Category Archives: Brexit

Scotland should get independence vote by May 2021 if Brexit going ahead, says Sturgeon – live news

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Rolling coverage of the day’s political developments as they happen, including PMQs

Here is the key quote from Sturgeon’s opening statement.

There are some who would like to see a very early referendum, others want that choice to be later.

My job as first minister is to reach a judgment, not simply in my party’s interest but in the national interest.

Asked if she is willing to drop her demand for an independence referendum, Sturgeon says she is genuinely open-minded. If other parties can come forward with another mechanism that will protect Scotland’s interests in the event of Brexit, she will consider that, she says. She stresses that she is “open-minded”.

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Farage: Brexit party will use EU poll to oust ‘remain parliament’

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Former Ukip leader outlines ambition to take control of Brexit process at rally in Clacton

Nigel Farage has returned to the seaside town where Ukip had its first MP elected five years ago, promising at a rally in Clacton that his new Brexit party will use the momentum of European elections to oust a “remain parliament”.

Railing against a “political class” who he said had betrayed the people of Britain, Farage claimed to hundreds of supporters on Clacton pier that what was at stake was not just Brexit, but whether or not Britain was a democratic country.

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MPs may vote on key Brexit legislation next week

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Theresa May considers tabling withdrawal and implementation bill in next 10 days

Theresa May is preparing to give MPs a vote on the key piece of legislation enacting Britain’s exit from the European Union next week, as negotiations with Labour continue.

The prime minister will discuss Brexit with her cabinet colleagues, with government sources suggesting one likely way forward is to table the withdrawal and implementation bill (WAB) in the next 10 days.

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Brexit: cross-party talks to restart as Tories step up efforts to oust May

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Chair of 1922 Committee is reportedly planning to tell PM to leave by the end of June

Brexit talks between government ministers and Labour are due to resume on Tuesday amid distinctly limited expectations of a breakthrough, with the political focus likely instead to shift on to renewed Conservative efforts to oust Theresa May from Downing Street.

The executive of the 1922 Committee, which represents Conservative backbenchers, is scheduled to meet on Tuesday, with its chair, Graham Brady, reportedly planning to tell the prime minister she must depart before the end of June.

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Brexiters’ language worsens threats against MPs – Nicky Morgan

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Former minister’s comments come as PM faces renewed plots to depose her

Nicky Morgan has blamed the language used by some vehement Conservative Brexiters of helping to inspire threats against MPs, as Theresa May prepares for the return of parliament against a backdrop of renewed plots to depose her.

Amid signs that Tory MPs will be no more united on Brexit when the Commons returns on Tuesday than before the Easter recess, Morgan, the former education secretary, criticised an article by her backbench colleague, William Cash.

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Second referendum is only way to beat Nigel Farage, warns Tom Watson

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Labour deputy leader in shock intervention that threatens to ignite row at party’s highest levels

Labour will never defeat Nigel Farage if it continues to “sit on the fence” over Brexit and offers only “mealy-mouthed” support for a second referendum, the party’s deputy leader says today.

In an extraordinary intervention that exposes the tensions at the top of the party over Brexit strategy, Tom Watson warns that Labour will lose to Farage’s new “far right” Brexit party in May’s European elections if it continues to give the impression that “we half agree with him”.

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Life as the Guardian’s Ireland reporter: my return home to a nation in flux

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After two decades away, Rory Carroll reflects on going back to Dublin to cover everything from Brexit and border issues to abortion law and Game of Thrones

I managed five months back in Ireland before falling into a bog. The patch of green moss looked firm, but when stepped on it dissolved into a pool of dark water. It swallowed my leg and encased a foot in muck, heralding a long day of squelching.

A daft thing to happen, but in my defence I was doing a story about bogs. Bord na Móna, the semi-state company that harvests peatlands, was closing “active bogs”, partly in response to climate change, so last November I found myself touring peatlands in County Kildare.

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Labour MPs to urge Jeremy Corbyn not to ‘torpedo’ Brexit deal

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Second referendum would be ‘divisive but not decisive’, MPs will say in letter to leader

Jeremy Corbyn is to be urged by a group of Labour MPs not to “torpedo” the prospect of a Brexit deal with Theresa May by insisting on a second referendum.

The MPs, including Stephen Kinnock and Gloria De Piero, are set to send the Labour leader a letter early next week setting out their “deep-seated reservations about a second referendum”, which they believe would be “divisive but … not decisive”.

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The Guardian view on Britain and the EU elections: get together to stay together | Editorial

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There is a public majority against Brexit. The political parties must cooperate to ensure that its voice is heard in any elections

If they take place, European elections in Britain would ideally serve three complementary purposes. The first would be to widen the national debate about Britain’s relations with Europe. The second would be to ensure the electoral argument has a pro-European outcome. The third would be to send a clear pro-European message from British voters to the EU. All this is not going as well for the pro-European side as it should be.

