Brexit

Monday

James Kirkup

In defence of Sarah Vine

The first job of a columnist on a big newspaper is to be noticed. If people aren’t talking about the things you’ve said, what’s the point? By that measure, Sarah Vine is a good columnist. Her name is known. At the Daily Mail she says things that people notice and talk about. She does it on Twitter too. Over the weekend, she had this to say about the anti-Brexit march through London: “There are no leavers there because they would be lynched. These people are so convinced of their righteousness they cannot see anyone who disagrees with them as anything other than a monster. The rhetoric against people who voted to Leave

Sunday

Toby Young

It’s time to send for Michael Gove

On Friday in the Spectator’s Coffee House podcast I suggested Michael Gove should be installed as a caretaker leader until June. I believe this is our best chance — perhaps our only chance — of honouring the result of the referendum. To be clear, I’m a passionate Brexiter and would like as clean a break with Brussels as possible. I want out of the Customs Union and out of the Single Market. If I was an MP, I’d be a member of the ERG. The disastrous course of the Brexit negotiations has made me more anxious to leave, not less. The fact that so many MPs and senior civil servants have

Robert Peston

Cabinet coup or not, the government is on the brink of collapse over Brexit

The correct reports in Sunday Times and Mail on Sunday this morning that some ministers (not all) want Theresa May to go now, and make way for a caretaker – either David Lidington or Michael Gove – tells me NOT she will definitely go within a few days (though she may) but that the government is perilously close to collapse. Because what it shows is the underlying split in the cabinet between those ministers – Gauke, Clark, Rudd, Mundell – who want to stop a no-deal Brexit at any cost, and those who want to prevent either a referendum or a “soft” Brexit “in name only” – Leadsom, Mordaunt, Fox,

Saturday

Katy Balls

Cabinet coup? Tory MPs look to Gove and Lidington to replace May

Will Theresa May make it to the end of the week? It’s a question that’s been asked before of the Prime Minister but this time the situation is more serious. After a disastrous few days in which May lost the support of her whips, Remain MPs and Brexiteers, the Sunday papers report that a Cabinet coup is underway. Backbench MPs are publicly taking to Twitter to say the Prime Minister’s time is up – while a number of ministers are preparing to confront her on Monday. Given that ministers have a tendency to exhibit more bravery in anonymous Sunday paper briefings than real life meetings, it’s not a definite that

Robert Peston

MPs have one shot this week to prevent a no-deal Brexit

As you know, I have been banging on about the probability that the UK will leave the EU without a deal on 12 April. Having talked to very senior members of the government, and also well-placed sources in the EU, it has become clear to me that MPs have one shot to prevent that – and it will almost certainly be this week that MPs will either rise to the challenge or flunk it. How so? Well, the prime minister and the EU will be looking at the indicative votes that are due to take place on Tuesday and Wednesday – on Tuesday sponsored by the PM, on Wednesday under

Steerpike

Revealed: No. 10 leak shows how May could delay Brexit without Parliament’s approval

Ever since MPs first voted to trigger Article 50 everyone has been told that Britain, by law, will be leaving the EU on 29 March. And if that date was ever to change, then Parliament would have to vote for it to change. That’s the British constitution which can be summed up in eight words: ‘What the Queen-in-Parliament enacts is law.’ As the Supreme Court debacle reminded us, only Parliament can change laws that Parliament makes.  So unless Parliament can approve a new Brexit plan, then we leave on Friday next week. Only this week it all got a bit complicated. After the Prime Minister sought an Article 50 extension in

James Forsyth

The one way to give MV3 a chance of passing

At the moment, the Brexit deal isn’t going to pass. As I say in The Sun this morning, getting it through was always going to be tough, but the errors that Mrs May has made this week have made it even more difficult. As one Secretary of State puts it, ‘She would have been much better off spending three days in bed.’ By putting no deal back on the table, she encouraged the ERG—the Brexit hardliners in her own party—to believe that voting against her deal would get them what they want. Her speech on Wednesday night criticising MPs was also ill-judged, given that they are who she needs to

The Spectator

The Tories have squandered Brexit – they must not waste the extension too

For many people, next Friday was supposed to be a celebration. Boris Johnson spoke about an ‘independence day’ marking the beginning of a new era of national self-confidence. But as we approach 29 March, not even ardent Brexiteers can claim that there is anything to celebrate. Theresa May has been reduced to asking, or rather begging, the EU for an extension to Article 50 — something that the EU has said it will grant only if Britain can provide a good reason for needing the extra time. So far, the Prime Minister has not provided one, apart from the prolonging of every-one’s agony. When parliament voted to enact Article 50

Charles Moore

The problem with Westminster is that politicians don’t do their jobs

The trouble with Mr Speaker, even when he makes the right decision, is his motives. Fame is the spur and so is his love of hurting the Conservative party which nurtured him. However natural these feelings, they are completely wrong for the Speakership. The occupant of the chair is supposed to be a pillar of the constitution, not its talking gargoyle. A sad feature of the Brexit story has been how so many people with important official roles have not seemed to understand or, in some cases, even to care, what those roles entail. The Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Governor of the Bank of England are supposed to

Friday

Siva Thangarajah

The Spectator Podcast: is Brexit a national humiliation?

