News and Opinion

In an exclusive opinion piece for The New European, the Liberal Democrats’ Brexit spokesperson Tom Brake MP argues how our music industry will suffer as a result of leaving the EU. This weekend is the final of Eurovision. The show is generally seen as a bit of a laugh by many but, as we go […]

Internal NHS documents, that the government wants kept under wraps, reveal hospitals’ warnings of a possible inability to deliver services adequately in the event of a no-deal Brexit. The Brexit contingency planning documents of 35 NHS trusts, revealed by Freedom of Information (FoI) requests, show that hospitals are worried about possible staffing shortages, damage to […]

Former prime minister David Cameron will share his views on the EU referendum ‘for the first time’ in his autobiography which will be released later on this year. The autobiography, For The Record, will be available from September 19 – a month before the October 31 deadline the EU has given the government to get […]

Labour’s John McDonnell has said that he and Jeremy Corbyn are Remainers ‘deep’ in their hearts, in a last-ditch attempt to win back Remainers planning to vote in other ways at the European elections. The shadow chancellor told the Wall Street Journal CEO Council conference in London: “Deep in my heart I’m still a Remainer.” […]

What evidence will it take those advocating a no-deal Brexit to change their mind? JOHNNY LUCAS says to understand their mindset we should watch Netflix’s Behind the Curve. Here’s a phrase you don’t hear often these days: I don’t believe my side has a monopoly on truth. I ask myself daily whether campaigning for a […]

Boris Johnson surprised absolutely nobody when he said he will stand as a Tory party leadership candidate today. He was asked at a business event in Manchester if he will stand, and he reportedly said: “of course I’m going to go for it”. This was reported in The Express as an announcement of his plan […]

ANDREW ADONIS talks about the links between Brexit and a George Orwell novel. Author Eric Arthur Blair, better known by his pen-name, “George Orwell”. – Credit: PA Archive/PA Images Brexit is George Orwell’s greatest triumph since Soviet Russia. Well, apart from Trump, its bedfellow – or fellow traveller. It’s not just the Orwellian language and […]

A soft Brexit would put 14,000 Welsh jobs at risk, and would drain £700million from the Welsh economy, a new report has found. It also found that a hard or no-deal Brexit would risk 25,000 job, and would take £1.25billion from the Welsh economy. The findings were made by accountants Grant Thornton for the Welsh […]

Shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer has denied that Labour have considered abstaining on Theresa May’s Brexit bill – telling the House of Commons it will vote it down. Sir Keir warned Labour opposes passing key legislation designed to implement the Withdrawal Agreement if no Brexit deal has been agreed. Sir Keir said that Brexit […]

BONNIE GREER discusses the cultural importance of the birth of royal baby Archie. The arrival of Master Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor comes like that ancient theatrical device known as the deus ex machina. Literally the ‘god from the machine’, a mechanism created by the Ancient Greeks in which a resolution, or change, is reached in a […]

The government has defended the appointment of former Vote Leave chief Gisela Stuart to an influential role in the Foreign Office, following claims Boris Johnson interferred in the recruitment process. The former Labour MP who led the Vote Leave campaign, was supported by a number of senior Tory politicians including former foreign secretary Johnson, has […]

The Brexit Party’s candidate in the Peterborough by-election could only say that he hadn’t ‘gone into the detail’ when he was asked to back up claims that the EU gives us less control in addressing education and child poverty. Speaking on the BBC’s Radio 4 Today programme, Mike Greene in full flow claiming that if […]

Who is on Question Time tonight and where do they stand on Brexit? Here’s your guide. Fiona Bruce will be in Elgin, Moray with a panel including MP Bim Afolami, MSP Richard Leonard, MSP John Swinney, MP Christine Jardine and Eilidh Douglas. Moray voted to Remain by 50.1%, swinging it by just 122 votes. Bim […]

Should Remainers be voting tactically next week? And if so, how? MIA Jankowicz reports. Next week’s European elections are throwing up difficult choices for Remain voters. With a range of pro-EU parties standing in each area, their candidates risk cancelling one another out. Voters looking to make clear their support for a second referendum will […]

Thomas Cook has announced a £1.5bn loss for the previous six months and warned that Brexit was hitting family holiday plans. Shares in the holiday firm plunged 16% after pre-tax losses widened from £303 million a year earlier and it warned second half earnings would be hit amid tough trading over the key summer period. […]

Fewer than one in five people think Labour or the Conservative Party have a clear position on Brexit, a new poll has shown. The Brexit Party’s position was the clearest with voters – but still 41% didn’t appear to know their policy clearly. This could be down to a lack of manifesto – which Nigel […]

