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The Irish prime minister has warned Boris Johnson that a no-deal Brexit would cause 'severe disruption’ without offering an end to the Brexit process. Leo Varadkar added that Ireland was open to alternatives to the Irish backstop, which has proved a major obstacle in negotiations, but had not received any from the UK.
The two leaders met in Dublin for their first face-to-face meeting since Johnson became prime minister in July. At their joint press conference, Johnson insisted he was seeking a deal, and claimed no deal would be a 'failure of statecraft for which we would all be responsible'
PM battles to keep Brexit plan on track after Amber Rudd quit the government on Saturday
Boris Johnson will fly to Dublin to meet the Irish prime minister, Leo Varadkar, on Monday, as he battles to show his Brexit plan remains on track after Amber Rudd dramatically quit the cabinet.
Against a backdrop of mounting disquiet inside government at Johnson’s gung-ho approach and the combative style of his chief strategist Dominic Cummings, the British prime minister hopes to demonstrate that he is serious about negotiating a fresh Brexit deal.
French foreign minister decries ‘worrying’ lack of progress as EU diplomats express frustration
The French government has threatened to veto a further Brexit extension due to the “worrying” lack of progress in the recent talks, as EU diplomats expressed their frustration at being caught up in game-playing by the British government.
In a sign of rising exasperation, the French foreign minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, highlighted the lack of realistic proposals being put forward by Downing Street as an alternative to the Irish backstop.
The prime minister takes his game of Brexit bluff to Dublin tomorrow, seemingly unconcerned that his mendacity is now visible to all
The self-image of the public-school ethos from which Boris Johnson springs is best expressed in Thomas Hughes’s high-Victorian novel, Tom Brown’s School Days. But Johnson’s own model is surely not the honourable Tom but the contemptible cad Harry Flashman, as he is so hilariously reimagined in George MacDonald Fraser’s The Flashman Papers. The arch-bounder was sometimes suggested as an avatar for David Cameron but he is surely a better match for Johnson. He rises inexorably to become Sir Harry Flashman VC and brazenly informs us that “all my fame and glory has been earned by accident, false pretence, cowardice, doing the dirty, and blind luck”. Flashman makes his career in the military and explains: “Some human faults are military virtues, like stupidity, and arrogance, and narrow-mindedness.”
We may take assurance from the very fact that Johnson is prime minister that the same goes for politics. Some human faults – mendacity, cynicism, opportunism, bluster, recklessness – are political virtues. But only up to a point. Those qualities have taken Johnson to the pinnacle of power. Shamelessness is practically a requirement for high office. But as we have seen in a dramatic week, the vices that allow you to take power are not much use when you have to wield it – at least not yet and not in a country whose battered democracy retains some life.
Work and pensions secretary also leaves parliamentary Conservative party and sends excoriating letter to No 10
Boris Johnson’s government was in danger of imploding last night as the work and pensions secretary, Amber Rudd, dramatically quit the cabinet and resigned the Conservative whip, saying should could not “stand by” while “loyal moderate MPs” were purged from the party.
In a devastating resignation letter, she accused the prime minister of “an assault on decency and democracy” and “an act of political vandalism” for sacking 21 of her Tory colleagues for backing a parliamentary bill to stop a no-deal Brexit.
PM suggests he will break the law to avoid asking for extension of article 50 as his hopes of election by end of October recede
Boris Johnson’s shrinking options have narrowed further on Friday, after opposition leaders agreed to reject his demand for a snap general election, until a Brexit delay has been secured.
The prime minister reportedly wrote to Tory members on Friday evening pledging to break the law that will require him to seek an extension of article 50. “They just passed a law that would force me to beg Brussels for an extension to the Brexit deadline. This is something I will never do.”
The leader of the house was long considered a Commons curiosity but his charm finally wore off this week
In a week filled with memorable political images – Boris Johnson’s sideways glance at a fainting police officer, Sir Nicholas Soames blinking back tears after he was expelled from the Conservative party, or former minister Dr Phillip Lee unexpectedly crossing the floor of the House of Commons to join the Lib Dems – it was the image of a near-horizontal Jacob Rees-Mogg lounging across the front bench that lit up the internet.
