Tom Watson repeats call for Labour to back second referendum Deputy leader says party must support fresh Brexit vote to beat Tories in an election
Tom Watson has called on Labour to support a second Brexit referendum under all circumstances if the party is to beat the Conservatives in a general election. As the party considers whether to call another no-confidence vote in Theresa May’s government, its deputy leader said a people’s vote would bring the country back together. His latest call comes after May’s deal was struck down for a third time in the Commons on Friday, and as MPs prepare to vote on a series of Brexit options, including a second referendum, on Monday.
EU would delay Brexit again to let UK hold a second referendum EU officials expect leaders to demand a justification from Theresa May for a long Article 50 extension
EU leaders are prepared to let Britain delay Brexit again to allow time for a second referendum, The Independent understands. After parliament rejected Theresa May’s deal for a third time, the bloc called a summit on 10 April – two days before the UK is on course to leave without a deal.
And senior Brussels officials familiar with leaders’ thinking say that barring a credible plan to get a majority for the withdrawal agreement, the UK would be given more time only if it was for another clear option such as a general election or a referendum.
Words such as "feud" and "open warfare" are used to describe divisions at the top of government as ministers and MPs enter another week seeking ways to end the gridlock over Brexit. The Guardian claims Theresa May's government is "on the verge of meltdown" as cabinet ministers prepare to clash over whether to support plans for a softer Brexit and a possible lengthy delay to Britain's departure from the EU. With MPs about to vote again on a range of options, The Times says the prime minister has been warned that she risks shattering the Conservative Party if she bows to the will of the Commons, should it opt for a customs union arrangement with Europe. The paper says that under such circumstances pro-Brexit ministers have made clear they would consider resigning. "Tories at breaking point" - is how the i newspaper sums up the party's predicament.
The Financial Times reports that ministers and Mrs May's most senior advisers are at loggerheads over the prospect of a snap general election to break the impasse. It says many MPs are aghast at the idea - put forward by some of the prime minister's aides - warning that it could result in a wipe-out for the Tory Party. Transport Secretary Chris Grayling has told the Daily Telegraph that the Conservatives must appoint a senior Eurosceptic to lead them through the next phase of the Brexit negotiations and must delay a full-scale leadership contest until after a general election in three years' time. The paper believes his comments will be seen as an effort to streamline the race to replace Mrs May, amid speculation that as many as two dozen MPs could slug it out in a campaign that could go on for months. "We are ready for power" is the front page headline in the Daily Mirror, which declares that Labour is primed to lead the country and take control of Brexit.
Brexit: how do voters feel about the EU now? The polls show a shift in favour of Remain, but this advantage is narrow and fragile
The wind seems to be in the sails of campaigners looking to keep Britain in the EU as, for the first time in the Brexit crisis, they see signs of the public mood shifting in their favour. Hundreds of thousands marched in support of EU membership last weekend, and a petition calling for article 50 to be revoked, reversing Brexit, secured almost 6m signatures in 10 days. Meanwhile, Theresa May’s withdrawal agreement was voted down for a third time in the House of Commons on Friday, and a second-referendum proposal was one of the most popular options in the “indicative vote” process developed by MPs to gauge support for ways to break the deadlock. A second referendum has never looked nearer and, polling suggests, Remainers would enter the contest narrowly ahead. The UK needs a year-long extension on Brexit – to really take back control Gordon Brown Read more
A range of polling suggests the public have moved in a pro-EU direction since 2016. The polling average compiled by Sir John Curtice and the body What UK Thinks puts Remain ahead, by 54 to 46, with practically every poll conducted in the past year or so recording a small Remain lead. The share of the public who think the Leave vote was “in hindsight the wrong decision” has slowly crept up, and is now consistently above the share who still believe Britain made the right choice. Public approval of May’s deal is also exceptionally low, and the share of voters who think it will deliver a good outcome for Britain has fallen steadily. Time, perhaps, to go back to the people?
There are certainly good reasons to believe this shift in public opinion is real. The rise in support for Remain is mainly driven by those who did not vote in 2016, either because they abstained or were too young. Abstainers and new voters now heavily back Remain, and their numbers are growing steadily, with about three-quarters of a million new voters joining the electorate each year.
