Brexit

To get a deal Boris needs to show (or fake) some humility

There were many Brexiteers who were urging Boris Johnson to travel to Washington before he went anywhere else, to underline that Britain’s most important relationship is with the United States. And if the EU felt nervous seeing the UK cosy up to America, so much the better. But the Prime Minister’s first visit was to Berlin, and then to Paris, to see if a Brexit deal can be negotiated and the needless disruption of a no-deal exit avoided. It seems, at present, a rather long shot. Theresa May famously said little in one-to-one meetings with European leaders. Boris Johnson can be a lot more forthright, and should speak with candour

Why Britain, like Iceland, will thrive outside the EU

I have no doubt that Britain will thrive after leaving the EU, whether or not it leaves with a deal. I say this as a former prime minister of a country, Iceland, which left the EU before it had even joined — and which went on to prosper in a way which would have been impossible had its application for membership been carried through to conclusion. I think Britain can learn from Iceland’s experience and find a way to avoid any major disruption when 31 October comes round. In late 2008 Iceland suffered especially harshly from the international financial crisis. The country’s banking system experienced a near-total collapse. The value

Martin Vander Weyer

Why you can’t let Brexit affect your life

A couple with a first baby sought my advice: they had accepted a low offer for their cramped London flat and bid the asking price for a nice house in commuterland. But they need a bigger mortgage and if Brexit leads to a property crash, they could face negative equity and financial stress. Should they call the whole thing off? Emphatically I said they should not: buying a family home is a long-term choice, rarely regretted, in which fluctuating value matters far less than whether you love the house and whether (as in their case, I gathered) income is sufficient to support the mortgage. Conventional wisdom, perhaps, but I’m pleased

France says no deal now the most likely Brexit outcome. But why now?

Why would French government officials brief that they think it most likely Britain will leave the European Union without a deal? Boris Johnson hasn’t even made it as far as his meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron, and is only just being welcomed by German Chancellor Angela Merkel. So why brief that out now, before the leaders have even spoken? The comments appear to be part of the briefing war between European leaders and the British government, with neither side wanting to take the blame for any fallout from a no-deal Brexit. As I explained yesterday, the EU wants to paint Johnson as being set on taking Britain out without

Robert Peston

Boris Johnson’s Brexit opponents are playing into his hands

There is arguably the most important conflict raging in the Tory party since Churchill replaced Chamberlain as PM in 1940. Although we are living through 1940 in reverse, because Johnson is already the self-defined “war-time” PM, the wannabe Churchill, when some of his colleagues want something and perhaps someone else. Forget the battle between government and opposition, what matters most right now is the fight between Boris Johnson and his consigliere Dominic Cummings on one hand against a minority of senior Conservative MPs led by Philip Hammond, David Gauke and Greg Clark – the so-called Gaukeward Squad – over whether a no-deal Brexit is preferable to a Brexit delay. At stake is pretty much

Steerpike

Is the EU to blame for football’s daft new handball rule?

It’s not often Mr S jumps to the defence of the EU, but he is prepared to make an exception. A new handball rule in football caused controversy over the weekend after a last-minute goal by Manchester City was ruled out. The reason? City player Aymeric Laporte was judged to have lightly touched the ball following a video check. So who’s to blame for the stringent new rule that cost the Premier League champions victory in their game against Tottenham? The EU, according to football manager Ian Holloway: ‘I don’t think that’s our boys making up that new change of law. I think that’s people telling us what we should

A no-deal Brexit isn’t worth the risk

The heightened rhetoric of the past few days, from talk of collaborators, saboteurs and government of national unity, prompt me to set out what I believe are today’s risks, from one who voted to Remain in the EU, but has accepted the result and voted accordingly in Parliament to leave with a deal ever since. Let me deal with the balance of risks as I see them, saying clearly that this is my opinion, and that there are others contrary to mine. But I’m telling you what I think and why. Firstly, no deal is economically damaging to the U.K. The publication in the Sunday Times of the Government’s own

John Keiger

Emmanuel Macron could be Boris Johnson’s Brexit saviour

One thing on which Remainers and Brexiteers can agree is that Brexit delayed is Brexit denied. The government continues to proclaim that the UK will leave the EU on 31 October with or without a deal. But No. 10 is acutely sensitive to the possibility of a parliamentary manoeuvre designed to compel the executive, through legislation, to seek a further extension of Article 50 to delay Brexit yet again. But Boris Johnson should keep calm about this prospect, for an unlikely saviour – the president of France, Emmanuel Macron – could come to his rescue. Whatever Brexit extension legislation Parliament might push through, any further extension of Article 50 requires unanimous

Isabel Hardman

No. 10 hits back in the backstop blame game

The stand-off between Downing Street and the European Union over Boris Johnson’s latest proposal for the backstop boils down to a disagreement over whether the British government really cares about getting a Brexit deal at all. When Donald Tusk rejected Johnson’s plan today, he all but accused him of being set on a no-deal exit, saying: ‘The backstop is an insurance to avoid a hard border on the island of Ireland unless and until an alternative is found. Those against the backstop and not proposing realistic alternatives in fact support re-establishing a border. Even if they do not admit it.’ A Downing Street spokesperson hit back at this, insisting that

Steerpike

Jo Swinson riles up Corbynistas again

Corbynistas are out to get Jo Swinson again after the Lib Dem leader accused Jeremy Corbyn of being a Brexiteer. ‘Jeremy Corbyn didn’t fight to remain in 2016, and he won’t fight for remain now’, said Swinson. It wasn’t long before the usual suspects leapt to the Labour leader’s defence. Step forward, Owen Jones: ‘This is a direct lie. It’s a matter of public record that Jeremy Corbyn campaigned for Remain,’ according to the Guardian columnist. But Mr S isn’t so sure. In the weeks before the 2016 referendum, Corbyn was asked ‘how passionate are you about staying in the EU?’. Corbyn’s response? ‘Oh I’d put myself in the upper

