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"News from the Brexit Cliff Edge" 24th May 2019

News Highlights

Welcome to the Brexit Cliff Edge

Theresa May halts vote on new Brexit deal as her leadership enters its 'death spiral phase'

ITV's Robert Peston believes Boris Johnson sealed Theresa May's doom

  • Johnson has manoeuvred with backbench colleagues to make it impossible for May to have her Brexit plan approved as he has persuaded them there is an escape from the Brexit deadlock that is destroying the Tory party. But not while Mrs May is in No 10. Boris has convinced Tory colleagues he could twist Brussels arm and remove the hated Irish Backstop (which the EU has repeatedly said is non-negotiable). And if that fails, he'd go full steam ahead to a No Deal Brexit with proper preparation

The EU Commission's Jean-Claude Junker suggests the UK is heading for another Brexit extension in October

  • Juncker spoke of his admiration for Mrs May and said 'what I don't like in the British debate is it seems more important to replace the PM than it is to find agreement amongst MPs in the Tory Party.' He went on 'this is a woman who knows how to do things but she is unable to succeed in doing so. I like her very much'

Macron wants to avoid Brexit 'polluting the EU' after 31st October

Senior Irish government figures fear the UK is reverting back towards a No Deal Brexit

Dominic Grieve threatens to quit the Tories to block a No Deal Brexit using everything in his power to do so

Boris Johnson: 'irresponsible and dishonest' with his £350m a week pledge during the 2016 Brexit referendum

  • In a private prosecution which began Thursday, lawyers made the case that Johnson should be summoned to face accusations of misconduct in public office over his now infamous claim to claw back £350m a week from Brussels for the NHS

Hundreds of EU nationals were denied a vote at the European elections

  • Campaigners representing EU nationals said they've received hundreds of complaints from people denied a vote, even though they are on the electoral roll. To be able to vote EU citizens has to additional complet a EC6 or UC1 form to declare they would not cast a second ballot in their home country and submit them to their local council by May 7th
  • Councils admitted they had failed to send out EU postal ballots in time
  • Legal opinion said denying EU citizens the right to vote was a scandal that we all could see coming. Voters across the country found their names crossed off the electoral register 'due to clerical error by councils' being just one of many symptoms. The view from legal experts was the government may have a case to answer in court over its handling of the European elections

