Tom Goodenough is online editor of The Spectator.
Caroline Spelman’s Brexit amendment – saying that Britain should not leave the EU without a deal – has passed in the Commons tonight. The amendment – which won by 318 votes to 310 – displays Parliamentary opposition to a no deal exit, but it is purely advisory and has no legislative force. This means the amendment
Shamed former Labour MP Fiona Onasanya has been jailed for lying to police over a speeding ticket. Onasanya compared herself to Jesus after being found guilty of perverting the course of justice last year. But her explanation that she was ‘in good biblical company, along with Joseph, Moses, Daniel and his three Hebrew friends, who were each found
Theresa May appears as a dodo on the front page of today’s Sun. Unfortunately for the beleaguered Prime Minister, the verdict isn’t much better in the foreign press. Last night’s disastrous night in the Commons makes the front pages of newspapers around the world. The New York Times describes the Prime Minister’s defeat as ‘bruising’
Theresa May’s Brexit deal has been decisively rejected by MPs who voted 432 to 202 against the Prime Minister’s withdrawal agreement. The Prime Minister had told MPs to back her deal or risk “letting the British people down” but politicians voted down her deal in the biggest government defeat in the Commons in British history.
Theresa May has survived a vote of confidence in the Commons by 325 votes to 306. Tory MPs – as well as the DUP’s members – backed the Prime Minister in tonight’s crunch vote. The decisive support from the Conservative party meant that the votes of Labour, SNP and Lib Dem MPs were not enough
Theresa May has survived a vote of confidence in her leadership. Graham Brady, the chairman of the Tory backbench committee, announced the result to cheers from Tory MPs gathered in Parliament. 200 Tory MPs backed the Prime Minister in the vote. But 117 of her own MPs – more than a third of the party
With just a few moments to go until voting closes, 181 Tory MPs have publicly backed Theresa May in the vote of confidence. Given that May needs 159 votes, their support should be enough to keep her position safe. But given that this is a secret ballot, are they as good as their word? Here is
In the last few moments it has been confirmed that a leadership contest against Theresa May has been triggered. The number of letters of no confidence in the Prime Minister needed to lead to a vote – 48 – is believed to have been met last night. Sir Graham Brady, the chairman of the Tory
‘White is the new green’, said Michel Barnier as he held the draft Brexit withdrawal agreement aloft at a press conference in Brussels tonight. The EU’s chief negotiator was referring to the chunks of text that had previously been coloured in where there had been disagreement. Not too long ago, the white sections were few
Arron Banks has been referred to the National Crime Agency in relation to alleged wrongdoing during the referendum. The Electoral Commission said it had ‘reasonable grounds’ to suspect that Banks was not the ‘true source’ of an £8m loan made to Better for the Country, which ran Leave.EU’s campaign. It also said that the money
What’s the antidote to Corbyn? Thatcher, according to Priti Patel. Britain’s former PM might be public enemy number one in the eyes of the Corbynistas, but it’s vital the Tories return to Thatcher’s ideas and her way of doing things. That, at least, is the verdict of Patel, the Brexit-backing former international development secretary. Patel
Most politicians can only dream of having the cult following that Jacob Rees-Mogg is enjoying at Conservative party conference. His events are packed out an hour before they are due to start. Cries of ‘Mogg for PM’ have been heard. And when Rees-Mogg walked into the room at a Leave means Leave rally last night,
What’s the antidote to Corbyn? Thatcher, according to Priti Patel. Britain’s former PM might be public enemy number one in the eyes of the Corbynistas, but it’s vital the Tories return to Thatcher’s ideas and her way of doing things. That, at least, is the verdict of Patel, the Brexit-backing former international development secretary. Patel
Next month the Islamist preacher Anjem Choudary will be released from prison, having served just half of his five-and-a-half-year sentence. He was jailed for his role in encouraging Muslims to join Islamic State. At the time of his sentencing in 2016, the judge described the hate preacher as ‘calculating’ and ‘dangerous’. The Justice Secretary, Rory
What Momentum thinks about Brexit matters. But is Momentum prepared to ask its members what it really thinks about Brexit? Not yet is the answer, according to Jon Lansman, the group’s founder. And it’s refusal to do so produces a fudge on the hot topic of the day of which the Labour party itself would
Kate Hoey has paid a heavy price for being a supporter of Brexit. The Labour MP has been hounded online and faced a vicious deselection battle in her Vauxhall constituency from activists who say that she has no place representing an area in which nearly eight in ten voters backed ‘Remain’. But rather than change
What now for Momentum? The grassroots organisation has had extraordinary success over the last few years, not least in shoring up Jeremy Corbyn’s position as Labour leader. The World Transformed, Momentum’s event down the road from the party’s main conference in Liverpool, is a testament to the group’s growing influence: in its three years of
The clamours for a second referendum are growing. But are those calling for a ‘people’s vote’ really interested in what voters think? Or is this just a plot to stop Brexit? Rod Liddle isn’t convinced about the case for giving voters a second say. The vote to leave the EU was unequivocal, he says in this week’s
It should be said that Jeremy Corbyn’s ideas for shaking up the media aren’t all bad. The Labour leader is right for instance to focus on the need to help out local media; the death of regional newspapers in recent years means that local government is almost entirely unaccountable nowadays. It’s only when things go
Venezuela is racked with hyperinflation. The crisis is now so bad that the president has instituted a new currency which essentially cuts off several zeros from the old one. But will Maduro’s mad policies actually make things worse in a country that is already suffering terribly? On this week’s Spectator podcast, Professor Steve Hanke, an expert