The Greek economist is back battling the EU establishment, this time at the helm of a new movement, DiEM25. Backed by Pamela Anderson and the world’s most famous cyborg, he is fighting ultra-right populism with a radical agenda he thinks can restore people's lost faith in democracy. As the European parliamentary elections approach, is anyone listening? Phoebe Greenwood finds out
Category Archives: Politics
European elections: Tories could come sixth, officials fear
Candidates say the party is ‘almost in denial’ over vote and will not publish manifesto
Conservative officials fear the party could come sixth in the European elections, with their support plummeting to single digits.
Candidates running in the election said the party was “almost in denial” that the poll was happening and continued to insist they would not need to take up their seats in the European parliament, despite fading prospects for a cross-party deal with Labour that would enable Brexit to happen before 2 July.
Continue reading...Love Corbyn, hate Brexit? Labour’s EU elections dilemma – podcast
Jeremy Corbyn launched Labour’s European elections manifesto with a renewed promise to back a second Brexit referendum in certain circumstances – but to also respect the result of the first. Yet for ardently pro-Corbyn Europhiles such as Momentum’s Laura Parker, it has been a tough balancing act to support. Also today: Jason Burke on the South African election and the ANC
Jeremy Corbyn launched Labour’s European elections campaign with a renewed commitment to hold a second referendum on Brexit if a “sensible” deal cannot be agreed and there is not a general election. The pledge maintains the party’s precarious balancing act between promising to respect the initial vote and calling for a fresh one.
One of Labour’s MEP candidates is Laura Parker, who joins Anushka Asthana in the studio. Formerly a private secretary in Corbyn’s office, she is now national coordinator for the Labour pressure group Momentum and is campaigning for another public vote. Like many leftwingers who backed Corbyn from the beginning, she is desperate for Labour to commit to stopping Brexit.
Continue reading...Brexit: Corbyn says second referendum could be ‘healing process’ – live news
Rolling coverage of the day’s political developments as they happen, including Jeremy Corbyn launching Labour’s Euro elections campaign
- Corbyn says second referendum could be ‘healing process’
- Corbyn’s speech and Q&A - Summary
- Gauke’s speech on populism - Summary
- Afternoon summary
Nicola Sturgeon has urged Scottish voters to treat both Labour and the Conservatives as pro-Brexit parties in the European elections, claiming only the Scottish National party has the weight to fight to remain in the EU.
Describing the vote on 23 May as the most important European election in Scotland’s history, the SNP leader and Scottish first minister also reiterated her call for a fresh referendum on Scottish independence before 2021, regardless of whether Brexit happens.
It is striking, I would say depressingly, just how close together Labour and the Tories are on Brexit. On this defining issue of our time, Jeremy Corbyn and Theresa May have so much more in common than they like to pretend. They oth want to take Scotland and the UK out of the European Union.
There is no escaping the fact that Labour is a pro-Brexit party, just as the Tories are a pro-Brexit party.
Continue reading...Climate crisis: flooding threat ‘may force UK towns to be abandoned’
Environment Agency calls for urgent action to protect country from river and coastal floods
Entire communities might need to be moved away from coasts and rivers as the UK takes urgent action to prepare for an average global temperature rise of 4C, the Environment Agency warned.
The agency said on Thursday that difficult decisions would have to be taken in the coming years to make sure the UK was resilient amid flooding that would not be held back by higher land defences.
Continue reading...May buys time with hints at new withdrawal bill vote and exit date
PM agrees to meet 1922 Committee next week, amid pressure to reveal her departure date
Theresa May has bought herself another week’s grace as prime minister, hinting she will bring the EU withdrawal bill to parliament before the European elections and promising to meet a powerful backbench committee who have demanded that she set out her timetable for stepping down.
After a fortnight of furious demands by Tory MPs that she give a firm date for her departure, Sir Graham Brady, the chair of the 1922 Committee, said May had agreed to meet him and the 13-strong executive of Tory backbenchers next week.
Continue reading...‘Global Britain’ is doing its foreign policy on autopilot | Martin Kettle
Paralysis over Brexit means the country is burying its head in the sand over the very real challenges ahead
The European elections Theresa May never intended Britain to participate in are now only two weeks away. They are inevitably being fought as a proxy contest for Brexit by all the political parties. The results will be interpreted as a verdict on Brexit too, just as last week’s English local elections have been, and probably in much the same careless way.
Yet it would be a stretch to pretend that, for once in our recent history, the UK’s European elections are actually focusing on Britain’s and Europe’s place in the 21st-century world. The truth is far less flattering. These elections can better be understood as another episode in the national – and, in particular, Conservative – trauma over the historic decline of British power, of which the referendum was an interim climax. The elections are therefore unlikely to be cathartic or cleansing. On the contrary, they are dragging us deeper into the ongoing psychodrama that was intensified by the vote in 2016.
