agreement, withhold the £39billion still […]

Nadine Dorries has provoked a backlash after the Brexiteer MP appeared to tweet in support of the comments Boris Johnson is alleged to have made about the French. The Daily Mail said Johnson had accused the French of being “turds” over Brexit during his tenure as foreign secretary. The comment was recorded by the BBC […]

As a New European reader, you probably reckon you keep a close eye on the continent’s news. Test yourself with our quiz… Think you’re on top of what’s been going on across Europe in the past seven days? Take The New European’s tricky quiz and find out just how much of a Europhile you are…

Anti-immigrant policies in the US have led to the revival of a practice from the darkest days of the country’s history. STIAN RICE reports Inmates of American jails are picking fruits and vegetables at a rate not seen since the days of the Jim Crow segregation laws. Convict leasing for agriculture – a system that […]

GAVIN ESLER unearthed enough Leave lies to fill a book.. So he’s written one. I’m a recovering politician. After four weeks campaigning in the European elections as an anti-Brexit candidate for Change UK in London (I didn’t win), one encounter sticks in my mind. It was near Oxford Street. I was that annoying person handing […]