Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network
Analysis highlights key to success of Farage party and identifies dozens of pro-Brexit bot accounts
The Brexit party used simple messaging, an active social media presence and a “overwhelmingly negative” attack to win the online battle before the European elections, according to a new analysis of the campaign.
Nigel Farage’s party accounted for 51% of all shared content on Facebook and Twitter during the campaign, despite only producing 13% of the content. The analysis, by the 89up digital agency, said the “scale of their success went beyond what we were expecting”.
Labour has held on to the marginal seat of Peterborough, overturning predictions that the contest could deliver a first byelection victory for Nigel Farage’s Brexit party.
The victorious Labour candidate, Lisa Forbes, told her supporters after the count early on Friday: “Tonight’s result is significant because it shows that the politics of division will never win.”
US president’s behaviour seemed tame in comparison with disastrous visit last year
He insulted London’s mayor, abused an American actor on Twitter at 1.20am, turned Brexit into a threat to the National Health Service, described Meghan Markle as nasty, and behaved as if he was a kingmaker offering audiences to aspirants from the 51st state, and yet to Whitehall’s diplomats Donald Trump’s state visit was by no means the worst in living memory.
It may be that the bar had been set vertiginously low, or that Trump, as a repeat visitor, has lost some of his capacity for shock and awe. Somehow, it seemed tame and normalised in comparison with his previous disastrous visit a year ago. Even the protests felt familiar, and like Trump’s insults aimed at Sadiq Khan, heartfelt but formulaic.
European parliament summons Brexit party leader over failure to declare expenses
Nigel Farage has been given 24 hours by the European parliament to explain in person his failure to declare lavish expenses funded by Arron Banks, an insurance tycoon under investigation by the UK’s National Crime Agency.
The summons came just two hours before the Brexit party leader was spotted arriving at the US ambassador’s residence in London for a meeting with Donald Trump during the US president’s state visit to the UK.
US president makes second intervention in British politics, saying UK should ‘walk away’
Donald Trump has called on Britain to leave the European Union without a deal if Brussels refuses to meet its demands, as he urged the government to send Nigel Farage into the negotiations.
In his second extraordinary intervention into British politics ahead of this week’s state visit, the US president suggested the UK should “walk away” from talks and refuse to pay the £39bn divorce bill if its requests were not met.
Donald Trump praised the politicians on Thursday, saying they were 'two very good guys, very interesting people'. Speaking to reporters as he left the White House, the US president said he wasn't sure he would endorse either candidate to be the new UK prime minister: 'I haven't thought about supporting them. Maybe it's not my business to support people. But I have a lot of respect for both of those men'
The four men behind the nationwide Brexit billboard phenomenon finally reveal their identities – in the pub where it all began
The Birdcage pub in Stoke Newington, north London, seems an unlikely birthplace for a rebellion. On a midweek afternoon, the bar is almost empty. Spring sunshine streams through the windows; Spandau Ballet provide a gentle soundtrack; black-hatted men from the local ultra-Orthodox Jewish community pass by outside.
The only customers are four men sitting at a table in an alcove. It was at this spot, more than five months ago, that this group of friends came up with an idea born from their collective despair over the “lies, lunacy and hypocrisy” of the Brexit process.
Olaf agency is carrying out an assessment of payments made by Arron Banks
The European Union’s anti-fraud watchdog is considering whether Nigel Farage should be investigated for any illegal activity over lavish payment from Arron Banks, the Guardian has learned.
The agency, which goes by its French acronym, Olaf, revealed it was carrying out an assessment, which could lead to a formal investigation. This “initial assessment … does not mean that the individuals in question are guilty of any wrongdoing”, it said.
Labour’s deputy leader Tom Watson criticised Andrea Leadsom’s decision to step down on the eve of the European elections, calling it a “slap in the face” for her colleagues.
He tweeted: “I accept that she may want to go but to do it the night before an election looks odd.
Commentators are pointing out the irony that it may be a resignation by Andrea Leadsom, who stood aside to let Theresa May take the Tory leadership in summer 2016, which may eventually lead to the prime minister’s downfall.
.@andrealeadsom will be seen by history to have delivered the coup de grace to @theresa_may - which is appropriate some would say because it was her withdrawal from leadership race that handed 10 Downing St to May on a plate. Revenge dish best served steaming hot perhaps
Footage shows Brexit party leader calling Bannon’s plan a ‘fightback against globalists’
Nigel Farage discussed the idea of fronting a global alliance of populist and far-right politicians being put together by the controversial former White House strategist Steve Bannon, it has emerged.
Farage said he would be keen to take the role after Bannon discussed the idea of forming a group based around populism and “economic nationalism”, with potential members including Hungary’s Viktor Orbán and Rodrigo Duterte, the Philippines leader who is accused of presiding over mass rights abuses and who has admitted authorising extrajudicial killings.
Rolling coverage of the day’s political developments as they happen, as Theresa May’s cabinet met to consider the contents of the Brexit EU withdrawal agreement bill
PM’s speech is called ‘A new Brexit deal - seeking common ground in Parliament’
In the urgent question in the Commons earlier on British Steel, which is on the brink of collapse putting 5,000 jobs at risk,Andrew Stephenson, the business minister, said the government “leave no stone unturned” in supporting the UK steel industry. He said:
I can reassure the house that, subject to strict legal bounds, the government will leave no stone unturned in its support for the steel industry ...
We can only act within the strict bounds of what is legally possible under domestic and European law.
Man arrested after Brexit party leader is latest EU elections candidate to be soaked
Nigel Farage has been hit by a milkshake in Newcastle city centre, after a spate of similar incidents against far-right candidates in the European elections campaign.
The Brexit party leader appeared to be furious after the incident and was heard to mutter, “it’s a complete failure, you could have spotted that a mile off” as his security team led him away.
Brexit party leader dismisses Nicola Sturgeon’s campaign for independence within EU
Nigel Farage has called on “genuine Scottish nationalists” to vote for his Brexit party in next week’s EU elections, as he described Nicola Sturgeon’s campaign for an independent Scotland within Europe as “the most dishonest political discourse anywhere in the world”.
As anti-racist protesters chanted outside the venue, Farage told cheering supporters at a rally in Edinburgh: “If you’re genuinely a nationalist lend your vote to the Brexit party, let’s get out of the EU and then have an honest debate about independence.”
Support for the Conservatives at the European elections slumps to 11%, less than a third of what the Brexit party is polling
Senior Tory and Labour politicians have issued frantic calls to their voters to back them in next week’s European elections after a new poll showed support for Nigel Farage’s Brexit party had soared to a level higher than for the two main parties put together.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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%.