Category Archives: Politics

Risk of no-deal Brexit ‘very high’, says key EU negotiator

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Barnier deputy Sabine Weyand casts doubt on chances of deal being ratified in Westminster

The risk of accidentally crashing out of the EU without a deal has been described as “very high” by a key EU architect of the Brexit deal, with parliamentary backing for changes to the backstop likely to be met with a brick wall in Brussels.

Senior Conservative MPs are seeking to form a majority in a Commons vote on Tuesday calling for Theresa May to demand an alternative plan to the Irish backstop for avoiding a hard border on the island of Ireland.

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‘Meaner and angrier’: Brexit exposes growing fractures in UK society

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Survey shows Britons becoming more intolerant, politically disillusioned and disunited

Britons have become angrier since the referendum to leave the EU, according to a survey which suggests there is widespread unhappiness about the direction in which the country is heading.

Sixty-nine per cent of respondents said they felt their fellow citizens had become “angrier about politics and society” since the Brexit vote in 2016, according to the Edelman Trust Barometer, a long-established, annual survey of trust carried out across the globe.

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Lecture on liberal values hard to digest | Letter

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Some of the ‘leading intellectuals’ cited supported wars in the Middle East and stayed silent in the wake of draconian anti-terror legislation, notes Liz Fekete

Some signatories to the manifesto on which you report (European liberal values face threat not seen since 30s, warn intellectuals, 26 January) were those who supported the wars in the Middle East and/or stayed silent in the wake of draconian anti-terror legislation that followed September 11.

It was the “civilisational racism” unleashed by these that provided the political space for the far-right parties that now blight the European landscape. And the signatories could note that since 2015, “ordinary” Europeans have taken part in the biggest wave of humanitarian volunteerism since the second world war – supporting refugees, many from Syria, desperate and dying at EU countries’ militarised borders. We need those with powerful voices to speak out not just to defend Enlightenment values in the abstract, but also on the many occasions that the human rights of ethnic and religious minorities, or foreigners, are denied.
Liz Fekete
Director, Institute of Race Relations

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UK firms plan mass exodus if May allows no-deal Brexit

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Business group warns that companies are getting ready to shift operations abroad

Thousands of British companies have already triggered emergency plans to cope with a no-deal Brexit, with many gearing up to move operations abroad if the UK crashes out of the EU, according to the British Chambers of Commerce.

Before a crucial week in parliament, in which MPs will try to wrest control from Theresa May’s government in order to delay Brexit and avoid a no-deal outcome, the BCC said it believed companies that had already gone ahead with their plans represented the “tip of the iceberg” and that many of its 75,000 members were already spending vital funds to prepare for a disorderly exit.

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Juncker warns May: permanent customs union is price for revisiting backstop

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Deputy Frans Timmermans accuses Tory Brexiters of a ‘cavalier’ approach to peace

Jean-Claude Juncker has told Theresa May in a private phone call that shifting her red lines in favour of a permanent customs union is the price she will need to pay for the EU revising the Irish backstop.

Without a major shift in the prime minister’s position, the European commission president told May that the current terms of the withdrawal agreement were non-negotiable.

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UK to attend US summit on Iran on condition of Yemen talks

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Jeremy Hunt is first senior European minister to agree to attend controversial meeting

The foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt, has agreed to attend a summit organised by the US in Warsaw originally billed as an alliance to confront Iranian aggression, but only on the condition that the US secretary of state hosts a meeting on Yemen on the summit’s margins.

Hunt is the first senior European minister to declare that he will attend the summit, which starts on 13 February. European diplomats have been reluctant to attend, suspecting that the event is part of a US drive to undermine Europe’s support for the Iran nuclear deal signed in 2015.

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Jeremy Corbyn ally dents Labour hopes of push for second referendum

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Ian Lavery says rerun could damage relationship between politicians and public

A senior ally of Jeremy Corbyn has said holding a second EU referendum could badly affect the relationship between politicians and the public, as a series of Labour backbenchers tabled new amendments seeking such an option.

Ian Lavery, a Labour MP who is also the party’s national campaigns coordinator, said that while the possibility of a second referendum should be maintained as a way to end an otherwise intractable Brexit impasse, he was worried about the consequences.

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Philip Hammond urges business leaders to accept Brexit result

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Speaking in Davos, chancellor says changes such as end to free movement are on the way

Philip Hammond has told business leaders they need to accept the result of Britain’s EU referendum and warned that a failure to implement it would damage the country’s political stability.

The chancellor told increasingly restless business leaders that he was working for a deal that safeguarded the economy, and said he understood their frustration but companies had to accept that changes were coming – such as an end to the free movement of people and business models built on a supply of cheap labour.