The political context for EU elections remains healthy for pro-Europeans. Brexit has proved far more difficult than leavers originally claimed. Leavers are very deeply divided. The problems have contributed to some public rethinking. Since Britain voted to leave the EU in 2016, public opinion has slowly but steadily shifted towards remaining. The current poll of polls on the issue shows a 54%-46% remain lead. A ComRes poll this week has the gap at 58%-42%.

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Bill Drummond to lead Irish border poll and hand out hot cross buns

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The KLF founder will ask citizens if they agree with a clause he proposes adding to the Good Friday agreement

His best-known actions include burning £1m, firing blanks at the 1992 Brit awards and dropping a dead sheep on the red carpet of a luxury hotel as a member of the KLF. But Bill Drummond’s latest public display is more sedate: on Good Friday, he will stand on the Irish border, handing out homemade hot cross buns and conducting an informal referendum.

Between 10am and 12pm on 19 April, Drummond will ask the first 40 people who cross the border between Derry and Donegal whether they agree or disagree with adding a clause of his creation to the Good Friday agreement:

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Forget Brexit and focus on climate change, Greta Thunberg tells EU

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Teenager who started school strike movement urges MEPs to ‘wake up and take action’

The teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg has chided EU leaders for holding three emergency summits on Brexit and none on the threat posed by climate change.

In a clarion call to Europe’s political leaders ahead of European parliament elections in May, the founder of the school strike movement said if politicians were serious about tackling climate change they would not spend all their time “talking about taxes or Brexit”.

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Tory deregulation agenda stalling Brexit talks, says Corbyn

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Labour leader says there is no agreement yet on customs union or workers’ rights

Jeremy Corbyn has said Brexit talks with the government are stalling because of a Tory desire for post-withdrawal deregulation, including as part of a US trade deal.

Corbyn said Labour had been putting forward a robust case for a customs union during the talks over the past week but suggested he feared the two sides would not find common ground.

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Downing Street under pressure to close down Labour talks on Brexit

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No 10 scrambles to explore options before possible heavy losses in EU elections

No 10 is feeling the pressure to pull the plug on Brexit talks with Labour and move to an alternative plan, amid warnings that the opposition is in no hurry for a deal before the European elections.

With talks deadlocked and no sign that the government moving on its red lines, neither the Conservatives or Labour want to appear responsible for the breakdown in discussions.

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Brexit talks ‘will stall unless May shifts on customs union’

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Sources say prime minister’s red lines remain an obstacle in talks with Labour

Talks between Labour and the government are unlikely to advance much further in the coming week unless Theresa May moves on her red lines over a future customs union, sources close to the talks have suggested.

David Lidington, who is leading the government’s talks with Labour, said a compromise would have to be reached but played down suggestions that a government shift was imminent and added that Labour would also have to move.

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MPs tell Nancy Pelosi of antisemitism claims in Labour party

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Powerful US Democrat meets ex-Labour MPs to discuss why they left the party and Brexit

The senior US Democrat Nancy Pelosi met three former Labour MPs on Sunday and discussed their concerns about antisemitism in the party before a meeting with the party’s leader, Jeremy Corbyn.

The House Speaker said she had met Mike Gapes, Chris Leslie and Ian Austin “to hear their perspective on Brexit, why they left the Labour party, and the importance of standing unequivocally against antisemitism wherever it is found”.

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David Lammy says comparing ERG to Nazis ‘not strong enough’

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Labour MP defends comments likening group to Nazi party and white supremacists

David Lammy has said comparing the hard-Brexit European Research Group of Tory MPs to Nazis and proponents of South African apartheid was “not strong enough”, and suggested that the Brexit debate had allowed proponents of hard right views to flourish.

The Labour MP, who is a vocal campaigner for a second EU referendum, was asked on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show whether a comparison he previously made to the election of Adolf Hitler’s party in Germany and to South African white supremacists was appropriate.

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Corbyn told to back new EU referendum or lose millions of supporters

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A generation of young people could desert the party, says Richard Corbett, leader of Labour MEPs

Jeremy Corbyn has been warned by Labour’s leader in the European parliament and other grandees that the party will be deserted by millions of anti-Brexit voters if it fails to clearly back a second referendum in its manifesto for next month’s EU elections.

The message from Richard Corbett, who leads Labour’s 20 MEPs, comes amid growing fears at the top of the party that it could lose a generation of young, pro-EU voters if it does not guarantee another public vote.

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Brexit: pro-EU parties to use European elections as ‘soft referendum’

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Lib Dems, Greens and TIG will not form pacts as they look for surge in support for remain

Pro-EU parties, including the Liberal Democrats, the Greens and the Independent Group, will not form pacts or alliances at the forthcoming EU elections, hoping to use the poll as a “soft referendum” to show a surge in support for remain.

If no Brexit deal is passed by parliament, the UK will be required to hold the poll on 23 May. The Lib Dems, the mainstream party hoping to capitalise most on anti-Brexit discontent, has almost finalised its manifesto and plans a huge operation of ground campaigning targeting remain voters.

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