Patrick O’Flynn is a former MEP and political editor of the Daily Express
A little over a year ago, at the nadir of the May administration’s excruciating bungling of Brexit, the Daily Telegraph landed a dynamite exclusive. The Chancellor, Philip Hammond, and Business Secretary Greg Clark had hosted a confidential conference call for corporate bosses in which they said the threat of a no-deal Brexit was effectively off
It is often said a job is what you make of it. If so, it is hard to avoid the conclusion that London’s mayor Sadiq Khan regards his mainly as a means of burnishing his personal brand. Rather than getting to grips with the core responsibilities of his position – making transport work better, getting
Margaret Thatcher famously said of Mikhail Gorbachev “We can do business together”. Clearly she wasn’t endorsing the policies and outlook of the USSR, just reaching a practical conclusion that was to lead to beneficial outcomes for both sides in the years ahead. It’s time for Boris Johnson’s opponents to arrive at the same conclusion –
Much of the reaction to Sajid Javid’s departure yesterday, alongside the sacking of several other Cabinet ministers, would have you believe that it is a very big deal. ‘Moderate reshuffle morphs into major crisis,’ said Sky News political editor Beth Rigby. Rory Stewart tweeted out a picture of Theresa May’s Cabinet from the middle of
A week on from Brexit day, it is worth stopping and reflecting on just how Britain’s departure from the EU actually came about. We’re familiar of course with those from the Leave side who contributed to Brexit. But what about the unintentional heroes of Brexit, those who ensured accidentally that Britain really did leave the
Tony Blair’s election anthem “Things Can Only Get Better” was infectious, even for those like me who were not from the same political tribe. It was impossible not to get swept up in New Labour’s era of Cool Britannia. At the 1997 Labour party conference, just a few months after the Labour landslide, I was
Labour has nothing to say to large chunks of Britain, may well never win power again and is in fact an irrelevance to the political direction of our country. Yes, yes, we know all that already. But if you are a political nerd, as I am, you can’t knock a good leadership contest as it
What do you do if you are an outsider in the Labour leadership race and need to grab some extra attention fast? Answer: come up with something eye-catching that you think will go down well with party members even if it is not necessarily a realistic proposition. First we had Jess Phillips suggesting that she
In the Queen’s Christmas message, she observed that 2019 had “felt quite bumpy” at times. Her implication was that a new year could well bring happier, more stable times. Unfortunately for Her Majesty, it isn’t how 2020 is panning out. The pseudo abdication of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex from the Royal Family, just
In the Netflix series The Crown an entire episode is dedicated to the disaster at Aberfan. More than 100 people – mainly schoolchildren – lost their lives in October 1966 when a junior school and surrounding buildings were buried under a landslide from a colliery spoil tip. Grief spread far beyond the valleys of South
Almost half of Tory supporters think that Nigel Farage deserves a peerage, according to a new poll. And while some 53 per cent of the overall public are said to oppose the elevation of Farage to the Lords, if anyone does deserve to become a peer the Brexit party leader should certainly make the shortlist.
The Labour Party suffered a terrible defeat on December 12 and now has fewer MPs in the Commons than at any time in living memory. This shouldn’t need saying given that the results of the general election were very much the opposite of a state secret, but the startling behaviour and utterances of most of
Happy Christmas (War Is Over). John Lennon probably didn’t have the decades long Conservative dispute over Europe in mind when he wrote that, but the message seems very apt this year after almost the entire Tory parliamentary party trooped through the lobbies in support of its leader’s plan to take Britain out of the EU.
So in the end Leave voters decided to save Nigel Farage from himself by once again using their strategic nous to herd behind the party that could do most to take us out of the European Union. Which wasn’t the Brexit party. As widely predicted, including by me, the Brexit party did not even come
It’s tense for us Brexiteers, isn’t it? We know that if the Tories don’t secure a Commons majority today then our country probably won’t end up leaving the EU at all. Almost certainly, an alliance of pro-Remain parties would put Jeremy Corbyn into Downing Street. They would keep him there just long enough for Remain
Nigel Farage last painted himself into a corner at the end of the 2015 general election. Now he has done it again. And Farage’s only hope is that Brexit voters can save him from himself. In the lead-up to that election, Farage foolishly spiced up a serialisation of his autobiography by declaring it would be
When I was interviewed a long time ago for admission to one of our ancient universities, a don used the phrase “the maintained sector” to describe my educational background. He meant that I was a state school lad and I suppose his implication was that independent schools were somehow more free-thinking, reliable bastions of excellence. At
‘But can we really trust the Tories to deliver Brexit?’ This is the question I am most often asked on social media and in person by long-standing Brexiteers who, like me, are not habitual or tribal Conservatives. And the reply I never give is: ‘Yes, of course we can’. Because let’s be blunt about this:
Nigel Farage has never been particularly sold on manifestos or the hard slog of policy formulation in general. His aversion dates back at least to the Ukip manifesto of 2010 which was accompanied by detailed policy documents that ran to the length of an old telephone directory and proved a rich source of material for the
Nigel Farage says his party will stand aside in all 317 seats the Tories won in 2017. This drastic u-turn in the Brexit party election strategy had been expected. But it still strikes me as a poorly thought through plan, given that it means the Brexit party will give a free pass to Brexit rebels like
