David cameron

Friday

Isabel Hardman

EU summit could last until Sunday

After three hours’ sleep, David Cameron returned to the European Council summit with the five areas on which he is seeking change still unresolved. As he walked into the summit, the Prime Minister said: ‘I was here until 5 o’clock this morning working through this and we’ve made some progress but there’s still no deal and as I said I’ll only do a deal if we get what Britain needs so we’re going to get back in there, do some work, and I’ll do everything I can.’ Sources are now saying that the summit could, if necessary, go on until Sunday. It might not, but it’s clear that the original timetable is slipping somewhat,

Tom Goodenough Tom Goodenough

EU summit: David Cameron arrives and vows to ‘get back in there’

It’s been a long night in Brussels and it’s going to be a hard day ahead for David Cameron as he tries to strike a deal with other European leaders at the EU summit. The Prime Minister has now arrived and said he will ‘do everything he can’. He added that ‘some progress’ had been made but there was still no deal: It looked earlier in the day as though Greece could veto the entire summit over the issue of migration. Polish Minister for European Affairs, Konrad Szymański, said it was a serious issue but maintained that he was confident it would be sorted: French President Francois Hollande said this

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

EU summit: Hard day ahead for David Cameron if he wants to seal the deal

If David Cameron still hopes to wrap up his European negotiations by tea time today, he’s got an intense, caffeine-fuelled few hours ahead of him. The Prime Minister left the European Council building just after 5.30am local time after meetings with Donald Tusk and President Hollande. A source said: ‘It’s hard going. Some signs of progress but nothing yet agreed and still a lot to do.’ The talks went on for longer than many expected. Cameron does need to look as though he has fought for these changes, but there are also reports that he is having to demand more from leaders so that his eventual deal isn’t totally underwhelming.

Thursday

Toby Young

Emma Thompson’s wrong, and not just about the EU

At first glance, Emma Thompson’s intervention in the Brexit debate earlier this week didn’t make much sense. Asked at the Berlin Film Festival whether the UK should vote to remain in the EU, she said we’d be ‘mad not to’. She went on to describe Britain as ‘a tiny little cloud-bolted, rainy corner of sort-of Europe, a cake-filled misery-laden grey old island’. She added that she ‘just felt European’ and would ‘of course’ vote to remain in the EU. ‘We should be taking down borders, not putting them up,’ she said. I think I get the bit about Britain being ‘rainy’. That’s true, obviously, and some people dislike our islands

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Cameron: Britain’s place in the EU has been ‘allowed to fester for too long’

This is from tonight’s Evening Blend, a free email round-up and analysis of the day’s events. Subscribe for free here. Good evening from the Justus Lipsius building in Brussels, where David Cameron is tonight trying to persuade European leaders of the merits of his renegotiation of Britain’s relationship with the EU. For a deal that has underwhelmed almost everybody in Britain, it’s taking a remarkably long time to sign off. A working session, in which the Prime Minister told leaders that this was the ‘opportunity to settle this issue for a generation’, has just broken up, and talks on the migration crisis are starting over dinner. Cameron told leaders that

Douglas Murray

Tim Montgomerie has put his country before his party. Will others do the same?

In the wasteland of principles that is Westminster, Tim Montgomerie has always been an exception.  The area is filled with ambitious, bland careerists whose idea of taking a stand (as with most of the commentariat) consists of trying to locate two ‘extremes’ before comfortably wedging themselves equidistant between them.  But in resigning from a lifetime’s membership of the Conservative party, Tim Montgomerie has demonstrated that there is still room for principles in politics. Because nothing has so highlighted Westminster’s prevalence of careerism over principle than the aftermath of the great EU renegotiation charade.  In private absolutely nobody thinks that David Cameron achieved anything real with his ‘renegotiation’.  Yet in public

Tom Goodenough Tom Goodenough

Today in audio: The EU summit as it unfolds

EU leaders have been arriving in Brussels for the crunch summit where Britain’s reform demands will be thrashed out. David Cameron arrived earlier today where he did his best to make a bullish entrance, reassuring those back home he was ‘battling for Britain’: He’ll be trying to convince other European leaders that its worth their while signing up to the deal first though. The President of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz, said he was ‘relatively optimistic’ about an agreement being made: Whilst Donald Tusk said whatever happened it was a ‘make-or-break’ summit: And Jean-Claude Juncker said he was also optimistic about a deal, adding that he was sure Britain would

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Will the big political beasts throw their weight behind Cameron?

