News and Opinion

The international trade secretary has joined in rubbishing the chancellor’s no-deal Brexit economic forecast, calling it “hard to swallow”. Fox, who is in Singapore touting UK trade opportunities to Asian governments and businesses, said the chancellor’s warning, that GDP could fall and borrowing could be around £80bn a year higher by 2033/34 if Britain resorted […]

The EU’s forthcoming anti-tax avoidance rules could be a big boost for our public services but, as Chevan Ilangaratne and Dami Olatuyi explain, they will be binned if Farage and Rees-Mogg get their way. In all honesty, tax and law are an unattractive couple. Even specialists in the field will admit as much. That said […]

For a few years at the height of the Sixties, the epicentre of cool was to be found between junctions 16 and 17 of the M1. SOPHIA DEBOICK reports on an unsung cultural landmark World at her feet: Sandie Shaw at the Blue Boar services on the M1. Photo: David Redfern/Redferns/Getty Images – Credit: Redferns/Getty […]

The prime minister has rubbished her own chancellor’s no-deal Brexit economic forecast as a ‘work in progress’. Prime minister Theresa May dancing with students and staff at ID Mkize Secondary School in Cape Town Photo: PA / Stefan Rousseau – Credit: PA Wire/PA Images During a visit to South Africa, Theresa May repeated claims that […]

The trolling of Brexit Britain by countries remaining in the EU has begun with these posters referencing the classic WW2 slogan spotted at Copenhagen airport, writes STEVE ANGLESEY When/if we officially leave the EU, Britons will lose their automatic right to travel anywhere in the EU just by presenting a passport. Instead we will be […]

Anti-Brexit activists are to hand out 20,000 EU flags at this year’s Last Night of the Proms after sparking anger with a similar stunt last year. Remain campaigners claimed a publicity victory in 2017 when BBC TV pictures showed a sea of blue and gold stars at the traditionally patriotic event, with Nigel Farage accusing […]

SOPHIE WALKER, leader of the Women’s Equality Party, on how Brexit menaces the feminist cause, and how best to combat it In the end, it came down to whether we were broadly OK with the idea or not. With no details supplied, it was up to us to provide them; imagination was all. Envisage, conceptualise […]

Steve Anglesey takes a look at the worst Brexiteers of the Week. STEVE BAKER The former DexEU minister, who quit over Chequers, thankfully survived a skydive scare in Portugal when his main parachute failed to open. But questions remain about why the hard Brexiteer should own at least £70,000 in shares in a company which […]

Fans of the Beat Generation will have shivered at the recent headline ‘Nigel Farage to go ‘on the road’ with Leave group’. What could Jack Kerouac, a big drinker with a foreign-sounding surname who spent much of his time in the company of outsiders, lunatics and tramps, possibly have in common with Nigel Farage? Rather […]

Jacob Rees-Mogg has been branded ‘ill informed’ after claiming people crossing the Irish border could be ‘inspected’ as they were during the Troubles after Brexit. Irish deputy prime minister Simon Coveney hit out at the chairman of the hard-line European Research Group after his comments surfaced in a video posted on Twitter. In the clip, […]

Dominic Raab has sparked a new cabinet spat with Philip Hammond after questioning the worth of economic forecasts days after the chancellor warned of the grave consequences of a no-deal Brexit. The Brexit secretary said projections should be treated with ‘a measure of caution’ adding that GDP estimates for 2019 ‘have been revised up’. Hammond […]

A planned new statue of Emmeline Pankhurst is set to prove controversial and should be stopped, says CAROLINE CRIADO PEREZ 105-year-old former suffragette Hetty Bower stands in front of the statue of Emmeline Pankhurst in Victoria Tower Gardens in Westminster, London, as she marked International Women’s Day. PHOTO: Clive Gee/PA – Credit: PA Wire/Press Association […]

Comedian, musician and writer MITCH BENN recalls the speech he gave at a People’s Vote rally What do you think, is 48 too old to discover your true calling? I’m still in Edinburgh, still have a few days left of my Fringe run… About 10 days ago, I got wind of the fact that there […]

When will the Left wake up to the fact that Brexit is a project of the Right, by the Right, for the Right? As it was Michel Barnier who first uttered, in the context of Brexit, that old negotiations process cliché – ‘the clock is ticking’ – it is usually assumed that time pressures are […]

Labour moderate Chuka Umunna has described claims that the campaign for a second Brexit referendum is cover for the creation of a new centrist political party as “utter bollocks”. Allegations that the People’s Vote group calling for another poll on Britain’s relationship with the EU was a smokescreen for disaffected MPs to breakaway under his […]

