James Forsyth is former political editor of The Spectator.
11 min listen
Boris Johnson is today visiting Brussels to meet EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen for dinner, in the hope that the two can agree a path through the stalling Brexit talks. Katy Balls speaks to James Forsyth and Denis Staunton, London editor of the Irish Times, about whether it could give negotiations the lift
Keir Starmer normally avoids the subject of Brexit. But with Boris Johnson flying to Brussels tonight for dinner with Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, he could not avoid it at PMQs. But Boris Johnson, who was in the chamber in contrast to Starmer who is self-isolating, attempted to turn the tables. Johnson asked whether
14 min listen
The world’s first doses of an authorised Covid vaccine were administered today, with ninety-year-old Briton Margaret Keenan first in line for the Pfizer jab. Health secretary Matt Hancock said it ‘makes me proud to be British’, after confirming that restrictions could begin to be lifted once the most vulnerable were protected. Has his approach been
Today brings some surprising Brexit news. The UK and the EU have announced that they have come to an agreement in principle on all the outstanding issues in the Northern Ireland protocol. As a result, the clauses of the Internal Market Bill, which breached the UK’s international law obligations in a ‘specific and limited way’,
Brexit deadline after deadline has slid to the right. There is, however, one deadline that is set in law: that the transition period finishes at the end of this year. Comments from the UK government and the European Commission today suggest that this now is, really, the only deadline. The European Commission has said that
The upshot of Boris Johnson and Ursula von der Leyen’s conversation this evening is that the pair will meet in Brussels in the ‘coming days’ to see if they can resolve the remaining ‘significant differences’ on the level playing field, governance and fish. Presumably this meeting will take place before the European Council on Thursday.
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It looks like Brexit talks could finally be coming to a head. After Boris Johnson and Ursula Von Der Leyen decided that efforts to reach an agreement should continue, negotiators spent the weekend bartering over fishing rights and the level playing field. The pair are set to have another call later today, but can it
The Brexit negotiations are continuing in Brussels this morning. But Michel Barnier’s briefing to EU member states suggests that little progress was made yesterday. Boris Johnson and the Commission President Ursula von der Leyen are due to speak this evening. It seems highly unlikely that there’ll be a deal for them to bless in that
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After promising news about the coronavirus vaccines, Katy Balls talks to James Forsyth and Jamie Njoku-Goodwin, a former adviser to Matt Hancock, about what this will mean for experiencing life as we knew it.
It was always going to be the case that a Brexit deal would require an intervention from Boris Johnson and the Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. But today’s conversation between the pair is going to have to do more work than either side would have liked. Rather than nudging a deal over the line,
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In the last days of the negotiations, the pressure is ramping up as reports began to surface on Thursday evening that the talks were not going as well as hoped. This morning, allies of Emmanuel Macron have warned that France could unilaterally veto a Brexit deal. What will the next days bring and could Macron
After the past few years, it is hard to take Brexit deadlines seriously; they have a tendency to always slide to the right. But Sunday night/Monday morning really is the final deadline, as I say in the Times this morning. There are two reasons for this. First, the Internal Market Bill and the Finance Bill
10 min listen
The promising sign of late night negotiation pizza has caused some optimism in Westminster that a Brexit deal may be just around the corner. On the podcast, James Forsyth and Katy Balls discuss what to look out for in the coming days.
The beginning of the end for Theresa May was when she tried to see if she could pass her Brexit deal with Labour votes. So Boris Johnson will have shifted uncomfortably in his seat on Tuesday night when it became clear that the House of Commons had approved his tier system only because the opposition
The beginning of the end for Theresa May was when she tried to see if she could pass her Brexit deal with Labour votes. So Boris Johnson will have shifted uncomfortably in his seat on Tuesday night when it became clear that the House of Commons had approved his tier system only because the opposition
14 min listen
The UK is the first western country in the world to approve a coronavirus vaccine, it was announced today. The first doses of Pfizer’s jab will be distributed from next week, and the news has renewed hopes that restrictions could soon be lifted. But after last night’s vote saw 55 Tory MPs reject the new
11 min listen
The government looks set to win today’s Commons vote on the return of the tiers system for England, but tens of Tory backbenchers are unhappy. For them, the Prime Minister’s reassurances have lost credibility, so on today’s podcast, Isabel Hardman discusses with Katy Balls and James Forsyth whether or not Boris’s optimism has backfired.
Mark Harper has an unusual quality for a rebel leader, he’s a former government chief whip. So, it is fair to assume that he wouldn’t have declared this evening that the ‘wheels are coming off the government’s arguments’ and that ‘even with so little time, the government’s analysis seems to be collapsing under the glare
20 min listen
Brexit negotiations are continuing this week, with fisheries and the level playing field remaining key sticking points. But with the deadline for an agreement edging closer, is no-deal more likely than anticipated? Katy Balls speaks to Fraser Nelson and James Forsyth.
Both Boris Johnson and Robert Jenrick have used their media appearances today to try and calm Tory MPs after yesterday’s announcement of the new Covid tiers. But the problem, as I say in the Times today, is that Tory MPs know these restrictions are unlikely to be eased anytime soon. Downing Street has been driven
