Category Archives: European parliamentary elections 2019

May close to abandoning Brexit bill amid growing cabinet backlash – live news

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Rolling coverage of the day’s political events as they happen as the UK votes in the European elections 2019 and pressure continues on Theresa May to resign

This is what Valerie Vaz, the shadow leader of the Commons, said in the chamber earlier about the government’s decision not to publish the EU withdrawal agreement bill tomorrow. (See 11.22am.) She said:

Yesterday the prime minister told the house that the second reading of the withdrawal agreement bill would be in the week commencing June 3rd, now we hear it’s not, so in less than 24 hours the prime minister has broken her word. This is yet another broken promise by the prime minister on Brexit.

The prime minister’s official spokesman told journalists at the morning lobby briefing that Theresa May would be meeting cabinet colleagues to discuss the EU withdrawal agreement bill today, the Press Association reports.

“The prime minister is listening to her colleagues about the bill and will be having further discussions,” he said.

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It’s hard to imagine. But could this really be the end for the Tories? | Polly Toynbee

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In its Brexit delirium, the party is tearing itself apart on an election day, its voters rampaging off into the Farage wildwoods

Welcome to an extraordinarily bizarre election day. Pause on the way to the polling station to wonder at the astounding mayhem within our “ruling” party, soliciting votes even while wrenching its leader from Downing Street. We may be so used to the Tory party in meltdown that we forget to be amazed at what is unfolding before our eyes – on election day.

Even allowing for all Andrea Leadsom’s fantastical ambitious absurdities, ponder how astonishing it is to see the leader of the house, no less, resigning on election eve just to steal a march on all her improbable leadership competitors. Jeremy Hunt is marching in to see the prime minister in publicly threatening mode – on election day. Forget any sense of decorum towards their party or their country, or the electoral process.

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Andrea Leadsom resigns from the government as May refuses to quit – live news

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Tory ministers and backbenchers conspicuously absent as Theresa May makes statement about her proposed Brexit bill

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

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Far-right Facebook groups ‘spreading hate to millions in Europe’

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Avaaz uncovers 500 accounts using fake news to spread white supremacy message

A web of far-right Facebook accounts spreading fake news and hate speech to millions of people across Europe has been uncovered by the campaign group Avaaz.

Facebook, which is struggling to clean up the platform and salvage its reputation, has already taken down accounts with about 6 million followers before voting in the European elections begins on Thursday. It was still investigating hundreds of other accounts with an additional 26 million followers, Avaaz said.

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Brexit: May to give speech at 4pm with details of ‘new’ deal for MPs – live news

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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.

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Nigel Farage doused with milkshake in Newcastle

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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.

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Austria’s ‘Ibiza scandal’: what happened and why does it matter?

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Deputy chancellor and head of far-right party has resigned after video sting operation

On Friday night, two German media outlets published a video that shows the Austrian deputy chancellor and leader of the far-right Freedom party (FPÖ), Heinz-Christian Strache, talking to an unidentified woman purporting to be the niece of a Russian oligarch at a luxury resort in Ibiza. When the woman expresses an interest in gaining control of the country’s largest-circulation tabloid, Kronen Zeitung, Strache suggests he could offer lucrative public contracts in exchange for campaign support.

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These elections could define Europe. It must urgently rediscover its founding spirit | Natalie Nougayrède

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Facing challenges from Russia, China and the US, the continent can no longer neglect its core values of peace and human rights

Sometimes, when it comes to Europe, things are clearer from afar. Take Viktor Orbán’s encounter with Donald Trump last week: a love-fest perfectly timed to signal that this US president is out to disembowel the European Union, if not break it entirely. Ahead of the European elections, here was Hungary’s self-proclaimed “illiberal” prime minister – a man teaming up with Italy’s far-right strongman Matteo Salvini – receiving his long-awaited anointment from a white-nationalist US president who has called the EU a “foe”.

Meanwhile, in Syria, barrel bombs and Russian military ordnance continued to rain down on Idlib’s hospitals and schools, as the noose tightened on 3 million civilians trapped in the last rebel-held area that the president, Bashar al-Assad, wants to reconquer. Historians will perhaps one day tell us whether Vladimir Putin timed that particular offensive to coincide with other items on his EU-destroying agenda, already well on display with disinformation campaigns aimed at helping extremist political forces across the continent.

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Theresa May prepares ‘bold’ last-ditch offer to MPs on Brexit bill

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Prime minister will ask her cabinet to sign off on concessions this week

Theresa May will ask her cabinet to sign off a package of Brexit concessions this week, as she gears up for one last bid to win over MPs and salvage something concrete from her troubled premiership.

With the Conservatives on course for a drubbing in Thursday’s European elections, the prime minister hopes the results will focus the minds of her own MPs and persuade them to support the long-awaited withdrawal agreement bill (WAB).

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Europe’s Greens ready to be kingmakers in EU elections

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Green candidates, on course for their best showing, could play a big role in a divided parliament

Europe’s Greens are on course for their strongest showing to date in next week’s European elections – and could find themselves kingmakers in a newly fragmented EU parliament.

“We’ll be at the table,” said Bas Eickhout, an MEP from the Netherlands and a co-candidate of Europe’s Green parties for European commission president. “We have a good chance to determine the new majorities. And we will have our demands, on green issues, social issues, and the rule of law.”

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Corbyn defends Labour’s bid for both leavers and remainers

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Polls suggest his party could be squeezed into third place in the European elections

Jeremy Corbyn has given a robust defence of Labour’s decision to try to appeal to both leavers and remainers in this Thursday’s European elections.

