David cameron

Saturday

James Forsyth

Exclusive: Sajid Javid to back staying in the EU

From our UK edition

Sajid Javid will campaign for Britain to stay in the EU. The Business Secretary’s decision is a blow to the Leave camp which had been hopefully of recruiting him; Javid had spoken in the past of how he was ‘not afraid’ of Britain leaving the EU as it ‘would open up opportunities’. Senior figures on the Leave side had hoped that Javid would help them persuade voters that quitting the EU would not be bad for business. Those familiar with the Business Secretary’s thinking say that what has swung Javid to IN is his sense that it is just too risky for Britain to leave right now given the parlous state of the global economy.

Tom Goodenough

Newspaper front pages dump on Cameron’s deal – again

From our UK edition

For David Cameron, the only upside to such a late agreement on his deal is that news didn't break in time for most of the first editions of the newspapers - do they cannot dump on him from quite such a height as they did last time (see picture at the bottom). But still, they're pretty discouraging. The Daily Mail is as unimpressed as ever. Its first edition led on 5,000 jihadis amongst EU immigrants: its later editions heaped further derision on Cameron's deal. Inside, its editorial is blistering. "All that lost sleep, and for what?... Gone are his commitments to ‘full-on treaty change’, war on bureaucracy, sovereignty for Westminster... Mr Cameron and George Osborne have amused us enough with their risible charade.

James Forsyth

Will more than half a dozen Cabinet Ministers back Brexit?

From our UK edition

The Cabinet convenes this morning at 10am with, at least, six of those present set to back Out. The most intriguing of these Outers is Michael Gove. Gove is exceptionally close to Cameron and Osborne both politically and personally. He is one of the intellectual driving forces behind the Tory modernising project. But he is unable to back staying in the EU on these terms. Cameron claimed in his press conference last night that Gove had been an Outer for 30 years. I’m not sure that’s right. Friends say it was the experience of being a minister and finding out how much of government was just following what Brussels wanted to happen that tipped him over the edge. Gove won’t be the face of the Out campaign.

Tom Goodenough

Spectator podcast special: David Cameron’s EU deal

From our UK edition

[audioplayer src="http://rss.acast.com/viewfrom22/spectatorpodcastspecial-davidcameronseudeal/media.mp3" title="David Cameron seals the EU deal - but is it any good? Isabel Hardman, James Forsyth and Fraser Nelson discuss" startat=18] Listen [/audioplayer] David Cameron has sealed an EU deal in Brussels - but is it any good? The Prime Minister said the renegotiation gives Britain 'special status' in the EU. Donald Tusk said there was unanimous support for the new settlement. But is the deal really as pivotal as the Prime Minister is suggesting? And what's next for David Cameron as he flies back to London for a special Cabinet meeting in the morning?

Friday

Tom Goodenough

Watch: David Cameron hails EU deal as giving ‘special status’ to UK

From our UK edition

[audioplayer src="http://rss.acast.com/viewfrom22/spectatorpodcastspecial-davidcameronseudeal/media.mp3" title="Isabel Hardman, James Forsyth and Fraser Nelson discuss the EU deal" startat=18] Listen [/audioplayer] A deal has finally been struck amongst EU leaders in an agreement hailed by David Cameron as giving 'special status' to Britain. Speaking at a press conference in Brussels, the Prime Minister said: 'Within the last hour I have negotiated a deal to give the United Kingdom special status inside the European Union. I will fly back to London tonight and update the cabinet at 10am tomorrow morning. This deal has delivered on the commitments I made at the beginning of this negotiation process. Britain will be permanently out of ever-closer union, never part of a European superstate.

Isabel Hardman

David Cameron’s final EU deal: the details

From our UK edition

[audioplayer src="http://rss.acast.com/viewfrom22/spectatorpodcastspecial-davidcameronseudeal/media.mp3" title="Isabel Hardman, James Forsyth and Fraser Nelson discuss the EU deal" startat=18] Listen [/audioplayer] Finally. In the past few minutes, EU leaders have reached a deal on David Cameron’s renegotiation of Britain’s relationship with Europe which gives the UK 'special status' in the EU. As is now traditional, Donald Tusk's Twitter feed is first with the news. https://twitter.