A petition of members of left-wing pressure group Momentum has hit a key milestone – triggering a bigger conversation with the wider membership. At least 4,000 members of the group – formed to back Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership bid and now one of the most powerful voices within the Labour party – have now backed a […]

Donald Trump is facing the most crucial phase of his turbulent reign. PAUL CONNEW reports on the bombshell news that could see the president impeached Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Robert Mueller testifies during a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee May 16, 2012 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. The hearing was to […]

As conference season looms one party has the chance to seize the initiative, says JANE MERRICK, as she outlines why their annual gathering is vital for the Lib Dems MANCHESTER, UNITED KINGDOM – OCTOBER 04: British Prime Minister and leader of the Conservative Party Theresa May MP speaks during her keynote speech on the final […]

Two leading Brexiteers – and close associates of Nigel Farage – have had their applications to join the Conservative Party rejected. Multimillionaire founder of the Brexit campaign Leave.EU Arron Banks and his spin doctor Andy Wigmore announced on social media that they had joined the Conservatives. Banks recently encouraged Leave.EU supporters to join the Tories […]

The British taxpayer will be furious at the news MPs are demanding yet more money for their expenses, writes Chris Moncrieff. Is the fatted calf getting ever more corpulent and greedy? It would certainly seem so judging by the latest demands of Members of Parliament. They are lobbying for a larger expenses budget because of […]

BARNABY TOWNS assess the balancing act facing Theresa May as she tries to keep her MPs, Tory members and the public happy As Theresa May writes to Conservative Party members to win backing for her ‘Chequers compromise,’ and embarks upon a summer tour of Conservative Associations, the polite, but sceptical and unyielding response might remind […]

What happens next in both the UK and the US could be pivotal. BONNIE GREER reflects on the story of the two countries and asks who will write the next chapter US comedian Rosie O’Donnell addresses a protest against US President Donald Trump in front of the White House in Washington, DC, on August 6, […]

Bluffocracy chronicles how the country’s establishment has been taken over by chancers. In an exclusive report, authors JAMES BALL and ANDREW GREENWAY profile the much-hyped PPE degree OXFORD, UNITED KINGDOM – MAY 01: People seen during the May Day celebration on May 01, 2015 in Oxford, England. Thousands gather to hear Magdalen College School Choir […]

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…

There is still time to force the opposition leader to back a People’s Vote, argues RICHARD ANGELL Does Jeremy Corbyn ever change his mind? It is easy to come to the conclusion that he does not, having held roughly the same view on every single topic since before he was first elected to parliament in […]

So it seems Nigel Farage is about to hit the road to campaign again, in yet another of his ‘returns’. The reason? The ‘lies, deceit and treachery’ of the political class, he says. A bit rich, coming from a professional politician who himself lied to, deceived and betrayed the British public, and on a grand […]

Well done to Gavin Esler for his opinion piece on why he’s changed his mind on Brexit. I also worked at the Beeb for many years and know Brexit was far from its finest hour. BBC staffers could and should have looked at the meaning of ‘balance’ and how they could help the debate, not […]

Steve Richards’ piece reminds me of the ‘stab in the back’ policy otherwise known as Dolchstosslegende, propagated by the right in Germany after 1918. Right-wingers stated that the German army didn’t lose the war but were betrayed by civilians at the home front. When a hard Brexit does go wrong, the liars Johnson, Gove, Fox, […]

Isn’t it ironic that our divided government should mark the centenary of the ending of the First World War with facile arguments over Brexit and internal feuding? If only, for the sake of the millions killed on all sides in the conflict, they could show some real magnanimity and unity with our European counterparts. John […]

ANDREW ADONIS talks Tory party loyalty, and Tom Tugendhat Here are some wise and moving words: ‘I cannot, in all conscience, follow my heart and not my head when to do so would, I believe, diminish our security. No matter how emotionally appealing it would be to leave, I have a duty to think hard […]

No deal is not better than a bad deal – that’s the verdict from politicians after technical papers were released revealing the impact it could have on the UK. Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab delivers a speech on preparations for a no deal Brexit. Photograph: Peter Nicholls/PA Wire. – Credit: PA Technical papers released by the […]

To many people who voted Remain, it often feels like moving Britain back into the past is a major objective for many Brexiteers. As the plans and assessments of a no-deal Brexit – from the government and from independent bodies alike – begin to appear in earnest, it seems like such Brexiteers may get their […]