James Forsyth is former political editor of The Spectator.
Jeremy Corbyn is not a forensic Commons performer. He is uncomfortable adjusting his questions to take into account Theresa May’s responses. This limits his ability to pin May down. Today, he asked a question on a customs and regulatory border in the Irish Sea. May emphasised that there wouldn’t be a customs border there. But
Right now, Theresa May’s Brexit deal isn’t passing the House of Commons. I argue in The Sun this morning, that Theresa May needs something to change the dynamic. What would do that? Well, if May said she would stand down once the withdrawal agreement was through, that would change things. It would separate off the
Michael Gove is staying as DEFRA Secretary. Yesterday, Theresa May offered him the job of Brexit Secretary. Gove said that he could only do that job if he was given the opportunity to pursue his own course. May said that she wanted the Brexit Secretary to stay on the exact same course she had plotted.
So, where are we? There is now an open effort to get the 48 letters required to force a vote of no confidence in Theresa May. Personally, I don’t think it is a racing certainty that this succeeds. The ERG WhatsApp group has had some influential people urging caution, and telling people not to put
Esther McVey has quit the government. The Work and Pensions Secretary has long known to be unhappy with Theresa May’s Brexit policy and at yesterday’s Cabinet pushed repeatedly for a vote, so she could register her objection to the withdrawal agreement. Having been denied that vote, she realised that the only way a Cabinet Minister
Dominic Raab has resigned as Brexit Secretary following yesterday’s cabinet meeting. This is a bigger blow to Theresa May and her hopes of passing a Brexit deal than the resignations of David Davis and Boris Johnson after Chequers. It now seems almost impossible that this deal can pass the Commons without wholesale Labour support. Indeed,
The bad news for Theresa May is that Brexit isn’t over. She might have agreed terms with the European Commission and discussed these with her cabinet, but perhaps her most difficult task awaits: she must now get it through Parliament. Even if she had struck a good deal, it would have struggled to pass. May
Five hours of cabinet discussion produced several memorable moments. Esther McVey’s push for a formal vote, I understand, went on for several minutes and ended with Mark Sedwill, the new Cabinet Secretary, looking up the rules on procedure. Perhaps more worryingly for No. 10, both Jeremy Hunt, the Foreign Secretary, and Dominic Raab, the Brexit Secretary,
After a five-hour Cabinet meeting, Theresa May emerged from Number 10 to say that the Cabinet have decided to back the withdrawal agreement and the political declaration. She admitted that the debate had been ‘impassioned’, which is presumably code for an argument. I gather that about a third of the Cabinet spoke against her deal.
Right now, the government can’t try and sell the Brexit agreement as Theresa May is currently engaged in the delicate task of trying to persuade Cabinet Ministers—several of whom will have deep doubts about it—to back it. But Boris Johnson, the ERG and the DUP are trying to fill the vacuum this silence from the
Jo Johnson’s resignation, the DUP kicking off and the European Commission’s Article 50 task-force talking about a lack of progress mean that it hasn’t been a good end to the week for Theresa May. As I write in The Sun this morning, one government source says ‘if there’s no November Council, then no deal goes
When the Lisbon Treaty was signed in 2007, the inclusion of Article 50 was hailed as a concession to British Eurosceptics. For the first time there was an exit clause: a clear, legal way for a country to leave the European Union. Whatever concerns Britain had about the federalist direction of the EU, it was
It looks like today’s Cabinet will only be the first of two meetings this week. I understand that another one, which may well make an actual decision, is now likely to be held later in the week. Today’s was significant for an intervention from Geoffrey Cox, the attorney general. Cox’s contribution was about balancing risks.
It is quiet out there, too quiet in the views of many Brexiteers in government. As I say in The Sun this morning, they fear that right now a deal is being done that they’ll be bounced into supporting. They worry that since last week’s Cabinet meeting, there hasn’t been any new Brexit offer put
The Budget appeared to have landed well. Tory MPs at PMQs on Wednesday were in a notably better mood than normal; a fight with Labour over a tax cut cheered them all up. But this evening some of the sheen has come off the Budget with the resignation of the Sports Minister Tracey Crouch. Crouch
There’s a spectre haunting the Tories — the spectre of 1997. Tories fear that history could be about to repeat itself. That after several years in office, they spend a parliamentary term arguing about Europe and plotting against their weak leader with the result that Labour wins the next election by a handsome margin. Back
Brexit overshadows this Budget. The story this morning has all been about Number 10 saying that the Budget won’t change in the event of no deal, in apparent contradiction of what Philip Hammond said yesterday. In truth, no deal would—obviously—have consequences for the public finances but the government’s initial reaction would be to try and
Monday’s Budget comes at a delicate point in the Brexit negotiations. I say in The Sun this morning, that a bolder government and Chancellor would turn this timing to their advantage. They would use this Budget to give a preview of what the UK would do in the event of no deal. No deal planning
If you want to know how fractious things are getting in the Cabinet just consider this. On Tuesday, as I report in the new issue of the magazine, Claire Perry, the energy minister, accused others in the Cabinet of using the discussion over the backstop to advance their own leadership ambitions. This is a remarkable
The Brexit negotiations are becoming so complicated that even the cabinet admits that it doesn’t understand what is going on. The Prime Minister has been told by several of her colleagues that they won’t back any deal she agrees until they have seen written legal advice, setting out what it means. If a Brexit deal