Continue reading...British-Irish deal to guarantee rights of citizens after Brexit
Ministers to sign agreement securing rights conferred under common travel area
The rights of Irish people in the UK and British citizens in Ireland are to be guaranteed in a Brexit side deal to be signed by the countries’ two governments.
Sources say the memorandum of understanding will put the rights already conferred on citizens of both nations under the common travel area (CTA) on to a more secure footing.
Continue reading...‘His ideology is himself’: the shadowy figure calling the shots in Romania
As EU leaders gather in Transylvania under Romania’s presidency, Liviu Dragnea is increasingly vexing the bloc
European leaders will gather on Thursday for a summit in the Transylvanian city of Sibiu, the showpiece event of Romania’s six-month presidency of the EU, the first time the country has taken on the role since it joined in 2007.
Despite the fact the UK is still an EU member, Theresa May has agreed to stay away, to give the other 27 leaders the opportunity to discuss the future of Europe without her. But for observers of European politics who look beyond Brexit, there is likely to be another more significant absentee: Liviu Dragnea, the most powerful politician in the summit’s host country.
Continue reading...Brexit: European elections in UK definitely going ahead, says Lidington – live news
Rolling coverage of the day’s political developments, as the government and Labour resume cross-party talks on a possible Brexit compromise
- How to make sure you can vote in the UK’s European elections
- Farage’s Brexit party press conference – Summary and analysis
- Lunchtime summary
These are from the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg on today’s cabinet.
1. Cabinet sources say Brexit Sec Steve Barclay raised prospect of leaving EU in October without a deal at meeting this morning - big discussion on deal prep planned for next week - source suggests push back from Clark saying position was clear now that couldn't happen
2. No substantive discussion of cross party talks at Cabinet this morning - PM apparently also raised Williamson's sacking and said again there was compelling evidence - sources close to him say he still hasn't been told what it is
Almost all the MPs who have publicly backed a second referendum on Brexit are opposition MPs who would vote remain again if given the chance. Only a handful of Tories have backed the idea. But there are some signs now that that is starting to change.
On Friday Eric Pickles, a former Tory MP who now sits in the House of Lords, said that, much to his own surprise, he had now come round to the view that, if MPs cannot pass a deal, the public should be asked to decide.
If we cannot do this, if this is beyond us, and if we fail, then another referendum is inevitable.
If we fail, if there can be no compromise between the parties, I can actually see then the logic, and other people will be demanding another referendum. And those like me who have genuine concerns about what will happen to our society if we go through this process again, we will lose that debate over the referendum, because it will be the only option then left available to try to break the gridlock that we’ve entered into.
Talking to them, I think they are so obsessed with this issue, and they are so determined not to compromise in any way, they feel almost as if any form of compromise is some sort of betrayal. And certainly that narrative, one gets a great deal on Twitter: ‘This is a betrayal’, ‘This is a betrayal to the country’, ‘We are not fulfilling what the British people voted for’. I think that’s for the birds – it’s crazy …
I have to say, wouldn’t it be ironic if the ERG, the Eurosceptic caucus, through their intransigence, actually result in another referendum which will potentially overturn the previous result.
Continue reading...Nigel Farage under fire over ‘antisemitic tropes’ on far-right US talkshow
Exclusive: Brexit party leader referred to ‘new world order’ in interviews with Alex Jones
Nigel Farage is facing strong criticism from Jewish organisations and a series of other groups after it emerged he repeatedly took part in interviews with a far-right US talkshow host, during which the Brexit party leader openly discussed conspiracy theories, some of which have been linked to antisemitism.
A Guardian investigation has found Farage has appeared at least six times on the show of Alex Jones, who was sued by bereaved parents after claiming a US school shooting was faked, and was banned permanently from Facebook last week.
Continue reading...Labour MPs say they won’t back a Brexit deal without a people’s vote
Corbyn faces opposition from at least 60 MPs to a customs pact with May without a second vote
Jeremy Corbyn will not be able to get enough of his MPs to back a Brexit deal without the promise of a second referendum, even if Theresa May makes a big offer on a customs union and workers’ rights this week, senior Labour figures believe.
Senior party sources said they believe two-thirds of Labour MPs, including several shadow cabinet ministers and many more frontbenchers, would refuse to back a deal without a people’s vote attached.
Continue reading...Brexit: John McDonnell pours cold water on May’s customs union plan
Shadow chancellor says he has no trust in PM and likens Brexit talks to dealing with firm that is going bust
The shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, has poured cold water on Theresa May’s plan to offer a temporary customs union to win Labour over to a Brexit deal, saying the cross-party talks were like “trying to enter a contract with a company going into administration”.
