News and Opinion

Britain’s most senior police officer has warned that international crime fighting systems will be “clunkier, clumsier and more expensive” after Brexit if investigators are left with reduced access to information. Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick told a committee hearing at London’s City Hall that forces in the UK are “big users of a lot of […]

Theresa May has insisted she has a “strong” Cabinet ahead of its Brexit showdown, in remarks she appeared to actually believe. The prime minister seemed to genuinely praise her team after Tory Brexiteer, Cabinet minister and badger botherer Owen Paterson suggested she judge her ministers against the election promise that the UK would leave the […]

You wait years for a bus question at PMQs and then six come along all at once. Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn during Prime Minister’s Questions – Credit: PA Wire/PA Images And fair play to Jeremy Corbyn. He is right to use his unique opportunity to quiz the prime minister every week to highlight the […]

Establishing a new customs system for the UK after Brexit could take up to five years, according to government papers. Documents sent to businesses as part of a consultation over the government’s post-Brexit customs model reveal it is likely to take between three and five years to put in systems in place. The upper end […]

More Tory Brexiteers are threatening Cabinet ministers not to keep the UK closely tied to Brussels ahead of a crunch meeting at Chequers. Theresa May is trying to force through a compromise that will secure support from both wings of her Cabinet at the gathering on Friday, but the Conservatives’ hardline Brexiteer backbenchers are calling […]

A watchdog is expected to find Vote Leave, the official Brexit campaign, breached electoral rules during the referendum, according to reports. The campaign group’s former chief executive, Matthew Elliott, said the Electoral Commission (EC) had concluded that Vote Leave exceeded spending limits and made a donation to a group that it should not have. But […]

Households outside London are likely to be hit hardest by an increase in the cost of living caused by Brexit, according to a new study. A Hard Brexit – in which the UK leaves the European single market and customs union – would push average household expenditure up by around 2.7% in London and 3%-3.2% […]

Brexit is turning into a “nightmare” with the shadow of job losses hanging over British industry because of the government’s handling of negotiations to leave the EU, a union leader has warned. Len McCluskey, general secretary of Unite, said prime minister Theresa May had lost all authority or capacity to make decisions. He told the […]

Sinn Fein’s president has said Theresa May needs to be called out for delaying tactics over the lack of progress for the Irish border. Mary Lou McDonald expressed concern over the British government’s position in dealing with the border issue. It comes after European leaders urged the UK to intensify its efforts so a Brexit […]

Millions of EU nationals should not have to pay to register to stay in the UK after Brexit, the European Parliament’s Brexit co-ordinator has told the government. Guy Verhofstadt has written to home secretary Sajid Javid, saying the £65 cost of signing up to the settlement scheme should be waived. The fee for the EU […]

Brexiteers have been accused by a former Tory minister of “planning a coup” against Theresa May. Bracknell MP Phillip Lee called for “courageous, rational leadership” after reports in the Daily Express that supporters of Jacob Rees-Mogg had amassed a £750,000 fund to fight a leadership campaign if Theresa May is forced out. Dr Lee, who […]

Philip Hammond has called for the concerns of business to be taken seriously ahead of Friday’s key Chequers Brexit summit and days after Boris Johnson is alleged to have said “F*** business”. The comments came at Treasury questions in the Commons after warnings from firms including Airbus and BMW about Brexit were also dismissed by […]

Former Tory Party leader William Hague has issued a blunt warning to Cabinet Brexiteers not to push their demands for a clean break with the EU too far. Ahead of crunch Cabinet talks at Chequers on Friday, Lord Hague said Parliament could force a “watered-down” Brexit on the government if ministers failed to agree a […]

In the Western Balkans the EU can get back to basics – creating a safer, more prosperous region. PAUL KNOTT reports on its efforts in a historically combustible corner of the continent. The European Union was formed in the aftermath of the Second World War to end the horrific cycle of war, dictatorship and economic […]

Farmers are experiencing significant financial consequences as they face severe shortages of seasonal workers, a Tory MP has warned. Kirstene Hair (Angus) urged ministers to help the sector by reintroducing a seasonal agricultural workers scheme, which would allow migrants to work on British farms for a certain period of time each year. SNP economy spokeswoman […]

The Treasury and Bank of England have been asked to draw up analyses of the impact of any Brexit deal struck by prime minister Theresa May. The influential Commons Treasury Select Committee has also requested work from the Financial Conduct Authority on the potential impact of the withdrawal agreement and future framework. Treasury Committee chairwoman […]