Isabel Hardman

David Cameron cancels Friday night Cabinet

From our UK edition

David Cameron had hoped to agree a deal today, return from Brussels this evening, hold a special Cabinet meeting and then start the referendum campaign. So much for that. We have news from the European Council summit, and it’s not about the eating arrangements, apparently (though for those on the edge of their seats about what time ‘breakfast’ will be, it’s currently planned for 8pm). Cameron has cancelled the Cabinet meeting A Number 10 source said: ‘The Council are planning to reconvene at 8pm. Before then, the Prime Minister is likely to have a number of further bilaterals including with the Danish PM, the Czech PM and the Dutch PM. And the PM himself has tweeted the news. https://twitter.

Isabel Hardman

EU summit could last until Sunday

From our UK edition

After three hours’ sleep, David Cameron returned to the European Council summit with the five areas on which he is seeking change still unresolved. As he walked into the summit, the Prime Minister said: 'I was here until 5 o’clock this morning working through this and we’ve made some progress but there’s still no deal and as I said I’ll only do a deal if we get what Britain needs so we’re going to get back in there, do some work, and I’ll do everything I can.' Sources are now saying that the summit could, if necessary, go on until Sunday.

Tom Goodenough

EU summit: David Cameron arrives and vows to ‘get back in there’

From our UK edition

It's been a long night in Brussels and it's going to be a hard day ahead for David Cameron as he tries to strike a deal with other European leaders at the EU summit. The Prime Minister has now arrived and said he will 'do everything he can'. He added that 'some progress' had been made but there was still no deal: It looked earlier in the day as though Greece could veto the entire summit over the issue of migration. Polish Minister for European Affairs, Konrad Szymański, said it was a serious issue but maintained that he was confident it would be sorted: French President Francois Hollande said this morning that the proposals had changed overnight: The PM does have some allies around the table, however, including the Dutch PM.

Isabel Hardman

EU summit: Hard day ahead for David Cameron if he wants to seal the deal

From our UK edition

If David Cameron still hopes to wrap up his European negotiations by tea time today, he's got an intense, caffeine-fuelled few hours ahead of him. The Prime Minister left the European Council building just after 5.30am local time after meetings with Donald Tusk and President Hollande. A source said: 'It's hard going. Some signs of progress but nothing yet agreed and still a lot to do.' The talks went on for longer than many expected. Cameron does need to look as though he has fought for these changes, but there are also reports that he is having to demand more from leaders so that his eventual deal isn't totally underwhelming. He is currently pushing for 13 years of benefit restrictions on migrants, rather than the emergency brake lasting 7 years.

Thursday

Toby Young

Emma Thompson’s wrong, and not just about the EU

From our UK edition

At first glance, Emma Thompson’s intervention in the Brexit debate earlier this week didn’t make much sense. Asked at the Berlin Film Festival whether the UK should vote to remain in the EU, she said we’d be ‘mad not to’. She went on to describe Britain as ‘a tiny little cloud-bolted, rainy corner of sort-of Europe, a cake-filled misery-laden grey old island’. She added that she ‘just felt European’ and would ‘of course’ vote to remain in the EU. ‘We should be taking down borders, not putting them up,’ she said. I think I get the bit about Britain being ‘rainy’. That’s true, obviously, and some people dislike our islands for that reason.

Isabel Hardman

Cameron: Britain’s place in the EU has been ‘allowed to fester for too long’

From our UK edition

This is from tonight's Evening Blend, a free email round-up and analysis of the day's events. Subscribe for free here. Good evening from the Justus Lipsius building in Brussels, where David Cameron is tonight trying to persuade European leaders of the merits of his renegotiation of Britain’s relationship with the EU. For a deal that has underwhelmed almost everybody in Britain, it’s taking a remarkably long time to sign off. A working session, in which the Prime Minister told leaders that this was the ‘opportunity to settle this issue for a generation’, has just broken up, and talks on the migration crisis are starting over dinner. Cameron told leaders that ‘the question of Britain’s place in Europe has been allowed to fester for too long’.

Douglas Murray

Tim Montgomerie has put his country before his party. Will others do the same?

From our UK edition

In the wasteland of principles that is Westminster, Tim Montgomerie has always been an exception.  The area is filled with ambitious, bland careerists whose idea of taking a stand (as with most of the commentariat) consists of trying to locate two ‘extremes’ before comfortably wedging themselves equidistant between them.  But in resigning from a lifetime’s membership of the Conservative party, Tim Montgomerie has demonstrated that there is still room for principles in politics. Because nothing has so highlighted Westminster’s prevalence of careerism over principle than the aftermath of the great EU renegotiation charade.  In private absolutely nobody thinks that David Cameron achieved anything real with his ‘renegotiation’.

