From our UK edition
Nigel Farage has quit Ukip. The three-time leader of the party said he was walking away in protest at its courting of Tommy Robinson under Gerard Batten. Farage announced his departure in an article for the Telegraph. He said: 'With a heavy heart, and after all my years of devotion to the party, I am leaving Ukip today. There is a huge space for a Brexit party in British politics, but it won’t be filled by UKIP.
From our UK edition
In an exceptional move, MPs have just voted to hold the government in contempt of Parliament for not releasing legal advice on the draft withdrawal agreement with the EU. While not being named specifically by the motion, it was the Attorney General, Geoffrey Cox, who was the figurehead for the contempt proceedings, and as you can imagine, he was not pleased to possibly be the first government legal advisor to be held in contempt in recent history. Mr S thinks his reaction speaks for itself: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJ85qUBccd8&feature=youtu.be Earlier in the debate, the Attorney General already looked close to tears when he was defended by his colleague Nadine Dorries: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Q84fD-sa60 It's safe to say that it's not been a good week for Cox.
From our UK edition
Could the government have avoided this afternoon’s contempt motion? MPs have voted in favour of holding ministers in contempt of parliament for refusing to publish the Brexit legal advice, and the simple argument is that the only way to avoid this whole debacle would have been to publish the advice. This is, after all, what the Commons voted for, yet ministers chose instead to publish a summary. But a number of the speeches today hinted at a problem that goes far deeper than just the government ignoring the humble address demanding the publication.
From our UK edition
If they were former Manchester United players, Booker prize nominees, or members of Oasis, the acrimony and arguments might be fairly run of the mill. Among current and former Governors of the Bank of England it is, to put it mildly, a little unusual. And yet Mark Carney now finds himself under sustained attack from his immediate predecessor Mervyn King over how it should handle our departure from the European Union. And in that battle of governors there can surely only be one winner – and it isn’t the incumbent. In a piece for Bloomberg, King, who served with distinction at the Bank from 2003 to 2013, takes apart Theresa’s May’s exit deal in ferocious detail.
From our UK edition
How Remainers are feasting on the ruling (although not final judgement) from the European Court of Justice suggesting that Britain could unilaterally revoke Article 50 at any point up until 29 March next year and remain in the EU under existing terms. If the final judgement confirms the ruling it will destroy the argument that Michael Gove made at the weekend – that reversing our decision to stay in the EU would lead to vastly inferior terms, the loss of Britain’s rebate and so on. It will also heap huge pressure on Theresa May if she loses next week’s seemingly doomed vote on her withdrawal bill. While Downing Street has described the ECJ ruling as hypothetical, she will have to fend off a reinvigorated campaign for a second referendum.
From our UK edition
It's just another day in office for Theresa May's shaky government. Today MPs will enjoy the first of many days of debate over the seemingly doomed EU withdrawal agreement but before they get to that ministers must try and avoid being found in contempt of Parliament. After the government refused to publish the full legal advice on May's Brexit deal (following an Opposition Day debate calling for it), Attorney General Geoffrey Cox appeared in the Chamber in a bid to satisfy MPs by answering questions on the agreement. Although Cox did manage to charm a number of attendees his attendance was not enough to silence Opposition demands. This lunchtime MPs will now hold an emergency debate on whether ministers are in contempt of parliament for refusing to release the advice.
From our UK edition
There has never been a more pressing need for a home for Brexit voters disillusioned by the spectacle of recent events. Yet Ukip, under a leader fixated by EDL founder Tommy Robinson, has marched to a place where very few Leave voters wish to go. When I left Ukip last week, what caused the biggest stir was the fact that it was not to sit as an independent but to join the SDP. Many political journalists did not know that the party still existed, let alone that it has been Eurosceptic for many years. But the party has been growing fast over the past few months as the more moderate elements of Ukip – along with some determined Labour and Tory leavers – have sought a centre-ground party that will campaign to honour the referendum verdict.
From our UK edition
Theresa May is taking a break from defending her Brexit deal in Parliament – giving the chance to her Attorney General to have a go instead. But Geoffrey Cox's sales pitch to MPs on the Brexit backstop isn't going entirely to plan. Cox confirmed to Parliament that there is 'no unilateral right' for Britain – or the EU – to 'terminate' the arrangement. In response, a Tory MP yelled out: 'So it's a trap!' Mr S thinks it is fair to say that, with only eight days until the big Parliamentary vote, MPs could do with a bit more persuading...
From our UK edition
Britain’s ability to keep the lights on has just been thrown into doubt by the European Court of Justice. It has ruled that the backbone of the UK’s capacity market energy scheme, which pays power stations to generate electricity, is illegal state aid and must be suspended. To call this a body blow for energy security is a gross understatement; as you read these words Whitehall is desperately trying to reassure generators and very nervous investors. Payments to power stations through the capacity market have now been stopped until the Government can get permission from the European Commission to restart them, but this could take years.
From our UK edition
Brexit is an accident born of misunderstanding. One of the biggest miscalculations is about the EU and how it works. Troublingly, that misjudgement, embraced by both unwise Leavers and imprudent Remainers, could just lead Britain off a cliff, for the second time in three years. I attended my first EU summit in 2001 and stopped counting the number of Council meetings, ECOFINs and other EU gatherings when the figure passed 50 some time early in the financial crisis. I’ve seen a lot of British politicians go to Brussels (and elsewhere, in those innocent days before the Belgians captured all council meetings for their capital) and pursue the British national interest, with varying degrees of success.