Labour could abstain when the Withdrawal Agreement Bill comes before the House of Commons next month. A spokesman for Jeremy Corbyn said that the Labour Party would not be able to support the bill when MPs are expected to vote on it at the start of June, but refused to rule out six times the […]

Theresa May has been told by a Brexiteer MP to quit before the European elections in a question during the latest Prime Minister’s Questions in the House of Commons. https://twitter.com/BBCPolitics/status/1128626465589776384 Peter Bone stood up in the Commons to read out a letter from his local Conservatives, who he claimed he had been campaigning with at […]

Picnics and cats get more mentions on British TV programmes than climate change, analysis has found. The research, carried out by Deloitte for the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) and TV sustainability project albert, analysed subtitles of 128,719 programmes, excluding news, over a year on 40 channels using data supplied by the […]

Change UK’s lead candidate in Scotland for the EU elections has ended his campaign in order not to split the Remain vote, and has urged support for the Liberal Democrats. David Macdonald, an independent councillor from East Renfrewshire, said that after a lot of reflection, he has “come to the point where I have realised […]

Theresa May is set to have another attempt at getting ratification of her Brexit deal in the House of Commons at the beginning of next month. Downing Street said that the government will bring forward the Withdrawal Agreement Bill in the week beginning June 3 after another series of talks between Theresa May and Jeremy […]

As the Premier League draws to a close, PETER TRUDGILL explores the meanings behind some of its biggest names. As is well known to most English football fans – and to the entire population of Norway over the age of three – the manager of Manchester United is called Ole Gunnar Solskjær. Like very many […]

CHARLIE CONNELLY looks into the life of a brave Norwegian explorer. If it hadn’t been for a bad-tempered walrus Fridtjof Nansen might never have made it out of the Arctic. In 1896 the Norwegian explorer was facing a third winter in the polar ice north of Russia, having failed in his attempt to become the […]

Change UK leader Heidi Allen labelled Nigel Farage a ‘coward’ for turning down her challenge for a live TV debate ahead of the European elections. Breathtaking arrogance from Farage - if he seriously believes that the British people aren't entitled to hear his vision for the country compared with others, then he doesn't deserve to […]

The first stage of a private prosecution of Boris Johnson, over his part in the Vote Leave campaign’s ‘£350 million’ claim on the side of a bus, took place today. Update for my backers:#BallVJohnson Today is the first day, after almost 3 years of work, that our prosecution case against Mr Johnson MP is being […]

A caller into James O’Brien’s LBC Radio show has claimed we could survive outside of the EU by growing ‘free-range bananas’. The caller began by claiming the EU protects some industries, such as the French wine trade, but didn’t protect UK ones such as the West Midlands leather trade. “Nobody ever protected their jobs,” he […]

Brexit Party candidate Annunziata Rees-Mogg’s articles have offered cheery instructions on how to profit from global water shortages and the privatisation of the NHS. Annunziata Rees-Mogg, sister of arch-Eurosceptic Tory backbencher Jacob Rees-Mogg, is a freelance journalist who has written for several conservative publications and is now standing as a candidate for Nigel Farage’s Brexit […]

The police force investigating alleged breaches of election law by Leave campaigners during the EU referendum could decide if they believe any offences were committed ‘within weeks’. The Metropolitan Police have been examining material passed to the force by the electoral commission, which found both the Vote Leave and Leave.EU groups breached spending rules. Met […]

An old video has resurfaced of Nigel Farage waving cash around boasting about how little work he has to do as a Member of European Parliament to earn his money. Farage, who had his salary docked for misspending EU funds last year, is filmed holding a wad of cash, and boasting to cameras: “Everyone’s a […]

Alan Sugar has criticised Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage – branding him the pied piper of politics for his different political ventures over Brexit. Donald Trump and Nigel Farage – Credit: Archant Sugar was interviewed by Good Morning Britain on his views of British politicians and the Brexit process. He once again reaffirmed his views […]

MPs has spent fewer than 45 minutes debating the main business of the day as the Brexit impasse rumbled on. The consideration of the second reading of the Non-Domestic Rating (Preparation For Digital Services) Bill’s started at 4.51pm and concluded it at 5.32pm – taking just 41 minutes. Tory Brexiteer Sir John Redwood was the […]

Margaret Thatcher would not have ‘got us anywhere near’ the Brexit ‘mess’, and would have been far better than Theresa May at negotiating, said the author of the House of Cards novels. Lord Dobbs, the Conservative peer who wrote the novels that inspired the hit Netflix series, worked closely with Thatcher during her time in […]