Meanwhile, the concentration of Leave support among older voters puts Brexit campaigners on the wrong side of demographic change. There are other headwinds for Brexiters, too. Concern about immigration, a key driver of voting for Leave in 2016, has declined sharply since the referendum. And voters who were enthusiastic about Brexit in 2016 have become more negative about the deal the government has managed to negotiate. The Remain advantage is, however, narrow and fragile. There has been very little change in sentiment among those who voted in the referendum, and little evidence that Leave voters have changed their minds. Instead, Brexit partisanship has consolidated and intensified, with Leave and Remain voters increasingly seeing their choice as a core part of their political identity. This makes their views very hard to shift – and those who voted last time are more certain to turn out again than the former abstainers and new voters driving Remain’s current polling leads.
Brexit: how do voters feel about the EU now? The polls show a shift in favour of Remain, but this advantage is narrow and fragile
The wind seems to be in the sails of campaigners looking to keep Britain in the EU as, for the first time in the Brexit crisis, they see signs of the public mood shifting in their favour. Hundreds of thousands marched in support of EU membership last weekend, and a petition calling for article 50 to be revoked, reversing Brexit, secured almost 6m signatures in 10 days. Meanwhile, Theresa May’s withdrawal agreement was voted down for a third time in the House of Commons on Friday, and a second-referendum proposal was one of the most popular options in the “indicative vote” process developed by MPs to gauge support for ways to break the deadlock. A second referendum has never looked nearer and, polling suggests, Remainers would enter the contest narrowly ahead. The UK needs a year-long extension on Brexit – to really take back control Gordon Brown Read more
A range of polling suggests the public have moved in a pro-EU direction since 2016. The polling average compiled by Sir John Curtice and the body What UK Thinks puts Remain ahead, by 54 to 46, with practically every poll conducted in the past year or so recording a small Remain lead. The share of the public who think the Leave vote was “in hindsight the wrong decision” has slowly crept up, and is now consistently above the share who still believe Britain made the right choice. Public approval of May’s deal is also exceptionally low, and the share of voters who think it will deliver a good outcome for Britain has fallen steadily. Time, perhaps, to go back to the people?
There are certainly good reasons to believe this shift in public opinion is real. The rise in support for Remain is mainly driven by those who did not vote in 2016, either because they abstained or were too young. Abstainers and new voters now heavily back Remain, and their numbers are growing steadily, with about three-quarters of a million new voters joining the electorate each year.
Meanwhile, the concentration of Leave support among older voters puts Brexit campaigners on the wrong side of demographic change. There are other headwinds for Brexiters, too. Concern about immigration, a key driver of voting for Leave in 2016, has declined sharply since the referendum. And voters who were enthusiastic about Brexit in 2016 have become more negative about the deal the government has managed to negotiate. The Remain advantage is, however, narrow and fragile. There has been very little change in sentiment among those who voted in the referendum, and little evidence that Leave voters have changed their minds. Instead, Brexit partisanship has consolidated and intensified, with Leave and Remain voters increasingly seeing their choice as a core part of their political identity. This makes their views very hard to shift – and those who voted last time are more certain to turn out again than the former abstainers and new voters driving Remain’s current polling leads.
The Brexit deal is dead, please stop trying to resuscitate this lifeless body and give us a Final Say So that really should be that now for Theresa May’s Brexit deal, at least in its present formulation. Her four-month-long effort to win her Eurosceptic ERG and DUP critics round has finally failed
The other evening she made a broadcast in which she appealed over the heads of MPs to the public – “I’m on your side.” Well, if she is, and they are on her side, then all she needs to do is to take her case to the country, in a final rebuke to her rebellious parliamentary colleagues.
In any case, we need to move on. Fortunately some of our MPs are taking their responsibilities seriously, and moving towards something like a consensus about the way forward. Two things – complementary in fact – seem to be emerging from the spitballing of our elected representatives. First, a closer economic relationship with the EU that includes membership of the customs union – something that we agreed to in 1972 as the “economic club” we thought we’d joined. Second, the need for a Final Say referendum on whatever deal emerges from the current imbroglio.
We could, then, have a referendum based on a choice between Remain; Leave on “soft Brexit” terms; or Leave on WTO terms. That would allow a sovereign people to choose between three realistic options that are acceptable to the EU. If the prime minister had any sense – and her judgment seems to have become increasingly erratic – she should indeed have the courage to put her deal to the people
Then again, the prime minister herself may not be around for much longer. She promised to quit as soon as Brexit became effective in May – but it seems very unlikely that there is any way that can happen now. Given everything, it would be even more chaotic to have a Conservative leadership election in the middle of this crisis and it would in any case solve nothing.
