An ex-minister told MailOnline: ‚I think a few people are holding off, will read the deal, square off their associations this weekend, then put in a letter.‘
Brexiteer MP Conor Burns told LBC: ‚There’s a lot of febrile talk. What I can tell you is there’s no orchestrated attempt to put letters in.
‚But sensing the levels of frustration and annoyance colleagues are feeling it would not surprise me if organically letters are going in.‘
The Cabinet came close to meltdown over Theresa May’s Brexit deal in a stormy ministerial marathon last night.
Ten of Mrs May’s ministers are said to have raised objections, including Esther McVey, who demanded a formal vote on the deal.
According to Sky News’ Faisal Islam, Mr Corbyn met with the Prime Minister privately following a day of opposition from the Labour party, her party and her Cabinet. Prior to the meeting, Mr Corbyn tweeted: “This is a bad deal which isn’t in the interest of the whole country.”
Quizzed about a second referendum at a ReachFest event in London, hosted by the Mirror’s parent company Reach, he told guests: “I don’t see that as a priority.”
As the Prime Minister was engulfed by unprecedented threats to her premiership following a five-hour Cabinet showdown, he insisted Labour was ready for a snap election – and shouldering the responsibility of starting fresh talks with Brussels.
Labour’s leader gave the clearest sign yet his party will vote down the deal when a crucial House of Commons showdown comes in the coming weeks.
He spoke just hours after Mrs May brought back a 500-page draft text from Brussels that will be studied in a crucial Cabinet meeting this afternoon.
Lord Nigel Lawson has claimed that under Theresa May’s leadership, the UK could become „a colony of the EU, governed by the EU“.
The Conservative peer appeared on the breakfast show to discuss the Prime Minister’s Brexit plan, which he branded „the worst of all possible worlds“.
„It is a failure to deliver on Brexit and it is potentially dividing up the United Kingdom.
„We will have to get permission from the EU to leave the customs union. It is eccentric, it is bizarre.“
Mr Rees-Mogg also criticised the fact that the terms of the deal were leaked to the Irish state media instead of British media.
He remarked: „The text was shared with the Irish broadcaster first and not the BBC.
“We are going to stay in the customs union on this deal, we are going to stay effectively in large parts of the single market, and that is vassal state stuff.
“For the first time in a thousand years, this place, this Parliament will not have a say over the laws that govern this country.
“It is a quite incredible state of affairs, it will mean that we are having to accept rules and regulations from Brussels over which we have no say ourselves.
THERESA May has summoned her Cabinet to consider a draft Brexit deal following a breakthrough in negotiations.
British and EU Brexit negotiators have agreed on a text that deals with the Irish border, Irish broadcaster RTE said on Tuesday, citing two “well-placed” sources. Britain’s cabinet will examine a draft Brexit deal on Wednesday, UK media reported.
(10.11.2018) According to the Daily Telegraph, Mr Younger invited Mr Corbyn to MI6’s headquarters in Vauxhall, south London for an ‚acquaintance session‘.
A Whitehall source told the paper: ‚The feeling was that the time had come for Mr Corbyn to become acquainted with the workings of the intelligence establishment.‘
(9.11.2018) The Labour leader recently met with Alex Younger, the Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service, during which the importance of the agency’s work and the severity of the threats facing Britain were made clear to him.
A Whitehall official with knowledge of the meeting said: “The feeling was that the time had come for Mr Corbyn to become acquainted with the workings of the intelligence establishment.”
Andrew’s guests are education secretary Damian Hinds MP, shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry MP, chief of defence staff General Sir Nick Carter, director Danny Boyle and pianist Alexis Ffrench. Reviewing the papers are Sir Harold Evans from Reuters, The Guardian’s Anushka Asthana and The Sun columnist Jane Moore.
But the Labour leader received backing from his shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry, who appeared on the BBC’s Andrew Marr show to insist that the party would not be part of the “deeply anti-democratic forces out there”.
“If we have had a referendum and that is the result, then we ought to proceed on the basis of good faith and we will do our best to try and deliver a Brexit that is good for the country,” she said.
Labour created more confusion over its Brexit policy today as Emily Thornberry insisted the option of campaigning for a second referendum remains on the table just days after Jeremy Corbyn said leaving the EU “could not be stopped.”
Mr Corbyn has angered Labour MPs and supporters by arguing Brexit cannot be stopped – and by going on to reject the growing calls for a fresh public vote.
