Uk politics

Wednesday

Boris Johnson

Boris Johnson’s resignation speech, full text

From our UK edition

Thank you Mr Speaker for granting me the opportunity to pay tribute to the men and women of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, who have done an outstanding job over the last two years, and I am very proud that we have rallied the world against Russia’s barbaric use of chemical weapons with an unprecedented 28 countries joining together to expel 153 spies in protest at what happened in Salisbury. We have rejuvenated the Commonwealth with a superb summit that saw Zimbabwe back on the path to membership and Angola now wanting to join. And as I leave we are leading global campaigns against illegal wildlife trade and in favour of 12 years of quality education for every girl.

Katy Balls

Theresa May’s premiership enters ‘last days of Rome’ mode

From our UK edition

'I used to worry that something bad would happen, now I worry that something catastrophic will happen.' This is how a Cabinet minister sums up the new political crisis facing the Conservative party – and soon the country. Last night one such catastrophe was narrowly avoided. The government managed to defeat the Tory rebel amendment calling for a customs union if frictionless trade was not agreed by January. Had they lost it, Theresa May's Brexit strategy would be dead in the water and the Whips allege that a confidence vote would have been brought – and an early election loom. The reason May avoided this fate? Labour rebels came to her rescue.

Tuesday

Katy Balls

Government’s not so cunning plan for an early summer break is scrapped

From our UK edition

The government suffered a defeat in the Commons this evening. The good news for Theresa May is that it wasn't the one No 10 were so worried about. Although Philip Lee's amendment for European medicines regulatory network partnership succeeded, the Tory rebel amendment calling for the government to join a customs union if it does not agree a free-trade deal with the EU was narrowly defeated, at 307 to 301. This means the government can breathe a little easier for now. They can still claim to agitated Brexiteers that they are negotiating a deal which would allow them to strike international trade deals.

Steerpike

‘I’m literally a communist’ T-shirt – literally free market economics

From our UK edition

Last week, the left-wing blogger Ash Sarkar told Piers Morgan she was 'literally a communist' after the pair got into a heated debate over her decision to protest Donald Trump's visit to the UK when she hadn't done the same for Barack Obama. Since then, the clip has gone viral and Sarkar – who works for Novara Media – has been rebranded as a liberal champion – with Teen Vogue even chipping in. Now Novara Media is keen to cash in. The blog has released a new t-shirt to its online shop emblazoned 'I'm literally a communist'. Only rather than, say, practise communism and dispensing them 'from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs' – the site appears to have opted to follow free market principles on this occasion.

Steerpike

Blue on Blue: Nadine Dorries attacks Anna Soubry – ‘they’ve lost the plot’

From our UK edition

Oh dear. As No 10 attempt to stop more Commons rebellions today on the customs bill, relations between Tory Remain rebels and Tory Brexiteers have hit an all-time low – and that's saying something. Appearing on the Daily Politics, Nadine Dorries launched a broadside against Anna Soubry over her comments in the Chamber on Monday – when the Tory MP accused her Brexiteer colleagues with a 'gold-plated pension and inherited wealth' of backing Brexit to the detriment of people's jobs. One such Brexiteer colleague's response? Dorries just described it as 'one of the worst moments that we have ever seen or witnessed in the chamber'. https://twitter.

Alex Massie

Michael Gove’s Brexit regret is much too little, much too late

From our UK edition

Not the least extraordinary thing about the campaign to leave the European Union is that it turns out no-one was in charge of it. Things just happened and decisions were just made without the oversight or knowledge of the most senior politicians whose support for the project was reckoned, with some reason, to be crucial to its essential success.  If Boris Johnson gave the Leave campaign a popular - and populist - presence in the nation’s television studios, Michael Gove gave it a certain intellectual credibility amongst the - admittedly small - percentage of the electorate that worries about such things. And with good reason: Gove’s intelligence, if not always his judgement, has never been in doubt.

Monday

Steerpike

Theresa May’s big problem? Her ‘passion for what’s workable,’ says Tory MP

From our UK edition

Andrea Jenkyns is regarded by many Tory MPs as a Brexit champion – after the Conservative MP for Morley pre-emptively quit last month as a PPS to fight for Brexit. Since then Jenkyns has become one of the loudest voices calling for a new tack from No 10 in the negotiations. However, Mr S can't help but wonder whether Jenkyn's latest intervention didn't land quite as she had intended. In an interview with the Telegraph, the Tory MP attempts to criticise the Prime Minister for not being a true Brexiteer – not because she's a Remainer but because her passion is... 'what's workable' 'It is time for her to go. I don't think she has passion for either Remain or Brexit, I think she has a passion for what's workable.