Poetry competition: An ode to Brexit

‘Poetry makes nothing happen,’ a famous poet once said. But Mr S is still disappointed to hear that the nation’s official poet won’t be penning some lines to mark Britain’s departure from the EU. Poet Laureate Simon Armitage said he has ‘no plans’ to commemorate Brexit day on 31 October. Whatever does he do for his annual stipend of £5,750 and the traditional 600-odd bottles of sherry he gets as payment? Then again, maybe Leavers should breathe a sigh of relief that Armitage has chosen to deny us a Brexit-themed ballad. Before his appointment as Poet Laureate in May this year, Armitage put together a so-called ‘film poem’ for Sky Arts in celebration of the

Steerpike

‘Shame!’: Journalist heckled at Corbyn speech

Jeremy Corbyn has just given a speech attacking Boris Johnson as ‘Britain’s Trump’. But while the Labour leader is happy to dish out criticism, it seems his supporters don’t like it when the tables are turned. A journalist found that out the hard way when he told Corbyn: ‘It’s clear that you do not have the cross-party support in Parliament to be a caretaker prime minister..’ His comment was met with cries of ‘Shame!’ from those in the audience. It seems that for some Corbynistas, the truth hurts…

Steerpike

David Attenborough wades in on Brexit

David Attenborough is something of a national treasure, but how has the veteran broadcaster managed to maintain his popularity? ‘It’s easy if you don’t have to do controversial things,’ according to Attenborough, who said in an interview in 2017 that if he does have controversial thoughts, he simply doesn’t share them. That strategy seems to have been ditched. In an interview with Italian newspaper la Repubblica, Sir David has waded in on everyone’s favourite topic: Brexit. Here’s what he had to say: ‘I think that the irritation of the ways in which the European community has interfered with people’s lives on silly levels or silly issues has irritated a lot of people

Jeremy Corbyn’s no-deal plan is unusually smart politics

On the surface, Jeremy Corbyn’s pitch to become caretaker prime minister of a government of national unity after overthrowing Boris Johnson looks like a messy failure. The Liberal Democrats have said they won’t back him, two of the Tories who he wrote to have backed away too, and the Independent Group for Change (which he didn’t write to) have said this evening that they will ‘not support nor facilitate any government led by Jeremy Corbyn’. Instead, everyone is talking about the possibility of a government led by Ken Clarke. The former Tory chancellor today said he wouldn’t object to taking over if it was ‘the only way’ to stop a

Where’s Boris?

Before Boris Johnson became Prime Minister there was widespread expectation that his government would be chaotic. It was thought that he would be good at articulating the broad sweep of government policy, but that his administration would quickly sink into turmoil. In the event, the opposite has happened. Three weeks on, the government appears to be running with almost military precision. Preparations for no-deal Brexit seem to be well under control, to the alarm of Philip Hammond, who had thought the task impossible. Yet the Prime Minister himself seems to have gone underground. He is not on holiday — his government is working all hours. But he has not been

Boris Augustus

The Tories, allegedly a ‘one-nation’ party, are currently imposing Brexit on a divided nation. As a result, some Tory MPs will vote against Brexit, effectively abandoning the party. This raises the question of political values – the question being, what happens after Brexit? Romans faced the same problem when the republic collapsed (27 bc) and Augustus became emperor. The Roman historian Tacitus, looking back at those events some 140 years later, summarised how Augustus achieved supreme power: he charmed the army with bonuses, the people with cheap corn, and everyone with the beguiling pleasures of peace. He then gradually took over the functions of the senate, the magistratus (officers of

Portrait of the Week – 15 August 2019

Home Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, proposed an extra 10,000 prison places and the expansion of stop-and-search powers. PC Stuart Outten, 28, was cut in the head with a machete after he stopped a van in Leyton, east London, in the early hours; Muhammed Rodwan, 56, of Luton, was charged with attempted murder. While trying to make an arrest, PC Gareth Phillips, 42, was run over in Moseley, Birmingham, by someone driving his own car; Mubashar Hussain, 29, was charged with attempted murder. The RAF is to allow recruits to wear beards. John Bercow, the Speaker, said that he thought parliament could stop Britain leaving the EU without an agreement.

How to make sense of Jeremy Corbyn’s pitch to Remainers

What is Jeremy Corbyn up to? The appeal in his letter to Remainers in the Commons to turf Boris Johnson out, and magically transform the Leader of the Opposition into an ‘interim’ Prime Minister – one who would block not just a no-deal Brexit but any Brexit at all, looks like something out of a Bulgakov novel. But there is a sensible – at least from Corbyn’s point of view – purpose behind it. Few of the various ex-Labour and ex-Conservative independent MPs are likely to support the appeal. Many Corbyn-despising Labour MPs will not back it. A couple of Tories might decide to end their parliamentary careers endorsing it.

Alexander Pelling-Bruce

Why October 10th is Boris Johnson’s best bet for a snap election

Boris Johnson thrives on risk. His political life so far has consisted of a succession of gambles that have paid off: leaving the Commons to be Tory mayoral candidate in a Labour-voting city; choosing Leave in the referendum against the odds and the establishment; resigning as foreign secretary; and then becoming Prime Minister when many thought he was a busted flush. These decisions are the marks of a man from whom we ought to expect the unexpected. And there is good reason for him to now make the ultimate bet and call a snap election. It’s now widely assumed that Jeremy Corbyn will table a motion of no confidence soon