David Cameron heads to Brussels today still not knowing which Tory big beasts he will have supporting him in the referendum campaign. The Cameron circle had always been confident that Boris Johnson would ultimately back staying In. But that confidence has been shaken by yesterday’s meeting between Boris and the PM. Part of the problem is that what Boris has always said that he wants on sovereignty is very hard, if not impossible, to actually deliver. If the Cameron circle is worried about Boris, it seems increasingly resigned to losing Michael Gove to the Out side. As I say in the column this week, an immense amount of emotional energy

Tom Goodenough Tom Goodenough

The Spectator Podcast: Putin’s Endgame in Syria

In this week’s issue, Owen Matthews discusses Vladimir Putin’s endgame in Syria. He says Russia’s bombing of Aleppo this week was intended to send a clear message: that the Russian President is in charge. But Owen says Putin’s strategy is his riskiest yet. What does it mean for the hopes of peace in war-ravaged Syria? And could it be a good thing after all if Putin’s intervention does bring an end to the conflict? On this week’s podcast, Isabel Hardman is joined by Owen Matthews in Istanbul and Robert Service, Emeritus Professor of Russian history at St Antony’s College, Oxford. The Spectator’s Political Editor James Forsyth says Conservatives used to think

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

It’s here: David Cameron’s long-awaited EU deal D-day arrives

David Cameron – and the travelling circus of officials and journalists around him – is in Brussels today for that long-awaited European Council summit at which the Prime Minister hopes he can get his EU deal. Bearing in mind that Cameron never really wanted a referendum, let alone to spend months banging on about Europe when he’s interested in so many other things, he must be rather relieved that the renegotiation may be drawing to a close. But these next few hours are, in the Prime Minister’s mind, a ‘very sensitive point’ in the negotiations. He is likely to encounter attempts from some quarters to water down what is already

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Cameron’s first EU referendum battle: shutting up his own MPs

[audioplayer src=”http://rss.acast.com/viewfrom22/putinsendgameinsyria/media.mp3″ title=”James Forsyth and Charles Grant from the Centre for European Reform discuss the EU referendum battle” startat=743] Listen [/audioplayer] On the day that David Cameron delivered his Bloomberg speech, the 2013 address in which he committed himself to a referendum on Britain’s EU membership, I asked a close ally of his how he would avoid splitting the Tory party over the issue, given that even quiet ‘outers’ might feel obliged to vote to leave. The ally paused before replying: ‘That would be a good problem to have, as it would mean we had won the election.’ That ‘good problem’ is now here. The Tory leadership is currently involved

Tuesday

Isabel Hardman

Could the European Parliament block Cameron’s bid to seal the deal?

David Cameron is having more meetings today to seal his EU deal ready for Thursday and Friday’s EU summit. Though he had ‘constructive discussions’ with President Hollande last night, the Prime Minister hasn’t had as much luck this morning, with European Parliament President Martin Schulz saying this morning that there was ‘no guarantee’ the European Parliament would pass the necessary legislation on the deal. After his meeting with Cameron this morning, Schulz said: ‘I can give you a guarantee that the European Parliament will deal immediately after the referendum to stay in to legislate on the proposal of the Commission. ‘But to be quite clear, no government can go to

Monday

Isabel Hardman

Cameron’s concession on Cabinet meeting will calm eurosceptic tensions

David Cameron has conceded that he cannot force his Cabinet ministers to wait until the Tuesday after the European Council summit to discuss his deal with EU leaders. Sources in Downing Street have indicated that, if there is time, he could hold his Cabinet meeting in which he sets his frontbench free to take whichever stance they want in the referendum on Friday afternoon. Delaying the Cabinet meeting until its usual time of Tuesday morning would have been a great help to the Prime Minister, as he could have spent the whole weekend praising his own deal and making the case for Britain to remain in the European Union. But

Steerpike Steerpike

Has Nigel Farage got David Cameron running scared?

