Uk politics

Tuesday

Isabel Hardman

Phillip Lee explains why he resigned over Brexit

From our UK edition

Phillip Lee struck a sorrowful tone when he spoke in the Commons this afternoon, explaining why he had felt it was necessary to resign over Brexit. The Bracknell MP was congratulated for his “courage” as he spoke by his two vocally pro-Remain colleagues, Anna Soubry and Sarah Wollaston. He also received some applause as he sat down. Lee took care as he spoke to argue that this resignation was not about a plan to destabilise the government or Theresa May, but because he could not abide by collective responsibility given his disquiet about the direction in which Brexit is heading. “I fully support Theresa May,” he insisted, but said that the current proposals from the government would represent a “breach of human rights and parliamentary sovereignty”.

Steerpike

Watch: Arron Banks walks out of select committee

From our UK edition

What is it about Brexit campaigners and select committees? First Vote Leave's Dom Cummings declined an invitation to appear before Damian Collins' select committee (leading MPs to back a motion demanding he does so by 20 June). Now Arron Banks – of Leave.EU – has cut his time before the committee short. Banks appeared before the same DCMS committee this morning – following allegations at the weekend over his links to the Russian ambassador – but left early after he decided that lunch was his priority: 'Sorry, we're late.' Collins appeared in a state of shock that he could not convince them to stay – pleading for a few more minutes of their time. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?

Brendan O’Neill

In defence of ‘no deal’

From our UK edition

Imagine the industrial levels of brass neck it must require for EU-supporting MPs to present themselves as defenders of parliamentary sovereignty. That’s what they’re doing today, on ‘Brexit Super Tuesday’, as they start voting on the Lords’ amendments to the government’s Brexit Bill. They say they are backing the amendment that would give MPs a ‘meaningful vote’ on the final Brexit deal because they love parliamentary sovereignty that much. Pull the other. These are people who for years happily handed over huge swathes of law-making to Brussels bureaucrats and would still like EU law to enjoy supremacy over UK law. They support parliamentary sovereignty like an electric chair supports your back.

Katy Balls

Philip Lee’s resignation shatters Tory Brexit truce

From our UK edition

Although Theresa May managed to unite her MPs briefly on Monday night and put off a customs union confrontation on today's EU withdrawal bill votes, not everything is going to plan. Philip Lee has this morning broken that truce and resigned as justice minister to fight Brexit. Speaking at a Bright Blue event, Lee said that he was returning to the backbench so that he could speak out on the government's Brexit policy – which, he says, threatens human rights: https://twitter.com/DrPhillipLeeMP/status/1006456465886973952 'Resigning as a minister from the Government is a very difficult decision because it goes against every grain in my soul. The very word resign conveys a sense of giving up, but that is the last thing I will do. I take public service seriously and responsibly.

Monday

Isabel Hardman

How long before Tory backbenchers turn off Theresa May’s life support machine?

From our UK edition

Tomorrow marks a year since Theresa May sat her dejected parliamentary party down and promised that 'I got us into this mess and I'll get us out of it'. She was speaking amid the chaos of the snap election that she'd called, and it wasn't clear whether the Prime Minister was going to be able to form a government, let alone survive as leader for very long. Tonight, she's still here but still appealing to Conservative MPs for unity as the 'crunch stage' of the EU withdrawal bill arrives in the Commons. The briefing over the weekend did suggest that the Prime Minister was probably going to be ok, though in reality there are still a couple of votes that are going to be, at the very least, rather tight.

Steerpike

Grant Shapps: Theresa May could win the next election

From our UK edition

What a difference eight months makes. Back in October, Grant Shapps launched a failed coup against Theresa May after a disastrous Tory conference which saw the Prime Minister cough her way through what was supposed to be a set piece speech. Since then, we've had Cabinet feuding, backbench rebellions and a lack of leadership from an increasingly beleaguered Prime Minister. Yet despite all this, Shapps has had a change of heart and thinks there is now a chance May could lead the party into the next election – and even possibly win it: 'I think it's perfectly conceivable now... that she leads us into the next election and I think potentially even wins that election.' https://twitter.

Katy Balls

Labour Live will cost the party more than money

From our UK edition

The farce that is Labour Live rumbles on. With the Jezfest set to take place this weekend, the organisers are still struggling to shift tickets to the musical bonanza – which bills The Magic Numbers and Kate Osamor among its headliners. The Times today reports that 'sales' are still said to be stuck at around the 3,000 mark despite the venue – White Hart Lane Rec – having a 15,000 capacity. Labour MPs are growing increasingly concerned about the whole affair and asking Jenny Formby, the general secretary, who is currently footing the estimated £1million cost of the event. She has kept tight-lipped. But even if it is the Labour party that has to underwrite the cost of what is now expected to be a loss-making event, the damage goes beyond financial.