As a tense emergency debate which would affect the livelihoods of millions of people continued around him, the newly appointed leader of the house leaned back and stretched his legs across several seats, his left hand lolled across a besuited midriff. With MPs agonising over the gravity of the current political crisis, the member for Somerset North East nonchalantly closed his eyes and rested.
Eurozone growth came in unchanged on its third estimate: 0.2% growth in the second quarter of the year.
A minor beat on the headline year-on-year growth rate, remaining at 1.2% against 1.1% expectations, but otherwise no shocks.
Labour has confirmed that it will not vote for an election on Monday even if a bill intended to stop a no-deal Brexit passes before then.
If we vote to have a general election, then no matter what it is that Boris Johnson promises, it is up to him to advise the Queen when the general election should be. And given that he has shown himself to be a manifest liar, and someone who has said that he will die in a ditch rather than stop no deal, and indeed his adviser, [Dominic] Cummings, has been swearing and shouting at MPs saying they are leaving on 31 [October] no matter what, our first priority has to be that we must stop no deal and we must make sure that that is going to happen.
Boris Johnson’s decision to prorogue parliament for five weeks is legal, the high court in London has ruled.
In a judgment handed down by three of the most senior judges in England and Wales, the prime minister was found to have acted lawfully in the advice he gave to the Queen to suspend parliament from next week.
The ruling will be go to appeal at the supreme court, which has already announced it is prepared to hear any appeals on 17 September.
Earlier this week, a Scottish court turned down a similar legal challenge. A third claim seeking to overturn the prime minister’s decision to prorogue parliament until 14 October is being heard in Belfast.
Prorogation has never lasted longer than three weeks in the past 40 years and in most cases was only for a week or less, the London court was told.
During Thursday’s hearing, Lord Pannick QC, representing the legal campaigner Gina Miller, described the prime minister’s decision as an “unlawful abuse of power”.
Signatories including Diane Abbott and Alf Dubs say the rights of EU nationals should be guaranteed. Plus Richard Griffiths on his Swedish wife’s difficulty in getting settled status and Emanuele Maindron on her family being torn apart. And another contributor says spare a thought for non-EU nationals too
In his first statement as prime minister, Boris Johnson gave “unequivocally our guarantee to the 3.2 million EU nationals now living and working among us … that, under this government, they will have the absolute certainty for the right to live and remain”. In less than a day, the prime minister’s spokesperson rushed to clarify that this did not mean new legislation would be proposed. Instead Johnson would maintain the EU Settlement Scheme.
As campaigners have pointed out, the current scheme implies that migrants who fail to apply will lose their legal status and residency rights. Figures suggest at least 2 million EU nationals have not applied for settled status yet. In order to be given settled status, migrants have to prove they have lived in the UK for at least five years.
The Irish prime minister, Leo Varadkar, has warned that there is “no such thing as a clean break” – Brexit deal or no Brexit deal – with difficult and complex negotiations on the future relationship with the EU whatever the outcome of talks. In a speech in Dublin to the British and Irish Chambers of Commerce, he has said:
If there is no deal – and I believe we may have to live with no deal for a period – then, at a certain point, we will have to begin negotiations again. The first and only items on the agenda ... will be citizens’ rights, the financial settlement with the EU and a solution to the Irish border.
Whatever happens, Ireland will not be dragged out of the single European market.
Recently, Prime Minister Johnson and I spoke by phone. We spoke of our shared desire to see the Northern Ireland political institutions reinstated. We shared our perspectives on the withdrawal agreement and agreed that our teams would establish one-to-one contact.
We will meet again in Dublin on Monday. Unfortunately, given political developments in the UK, there is a significant and growing risk of no-deal.
Here’s some more detail on the criticism of Johnson from the West Yorkshire police and crime commissioner, Labour’s Mark Burns-Williamson:
To use police officers as the backdrop to what became a political speech was inappropriate and they shouldn’t have been put in that position.
It clearly turned into a rant about Brexit, the opposition and a potential general election. There’s no way that police officers should’ve formed the backdrop to a speech of that nature.
Yes, because he’s used the pretence of an announcement around police recruitment for mainly a political speech.