European Elections

  • With the ballot boxes sealed until Sunday the result of the European Elections is not assured. But polls and popular wisdom believe the Brexit Party of Nigel Farage look set to secure around 30% of the vote, with the Liberal Democrats in second place. But it all depends on turnout
Economic Impact
British Steel is the canary in the coal mine - we need to prepare now for the Brexit threat to jobs
The announcement that British Steel is to enter insolvency is the latest example of how uncertainty over Brexit is threatening livelihoods across the country. This does not just affect the 5,000 workers at Scunthorpe, but also a support staff of 20,000 across the whole supply chain. Sadly, many other firms face the same danger because of Brexit and the loss of European customers who are uncertain about future trading relations. One recent estimate put the economic damage Brexit has already inflicted on the UK at £600m a week. Try sticking that on the side of a bus. Meanwhile, leading business groups, including the British Chambers of Commerce, expect the economy to remain weak throughout this year as investment stutters, while major manufacturers from Airbus to BMW warn that a no-deal scenario could well force them to move operations and jobs abroad.
Political Shenanigans
Social climbers The Brexit Party wins the battle for Facebook clicks
However the Brexit Party fares at the ballot box, it has won the battle for clicks. It has spent no more than most of its rivals on Facebook ads in the past month. But it has got dramatically better results. The party’s Facebook pages have attracted 2.2m likes, shares and comments, more than all the other parties combined, and some 30 times more than Change uk, a pro-Remain upstart which outspent it.
Sort Brexit and win an election: Five things on the next PM's to-do list
Whoever takes over from bleary-eyed Theresa May as prime minister - tear today, gone tomorrow - will face the same Brexit crisis that has brought about her downfall. The new prime minister's first problem will be that the parliamentary arithmetic won't have changed since Theresa May's humiliating Commons defeats earlier this year. A Brexiteer prime minister could still be thwarted by a pro-Remain House of Commons. The next problem is Brussels.
Farage on course to thrash Tories as Euro Election polls close - and Boris could be heading to No10, Mail poll reveals
Nigel Farage is heading for a landslide victory in the European Parliament elections – and Boris Johnson has raced into a big early lead in the battle to succeed Theresa May as Prime Minister. They are the main findings of an opinion survey which concluded at midnight on Wednesday after it became clear that Mrs May was on the brink of resigning. The Survation poll for the Daily Mail shows Mr Farage’s Brexit Party well ahead in the European elections on 31 per cent, trailed by Labour on 23, the Conservatives on 14 and the Lib Dems on 12. Nearly seven out of ten Tory voters said the reason they did not intend to vote for Mrs May yesterday was because of her failure to deliver Brexit. Calls for her to step down were backed by 57 per cent of Conservatives with 25 per cent against.
European elections latest polls: Brexit Party forecast to win the most votes
With the public having voted in the European Parliament elections on Thursday, the latest polls show that Nigel Farage's Brexit Party was likely to gain the most votes in the UK. Although the vote took place in the UK on Thursday, the results are not expected until Sunday evening due to most other EU member states casting their votes that day. The Conservatives are on course for their lowest ever share of the vote in a nationwide ballot and could even slip into fifth place behind the Greens. Establishment parties are expected to suffer across the EU, both at the hands of the populist-Right as well as resurgent liberal parties. The result is likely to be a more fragmented European Parliament
Cabinet ministers urge May to ditch her Brexit plan as she clings on to power
Theresa May has been urged by Cabinet colleagues to scrap her heavily criticised Brexit legislation as speculation mounted about her future. The Prime Minister was involved in a “frank” discussion with Home Secretary Sajid Javid, while Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt made clear he did not believe her Withdrawal Agreement Bill (WAB) could get through the Commons. The Prime Minister will discuss her leadership in a meeting on Friday with backbench leader Sir Graham Brady amid speculation she could set out the timetable for her exit from Number 10.
Brussels rejects 'fraudulent' Raab claim used in election video
The European commission has described a claim made by the Conservative leadership hopeful Dominic Raab about a key EU official’s views on Brexit as “fake, fraudulent and pure disinformation” after it was spread in an election campaign video. Raab, who resigned as Brexit secretary last year over the deal struck with the EU, claimed in November that the commission’s secretary general, Martin Selmayr, had boasted that “losing Northern Ireland was the price the UK would pay for Brexit”. The quote attributed by Raab to Selmayr has been used in a two-minute video posted on a Twitter account called NI in Union urging voters in Northern Ireland to support unionist parties in the European elections. The video features images of bombings and says Northern Ireland has been “threatened before” and that voters should “stand up” and make their voice heard.