Sunday

Katy Balls

Will Theresa May make it to the summer recess?

From our UK edition

Will Theresa May make it to the summer recess? It's just over a week until Parliament breaks up for the long summer break yet the obstacles the Prime Minister must overcome before then are rapidly increasing in size. After May finally showed her Brexit hand, she has seen a growing Eurosceptic rebellion which shows no signs of letting up anytime soon. Over the weekend, her former minister Steve Baker accused No 10 of being part of a secret plot to render the Brexit department a 'Potemkin structure to [distract from] what the Cabinet Office Europe unit was doing for the prime minister'. Meanwhile, Jacob Rees-Mogg offered a memorable soundbite – telling the Sunday Politics that May was a 'Remainer who has remained a Remainer'.

Matthew Taylor

Sunday shows round-up: Theresa May’s hard-headed Brexit

From our UK edition

Theresa May: People voted from the heart, but I must be hard-headed After an outbreak of discontent in the Conservative party over her Chequers Brexit plan, the Prime Minister took to the Andrew Marr Show to defend her policy. The plan led to David Davis and Boris Johnson quitting the cabinet, and there are rumours that more ministers could follow in the coming days. There is also the possibility that May could face a vote of no confidence in her leadership at any point. Marr asked her if the Chequers Agreement was letting her party and the country down: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9Rp6DcB59I AM: There are an awful lot of Conservatives...

Katy Balls

Theresa May fights for her premiership – and reveals Trump’s advice

From our UK edition

Theresa May appeared on the Andrew Marr sofa with her premiership at its most vulnerable point since the disastrous snap election. After a week of frontbench resignations, a US Presidential visit that resulted in humiliation, a growing eurosceptic rebellion and a downturn in the polls, May belatedly tried to sell her Brexit blueprint to the public. The Prime Minister began by attempting some honesty – she told Marr that she did accept that the position agreed at Chequers last Friday was different to what was set out in her Lancaster House speech. However, she insisted that the change was minimal and that competitive free trade deals were still possible – she refused to explicitly say that the common rulebook would make trade deals harder to forge.

Charles Moore

The irreplaceable Lord Carrington

From our UK edition

Lord Carrington, who has just died, may well have been longer in public life than any non-royal person ever. He took his seat in the House of Lords in 1946 (having already won the MC at Nijmegen in 1944), and never really retired until ill health confined him 70 years later. Hereditary privilege, I suppose, put him in; but what kept him there, giving him office under six prime ministers, as well as making him high commissioner to Australia, secretary-general of Nato etc? The obvious answer would be that, as someone who could not be elected, he was like the eunuch in the seraglio. Certainly prime ministers were disposed to trust him, in part because they knew he couldn’t have their job. Certainly, too, he had a strong sense of public service.

Saturday

James Forsyth

Three things that Theresa May can do to try and avert a political disaster

From our UK edition

If Theresa May gets a Brexit deal and it can’t get through parliament, then we are heading towards the most dangerous political crisis in living memory, I say in The Sun this morning. For I very much doubt that the 80 percent of MPs who are opposed to no deal, would let Britain leave without an agreement. But disregarding the result of the referendum—either by abandoning Brexit or leaving only to make Britain, effectively, a non-voting member of the EU—would cause a democratic shock. 17.4 million voters would be, understandably, furious about having their vote ignored. So, what can Mrs May do to avert this disaster? Well, I think there are three things she should do. First, she should start treating voters and her own MPs like adults.

Charles Moore

On Brexit, the Germans are against us

From our UK edition

Why do the British turn to the Germans in their moments of European trouble? It never works. When Jacques Delors conceived his single currency plans, Mrs Thatcher over-relied on Karl Otto Pöhl at the Bundesbank to squash them. Dr Pöhl preferred to side with Helmut Kohl. When Britain was struggling to stay in the ERM in the late summer of 1992, the Major government put faith in what they thought were German promises to help them out. These failed to materialise. When David Cameron sought a new EU deal which would win him the 2016 referendum, he placed his greatest hopes in Angela Merkel, who offered him concessions so feeble that even he quickly gave up trying to sell them. Last week, Mrs May flew to Berlin.

Friday

Freddy Gray

Admit it, Trump is right about Sadiq Khan

I’m sorry to say this, but Donald Trump really doesn’t think much about Britain at all. He may have some sentimental attachment to Scotland, because of his mother, but we’re not nearly as precious to him as we like to think. He may be blowing British minds today with his explosive Sun interview, but he’ll just shrug it off, go play golf, then meet Putin. But what Trump does have is an unthinking genius for sniffing out weakness, and he’s unthinkingly sniffed it out in Sadiq Khan. “I think allowing millions and millions of people to come into Europe is very, very sad. I look at cities in Europe, and I can be specific if you’d like. You have a mayor who has done a terrible job in London. He has done a terrible job.