But Ms Thornberry said: “If we don’t have a general election then, yes, of course all the options remain on the table and we would campaign for there to be a people’s vote – but there are several stages before we get that.”
Warning Britain “stands on the brink of the greatest crisis since the Second World War”, he became the ninth Conservative MP to demand she “give the public the final say”.
The call came after the number of signatures on The Independent’s petition for a Final Say referendum cleared one million in just over three months.
(22.10.2018)
„I voted last night knowing that two thirds of Labour constituencies in the country voted to leave.
„One reason for that was that people in Westminster and Whitehall and in elite groups don’t wish to listen to them.
„I wanted to make sure that those two thirds of Labour constituencies had a voice.“
The veteran MP has angered some of his Merseyside Labour colleagues after also voting to help hard-line Tories like Jacob Rees Mogg score a decisive victory preventing the UK from joining the EU’s VAT regime.
Defence minister Tobias Ellwood revealed contingency plans are being made in case Government negotiations with the European Union collapse.
His comments came after the head of the British Army, chief of the defence staff General Sir Nick Carter, told yesterday’s Andrew Marr Show that the military was ‚thinking hard‘ about what no deal might involve.
General Sir Nick Carter, chief of the defence staff, revealed that the army was „thinking hard“ about the implications of a no-deal Brexit amid dire warnings about disruption to food and medicine supply chains.
But he denied reports that troops could be involved in doling out medication to hard-to-reach communities in the event of Britain leaving without a deal.
A government source conceded that an outline deal might not be ready by Tuesday – making it increasingly unlikely that a special EU summit to sign it off can be held in November, as hoped.
BORIS Johnson has urged Theresa May’s Cabinet to stage a mutiny to thwart her Brexit plans.
He said the PM is “on the verge of total surrender” and ready to make Britain “the punk of Brussels”.
But the party leader was defiant when asked if he could agree with the call by former Tory minister Jo Johnson for a fresh referendum, replying: “Not really, no.
“The referendum took place.“
In an interview with the German newspaper Der Spiegel, Mr Corbyn was asked if he would stop Brexit.
He replied: „We can’t stop it. The referendum took place. Article 50 has been triggered. What we can do is recognise the reasons why people voted Leave.“
‘Never attempt to win by force that which can be won by deception,’ the great political deceiver Niccolo Machiavelli once advised. So having killed off any Conservative Party leaver coup and denied a divisive, bitter nation-splitting third referendum, the only questions left to ask Mrs May are: „Just how far has your betrayal gone, Prime Minister? Just how far have you agreed to surrender the independence of the United Kingdom to the European Union? Just how much deception have you employed to break the democratic spirit and political integrity of our nation?“
Reports emerged over the weekend that the EU could contemplate concession to keep all of the UK in a temporary customs union and Ms May was hoping for the possibility of a Canada-style free trade deal sought by Brexiteers.
The ex-foreign secretary dismissed the plans ”a Christmas present of the finest old Brussels fudge” which left Britain forced to accept EU laws without shaping them.
Theresa May has attempted to quell a mounting Tory rebellion over Brexit by unveiling a new four-point plan to break the deadlock with Brussels.
The Prime Minister was on Monday accused by Eurosceptic Tory MPs of „surrender“ as they suggested in the Commons that she does not have a Brexit plan and „know where we’re going“.
– Prime Minister yesterday set out four-point plan on how to break talks deadlock
– Said any transition period as the UK leaves would be over ‘well before’ election
– Vowed extension would be an alternative to the Northern Ireland ‘backstop’
Tory MPs don’t want to get rid of Theresa May yet but they might decide getting rid of her early is better than not getting rid of her at all.
For this to happen, 48 Conservative MPs must submit letters to the Party’s chairman.
And it could happen sooner rather than later amid reports that 46 have already been submitted.
Brexit supportor David Davis is the most likely successor to Mrs May.
On Monday afternoon she will also deliver a statement to the Commons where she is expected to set out the progress that has been made so far in the Brexit negotiations.
If the right wing is to win its fight on Brexit, therefore, it will ironically need the support of the very Corbyn-supporting left that it has been slandering and expelling since 2015.
Consequently, the focus of campaigns for a second referendum (a “People’s Vote”) has shifted from toxic figures such as Tony Blair to left-wing, pro-EU campaigns such as “Another Europe is Possible”.