With Parliament in recess, David Cameron is able to use this week to focus on the upcoming EU referendum. To do this, the Prime Minister was scheduled to visit Brussels tomorrow morning where he would appear at the EU Conference of Presidents. Alas it appears that Cameron has now had a change of heart about the event which would have seen him come face to face with his old foe Nigel Farage. The Ukip leader says that although he received official documentation confirming he would meet Cameron at tomorrow’s event, he has now heard that Cameron may not attend: I was looking forward to meeting @David_Cameron at Conference of Presidents in

Saturday

James Forsyth

Which way will Gove go?

If all goes according to David Cameron’s plan, he’ll have his EU deal by this time next week. But Downing Street still can’t be sure of which Tory heavyweights will be with Cameron come the referendum campaign, and which won’t. Even more than Boris Johnson, Michael Gove is causing Downing Street angst. As I report in The Sun today, Gove is ‘definitely wobbling’ according to one Downing Street source. Downing Street think the chances of him backing Out have increased significantly in the last 10 days or so. Gove himself has been telling people that he won’t make a decision until the deal is done. But those around him are

Friday

Isabel Hardman

Tories warn Cameron against taking revenge on eurosceptic ministers

Eurosceptics may have only a few days before their ministerial colleagues can join them in campaigning for Britain to leave the European Union. But they’re currently very unhappy at the sort of briefing they’ve been hearing about what might happen to those ministers after the referendum. The official line is that the Prime Minister will not sack anyone because of the position they take on Europe. But noises off suggest that this isn’t quite true: James reported in his Sun column last week that the Prime Minister has taken to telling colleagues ‘I’ve said I would have Outers in my Cabinet after the referendum. But I haven’t said they’ll be the

Thursday

The Spectator

Letters | 11 February 2016

What’s best for Europe? Sir: It seems that the British negotiations in Europe have produced little, and even at this late stage they would surely be more effective if the tone were based more on what is best for Europe as a whole (‘Fighting over the crumbs’, 6 February). If we leave, we will desert our friends among the nations of Europe and make them more beholden to the largest members. Surely the difficulties of immigration, the euro and muscle-bound regulation will sooner or later force Europe to make changes of the kind we wish to see, and we should be there to help make them happen. History teaches us

The Spectator

Portrait of the week | 11 February 2016

Home David Cameron, the Prime Minister, said that if Britain left the European Union, France could stop allowing British officials to make immigration checks on the French side of the border, and, his spokesman predicted: ‘You have potentially thousands of asylum seekers camped out in northern France who could be here almost overnight.’ Mr Cameron denounced the way prisons are being run by his administration: ‘Current levels of prison violence, drug-taking and self-harm should shame us all.’ Junior doctors went on strike again for 24 hours. Twelve men of Pakistani heritage were jailed for up to 20 years for the rape and sexual abuse of a girl when she was

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Lies, damned lies and the EU

[audioplayer src=”http://rss.acast.com/viewfrom22/thenextrefugeecrisis/media.mp3″ title=”James Forsyth and Fraser Nelson discuss the PM’s argument for staying in” startat=763] Listen [/audioplayer]It is normally in the final, frantic days of a campaign that a multitude of dubious claims are made. But when it comes to the EU referendum, this has begun before the date of the vote has even been set. We’re told that anti-terrorism measures would be damaged by a British exit from the European Union, that migrant camps would sprout up in the garden of England and Six Nations rugby would never be the same again. The strangest claim of all isn’t Sir Charles Powell’s clairvoyant suggestion that Margaret Thatcher would vote to

Marina Wheeler

A court of injustice

Last week Donald Tusk, President of the European Council, tabled proposals which the government hopes will form the basis of the UK’s renegotiated relationship with the European Union. Politically, the proposals may be just the job: a new commitment to enhance competitiveness, proposals to limit benefits to migrants, recognition that member states’ different aspirations for further integration must be respected, and creation of a ‘red card’ mechanism to block EU legislation. Legally, however, they raise more questions than they answer. This ought to have been an opportunity to look at the Court of Justice of the European Union, whose reach has extended to a point where the status quo is