McDonnell said his party wanted to do a deal as quickly as possible but would require a permanent customs union to provide stability for businesses, not just an interim arrangement until the next election.
Continue reading...Saudi Arabia’s sudden interest in Sudan is not about friendship. It is about fear | Nesrine Malik
In the uprising against Omar al-Bashir in Sudan, the Saudi royal family see a portent of their own demise
In the days following the Yom Kippur war, after the Egyptian president, Anwar Sadat, agreed to a ceasefire and subsequent peace treaty with Israel, he faced questions at home about his climbdown. When confronted on his capitulation, he is reported to have said that he was prepared for battle with Israel but not with America. On the third day of the war, President Nixon had authorised Operation Nickel Grass, an airlift from the United States with the purpose of replenishing Israel’s military losses up to that point. In November of 1973, the New York Times reported that “Western ambassadors in Cairo confirm Egyptian accusations that American Galaxies were landing war equipment in the Sinai.”
Related: Sudan's female revolutionaries must beware fate that befell women in Libya
Continue reading...Northern Ireland local elections: smaller parties make gains
Results reveal slight loosening of traditional unionist-nationalist stranglehold
Centrist parties have thrived and the Democratic Unionist party (DUP) has consolidated its support, results of Northern Ireland’s local elections show.
With all first preference votes now counted, the Alliance and Green parties, as well as other small parties and independents, made gains, revealing a slight loosening of the traditional unionist-nationalist stranglehold. The DUP won 24.1% of first preferences, a modest increase from the 2014 local election, and Sinn Fein won 23.3%, a slight drop, confirming both parties still dominate the political landscape.
Continue reading...Thousands join Glasgow march for Scottish independence
Rally comes as polls indicate SNP likely to make gains in European elections
Thousands of people have marched in Glasgow in the largest show of support for Scottish independence since Nicola Sturgeon said she would introduce legislation to hold a second referendum on the issue.
The All Under One Banner event, led by a single flag-bearer and a pipe band, left Kelvingrove Park at 1.30pm and was following a route west to east through the city centre to a rally at Glasgow Green.
Continue reading...Brexit hijacks the local elections – cartoon
Next up: Brexit hijacks the European elections
•You can buy your very own print of this cartoon
Continue reading...Britain’s sitting MEPs on their long goodbye: ‘People say, “You’re still here!”’
They thought they’d be out of Brussels weeks ago – instead they continue to work in limbo. We followed four through months of near-exits and false dawns
When the Newcastle upon Tyne result came in, Linda McAvan knew it was all over. It was 23 June 2016 and, after a day knocking on doors, the Labour MEP and remain campaigner was at her local count in Sheffield. Things started to go wrong before midnight. Newcastle was meant to be a comfortable victory, but remain only scraped home. Then Sunderland voted to leave. Across McAvan’s Yorkshire and Humber constituency, counts were called: Craven, Scarborough, Sheffield; leave, leave, leave. In the small hours, David Dimbleby called it: “We’re out.” At a stroke, 73 British members of the European parliament were handed their redundancy papers.
These MEPs, who make up nearly 10% of the 751 members of the European parliament, did not lose their seats immediately: this was just the start of the UK’s odyssey to leave the European Union. While the past three years have seen Westminster convulsed by cabinet resignations, missed deadlines and political deadlock, British MEPs have carried on their business more or less as usual. Now, they face the once-unimaginable prospect of a fresh European election – an event that some hope will be a proxy referendum, while Nigel Farage seeks to repeat his 2014 landslide with a new Brexit party.
Continue reading...The next PM? Time will come for talk of that, says Jeremy Hunt
UK foreign secretary refuses to be called on possible leadership bid during marathon African tour
Jeremy Hunt’s 12,500-mile odyssey through Ghana, Senegal, Nigeria, Ethiopia and Kenya has been a chance for the man who could be the UK’s next prime minister to learn more about Africa – and for us to learn more about him.
The visit by the foreign secretary was ambitious in mileage and scale, speckled with meetings with presidents, helicopter rides to Maiduguri – the Boko Haram haven in Nigeria’s north-east – keynote speeches at the African Union headquarters, seminars with civil society and photo-ops.
Continue reading...Tories lose over 1,300 seats in local elections as major parties suffer
Lib Dems main beneficiaries as May and Corbyn vow to press ahead to break Brexit deadlock
Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn have vowed to press ahead with seeking a cross-party solution to the Brexit deadlock at Westminster, after voters punished both major parties in local elections.
The Conservatives’ net loss of more than 1,300 seats on their 2015 figures marked their biggest defeat since John Major was prime minister. Disillusioned voters deserted the party in droves, including in traditional Tory areas such as Chelmsford and Surrey Heath.
Continue reading...