News and Opinion

With the European elections taking place on Thursday we have taken a look at the tactical voting guides to recommend the best way to vote in Northern Ireland. There are three seats in Northern Ireland. Unlike the rest of the United Kingdom, Northern Ireland uses the Single Transferable Vote. According to the tactical voting guide, […]

With the European elections taking place on Thursday we have taken a look at the tactical voting guides to recommend the best way to vote in Glasgow, the Highlands and Islands, the Lothians, Fife, Strathclyde and beyond. There are six seats in Scotland. According to the tactical voting guide, Remain Voter, the Scottish Nationalist Party […]

With the European elections taking place on Thursday we have taken a look at the tactical voting guides to recommend the best way to vote in Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Sussex, Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Kent, Oxfordshire, and Surrey. There are 10 seats in the South East. According to the tactical voting guide, Remain Voter, the […]

With the European elections taking place on Thursday we have taken a look at the tactical voting guides to recommend the best way to vote in Northumberland, Tyne and Wear, County Durham and beyond. There are three seats in the North East. According to the tactical voting guide, Remain Voter, those wanting to stop Brexit […]

With the European elections taking place on Thursday we have taken a look at the tactical voting guides to recommend the best way to vote in Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside. There are eight seats in the North West. According to the tactical voting guide, Remain Voter, the Liberal Democrats look the securest […]

With the European elections taking place on Thursday we have taken a look at the tactical voting guides to recommend the best way to vote in Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk and Suffolk. There are seven seats in the Eastern region. According to the tactical voting guide, Remain Voter, the Liberal Democrats look the securest […]

With the European elections taking place on Thursday we have taken a look at the tactical voting guides to recommend the best way to vote in London. There are eight seats up for grabs in London. According to the tactical voting guide, Remain Voter, the Liberal Democrats and Greens look the securest in the region. […]

Former prime minister Gordon Brown has called for an urgent investigation into the funding of the Brexit Party. In a speech in Glasgow Brown has asked whether sufficient safeguards are in place to protect against “dirty money” donated by foreign actors attempting to influence UK politics. Brown warned “American and Russian techniques of election manipulation” […]

Sir Vince Cable ignored warnings from a television presenter that he could not use the term ‘bollocks’ on a political television show. The Lib Dem leader was told by BBC presenter Andrew Marr it was the first time he could not read out a manifesto title on Sunday morning television before being asked if he […]

Former deputy prime minister Michael Heseltine has said he will not back the Conservatives at the European elections – and will instead vote for the Liberal Democrats because of their Brexit stance. The Conservative peer said that his party had become “infected by the virus of extremism” and he cannot endorse its support for leaving […]

Theresa May has claimed she will offer MPs a new ‘bold offer’ to get her Brexit deal passed by parliament. She will begin discussions with ministers before the weekly meeting of cabinet will sign off the measurements to attempt to win cross-party support for the Withdrawal Agreement Bill. However there was widespread scepticism at Westminster […]

MITCH BENN discusses the parallels between comedians and politicians attracting an audience. As regular readers will know (and as irregular readers won’t, I imagine, be particularly surprised to discover), this isn’t my day job. I’ve mentioned on a number of occasions that in my primary occupation I’ve been toiling away on the lower slopes of […]

With Theresa May in discussions to offer something ‘bold’ to get her Brexit deal passed by MPs, our readers have been trying to work out what it might entail. pic.twitter.com/cbV1PmzHfs— christhebarker (@christhebarker) May 20, 2019 Some believed it was a typo and that she actually meant an “old” offer. Others thought she might have just […]

When John McDonnell recently pointed out that the memory of Winston Churchill was not universally revered in Welsh mining communities, where, as home secretary, he had authorised the use of military force to put down strikes, the reaction was predictable. Conservative commentators jumped on the comments. McDonnell was denounced as a “Poundland Lenin” by Churchill’s […]

A minister has expressed his frustration with the Conservative leadership contest and with colleagues who he believes are changing their views in order to ‘raise their profile’. Defence Minister @Tobias_Ellwood says that he is frustrated and that "some colleagues are changing their views in order to woo our membership", adding that the party Tories need […]

With the defeat of the Islamic State in Syria, ISIS fighters are exporting their combat to other parts of the world. One of the places they’re eyeing with interest is the Mindanao region in the southern part of the Philippines. Military on the streets of Cotabato City during the plebiscite in January 21, 2019. Photo: […]

STEVE ANGLESEY takes you through his top four Brexiteers of the week. Sam Allardyce also features in the Brexiteers of the Week. PA – Credit: PA Wire/PA Images 4) GODFREY BLOOM UKIP’s disastrous European elections campaign continues to amuse and delight, and one sign of the party’s desperation, as 2014 voters flock to the Brexit […]