Sunday

Katy Balls

Tory MPs reluctantly unite behind Theresa May

From our UK edition

Unity is the buzzword in the Conservative party this week. With a series of crunch votes due on Tuesday and Wednesday over the EU withdrawal bill, senior Tories have been at pains to tell unruly colleagues it's time to put their differences aside and come together. Over the weekend, Amber Rudd and ex-leader Iain Duncan Smith warned that any Commons rebellions would be a win for Labour – and therefore bring Corbyn closer to entering No 10. It was a message echoed by David Lidington on the Andrew Marr show. No 10 are increasingly confident that this new comradely spirit will prove contagious. Within government, concerns have eased over the two most troublesome votes: the customs union amendment and the meaningful vote amendment.

Steerpike

Tory Remain rebel goes in for the kill

From our UK edition

Oh dear. It seems that not everyone has taken Theresa May's appeal for party unity to heart. Although Amber Rudd and Iain Duncan Smith penned a Sunday Telegraph article calling for Tories to come together this week for the EU Withdrawal Bill votes, not everyone appears convinced. Over the weekend, former Remain rebel Antoinette Sandbach took to social media to tweet 'Remainers need courage to go for the kill', and share Matthew Parris's Times column on the topic. In the piece, Parris urges would-be rebels to not be put off rebelling by the whips: 'This is the moment when you must lift your eyes from the trees and see the wood.

Matthew Taylor

Sunday shows round-up: Nicola Sturgeon, Keir Starmer, Ken Clarke, Dominic Raab

From our UK edition

Keir Starmer - Tory Remainers should vote with us The week ahead promises a showdown in the House of Commons as the government's EU Withdrawal Bill will face several key votes which could decisively impact the future of Brexit. The votes come after the bill was substantially amended by the House of Lords back in April, with peers notably seeking to keep the UK in the EU's customs union and to give Parliament a 'meaningful say' on the final Brexit deal. Shadow Brexit Secretary Sir Keir Starmer joined Andrew Marr to discuss Labour's approach to the bill, with Marr highlighting that Labour was not seizing the opportunity to keep the UK in either the single market or the European Economic Area: https://youtu.be/E2nTJR66vSw AM: You've let the Prime Minister off the hook really, haven't you?

Steerpike

Caption contest: Trump vs G6

From our UK edition

Happily for Theresa May, the main news from the G7 conference wasn't that President Trump failed to mention her in his G7 'friends' list. Instead, the fireworks arrived after the president left and he struck out alone. Some choice comments from Justin Trudeau on trade saw Trump see red and pull out of a previously agreed summit communique – leaving only a G6 in unison on trade. But it's this photo that sums up the event best: https://twitter.com/BBCVickiYoung/status/1005499444614369280 Captions in the comments.

Saturday

Steerpike

Brexit, the view from Love Island

From our UK edition

Theresa May's cabinet is divided and her MPs increasingly worried over the government's Brexit plans – or lack thereof. Yet despite all this, the latest Times/YouGov poll puts the Tories seven points ahead of Labour. With many in Westminster left scratching their head over the apparent disconnect, could a clue be found in ITV2's Love Island? Mr S only asks after Friday's episode saw contestants on the popular reality show – in which twenty-somethings attempt to find their perfect match – discuss the issue of the day. Only, rather than talk backstop options, customs arrangements, the Irish border or post-Brexit immigration systems, the conversation centred around what Brexit was and whether the UK would still have trees come March 2019: https://twitter.

James Forsyth

David Davis warns Tories are at risk of 1997-style defeat if Britain is under the backstop in 2022

From our UK edition

David Davis has, I write in The Sun this morning, warned the Brexit inner Cabinet that if Britain is under the backstop at the time of the next election then the Tories will suffer a 1997-style defeat. The Brexit Secretary argued that this risk meant that the UK had to keep control of the backstop: it had to be able to choose when to end it. But Davis lost this argument with the Prime Minister. However, Number 10 have assured Brexiteer Cabinet Ministers that the UK will be out from under the backstop by the time of the next election in 2022. I am told that Theresa May is hopeful that the new customs arrangement can be nailed down by the end of 2021 at the latest. But this seems distinctly over optimistic.