Director says Brexit makes him ‘terminally depressed’ while fellow Python Cleese backs it
Terry Gilliam has said he disagrees with the way his friend and fellow Monty Python member John Cleese sees the world, following comments from the latter endorsing Brexit and criticising the makeup of London.
The Python animator and Hollywood director despairs of Donald Trump and Brexit, both of which make him “terminally depressed”. Cleese has previously faced a backlash for voicing support for the UK leaving the EU, and for saying London was no longer an English city.
Rolling coverage of the day’s political developments as they happen, including reaction to PM’s threat to remove whip from Tory MPs who vote against him on Brexit
Rumours of a snap general election have sent the pound tumbling on the international currency markets, as investors brace for further political turmoil as the Brexit deadline edges closer.
Sterling has slumped by almost a cent against the US dollar and sold-off sharply against the euro, sliding below $1.21 and €1.10 as election speculation spreads through the City.
Anyone who thinks that an election will solve the UK’s political crisis has not been paying attention over the past three years.
Speculation is mounting that Boris Johnson could call a snap general election if backbench rebels succeed in passing a bill to delay Brexit, with a Downing Street source saying the issue would be treated as “an expression of confidence” in the government.
Johnson’s cabinet ministers are being summoned for an emergency cabinet meeting on Monday afternoon, before the prime minister addresses Conservative MPs at a No 10 drinks reception.
Rebel Tories face deselection over Brexit, as PM abruptly cancels meeting with group including ex-ministers
Boris Johnson is prepared to blow up his own parliamentary majority and withdraw the whip from dozens of Conservative MPs if they back plans to stop no-deal Brexit, Tory whips have warned potential rebels, in an extreme move by Downing Street that would pave the way for an imminent general election.
As hostilities escalated, Johnson also signalled how serious his intention is to follow through the threat of deselection by abruptly ripping up plans for a meeting with rebellious former ministers, including Philip Hammond and David Gauke, that had been billed as a last-ditch effort to limit support for the action in parliament.
Led By Donkeys group reminds minister of his statement that no one voted for no-deal Brexit
A portrait of Michael Gove so large it can “be seen from space” has been drawn on the sand on the North Yorkshire coast to condemn his stance on Brexit.
The anti-Brexit campaign group Led By Donkeys travelled to Redcar to install the drawing measuring 7,500 sq metres, which features a quote from the cabinet minister in which he said the UK “didn’t vote to leave without a deal” in the 2016 EU referendum.
Legal experts warned against Priti Patel’s decision to change law immediately after Brexit deadline
The government has been forced to scrap plans for a law that would end freedom of movement at midnight on 31 October in a no-deal scenario, according to reports.
In a shift of policy, the home secretary, Priti Patel, had planned secondary legislation to stop freedom of movement for EU citizens into the UK, but has been forced to accept that the move could have landed the government in court.
Exclusive: Current system for asylum-seeking minors set to end the day after UK leaves EU
The Home Office is preparing to end the current system of family reunification for asylum-seeking children if the UK leaves the EU without a deal, the Guardian has learned.
The government has privately briefed the UN refugee agency UNHCR and other NGOs that open cases may be able to progress, but a no-deal Brexit would mean no new applications after 1 November from asylum-seeking children to be reunited with relatives living in the UK. Even if there is a deal, the future of family reunion is not certain.
Protesters ranged from students at the prime minister’s old Oxford college to retired teachers, children and activists
In Cambridge’s Market Square, a crowd of families, young people and silver-haired academics listened as Percy Bysshe Shelley’s The Masque of Anarchy was read out. Many joined in, from memory, making a collective appeal for non-violent resistance: “Rise, like lions after slumber... Ye are many – they are few.” There were moments of more garrulous protest too. During a speech criticising Boris Johnson, someone shouted: “Off with his head!”
From Bodmin to Berlin, Bristol to Oxford, tens of thousands of people took to the streets in towns and cities across England, Scotland and Wales on Saturday to vent their fury at Johnson’s plan to suspend parliament. Around 1,200 people attended the rally in Cambridge, where they booed the prime minister and his adviser Dominic Cummings as though they were pantomime villains.