From our UK edition
Theresa May has just over a week to go until her Brexit deal is voted on in the Commons, and while all the signs suggest she is facing a thumping defeat, the Maybot is still sticking to the script. In an interview with Phillip Schofield on This Morning, May was asked what will happen if she loses the vote. May did her best to dodge the question: PS: What happens to you if they vote you down? The next day, what will you be saying? TM: I'm, I'm, I'm very clear. I have got a duty as PM to deliver PS: But if you don't? TM: I've got a duty.. PS: But if you don't? ... My question was: what happens if you don't (get it through)? Will you resign? TM: I am focusing on getting that vote through....There is going to be a lot of debate.
From our UK edition
And so another hellish week for Theresa May begins. The Prime Minister must somehow avoid publishing the Attorney General's legal advice for all MPs and then convince 100 Conservative MPs to put their doubts aside and back her deal ahead of next week's vote. So far, the signs are not good. But there is at least one piece of good news for the beleaguered Prime Minister: Andrew Cooper has said she can't go on.
From our UK edition
I can see that there is a moral case for a General Election, as demanded by Jeremy Corbyn. An election which Corbyn would win, by some margin, I suspect. The government is inept, hopelessly divided, derided and May will not get the majority she needs to push her Brexit deal through the Commons. There is a strong practical as well as moral case for an election then. I get all that. What I do not get is why this TV debate should be between May and Corbyn. If Corbyn had a clear line on Brexit then maybe. But he does not, he has been, on the issue, evasive to the point of obscurantism and even now I do not know what he wants to happen. In the Brexit debate he is a total irrelevancy.
From our UK edition
Theresa May (and I) are just back from Argentina. And she is about to enter the most important week of her political life and the most important week in this country’s political and constitutional history for decades. It starts tomorrow with the publication of a summary of the legal advice on the PM’s Brexit plan - which will expose an irreconcilable contradiction at the heart of the so-called backstop to keep open the border on the island of Ireland. On the one hand, if the UK were to trigger the backstop at the end of 2020, which would effectively take us into the EU’s customs union, the UK would never have the unilateral right to leave it.
From our UK edition
Keir Starmer - Government may be in contempt of Parliament Sophy Ridge began the day by speaking to the Shadow Brexit Secretary Sir Keir Starmer. Starmer authored an article for this morning's Sunday Telegraph, in which he announced that Labour would work with other opposition parties to declare the government to be in contempt of Parliament. The row concerns the publication of legal advice that the government received from the Attorney General, Sir Geoffrey Cox, which it has since been ordered to reveal in full. The government is reluctant to release more than the summary. Ridge asked Sir Keir to elaborate: https://twitter.com/RidgeOnSunday/status/1069156690854141952 SR: You’ve talked about contempt of Parliament proceedings. What does that mean and what can it actually do?
From our UK edition
Oh dear. It's no great secret that under Jeremy Corbyn there is little love lost between the Labour party and the mainstream media. The Labour leader and his supporters rarely miss a chance to take a jab at hacks – whether it's calling for press reforms or simply booing journalists at party events. However, the latest episode in the saga still manages to surprise. Labour MP – and Corbyn ally – Kate Osamor did not take kindly to a Times reporter turning up her address to ask her for comment on reports that she appeared to issue false statements over her son’s conviction for drug offences. Osamor told the reporter, she 'should have come down here with a bat and smashed your face in' before concluding that he should 'f--- off'.
From our UK edition
No-go-day was meant to be yesterday, I say in The Sun. This was the moment when the Department for Exiting the EU wanted the principal purpose of government to become getting the country ready for leaving the EU regardless of whether there was a deal or not. Number 10 argued that a vaguer deadline of late November / early December was better. They thought that this would give more time to tell whether full on ‘no deal’ prep was necessary or not. But now, Number 10 is indicating that it wants to hold off until after the meaningful vote on the 11th of December. This is not a good idea, though. Those inside the machine estimate that it would take four months of intense preparations to get this country into a place where it could make no deal manageable.
From our UK edition
The Prime Minister might have been a bit too clever when attacking Corbyn’s and Labour’s opposition to her Brexit deal. Some four hours in to her 14 hour flight to the G20 leading nations’ summit in Argentina, she told journalists: “What they are doing is advocating rejecting the deal we negotiated with the European Union without having any proper alternative to it. “They say they don’t want ‘no-deal’ but by appearing to reject a temporary backstop they are effectively advocating no-deal, because without a backstop there is no deal”. So she is accusing Labour of ushering in the kind of economic no-deal calamity – a devastating recession that would see the income of the U.K.
From our UK edition
With the 2017 Parliamentarian of the Year winner Ruth Davidson on maternity leave, Liz Truss stepped in to present this year's awards – taking the opportunity to send up her cabinet colleagues, fellow MPs and the US president. Below is her speech in full: It's fantastic to be here this evening. I have to admit it was quite late when I got booked in as your guest of honour. And I did wonder whether or not I was first choice, or if Fraser had had to ring as many people as the Prime Minister did to recruit the new Brexit Secretary. I hear that Ruth Davidson was unavailable. As you pointed out she's got a lovely new baby son and I do hope that he will grow up to see the day when we're out of the backstop.
From our UK edition
To the Spectator's Parliamentarian of the Year awards where politicians from across the political divide gathered to celebrate the best of Westminster. After a year which saw numerous cabinet resignations, failed coups and Brexit barneys, the annual awards proved more topical than ever. Liz Truss stepped in for last year's Parliamentarian winner Ruth Davidson – currently on maternity leave – to host the event. The Chief Secretary to the Treasury set the tone for the evening with a speech which held no punches. Of her new Cabinet colleague Steve Barclay, Truss joked that when it came to picking a host for the evening's awards, she hoped she wasn't as far down the list as Barclay was for the role of Brexit Secretary.