Friday

Tom Goodenough

Barnier’s reality check adds to May’s Brexit woes

From our UK edition

Could Brexit talks soon be heading for the ‘meltdown’ that Boris Johnson predicted? Michel Barnier’s press conference just now hardly inspires confidence that things are going to plan. The EU’s chief negotiator said that Britain was playing a ‘blame game’ in Brexit talks and that it had to accept the consequences of its decision to leave the EU. He went on to call for the British government to have something of a reality check over the way things were going. Today, that reality check came in the form of his rejection of Britain’s backstop proposal to solve the Irish border problem. Theresa May had put forward the suggestion that the whole of the UK would remain in the customs union after Britain leaves the EU next March.

James Kirkup

Boris Johnson must learn there is more to life than Brexit

From our UK edition

I know we’re not supposed to be shocked or even surprised by anything Boris Johnson says any more – “Boris is Boris” and all that. But still I find that one of the comments revealed in Alex Spence’s excellent Buzzfeed scoop about the Foreign Secretary is gnawing at me. It’s this: “It’s so small and there are so few firms that actually use that border regularly, it’s just beyond belief that we’re allowing the tail to wag the dog in this way. We’re allowing the whole of our agenda to be dictated by this folly.” He was referring to the small matter of the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, to which so much attention is paid in the Brexit talks.

Nick Cohen

Trump’s meddling shows why Leveson’s critics are right

From our UK edition

For people who are meant to be professional communicators, journalists are hopeless at explaining themselves to the public. Everyone I know assumes that when we oppose the Leveson report we are supporting the Sun, the Mail and peeping Toms who hack phones and point lenses into other people’s bedrooms. The fact that the Guardian and Private Eye, who exposed the hacking scandal, are opposed to state regulation has been all but forgotten. Here’s why I, they and many others worry. The New York Times reports today that FBI officers investigating leaks about Trump’s dealing with Russia had seized the phone records of one of its reporters going back years. Of course it has. That’s what states want to do when journalists put them under pressure.

Steerpike

Watch: Shami Chakrabarti heckles voter over Brexit

From our UK edition

Labour's flip-flopping on Brexit means that many Leave supporters simply don't trust the party. So Mr S wonders whether it was really such a wise idea for Shami Chakrabarti to heckle a voter on Question Time last night: Audience member: We're the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. We voted to leave so let's pull up anchor and sail away, OK. Shami Chakrabarti: Where you going? ... I mean 'Sail away' is a lovely song but you need to go somewhere. Perhaps it's time for Shami to listen to voters rather than shout at them...

Thursday

James Forsyth

Theresa May gives David Davis a backstop concession

From our UK edition

After a morning of high drama in Westminster, the UK government now has a backstop proposal to put to the EU. Last night, the backstop text said that it was time limited but didn’t specify an end date. In two meetings with the Prime Minister this morning, David Davis demanded changes. He has got some concessions: the text now talks about how ‘The UK expects the future arrangement to be in place by December 2021’. But there is no hard cut-off date in the text. Theresa May was acutely aware that if one had been included, the EU would have rejected it out of hand. We now wait to see what the EU says about it. Michel Barnier has already tweeted his three tests for it.

Robert Peston

David Davis stays put – for now

From our UK edition

For the past 24 hours, there has been a power struggle between the Prime Minister and her Brexit Secretary, David Davis. Theresa May – or rather her officials – had been insisting that a backstop plan for keeping open the Ireland border would not be amended, to include a sunset clause and formal end date for the backstop. Davis said he would quit in the absence of an end date. She caved. According to sources close to Davis, 'the backstop paper has been amended and expresses, in much more detail, the time-limited nature of our proposal'. So to be clear, there is now a termination date in May's backstop proposal. That almost certainly means she faces a double defeat – because the EU will reject any plan that includes an end-date.

Wednesday

Gwythian Prins

A Very English Coup d’Etat

From our UK edition

They say that the devil is in the detail – and that is certainly the case with the government's Brexit plans on defence and security. On 24 May, Gavin Williamson delivered a major speech on defence at the First Sea Lord’s Seapower Conference. It was a good speech, but then, under cover of the positive news coverage which it attracted, the Department for Exiting the EU slipped out a 'Technical Note'. They must have hoped nobody would notice. Plenty of Brexiteer ministers didn't seem to spot it, although goodness knows why not. But at Veterans for Britain, we did notice. We are on Red Alert. There are key civil servants and ministers who we do not trust and so we keep them under close observation.