PM to lay out a timetable to quit within weeks in last-ditch bid to pass Brexit deal
Jeremy Hunt and Sajid Javid told Theresa May her Brexit offer was flawed but neither told her to resign in visit to No10. Theresa May is today expected to lay out a timetable to step down within weeks. In a last-ditch bid to buy more time for her Brexit deal, the PM is set to refuse spiralling Brexiteer demands to quit immediately despite losing much of her Cabinet’s support, allies say.
European election predictions: what the pollsters are forecasting
In the likely event of a Conservative wipeout and Brexit party triumph, expect to hear Tory calls for a leader to replace May who can tack to the right and mop up the millions of Brexit party votes. Arguably, something similar happened in 2015, when David Cameron made his fateful referendum promise.
Change UK pays for Facebook ad blitz amid dismal EU poll ratings
Change UK has run a last-minute Facebook advertising campaign to try to shore up its support amid dismal poll ratings for the European elections, but most other parties have mostly avoided large spending on online campaigning. The upstart pro-EU political party, formerly known as the Independent Group, spent £87,000 on Facebook adverts in the seven days up to Wednesday, becoming the biggest single political advertiser on the social networking site, following predictions it could fail to elect a single MEP and faced with the potential resignation of the party’s interim leader, Heidi Allen. Not all Change UK’s adverts have hit the spot. In one example highlighted by iNews, the party spent at least £1,300 promoting Facebook adverts saying it was campaigning to “remain in the UK”.
European elections latest news: Theresa May suggests she will fight on as Sajid Javid tells her he cannot back the current deal
Theresa May has indicated she is willing to change her 'new' Brexit deal in order to stay in Number 10, despite facing growing calls to quit from her MPs. The Prime Minister's official spokesman has claimed she is "listening to colleagues" and will be holding on to push her Brexit deal through
Theresa May's day of destiny arrives after Jeremy Hunt withdraws support for Brexit bill
Theresa May must finally confront her own destiny on Friday after Jeremy Hunt withdrew his support for her last-chance Brexit bill. In a pivotal meeting on Thursday the Foreign Secretary made it clear to the Prime Minister she must abandon the deeply unpopular plan on which her hopes of survival rested. Mrs May had agreed to announce the timetable of her departure after a vote on the Brexit “divorce” bill next month, but after she cancelled that vote her reason for remaining as Tory leader also fell away. It leaves the Prime Minister cornered as she prepares to meet Sir Graham Brady, her most senior backbencher, on Friday morning to discuss her future.
Why the UK’s European election is not proxy Brexit referendum
It is widely accepted that only a referendum on Brexit could permit the government to abandon the U.K.’s departure from the EU — the European election won’t change that. In truth, both sides will likely take the result as vindication of their stance. Brexiteers will argue it backs a swift exit, while Remainers will say only a people’s vote can end the political impasse.
Senior government figures fear UK is inching towards no-deal Brexit
The mood in Dublin on Brexit has darkened in recent weeks with some political figures now wondering if the UK crashing out of the European Union in October without a deal can be avoided, senior sources say. After warnings by Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney at Cabinet this week that a no-deal Brexit was more likely than ever, the Taoiseach insisted that he believed an orderly, negotiated Brexit was still the most likely outcome. The Government’s official spokesman said that a British exit on the basis of the withdrawal agreement was still Dublin’s “central-case scenario”. However, senior figures in Dublin say privately that the momentum in London appears to be heading for a no-deal outcome.
Brexit: Boris Johnson ‘irresponsible and dishonest’ with £350m-a-week NHS pledge, court hears
Boris Johnson could be summoned to court to face accusations ​of misconduct in public office over his infamous pledge to claw back £350m a week from Brussels for the NHS. Lawyers accused the former foreign secretary of lying to voters during the 2016 referendum campaign, as part of efforts to launch a private prosecution by the Brexit Justice campaign. Mr Johnson, who is a frontrunner to succeed Theresa May, has already been rapped by the statistics watchdog for using the figure, which was splashed across the side of a Vote Leave campaign bus.
Duncan Smith calls for May's cabinet to quit if Brexit bill published
The former Conservative party leader Iain Duncan Smith has stepped up the pressure on Theresa May by urging her cabinet to resign en masse if the revised EU withdrawal bill is published on Friday. Downing Street is still insisting May plans to publish the bill despite Andrea Leadsom’s resignation as leader of the House of Commons and speculation that the prime minister will have to set a date for her departure on Friday.
UK heading for another Brexit extension in October, suggests Juncker