This shift has also seen the cross-party campaign of “entrepreneurs” against Brexit, Best for Britain, donate £70,000 to Another Europe, despite fundamentally disagreeing with Corbyn’s programme. Meanwhile, much of the liberal media has been quick to promote the new left face of the anti-Brexit movement – when they aren’t attacking Corbyn and the left over anti-semitism, that is.
CIVIL Servants are beginning plans to betray Brexit by beginning secret plans for a second referendum amid fears Theresa May is unable to get Parliament to back a deal, after 670,000 protestors marched on London calling for another vote.
Staff at the Department for Exiting the European Union are said to have role-played the likely actions the Prime Minister will undertake in a “war games” scenario, according to The Sunday Times.
NORTHERN Ireland would become a “protectorate” of an unaccountable EU if the backstop was introduced, the leader of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) has warned. Robin Swann said unionists who voted Remain did not do so because they wanted to leave the UK and it was “dishonest and deceitful” to portray them as such.
At least 670,000 people gathered for the event on Saturday, organisers have claimed – making it the biggest anti-Brexit demonstration since the referendum in 2016.
If true, it would be the biggest demonstration since 2003 when some one million people protested against the Iraq War in the streets of London.
The transition deal is itself an unfavourable extension, sort of, of our EU membership (keeping to customs union and single market rules, and still paying, but losing the power to affect anything). If the original extension and Mrs May’s extension to the extension are agreed, we would have taken well over five years from voting Leave to achieving it. That is almost as long as the entire Second World War.
Baker is forcing the prime minister to choose between the integrity of the UK and a negotiated Brexit.
This is her worst nightmare.
What the leading Brexiter, Baker – who organises the European Research Group of Tory MPs – is doing more precisely is making it impossible for the backstop to be introduced without the approval of the Northern Ireland Assembly.
A BRITISH writer has claimed the only way for Britain to secure a Brexit deal with the European Union is for Theresa May to walk away from negotiations now.
It was the Europeans who insisted that the Irish border must be resolved before our future relationship with the EU could be discussed. Of course, they knew the border could not be fixed until the future relationship was decided. They were laying a trap to tie the UK to European laws beyond Brexit.
ANGELA Merkel and Emmanuel Macron last night shot down Theresa May’s Brexit plans – then went out to celebrate with a beer.
It would mean the UK remaining within the single market and customs union and subject to EU rules and regulations for almost three years after the official date of Brexit in March 2019, and more than five years after the referendum vote to leave the bloc.
Angry Brexiteers said the concession would delay when the UK could sign new trade deals around the world and mean taxpayers paying billions of pounds more in additional contributions to the EU.
The 499-kilometre border running from Carlingford Lough to Lough Foyle will become the only land border between the UK and the European Union after Brexit. The 1998 Belfast Agreement (also known as the Good Friday Agreement) brought peace to Northern Ireland and removed the need for checks along the Border. It also established North-South regulations and institutions that helped support the peace process. The Border is currently invisible and neither side wants the return of infrastructure or the creation of a hard border.
(15.10.2018)
Indeed, the comments by the Scottish Conservative Leader last weekend highlighted the strength of support across the United Kingdom for maintaining the Union.
Ruth Davidson’s position is not borne out of enthusiastic support for leaving the European Union; she was an advocate for Remain. However, Ruth Davidson recognises the impact of placing an international style border down the Irish Sea. She understands that such an outcome would be seized upon by separatists within the United Kingdom.
The DUP wants to see a sensible deal which maintains the constitutional and economic integrity of the United Kingdom. We will stand up for Northern Ireland but most important is the Union between us all. It is very clear that those same objectives are shared by many others across the United Kingdom. Both those who were ‘Leave’ as well as those who were ‘Remain’recognise that the four countries are stronger together.”
David Mundell told MPs that preserving the integrity of the UK as the country leaves the EU was a “red line” for him and other Scottish Conservatives including Ruth Davidson.
But he said the Prime Minister felt the same way, batting away suggestions that he told her he would quit over any Brexit deal that boosted the case for Scottish independence.
Budget votes are viewed as an issue of confidence in a government – meaning defeat would trigger calls for a general election
(13.10.2018) The head of the Northern Irish party that props up British Prime Minister Theresa May’s government said on Saturday she would prefer no Brexit deal to a bad deal, saying the current proposal would permanently annex Northern Ireland from the rest of the United Kingdom.
(12.10.2018) Even if May can get a version of the so-called Irish backstop through the U.K. parliament without DUP votes, the party could use its position as the leading unionist political force in Northern Ireland to try to prevent it from ever being implemented — and in the process block power sharing with nationalist politicians permanently.