Steerpike

Tory minister: Boris Johnson would make a terrible PM

From our UK edition

It's all kicking off in the Conservative party. After a week of Eurosceptic rebellion, resignations and in-fighting, Theresa May has been dealt another blow to her Brexit position in the form of President Trump. The US President has used an interview with the Sun to criticise the UK Prime Minister and appear to rule out a UK/US trade deal. He also appeared to open the door to backing a successor for May – telling the paper that Boris Johnson would make a great prime minister. Alas not everyone agrees. Margot James – a DCMS minister – has taken to social media to say that, actually, her colleague would be 'terrible': https://twitter.com/margot_james_mp/status/1017659937491771392 The Conservative party, 2018.

Tom Goodenough

Jacob Rees-Mogg adds to Theresa May’s woes

From our UK edition

Poor old Theresa May. Donald Trump’s Brexit comments have overshadowed the president’s long-awaited visit, but even after Trump departs for the golf course, her troubles won’t go away. Jacob Rees-Mogg offered an unwelcome reminder of that on the Today programme this morning, saying that he thought Trump had a point. Rees-Mogg said that all the president had done is spell out what was actually in the Brexit white paper. Take a look, he said, at this passage in the Brexit white paper: For once, it seems, Trump has actually done his reading. In his comments to the Sun, Trump made it clear that Theresa May’s Brexit plan would mean the US "would be dealing with the European Union" instead of with the UK during trade talks.

Steerpike

Watch: Nigel Farage on winding up Team Trump ahead of UK visit

From our UK edition

President Trump's official UK visit has turned into a nightmare for Downing Street after the US President used an interview with the Sun to suggest Theresa May had wrecked Brexit and a UK/US deal could be off the table. The comments are a gift to those Brexiteers pushing for May to change course and alter her Brexit blueprint. So, is it pure coincidence Trump has taken the side of May's Brexit critics? Mr S only asks after Nigel Farage last night set the cat among the pigeons on BBC's This Week. In an interview with Andrew Neil, the Ukip leader suggested that he had been winding up Trump and his team on Brexit and was a guiding spirit behind the Sun interview: https://twitter.com/bbcthisweek/status/1017545125050773504 AN: You've also been winding up Team Trump, haven't you?

Katy Balls

Donald Trump becomes No 10’s nightmare guest

From our UK edition

Oh dear. After some incendiary comments earlier in the week, Donald Trump has delivered a sucker punch towards Theresa May and her Brexit plan. As the Prime Minister pulled out all the stops for the US President with a black tie dinner at Blenheim Palace, the Sun published its front page – in which Trump declares that May has 'ruined' Brexit and the US/UK deal is off. https://twitter.com/tnewtondunn/status/1017522456523956224 The US president goes on to add insult to injury by saying May's rival Boris Johnson would make a great Prime Minister. As for that deal, he says: 'If they do a deal like that, we would be dealing with the European Union instead of dealing with the UK, so it will probably kill the deal.' Trump's bad manners have made Theresa May's bad week even worse.

Thursday

Jacob Rees-Mogg

The Brexit White Paper is a bad deal for Britain

From our UK edition

This (Brexit White Paper) is the greatest vassalage since King John paid homage to Philip II at Le Goulet in 1200. This White Paper has not needed age to turn yellow. There are very few signs of the Prime Minister's famous red lines. It is a pale imitation of the paper prepared by David Davis, a bad deal for Britain. It is not something I would vote for, nor is it what the British people voted for. In particular, this paper sets out that the UK will be subject to EU laws while having no say in their creation. The Common Rule Book will not be Common, it will be EU law, interpreted by the EU Court with the UK subjected to EU fines for non-compliance. The UK has accepted it cannot diverge from 'ongoing harmonisation' without activating repercussions for Northern Ireland.

Katy Balls

Raab talks tough on Brexit White Paper – as Brussels responds

From our UK edition

Dominic Raab's Commons debut as Brexit Secretary didn't go exactly as he would have hoped. He was greeted with louder heckles than normal from the Opposition owing to the fact that the Brexit white paper had not been given to MPs prior to the statement. Despite this, Raab put in a solid performance as he tried to show it was business as usual despite a turbulent week for the government which saw David Davis and Boris Johnson quit the frontbench – and a Eurosceptic rebellion brewing. The publication of the White Paper is unlikely to calm nerves. The issues that are set to stoke the most interest include the fact the government is now seeking 'association agreement' – something they appeared to previously dismiss.