Jean-Claude Juncker has suggested that the UK is drifting towards another Brexit extension in October as he criticised MPs for prioritising the prime minister’s removal over finding agreement on a Brexit deal. With May appearing on the brink of resignation, the European commission president spoke of his admiration for her resilience and his disdain for the attempts to remove her. “What I don’t like in the British debate is it seems more important to replace the prime minister than to find an agreement among themselves,” Juncker said in an interview with CNN. “This is a woman who knows how to do things but she is unable to succeed in doing things. I like her very much; she is a tough person.”
Dominic Grieve threatens to quit Tories to BLOCK no deal Brexit - ‘EVERYTHING in my power’
Conservative MP Dominic Grieve has sensationally suggested he could quit his party, potentially bringing down the Government, in order to stop a no deal Brexit. The senior backbencher was speaking on the ITV Peston politics show. Theresa May is under intense pressure to resign as Prime Minister, and could be replaced by an advocate of a no deal EU exit. Yesterday Commons leader Andrea Leadsom resigned from the Cabinet saying she no longer trusts the Government to implement Brexit.
Theresa May's final days are crashing us into a whole new world of Brexit madness
One of May’s finest attributes has been the heartening way that, on several occasions, she’s decided to go over the heads of the MPs who have rejected her, so she can appeal to the public and be rejected by them as well. The most impressive attempt at this was when she cleverly tried to win people round by going on television and calling everyone an arsehole.
Brexit pits young against old through the corruption of ‘traditional values’. But there is a way to reverse the damage
Voter registration, Brexit, Extinction Rebellion and racial injustice – we're attempting to reshape a society in our image. As we begin to reflect on a remarkable European elections campaign, it's also worth looking at political grandees who have been brilliantly speaking out on behalf of young people. I've seen both former deputy prime minister Lord Heseltine and former foreign secretary Dame Margaret Beckett speak in public, and they're always most passionate about the impact Brexit will have on the young. There is a genuine desire, across generations, to create a society in a modern age, which reflects some of those old fashioned values. New rules to curtail the influence of money in politics, electoral reform and a covenant for the internet.
This prime minister was destroyed by Brexit. And the next one will be too.
The truth about Brexit - the plain and simple truth of it, which no-one can make go away - is that it can only be done to a long timetable and with a lot of pain. It is fiendishly complicated. It requires the full capacity of the British political system for about five to seven years. The sacrifices it demands would probably never be accepted by parliament. And if you managed to get over all those obstacles, your only accomplishment would be to make the country poorer and weaker than it was before. A true Brexiter, someone who was really committed to doing this, would not be lying and misleading, like May, or out on the street promoting their own pure ideological certainty, like Nigel Farage. They would be honest about the timeframe and the trade offs.
UK Prime Minister Theresa May expected depart with Brexit
U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May appears, finally, to have reached the end of the road. A plan to resuscitate her Brexit deal was abandoned on Thursday. The London Times reports that she'll "announce a timetable for her departure tomorrow morning." The bottom line: May came into office three years ago with a singular mission — to deliver Brexit. Anyone would have struggled to do so. She, quite clearly, failed. May labored desperately to stitch together a party that nonetheless continued to fray. British politics are more polarized and gridlocked than at any time in recent memory
Tory leadership contest to start 10 June, I am told, writes Robert Peston
Put 10 June in your diary. Because that is when the contest to elect a new Tory leader, and therefore a new prime minister, will begin, I am told. Why am I confident of that? Well it is the last possible date for the contest that the shop stewards for Tory MPs, the executive for the 1922 committee, deem acceptable. And - perhaps more importantly - it is the date that the PM has signalled to her closest allies that she can tolerate.
Brexit: Jeremy Hunt becomes first cabinet minister to tell May to abandon doomed bill
Jeremy Hunt has broken ranks by becoming the first cabinet member urging Theresa May to abandon her Brexit bill because it is “clear it wouldn’t pass”. In a face-to-face meeting, the foreign secretary told the prime minister it was “too much to ask” Tory MPs to vote for the doomed legislation, The Independent has learned. It is understood that Mr Hunt did not ask Ms May to quit – ahead of a showdown meeting on Friday, when Tory MPs will demand a rapid timetable for her to go.
Theresa May halts vote on new Brexit deal as her leadership enters 'death spiral'
Theresa May caved in to her Cabinet today by dramatically halting her Brexit withdrawal Bill in a move that heightened expectations she will resign as Tory leader tomorrow. An isolated Prime Minister began the day by rebuffing members of her own Cabinet ...
Theresa May’s government pulls June Brexit vote