The leader of UKIP said his position will be ‘untenable’ if he loses his seat as an MEP in the European elections on Thursday. Sophy Ridge presented UKIP leader, Gerard Batten this morning (Sunday, May 19) with YouGov European elections polls which showed that his party are on just 3 per cent of the votes. […]

Discussions around free movement would form part of Labour’s negotiations with the European Union after Brexit, said Jeremy Corbyn. Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn tells #Marr that continuing free movement after #Brexit will be 'part of our negotiations' with the EUThe 2017 Labour manifesto said free movement would 'end' after Brexithttps://t.co/bMypEgGZrq pic.twitter.com/RF68pw94fG— BBC Politics (@BBCPolitics) May […]

The Netherlands has won this year’s Eurovision song contest. The United Kingdom came last with just 16 points. The Netherlands’ Duncan Laurence was the bookies’ favourite and won the 2019 contest for his song Arcade with 492 points. At the opposite end of the table was the United Kingdom’s Michael Rice, with just 16 points […]

JAMES BALL explains why the People’s Vote campaign was wrong to back Labour. Sir Vince Cable speaks at the People’s Vote Rally. Photograph: Victoria Jones/PA. – Credit: PA Wire/PA Images Let’s be blunt: readers of this newspaper are unlikely to enjoy next week. While no poll is over until its votes are cast and counted, […]

ALASTAIR CAMPBELL expresses his sympathy with the main party candidates amid the discontent that remains within the current climate of politics. So, from unleadership which has helped create the mess we are in (see “Lacking Leaders”, TNE #141) we have moved into the writing of its next chapter, the uncampaign. It is hard not to […]

Remainers on the left are desperate to vote Labour, writes PATRICK MOULE. If Jeremy Corbyn wants our vote he must show he’s serious about a People’s Vote. The deal is dead. Having served its purpose of providing a pretext for the extension of Article 50, the mirage of negotiation is no longer required. The Conservative […]

ZOE WILLIAMS discusses the consequences of Nigel Farage’s influence on Brexit and how it has affected the political climate. Nigel Farage. Photo: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images – Credit: Getty Images I was informally canvassing my neighbour: not on behalf of a political party, I just wanted to know how he was voting. “The Brexit Party,” he […]

The European elections present an ideal opportunity to make a positive case for remaining in the EU, says BARNABY TOWNS. We must seize it. Vince Cable at the Rich Mix community arts club in Shoreditch, east London, ahead of announcing the Liberal Democrat manifesto for the European elections. Photograph: David Mirzoeff/PA. – Credit: PA Wire/PA […]

The Conservative Party’s EU election campaign has reportedly been launched with only a handful of reporters and candidates present. Theresa May just launched Conservatives EU election campaign (six days to polling day) in a function room at a Bristol football stadium to UK pool camera and PA, with no wide invite to journalists - one […]

Anti-Brexit campaigners Led by Donkeys are putting up a new set of billboards, and this time they’ve decided to use them to ‘release’ Nigel Farage’s party’s manifesto. Farage announced at a campaign event that he would not publish any sort of manifesto until after the EU elections. READ: Nigel Farage REFUSES to publish a Brexit […]

Fifty years ago saw the most controversial Eurovision Song Contest yet held. SOPHIE DEBOICK looks back to an event that began with intrigue and ended in farce. Spanish dictator General Francisco Franco. Photo: Dominique BERRETTY/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images – Credit: Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images Eurovision is rarely without a row, but this year’s contest – […]

The Football Association has said that a political party has ‘misused’ its logo after the English Democrats plastered England’s three lions device on a campaign leaflet. The ‘three lions’ device has appeared on leaflets for the rightwing fringe party the English Democrats. Picture: Archant – Credit: Archant The logo appears on millions of A4 leaflets […]

The talks between the Conservatives and Labour to agree a Brexit deal have ‘gone as far as they can go’, said Jeremy Corbyn. The Labour leader told Theresa May in a letter that ‘we have been unable to bridge important policy gaps between us’. Cross-party talks about the Brexit Withdrawal Bill have been ongoing since […]

MICHAEL WHITE asks if it is now or never for remainers to stop Nigel Farage’s political rise. Who did most corrosive harm to the tone of public debate on our television screens these past few days? Nigel Farage getting fake-furious with the BBC’s mild-mannered Andy Marr? Belgium’s Guy Verhofstadt for thinking it would be a […]

The Liberal Democrats are now ahead of Labour and the Greens have overtaken the Conservatives in the latest EU elections polling. With Labour at 15% and the Lib Dems at 16%, Vince Cable’s party is now the second preferred choice. The Brexit Party far in the lead on 35%, as Brexiteers flock around Farage. The […]