“We are going to squeeze their balls until their ears bleed,” the party official said.
(8.10.2017) At the outset of Brexit, all sides openly agreed there should be no border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, but it now seems the Europeans were being sneaky when they made the pledge. It has now emerged they are keen to see a border between Great Britain and Northern Ireland, despite them being the same country.
Given most people are confused by the geography of the UK it is worth quickly recapping before I go any further.
#bbcpapers #tomorrowspaperstoday
The PM told European leaders she would consider an extension to the Brexit transition period, but Brexiteers reacted immediately with fury
The Tory backbencher said the UK’s departure has left the bloc fighting for “sheer survival” with the very future of the European project at stake.
He said granting Britain any special exceptions could “open Pandora’s Box” and embolden disgruntled member states like Hungary and Poland to make similar demands.
THERESA May risked infuriating Tory Brexiteers this evening by opening talks with the EU on extending Britain’s transition out of the bloc by at least another year.
At a summit in Brussels the Prime Minister said Britain would be open to the idea of staying tied to the EU beyond the end of December 2020, even though that could mean paying billions more to Brussels.
It’s honestly very hard to know how the next two days will play out.
BRUSSELS is piling the pressure on Theresa May to strike a Brexit deal by threatening to pull plans for an emergency November summit when leaders meet in Brussels tomorrow.
Cabinet ministers should „exert their collective authority“ and rebel against Theresa May’s proposed Brexit deal, ex-Brexit Secretary David Davis has said.
THE dust has settled on a number of Brexit’s biggest rows and for the first and most critical time the European Union and United Kingdom are singing off the same hymn sheet as they hope to seal a deal within the next 10 days.
(28.9.2018) Boris quit the cabinet back in July in protest at the Chequers plan, and has been a thorn in the side of the PM ever since – despite battles in his personal life.
And Rees-Mogg has been steadily growing in popularity as he represents the hard Brexiteer wing of the Tories – chairing the powerful Eurosceptic faction The European Research Group.
Labour’s shadow Brexit secretary delivered a major Brexit speech at conference today in which he said „nobody was ruling out remain as an option.“
Sir Keir Starmer appeared to stay from the text of his speech when he was nobody was ruling out remain as an option for a possible second EU referendum.
The concerted effort to bounce the Labour Party into supporting a second referendum must be defeated; it is an affront to the millions who voted to Leave the EU and even greater number who want the Government and Parliament to get on with it. A second referendum by any name is a device to renege on the 2016 referendum result.
It would be the height of hypocrisy to claim to respect the Brexit vote yet make plans to reverse it. Having a second referendum if the first goes ‘the wrong way’ is the practice of the EU and one of the reasons why many people wanted out of that undemocratic institution.
Mr Varoufakis BBC Radio 4’s Broadcasting House that the “only solution” for Prime Minister Theresa May’s “abysmal” negotiating position would be a general election in Britain, which could result in the EU forcing the country into a Norway-style Brexit deal.
He added: “Mrs May is then allowed to go away in peace and to have a new government that negotiates a Norway-style agreement for Britain for a five-year period at least so that Mrs Merkel and Mr Macron can say ‘ok, well this is a problem for our successors’.”
Research showed that any attempt by Jeremy Corbyn’s MPs at Westminster to frustrate the departure from the EU would lead to Labour candidates facing defeat in 19 of its 25 most marginal constituencies held by the party.
The survey, carried out by the polling firm IQR for the Brexit-supporting pressure group Global Britain comes on the eve of the start of the Labour conference in Liverpool, where delegates are expected to vote on calls for the party to back a second EU referendum.
He said that the conference was the first event for the Brexit Advance Coalition of 10 organisations which have come together to fight back against the Chequers plan.
The great European mystery is why the political Left so reflexively supports the EU, the euro, and the “neoliberal” erosion of worker interests by Brussels.
One can see why the corporatist Right might find this regime congenial. It is marvellous for the owners of capital. It allows companies to hold down wages through cross-border labour arbitrage. Old Labour used to called the EU a “bankers ramp” and that is exactly what it has become.
Jeremy Hosking, a co-owner of Crystal Palace football club, suggested that the “fiasco” of Theresa May’s Chequers plan was a conspiracy to prevent the UK leaving the European Union.
He told The Sunday Telegraph that he had carried out private polling which showed “clear support for a Brexit party that will deliver what the electorate thought it would be getting”.