Theresa May's government pulled a planned vote on her Brexit deal scheduled for the first week of June. Mark Spencer, a government whip, told the House of Commons that the government still planned to publish the Withdrawal Agreement Bill in the week commencing June 3, but that a second reading — at which MPs would have the opportunity to vote — could not be confirmed.
How Boris Johnson sealed Theresa May's doom
Boris' manoeuvres with his backbench colleagues have made it impossible for the PM to have her Brexit plan approved - were she to put her Withdrawal Agreement Bill to a vote, as she still promises to do - because he has persuaded them there is an escape from the Brexit deadlock that is destroying their party but not while she is in 10 Downing Street. It has been put to me as uncontroversial and incontrovertible truth by senior members of the Cabinet whose Brexit credentials are at best moot. "What Boris did was convince my colleagues that if he were PM, he could persuade Brussels to ditch the hated backstop," said one. "Or rather that it is worth a go. And if he fails then it is full steam ahead to a no-deal Brexit, though with proper preparation".
Nigel Farage's 'official website' is publishing attacks on Brexit Party leader
A website apparently owned by Nigel Farage has started publishing articles attacking the Brexit Party leader. Recent posts on the website’s blog include two videos from Channel 4 News probing his finances.
Macron wants to avoid Brexit 'polluting' EU after 31 October
France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, has said he wants to avoid Brexit “polluting” the EU after 31 October, and that European leaders need to know when the UK’s prolonged departure will come to an end. In April, Macron stood alone at a meeting of the EU27 in championing a short Brexit extension in opposition to those willing to give the UK until next year to complete its withdrawal. The October deadline for the British government to have ratified the withdrawal agreement or face a no-deal exit was a compromise position brokered with the German chancellor, Angela Merkel. Macron, in a sign of the frustration in Brussels at the risk posed to its future agenda by the UK’s continued membership, told the Belgian newspaper Le Soir the EU needed a clear end date to the continuing saga.
European parliament elections: The Brexit effect
Fast-forward almost three years and here we are, it's European Parliament elections time - and although Eurosceptic parties are expected to make a strong showing at the polls, there's barely a peep amongst them (UK parties remaining the exception) about leaving the EU. Why have European voters gone off the idea? In part, this is down to a growing awareness that the world out there is downright unpredictable: with President Trump in the White House; Russian President Putin at large around the European corner; looming trade wars; the environment in a mess; and the threat of mass migration to this continent from poorer parts of the globe.
Political Setbacks
Corbyn isn’t working – and Labour is being picked apart by its new enemies
Corbyn has taken a senseless political risk by treating his voters as fools. The British Election Study estimated that two thirds of Labour voters went with Remain in the 2016 referendum. Now YouGov estimates that 88 per cent back Remain. Any party that goes with the 12 per cent rather than the 88 per cent will collapse. It is not a party for the many, but for the few. The far left has been so busy fighting the hated ‘centrists’ that it has forgotten to fight the right and far right. Existing and former Labour supporters have not been so negligent. They need only look at the tribunes of Brexit — at Gerard Batten, Nigel Farage, Boris Johnson, Jacob Rees-Mogg and Dominic Raab — to know that they must be opposed. There is an almost primitive fear at work. If a film company had searched for characters guaranteed to set the tom-toms of liberal England beating out a warning, it could not have found better candidates than these gentlemen.
Angry Pro-Remain Labour Activists Launch Bid To Force Party Into Anti-Brexit Position
Pro-Remain Labour activists have launched a drive to push the party’s leadership into an anti-Brexit position. In the wake of European elections forecast to be a disaster for Jeremy Corbyn, left-wing campaigners have published a motion calling for the party to adopt a radical “remain and reform” agenda at the party’s conference in Brighton in September. It demands the party defends free movement and takes the position that Brexit is a right-wing project which is “poisoning politics”. Labour’s current policy is to secure a Brexit deal which includes a customs union and a “strong single market deal” and, if the UK were facing a hard Brexit or a no-deal, then to push for a second vote. The new motion is being pushed to local Constituency Labour Parties (CLPs) from next week.
Theresa May will address the nation TODAY after disastrous Euro election to pledge Britain will have a new PM by summer – but she wants to DELAY Tory leadership vote for Trump’s state visit