We also know we cannot crash out of the EU on 12 April, because parliament has ruled it out overwhelmingly. That leaves only one reaming path to stability. May must go to the EU and explain that she needs the time to form a consensus in the Commons (and not her own party). If they give us a year – “a year for Britain” – then she can leave her successor to take the task forward, towards the Final Say referendum. A year should be sufficient for the Tories to elect a new leader, for that new PM to amend the deal, and for them to put it to the people. Thus far we have run Brexit in reverse. Not all of the effort has been wasted – but we really do need to start again.
An immigrant's tale: Leaving Britain to escape Brexit hostility ‘After the referendum we could all feel the obvious feeling that we are not wanted here’
A few months after Britain voted to leave the European Union, Maria was waiting to see a doctor at a London hospital when an elderly English woman told her to go back to her native Romania. “You are a foreigner,” Maria, who was heavily pregnant at the time, recalls the woman saying. “Your place is not here.”Maria was stunned. Until that moment, she had never faced direct abuse over her nationality in her 10 years in the country. But ever since the 2016 Brexit campaign – when some Leave supporters said they wanted Britain to take more control of immigration – Maria said hostility towards EU nationals such as her has come into the open. The 31-year-old, who asked to use just her first name, said she was now preparing to leave Britain later this year with her husband and two children, fed up with what she described as xenophobia, as well as the rising cost of living in London. “After Brexit we could all feel the obvious feeling that we are not wanted here,” Maria said. “I don’t want my kids to grow up in this sort of environment.” She worries about her children being bullied at school. Last year her Romanian nanny and two-year-old daughter were playing in a park when a woman publicly accused them of being thieves.
Brexit: Tom Watson says new referendum 'only way' to unite country and would be in Labour manifesto if snap election called Jeremy Corbyn has put the party on an ‘election footing’ amid speculation over prospect of a snap poll, says deputy leader
Tom Watson has said a second referendum is the “only way” to unite the country and it would be “inconceivable” to not include the plan in a Labour election manifesto.
Compare the peaceful march for a Final Say with nasty threats of violence from the Brexit far right Quite a contrast isn’t it. But that’s roughly how it’s been ever since David Cameron stuck a knife into the heart of Britain in the hopes of settling a debate in the Conservative Party
Spot the difference: on Saturday, hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets to peacefully request a democratic vote in a march to Parliament Square where a rally was held. Today hundreds of people in the same place threaten rioting and violence in an attempt to push the opposite point.
Quite a contrast isn’t it.
But that’s roughly how it’s been ever since David Cameron stuck a knife into the heart of Britain in the hopes of settling a debate in the Conservative Party, which his successor Theresa May set about twisting with the same aim in mind.
One side politely requests a vote, the other responds with a pair of hobnailed boots. Or hobnailed heels in the case of May, who’s comments could be seen as inciting violence against MPs.
I was marching, or rather wheeling because the distance is beyond my limited capacity to walk, on Saturday with my mother and my 11-year-old son. I was perfectly relaxed about taking him because he was probably as safe in that good natured, jocular crowd as he would have been at his school. We’ve been on nearly all the big London demos, which have only grown in numbers as a dismal government has played out the dismal process of Brexit. About the worst thing that has happened? A few F bombs, a lot of booing around Downing Street and someone posting a **** to Brexit sticker on the nameplate of Brexiteer Liam Fox’s Department for International Trade.
It was probably removed before he arrived for work on Monday morning, but the thought of him seeing it at least made me chuckle. Dr Fox has been among those resorting to dire warnings and ill-judged hyperbole in an attempt to dragoon people into accepting his and his boss’s prescription for the country, with the threat of what the thugs may do if they don't always in the background.
Fox was at it again this morning, dribbling on about a “chasm of distrust” if MPs failed (as they did) to deliver his boss’s rotten apple of a deal. Perhaps he needs his eyes testing, because that chasm already exists. He helped to open it up, and to sow that distrust he was complaining about with the lies he told during the Brexit campaign. It was Fox, remember, who said securing a super duper Brexit have your cake and eat it deal would be the “easiest thing in human history” while promising to secure a raft of whizzy new trade pacts with the rest of the world. Remind me, where are they now? He hasn’t even managed to replicate most of the existing ones we benefit from courtesy of our membership with the EU.
Still, what do you expect from a ministerial code breaker. Lies are the stock in trade of the Brexiteers, of whatever hue. Take Ukip leader Gerald Batten. This is what he tweeted this morning: “There are reports that water cannon may be deployed tomorrow in London, and that some of the police may try to aggregate and provoke Brexiteers. There is always the danger of provocateurs planted to cause trouble. I hope it is not true but I call on everyone present to be peaceful.”