This week opened with the cautious optimism of a third meaningful vote passing, and ends, as our cover depicts, with Theresa May begging the EU for an extension. After John Bercow’s ruling that May’s Brexit deal cannot be voted on a third time, unless with ‘substantive changes’, the chances of May passing her deal before March 29 seemed further than ever. Now, this week has shown that Brexit is dictated at home by warring factions in the Commons, and dictated abroad by the EU. Even though the EU has given May a third chance at her deal, these past weeks lay bare the government’s inability to run the government, and

Robert Peston

Theresa May’s third meaningful vote might now be cancelled

All the talk among Cabinet ministers – who as usual in Theresa May’s government know next-to-nothing about what the PM is actually going to do – is that the bloomin’ meaningful vote won’t be held next week after all. “The DUP don’t look as though they are coming on board,” said one. “It looks as though she’ll lose by a bit more than last time,” said another. “Why would she do that to herself?” If they are right and she does not bring her Brexit deal back for ratification by MPs, then dead too (probably) is the idea she’ll imminently announce the date of her resignation as PM. According to

Robert Peston

Not even God knows what happens to Brexit now

After yesterday’s historic negotiations between EU leaders here in Brussels – while Theresa May was out of the room – here is what we now know about Brexit. We are not leaving the EU on 29 March 2019, the Brexit day that was supposedly set in stone. We may yet leave on 22 May this year, but only if next week MPs finally – at a third time of asking, and probably on Tuesday – vote for Theresa May’s widely derided Brexit plan. We could leave without a Brexit deal on the new Brexit day, 12 April – if the PM’s vote is lost. Or we could leave at an

Katy Balls

It’s getting harder for Theresa May to pass her deal next week

After eight hours of talks between EU leaders, Theresa May has been granted an Article 50 extension. If the Prime Minister can pass her deal next week, there will be technical extension until 22 May. If the deal fails to pass, Article 50 will be extended only until 12 April so that the UK can set out its next steps – and potentially apply for a longer extension. This offer appears to give backbenchers time to try and – once again – seize control of the process if May fails to pass her deal. The Prime Minister’s problem is when it comes to meeting the first condition of the 22

Cindy Yu

The EU has just given parliament more time to take control of Brexit

Last night, the EU27 unanimously rejected Theresa May’s request for a June Brexit extension and told her 22 May at the latest – or 12 April if she couldn’t pass her deal). This pushes the cliff edge back by just a little, and makes nothing easier for her. If her deal doesn’t pass, she would have to choose a no deal, or a long extension and agree to hold European parliament elections. But that’s assuming that she will still be in control of the process at that point. Crucially, the extension gives time for MPs to take control of Brexit in the next three weeks. If her deal is rejected

Thursday

The Spectator

Barometer | 21 March 2019

The march of time If we leave the EU on 29 March, with which historic events will that date be shared? 845 A Norse fleet sailing up the Seine reached Paris, sacking the city and extracting a ransom from Charles the Bald. 1461 The Battle of Towton, just south of Tadcaster, one of the bloodiest battles fought on English soil, with more than 20,000 men estimated to have been killed. Yorkist victory confirmed Edward IV as king. 1871 Royal Albert Hall officially opened. 1936 Hitler wins plebiscite to annex the Rhineland. 1945 Last recorded strike of a V1 bomb on Britain. Where are you safe? The mosque attacks in Christchurch were

James Kirkup

MPs must not use May as an excuse to walk into Brexit disaster

Theresa May has united Westminster. Right across the political spectrum, politicians and journalists agree that her televised statement from No. 10 last night was an epic misjudgement, that seeking to pin public blame on MPs for the failure to agree a Brexit outcome has made it even less likely that they will now reach such an agreement. The PM’s awful statement, it is said, has driven away the very MPs she needs to pass her Withdrawal Agreement next week. Consensus like that deserves scrutiny, because it’s often a cloak under which people can hide inconvenient facts. Consider the assertion that May has alienated MPs who will not now vote for

Katy Balls

Theresa May’s No. 10 intervention backfires

Theresa May heads to Brussels today to plead for an Article 50 extension. The expectation is that EU leaders will only grant one on the condition her deal passes next week on a third vote. This is looking increasingly hard to do following May’s No. 10 statement last night. In an address to the nation, the Prime Minister attempted to lay the blame on MPs – rather than herself – for the fact that it is now very unlikely the UK will leave the EU at the end of March. May said it was a matter of deep ‘personal regret’ to her and went on to add: ‘All MPs have

Jeff Noon

Making Brexit thrilling

The long gestation period of Brexit has allowed authors to plan and write and publish novels in time for the big day. Alan Judd’s Accidental Agent (Simon & Schuster, £12.99) is a spy thriller set during the EU negotiations. Charles Thoroughgood is the head of MI6. The secret service is forbidden from spying on the EU, but when an EU official volunteers information about the negotiations, it seems too good an opportunity to miss. The trouble is, the mole — known only by the code name Timber Wolf — might not actually be real. Thoroughgood investigates the veracity of the source, taking the place of Timber Wolf’s usual contact, and

Wednesday

Isabel Hardman

Jeremy Corbyn makes pointless Brexit meeting all about him

This evening, Jeremy Corbyn walked out of a meeting between opposition party leaders and the Prime Minister about Brexit. The reason for his angry protest had nothing to do with what was being discussed, but his distaste for one of the attendees. Former Labour MP Chuka Umunna was there to represent the Independent Group, and this, according to those present, was too much for the Labour leader to stomach. Labour has since said the the terms of the meeting had changed and that this wasn’t what Corbyn had agreed to when he said he would meet the Prime Minister in her office. But this is an impressive own goal, even

James Forsyth

May says little new in statement as she again attacks MPs for failing to make a decision

Theresa May’s statement tonight wasn’t particularly dramatic. She had no new policies to announce or arguments to make. Rather, she once again attempted to frame the choice before MPs as her deal, no deal or no Brexit. She tried to position herself as the defender of the referendum result and attacked MPs for failing to take a decision. As a political journalist my reaction to the statement was, is that it? But the question is whether the attack on MPs for the endless motions and amendments and for not talking about anything else will resonate with the public, and lead to them putting pressure on their MPs to back the