Mrs May will begin the day with a meeting with the Tories’ backbench shop steward Sir Graham Brady to discuss the exact timetable for her departure. She is then expected to address the nation from Downing Street to explain why she is leaving ‘the job I love’ before she has realised her ambition of leading Britain out of the European Union Mrs May is expected to try to delay the start of the Tory leadership race until the week beginning June 10, to allow her to host Donald Trump’s state visit without the indignity of her MPs voting on her successor at the same time. But she will stay on as Prime Minister while the Tory leadership contest takes place, allowing a smooth transition to a new leader before the summer recess.
Why Theresa May is expected to announce departure date
Unless something extremely strange happens in the next couple of days, it is now, really, nearly over. Several cabinet ministers have told me they expect Theresa May to announce her departure from Downing Street on Friday. A senior minister said: "She's going to go - if it's to be done, it's best to be done quickly." Another said it would be "unforgivable" for her to try to stay on now. One of those who has been most loyal to her said: "It might be tomorrow or Saturday, but it can't be past Sunday."
DISPOSSESSED DISENFRANCHISED Denied My Vote
Chani Klapka, one of the 3.1 million EU citizens resident in the UK and eligible to vote in the Euro Elections today, describes her Kafkaesque experience. I am a German citizen, and a UK resident since 2014. I have lived in Luton for 4 years. like thousands, I have been denied a ballot at the polling station today on the grounds that I have not filled in a certain form that states my intent to vote in the EU elections in the UK. Others have been told their forms have not been processed, despite them provably having been filed well before the required deadline. This form is required to receive a ballot at a polling station, but the council is NOT required to provide it nor make residents aware of it. This, we have only been told after calling the local electoral office at Luton Borough Council. At that point, we were only given an email address to complain. At no point, since well before the election, have I been made aware of the requirement for this form. The EU Parliament website states that this form should be provided by the local council.
Brexit: 'Democratic disaster' as hundreds of EU nationals denied a vote
Nicola Sturgeon has urged EU citizens to insist on their right to vote following reports that hundreds have been turned away from polling stations because of confusion over additional requirements to register for European elections. Campaigners representing European nationals said they had received hundreds of complaints of people being denied a vote even though they are on the electoral roll. To be able to vote, EU citizens had to complete the EC6 or UC1 forms to declare they would not cast a second ballot in their home country, and submit them to their local council by 7 May.
EU citizens complain of being denied right to vote in UK European elections
Voters in the UK have been going to the polls in the European parliamentary elections. Well, some of them have. Since the polls opened, dozens of frustrated EU citizens living in the UK have been taking to Twitter to complain that they were being turned away from polling stations because they hadn’t completed the correct paperwork. The Electoral Commission has blamed the situation on the “very short notice” given for the European elections, which weren’t supposed to happen because of Brexit.
UK government may face court action after EU citizens denied vote
The government is facing calls to launch an urgent investigation into the treatment of EU citizens in the European elections after many people reported being denied their democratic right to vote. Voters across the country told of their devastation at finding their names crossed off the register due to clerical errors by local councils. Experts said the situation was a “scandal we knew was coming” and that the government may have a case to answer in court. The affected voters said they felt they were being “silenced” as this was the only election they had a right to participate in, being ineligible to vote in the referendum or general elections.
Councils admit failure to send out EU postal ballots in time
At least three local councils across England and Wales have admitted that they ran out of time to print and send postal ballots for the European elections to some overseas voters, leaving them effectively disenfranchised. Three voters contacted the Guardian with details of papers that arrived so late it was impossible to get their vote back to the UK in time, some landing only on polling day. There had already been complaints ahead of the election about missing or late ballots. Local councils told these voters that arrangements were affected by an extremely compressed schedule. The government had hoped to avoid holding the elections by getting a Brexit deal through parliament.
European elections: Government could face court action after hundreds of EU citizens ‘denied vote’, experts warn
A barrister who specialises in EU law claimed there were multiple breaches of EU treaties, including Article 20 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union which states that EU nationals have “the right to vote…under the same conditions as nationals of that state [of residence].” Anneli Howard told The Guardian: “If EU citizens are being asked to fill out additional forms that UK nationals are not, that’s discrimination.” While Ms Howard said she did not think it was likely any judge would declare council clerical errors had made the election unsafe, she added that the treaty had “direct effect” and meant EU citizens could go straight to court.