With an Observer poll suggesting Labour could be squeezed into third position behind Nigel Farage’s Brexit party and the pro-remain Liberal Democrats, Corbyn said he still wanted to bring the two sides of the Brexit divide together.

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Violence breaks out at Tommy Robinson election event

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Police promise robust response after fracas in Oldham at European campaign stop

Police have warned there will be arrests after two police vehicles were damaged during a disturbance at a Tommy Robinson campaign event.

Footage posted on social media showed clashes between supporters of the campaigner, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, and counter-demonstrators in Oldham, Greater Manchester, on Saturday afternoon.

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Don’t lead us to disaster, moderate Tories warn frontrunner Boris Johnson

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One Nation group of Conservatives try to stop lurch towards no-deal Brexit as ex-foreign secretary and Dominic Raab emerge as favourites among members

Conservative leadership contenders will shepherd the party to disaster if they adopt the “comfort blanket of populism” in response to Nigel Farage, scores of Tory MPs will warn this week.

Eight cabinet ministers are among a group of 60 modernising MPs who will call on contenders for the leadership to “reject narrow nationalism” in their quest to replace Theresa May. The warning comes with Boris Johnson and Dominic Raab, who have both said they are willing to back a no-deal Brexit, emerging as the favourites among Tory members. Johnson is the frontrunner.

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Labour panics as remain voters switch to Liberal Democrats

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Polls makes Vince Cable’s party the favourite for remainers and puts it in first place in London

Senior Labour figures were engaged in a desperate battle to shore up the party’s support on Saturday night, amid warnings that its stance on Brexit was helping to “detoxify the Lib Dems”.

With just days left before the European elections at which Nigel Farage’s Brexit party is expected to triumph, shadow cabinet ministers are among those concerned that Labour’s ambiguous position on Brexit has helped revive the Lib Dems. It comes as new polling seen by the Observer suggests Vince Cable’s party is running in first place in London and could even beat Labour overall.

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Europe’s far-right leaders unite with a vow to ‘change history’

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Matteo Salvini and Marine Le Pen are joining with allies to create what may be the third-largest bloc in the European parliament

Italian deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini led a rally of his European far-right allies in front of Milan’s Gothic cathedral on Saturday. He pledged to change history after this week’s EU elections by making the populist alliance one of the largest groupings in the European parliament.

Flanked by France’s Marine Le Pen and leaders from nine other nationalist parties, Salvini began his speech to the packed Piazza del Duomo by quoting the British writer GK Chesterton: “The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him but because he loves what is behind him.” He added that his group would remould Europe “not for our sake, but for our children”.

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‘Punches, attacks, milkshakes’: inside the Tommy Robinson campaign

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As the far-right activist fights to become an MEP, the Guardian learns new details of his modus operandi and support network

A drone hovers high above the crowd on a Wigan housing estate. About 300 men, women and children are gathered before a mobile billboard on a sun-drenched spring evening. A cheer erupts when the main speaker arrives.

Waving a St George’s flag, Tommy Robinson wants the crowd to send a deafening message to “treacherous politicians” and vote him into the European parliament on 23 May. “I am one of you,” he shouts across the estate. “They don’t breathe the same air as us. They do not care about us. But I can guarantee you: I am one of you.”

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European elections: analysis shines light on lack of diversity in parliament

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Only 2% of European parliament seats are likely to be won by minority ethnic candidates

Alice Bah Kuhnke, a former government minister who is seeking to be Sweden’s first black MEP, was such a novelty growing up that she was considered to be news. “I was in the paper because I was the only black girl in the school,” she recalls.

The 47-year-old has since spent her career in television and then politics having to walk into rooms full of white men making decisions. She has also made it a mission as a politician for the Swedish Greens “to go where the far-right extremists go” and face them down.

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‘Not a statesman’: Matteo Salvini – the Zelig of Italian politics

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League head attempts to burnish his credentials as leader of Europe’s far-right with home-turf rally

Nino Governale was the perfect target for the teenage Matteo Salvini. The PE teacher hailed from Sicily and could hardly get through the weekly lesson at the prestigious Alessandro Manzoni high school in Milan without being goaded by his pupil.

“Salvini was as arrogant at 14 as he is today,” Governale says. “His favourite game was to antagonise. At that time he was against all southerners – we were the enemies coming to Milan and stealing jobs.”

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Merkel: Europe must unite to stand up to China, Russia and US

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German chancellor also shares views on Brexit and climate crisis in interview

Europe must reposition itself to stand up to the challenges posed by its three big global rivals, China, Russia and the US, Angela Merkel has said before her final European election as German chancellor.

Facing challenges that range from Russian interference in elections to China’s economic clout and the US’s monopoly over digital services, Europe needs to get better at putting up a united front, Merkel said in a wide-ranging interview shared with the Guardian.

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Keir Starmer: Brexit deal unlikely to pass without confirmatory poll

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Exclusive: shadow Brexit secretary also warns Labour risks losing its remain voters

Keir Starmer has expressed doubts that any cross-party Brexit deal lacking a confirmatory referendum could pass parliament, warning up to 150 Labour MPs would reject an agreement that did not include one.

The shadow Brexit secretary said he feared the party risked losing its remain voters after worse than expected losses in the local elections, but he warned Labour remainers tempted to vote for the Liberal Democrats or Change UK that only Jeremy Corbyn’s party could deliver a fresh referendum.

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