Firms are running out of patience over the lack of progress in the Brexit talks, a major business organisation has warned Theresa May. The British Chambers of Commerce said companies still face uncertainty over tax, tariffs, customs and regulation, with time running out ahead of the the March 29 2019 Brexit date. Cabinet ministers were […]

The resistance against Donald Trump has been led by women. But, says CAROLINE CRIADO PEREZ, plans for a protest in London have proved problematic When Donald Trump was elected president of the United States, women around the world said: ‘Enough.’ It wasn’t just that a man had beaten a woman. It was that this man […]

Foreign secretary Boris Johnson has come to the defence of Jacob Rees-Mogg over his threat to bring down the government if Theresa May does not deliver the Hard Brexit he wants. Hard Brexiteer Mr Rees-Mogg, tipped as a future Tory leader, insisted he was “confident” that Mrs May would deliver the Brexit he is demanding […]

Russians may be clever but not so much as to sway the outcome of the Brexit referendum, a government frontbencher has bizarrely claimed. Cabinet Office spokesman Lord Young of Cookham said available information indicated the influence of pro-Kremlin internet bots on the campaign was “fairly minimal” and did not account for the 1.3m more people […]

A clip of the European Parliament’s chief Brexit negotiator telling Nigel Farage he is the ‘biggest waste of money in the EU’ has gone viral on social media. In the video Belgian MEP Guy Verhofstadt responds to the former UKIP leader’s rant about the cost of the European Union by telling him it is his […]

RICHARD LUCK on a forgotten chapter in tennis history and the man who became the unexpected beneficiary of the Grand Slam glory at SW19. This year’s Wimbledon marks 50 years since the start of the Open Era, when the four grand slam tournaments finally agreed that professionals could compete with amateurs, so ending a split […]

Tory infighting over Europe has intensified after hardline Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg warned Theresa May she must deliver what he wants or risk the collapse of her government. The prime minister will face MPs this afternoon ahead of a crunch meeting of her Cabinet at Chequers on Friday to attempt to thrash out the government’s plans […]

In a flawed bid to prevent migrants arriving in Europe, the Sahara is being sealed off to travellers – no matter what the consequences. JULIEN BRACHET reports: If global media reports are to be believed, every African who leaves their home country is heading for Europe. This is simply not true – 80% of Sub-Saharan […]

Touring Fuengirola’s seafront it isn’t only the British pubs adorned with the Union Jack, souvenir touts or pasty tourists that put you in mind of Skegness, Blackpool or Great Yarmouth. Sandra Watson. Photo: Geraldine Scott – Credit: Geraldine Scott British expats are living on one of Brexit’s front lines. But on atrip to the Costa […]

A Cabinet minister has left the door open to extending Britain’s transition out of the EU as hardline backbenchers warned Theresa May the deadline must remain intact. Under the current timetable the implementation period is set to end in December 2020. But Business secretary Greg Clark refused to rule out an extension to the arrangements. […]

The People’s Vote march received just the kind of snarky criticism we have all come to expect, says MITCH BENN. Like many of you in body and all of you in spirit, I imagine, I spent Saturday last taking part in what became known as the People’s Vote March, and have the badly sunburnt ever-expanding […]

Two years on from the referendum, what do we now know about Brexit? Professor AC GRAYLING explores the facts and reveals what must happen to stop the UK crashing out of the EU. Last Saturday, two years to the day after the EU referendum of 2016, more than 100,000 people marched in London demanding a […]

The latest demands to change the laws on medicinal cannabis must be based on scientific evidence, says TRACY KING. What happens when medical evidence clashes with a mother’s love for her child? Charlotte Caldwell’s son, 12-year-old boy Billy, has severe autism and epilepsy. She claims that the cannabis oil she procured from a doctor in […]

In the great Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges – whose master work is that literary revolution, The Garden of Forking Paths – we can see the value of weariness, exhaustion and the path/worlds they reveal. This short story, on the surface, is about a Chinese spy. But in his attempt to show his German masters […]

With rising tension over Trump’s zero tolerance immigration policy, PAUL CONNEW says the Republicans are moving to drop the president for the next election. Donald Trump once boasted to me he’d staged more comebacks than Frank Sinatra. Indeed The Donald came as close to worshipping Ol’ Blue Eyes as he did anyone other than himself. […]

Since the referendum politics have taken an anti-European turn. But, asks BARNABY TOWNS, what has shifted in political and public opinion? Few, in the aftermath of the 2016 referendum, would have foreseen that the government – so keen to trigger Article 50 – would still lack a negotiating position two years later, or that Britain […]