The toddler in question is none other than Odysseus Rees-Mogg – heir to the lordship of Reesmogginshire.
The EU negotiator held talks with the Brexit select committee on Monday to discuss progress in the negotiations, making it “crystal clear” the Chequers plan was unacceptable, according to Labour’s Stephen Kinnock.
(24.8.2018) Mr Rees-Mogg will use the residence to plot his latest Commons revolt as he sets out his own vision for a bright future outside of the European Union.
A faction of Brexiteer rebels, spearheaded by the eccentric MP, is working to create an “alternative view” to the Government’s Chequers plan, which was rubbished both by Westminster and the EU.
(1.8.2018) Until recently, Theresa May managed to keep a shaky truce in her party over her handling of Brexit. But the offer to Brussels she agreed at Chequers shattered it, as David Davis and Boris Johnson were forced to leave her cabinet in protest.
The Prime Minister hoped that she could neutralise Mr Johnson by keeping him prisoner in the gilded cage of the Foreign Office.
Director general of the World Trade Organisation, Roberto Azevêdo, said a no-deal Brexit would not be the “end of the world”.
It comes as a contradiction to the controversial letter published by Chancellor Philip Hammond which said there would be “large fiscal consequences” in the event of the UK failing to reach a deal with the EU.
In the miasma of contradiction and incoherence which now envelops the government’s Brexit strategy, may I ask a simple question? Why is everybody pretending that we have a choice between the prime minister’s Chequers plan, and no-deal?
A statement from China’s commerce ministry said that the two countries agreed to “actively explore the possibility of discussing a top-notch free trade agreement between the two sides after Brexit”.
The move has the full backing of Eurosceptic MPs keen to boost investment and expand trade in services in a post-Brexit world.
Ex-president of European council says failure to reach a solution could increase pressure for Scottish independence
THE Conservative Party has erupted into civil war as deep splits in Brexit policy come to the fore.
The timing of the chancellor’s letter will prompt suspicions among Tory Brexiteers, who already believe he is trying to keep the UK closely tied to the EU.
Both Mr Hammond and Mrs Morgan supported Remain at the EU referendum.
The chancellor Philip Hammond reminded his party on Thursday that there would be “large fiscal consequences” of £80bn of extra borrowing. Not one part of this is acceptable. To think otherwise is to live in a demented political la-la land in which fanatical dogma outweighs the jobs, security and life chances of ordinary people.
For weeks, there has been a string of doomsday scenarios in the British news media about what could happen if Prime Minister Theresa May’s negotiators fail to strike an agreement with Brussels.
There has been speculation — floated by think tanks, business lobbies and hospital administrators — a “no-deal Brexit” could create total havoc.
But in trying to prove to his European interlocutors that Britain is prepared for all eventualities, Mr. Raab knows he risks frightening the British public and weakening faith in the Brexit project, which he supports.
Q13: Please imagine for a moment that a new political party has been created with one single aim – to put pressure on the main political parties to conclude Brexit as quickly and as fully as possible. To what extent, if at all, might you consider voting for such a party?
Base: all respondents
Would consider: 52 %
Would not consider: 29 %
Don’t know: 19 %
MOST voters in Labour-held constituencies which backed Brexit in 2016 would consider backing a single-issue political party pushing to leave the EU “as quickly and as fully as possible”, a new poll has found.
(15.August) The European Union’s Brexit negotiators fear that they are being bugged by the British secret service after the UK obtained sensitive documents “within hours” of them being presented to a meeting of EU officials last month, The Telegraph understands.
The Times is reporting that the German Chancellor Ms Merkel is frustrated the talks are not leading to a breakthrough, and is taking matters into her own hands.
She is said to have suggested they use the summit scheduled in Austria for the PM to hold direct talks to avert a no-deal Brexit.
But had Marr been on the ball (something he’s never been), he might also have asked about the US-EU bilateral agreement on safety in civil aviation – the so-called BASA. Even if the open skies agreement could be resolved, this is a far more complex issue, where there is no obvious or simple resolution.(…)
To that extent, it is good to have a little whiff of reality. Our politicians need to know that they are playing with fire, with the order and stability of our society at stake. Should the day come where they do lose control, one also hopes that the media will get their share of the attention. Their incompetence easily matches that of the government.
Former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson makes his resignation speech to the House of Commons after quitting the Government in protest at May’s proposed Brexit deal. From 18 July 2018.
The former foreign secretary is poised to address the Commons following his dramatic decision to quit over the PM’s Brexit policy.