It’s hard to imagine. But could this really be the end for the Tories?
Is this party really in a death spiral, or will it always right itself? Conservatism as the British default is so deep-dyed in the national psyche it’s hard to think this is the end. This generation of Conservatives has brought us so low in this decade: in austerity, in stagnant incomes, in devastated public services, catastrophic productivity, lost social security and lost respect abroad. In its visionless hopelessness, the party may indeed have eaten itself. If so, it may be replaced on the right by anti-establishment Faragism, with even more sinister aims in power. Or else the demise of this great pillar of reaction could open doors to a chance of something better.
Boris Johnson lied during EU referendum campaign, court told
Boris Johnson lied and engaged in criminal conduct when he repeatedly claimed during the 2016 EU referendum that the UK sent £350m a week to Brussels, lawyers for a crowdfunded private prosecution of the MP have told a court. A legal team assembled by Marcus Ball, a 29-year-old businessman who has accused the former foreign secretary of misconduct in public office and raised more than £200,000 to finance the prosecution, laid out their case in front of a judge, who will rule next Wednesday on whether Johnson should appear in court. The case concerned the “now infamous claim” by Johnson about the £350m, Lewis Power QC told Westminster magistrates court, and was not about preventing or delaying Brexit.
Growing ‘Irexit’ Campaign has Links to Notorious British Ethno-Nationalist
An investigation by anti-racism activists in Ireland has revealed that the ‘Muintir na héireann’ (‘People of Ireland’) website and Facebook community, sporting over 10,000 followers, is the work of Jack Sen, a notorious white nationalist, who most recently came to prominence in the Channel 4 documentary, ‘Sleeping With The Far Right’. The campaign is not associated with the Irish populist party of the same name that existed during the 1990s. Address details, Google Analytics codes and other details on the site all point to Jack Sean’s home in Southport, Merseyside, as featured in the Channel 4 documentary. Image folders on the site also feature pictures of Sen with other white nationalists. When reached for comment, Sen claimed that his involvement extended only to providing hosting for the site.
Academic Dr Niall McCrae Filmed Calling Remain Activist 'A F***ing Traitor' During Brexit Rally
The 29-year-old Remain campaigner had set up a desk outside the event with a sign that read: “A no-deal Brexit would be a disaster for the UK. Change my mind.” As McCrae repeatedly shouts “fucking traitor”, another man throws water from a bottle over Oluwole. McCrae is later seen in the video shaking hands with the man.
Brexit Party set to trigger political earthquake with Tories and Labour facing election humiliation
Nigel Farage predicted to take more than a third of the Euro poll votes A survey carried out on the eve of yesterday's vote put the fledging party on a whopping 31 per cent - eight points clear of the nearest challenger, Labour on 23 per cent. The ...
Corbyn's former economics adviser calls him a 'pro-Brexit buffoon'
A former economic adviser to Jeremy Corbyn has launched an extraordinary personal attack on the Labour leader, calling him a “pro-Brexit buffoon” who was “clueless” about economics. Danny Blanchflower, who served on the Bank of England’s monetary policy committee during the financial crisis, joined other leading left-leaning economists on an advisory group after Corbyn gained power. But he has since distanced himself from the leader of the UK opposition, and now urging voters not to support Corbyn over his stance on Brexit in the upcoming European elections. In a series of furious tweets over the past few days, Blanchflower called Corbyn an “uneducated fool” and accused him of being “clueless” about economics.
Tory peer suspended from party whip after backing Lib Dems in EU elections
Another senior Conservative peer has been suspended from the party whip for pledging to vote Liberal Democrat in the European elections, after the punishment was imposed on the former deputy prime minister Michael Heseltine. Andrew Cooper, the founder of pollster Populus who was David Cameron’s director of strategy in Downing Street, tweeted: “I have come to the same conclusion as Michael Heseltine, for exactly the same reasons – and will be voting Lib Dem in Thursday’s European parliament elections.”
This is a sorry end for a Prime Minister who never believed in Brexit
“All political lives,” said Enoch Powell, “end in failure.” For Theresa May, the agony of the ending, and the failure, has been drawn out for longer than usual. But in the coming days, it is certain that her premiership will draw to a close. The Cabinet’s patience has been finally snapped by the Prime Minister’s latest tone-deaf Brexit proposal. Andrea Leadsom has resigned. MPs say there isn’t a single colleague who thinks the PM should continue. Any Conservative made nervous by the prospect of regicide will find their minds made up by the European elections. The Government’s failure to deliver Brexit – and its continued attempts to deliver a Brexit deal seen by many Leavers as a betrayal is why they believe she must go

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