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‘I’ve absolutely had enough’: Tory MP embarks on anti-austerity tour

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Heidi Allen joins former Labour MP Frank Field on mission to highlight the poverty caused by her party’s policies

Heidi Allen and Frank Field make an odd partnership at first glance. Allen, 44, the Conservative MP for one of Britain’s richest constituencies, and Field, 76, a Labour MP for 39 years until he resigned over antisemitism in the party, have bonded across the Commons over a shared outrage at poverty. Now they have embarked on a nationwide tour in search of the “other England” shaped by the austerity policies pioneered by Allen’s party. It is proving emotional.

Visits to the poorest corners of Newcastle, Glasgow, Morecambe and Cornwall beckon, but they have started in London and Leicester, where on Thursday they heard stories of an illiterate man sanctioned so often under universal credit that he lives on £5 a week; a man so poor he sold all but the clothes he was wearing; and someone being told to walk 44 miles to attend a job interview, despite having had a stroke, to save the state the cost of a £15 bus ticket.

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No-deal Brexit ‘poses threat to global stability’ – CBI head

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Carolyn Fairbairn warns bosses at Davos that damage caused by disorderly exit could spread far beyond the UK

Fears are growing internationally that a no-deal Brexit poses a threat to the stability of the global economy, the head of Britain’s leading business body has warned.

Carolyn Fairbairn, director-general of the CBI, said the failure to sort out Britain’s departure from the European Union was damaging Britain’s brand abroad and had joined a list of systemic risks to the world economy.

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Michel Barnier says opposing no-deal Brexit will not stop it in March

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EU’s chief negotiator warns UK will crash out unless ‘positive majority’ of MPs agree on new vision

Michel Barnier has warned that the move led by Labour MP Yvette Cooper to block the prime minister from delivering a no-deal Brexit is doomed to fail unless a majority for an alternative agreement is found.

The EU’s chief negotiator, in a speech in Brussels, said the “default” for the UK was still crashing out if MPs could not coalesce around a new vision of its future outside the bloc.

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Tory hardliners reconsider May deal amid fears that Brexit could be blocked

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Revised deal – including backstop concessions – could win support to see off ‘Europhile kamikaze MPs’

Tory Brexit supporters alarmed by the prospect of a delay have hinted they could be won over in the coming weeks – if Theresa May can produce a serious concession from Brussels on the Irish backstop.

The numbers may not be enough for May to win support for her deal, given continued opposition from a hardcore of Brexiters who also object to the £39bn financial settlement, those with personal grudges against the prime minister and Tory remainers hoping for a second referendum. However, some Brexiter MPs or those in seats which voted leave have suggested in recent days that there is a path to win their support.

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No-deal Brexit would mean hard Irish border, EU confirms

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Spokesman says it is ‘pretty obvious’ border controls would be needed under no deal

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The EU has confirmed it will enforce a hard border on the island of Ireland in the event of a no-deal Brexit, despite the risk it would pose to peace.

In comments that will be highly uncomfortable for Dublin, Jean-Claude Juncker’s chief spokesman told reporters it was “pretty obvious” that border infrastructure would be necessary if the UK were to leave without deal.

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May claims EU second referendum would threaten ‘social cohesion’

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PM faces a looming revolt over a no-deal Brexit as Corbyn criticises her talks as ‘PR sham’

Theresa May doubled down on her opposition to a second Brexit referendum on Monday night, claiming it would threaten Britain’s “social cohesion” and insisting the centrepiece of her strategy remained negotiating changes to the Irish backstop.

With just 67 days to go until Britain is due by law to leave the European Union, May exasperated MPs and business groups by offering scant evidence that she was willing to change course.

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EU citizen registration in UK could become ‘new Windrush’, say migration experts

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Critics warn many could be left without legal status to stay if settlement scheme fails

Migration experts have warned that the post-Brexit system for registering EU citizens living in the UK could become a new “Windrush scandal” as the scheme to register an estimated 3.5 million EU citizens living in the UK begins.

From Monday, the third phase of testing will open to EU residents in the UK, who will be able to register for the new post-Brexit “settled status”. The Home Office is extending its live trial to all EU citizens who hold a valid passport and any non-EU citizen family members who hold a valid biometric residence card.

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‘No solutions’ to Irish backstop in May’s Brexit call with cabinet

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Statement on Monday expected to focus on finding a remedy to issue that threatens to split Tory party

Theresa May is expected to reject calls to forge a cross-party consensus on Brexit when she lays out her plan B to parliament on Monday, choosing instead to back new diplomatic efforts in Brussels to renegotiate the Irish backstop.

The prime minister held a conference call with her bitterly divided cabinet from the country retreat of Chequers on Sunday evening.

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Brexit: No 10 hits out at MPs trying to delay article 50 to avert no deal

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Downing Street says it is ‘extremely concerning’ MPs could attempt to override the government

Downing Street has said it is “extremely concerning” that MPs could attempt to override the government to suspend or delay the article 50 process to leave the EU in their effort to prevent a no-deal Brexit.

A slew of backbench amendments are expected to be attached to the prime minister’s statement on Monday on the way forward for the Brexit withdrawal agreement.

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