Tom Goodenough

Today in audio: The EU summit as it unfolds

From our UK edition

EU leaders have been arriving in Brussels for the crunch summit where Britain's reform demands will be thrashed out. David Cameron arrived earlier today where he did his best to make a bullish entrance, reassuring those back home he was 'battling for Britain': He'll be trying to convince other European leaders that its worth their while signing up to the deal first though.

James Forsyth

Will the big political beasts throw their weight behind Cameron?

From our UK edition

David Cameron heads to Brussels today still not knowing which Tory big beasts he will have supporting him in the referendum campaign. The Cameron circle had always been confident that Boris Johnson would ultimately back staying In. But that confidence has been shaken by yesterday’s meeting between Boris and the PM. Part of the problem is that what Boris has always said that he wants on sovereignty is very hard, if not impossible, to actually deliver. If the Cameron circle is worried about Boris, it seems increasingly resigned to losing Michael Gove to the Out side. As I say in the column this week, an immense amount of emotional energy has gone into trying to persuade the Justice Secretary not to back Out.

Tom Goodenough

The Spectator Podcast: Putin’s Endgame in Syria

From our UK edition

In this week’s issue, Owen Matthews discusses Vladimir Putin’s endgame in Syria. He says Russia’s bombing of Aleppo this week was intended to send a clear message: that the Russian President is in charge. But Owen says Putin’s strategy is his riskiest yet. What does it mean for the hopes of peace in war-ravaged Syria? And could it be a good thing after all if Putin’s intervention does bring an end to the conflict? On this week’s podcast, Isabel Hardman is joined by Owen Matthews in Istanbul and Robert Service, Emeritus Professor of Russian history at St Antony’s College, Oxford.

Isabel Hardman

It’s here: David Cameron’s long-awaited EU deal D-day arrives

From our UK edition

David Cameron - and the travelling circus of officials and journalists around him - is in Brussels today for that long-awaited European Council summit at which the Prime Minister hopes he can get his EU deal. Bearing in mind that Cameron never really wanted a referendum, let alone to spend months banging on about Europe when he’s interested in so many other things, he must be rather relieved that the renegotiation may be drawing to a close. But these next few hours are, in the Prime Minister’s mind, a ‘very sensitive point’ in the negotiations. He is likely to encounter attempts from some quarters to water down what is already a rather weak-tasting deal. He is likely to have to deal with drama from others, including the French.

James Forsyth

Cameron’s first EU referendum battle: shutting up his own MPs

From our UK edition

[audioplayer src="http://rss.acast.com/viewfrom22/putinsendgameinsyria/media.mp3" title="James Forsyth and Charles Grant from the Centre for European Reform discuss the EU referendum battle" startat=743] Listen [/audioplayer] On the day that David Cameron delivered his Bloomberg speech, the 2013 address in which he committed himself to a referendum on Britain’s EU membership, I asked a close ally of his how he would avoid splitting the Tory party over the issue, given that even quiet ‘outers’ might feel obliged to vote to leave. The ally paused before replying: ‘That would be a good problem to have, as it would mean we had won the election.’ That ‘good problem’ is now here.

Tuesday

Isabel Hardman

Could the European Parliament block Cameron’s bid to seal the deal?

From our UK edition

David Cameron is having more meetings today to seal his EU deal ready for Thursday and Friday’s EU summit. Though he had ‘constructive discussions’ with President Hollande last night, the Prime Minister hasn’t had as much luck this morning, with European Parliament President Martin Schulz saying this morning that there was ‘no guarantee’ the European Parliament would pass the necessary legislation on the deal. After his meeting with Cameron this morning, Schulz said: ‘I can give you a guarantee that the European Parliament will deal immediately after the referendum to stay in to legislate on the proposal of the Commission.

Monday

Isabel Hardman

Cameron’s concession on Cabinet meeting will calm eurosceptic tensions

From our UK edition

David Cameron has conceded that he cannot force his Cabinet ministers to wait until the Tuesday after the European Council summit to discuss his deal with EU leaders. Sources in Downing Street have indicated that, if there is time, he could hold his Cabinet meeting in which he sets his frontbench free to take whichever stance they want in the referendum on Friday afternoon. Delaying the Cabinet meeting until its usual time of Tuesday morning would have been a great help to the Prime Minister, as he could have spent the whole weekend praising his own deal and making the case for Britain to remain in the European Union. But Cameron cannot simply think about the referendum itself.