The Metropolitan Police retweeted him, along with its response: “Those reports are indisputably false.” Translation: liar, liar, pants on fire.
Batten appears to have been indulging in a case of projection, in anticipation of his pals going over the top. Regardless of what the actual thugs do, and what thuggish politicians like Fox and Batten say, here’s what you should remember. Whenever there is a terrorist outrage, we are always, always, told Britain will not be cowed and that the British people are as tough as old boots and won’t give in to violence. It doesn’t matter whether the outrage is perpetrated by the IRA or some al-Qaeda offshoot, the response is the same. We are also told that the perpetrators will be pursued and brought to justice with the full force of the law. Their lickspittles are roundly condemned. Please tell me why it should be any different in the case of the Brexit hard right?
Many of Tuesday's papers react after MPs again failed to agree on proposals for the next steps in the Brexit process. "April Fools" is how the 'i' sums up MPs after last night's Brexit votes in Parliament. "MPs choose nothing," says the Daily Mirror. "It's back to square one," according to the Daily Mail. Both that paper and the Daily Express call the failure of a majority of MPs to back any of the four alternative Brexit solutions debated a "farce". The Guardian says today's cabinet meeting will be dominated by "crisis talks" after MPs failed to back either a softer Brexit or a referendum last night. The Independent says the cabinet meeting promises "fireworks" as ministers discuss the increasingly likely general election "nobody actually wants". The Daily Telegraph says Theresa May will use the threat of an election, or a long Brexit delay, to try to persuade her party to put aside their differences and back her withdrawal deal.
Britain's highest-ranking civil servant, Cabinet Secretary Sir Mark Sedwill, has issued a "doomsday" analysis of how the country would be affected if the UK left without a deal, the Daily Mail reports. The paper has seen extracts of a leaked letter to ministers which it says warns of a 10% spike in food prices, the collapse of some small businesses and the re-introduction of direct rule in Northern Ireland. It also says it'll be more difficult for the police and security services to keep people safe. Downing Street declined to comment. Writing in the Daily Telegraph, former Conservative leader William Hague says he inherited a party in ruins after the 1997 election, but the situation in the party is much worse today - and there's every possibility of those hoping to replace Theresa May finding they are leading "not very much at all". He warns that if they don't get Brexit over the line now it'll probably never happen, and if the Tories don't start to function as a party again they'll be in more trouble than they can ever imagine. The headlines are much the same in Europe. In Germany, Bild says "again nothing", while the Frankfurter Allgemeine reports that EU politicians were horrified by the repeated rejection of all Brexit options. The Danish paper BT says the crisis in Parliament has now grown almost abysmal. Wyborcza in Poland calls what happened a "fiasco". While in France, Le Figaro thinks the prospect of a new election has been raised. A writer for the Spanish paper El Pais thinks the defeat of a soft Brexit will calm the mutiny of Eurosceptics and increase support for Mrs May's deal. The Irish Times believes she could now bring her plan back to the Commons for a fourth vote.
Top mandarin's No Deal warning: Doomsday leaked letter predicts food prices up 10%, police unable to protect the public, direct rule in Ulster and a worse recession than 2008 - ahead of PM's five-hour cabinet showdown TODAY
Britain's highest-ranking civil servant has issued a doomsday analysis of how the country would be affected by a No Deal Brexit, as MPs yet again failed to break the deadlock last night. The House of Commons rejected all four alternative Brexit plans in another series of votes last night, leaving Britain with no clear plan just 10 days before a possible cliff-edge exit. MPs rejected a customs union and a Norway-style agreement, dealing a blow to Remainer hopes of a soft Brexit, and also voted against a second referendum. The customs union plan proposed by longstanding Tory Europhile Kenneth Clarke was closest to victory - losing by just three votes, 276 to 273.
Sir Mark's 14-page letter warns: No Deal would result in a 10 per cent spike in food prices and the collapse of some businesses that trade with the EU; The Government would come under pressure to bail out companies on the brink; It would hamper the ability of the police and security services to keep people safe; It would lead to the reintroduction of direct rule in Northern Ireland for the first time since 2007; A recession will hit the UK and the pound's depreciation will be 'more harmful' than in 2008; Our legal authorities and judicial system would be put under 'enormous pressure'.
The most signed parliamentary petition of all time has had its parliamentary airing but the debate ended without even a vote.
More than six million people have backed calls for Article 50 to be revoked which would effectively cancel Brexit.
And today the petition debated in the smaller Westminster Hall chamber of the House of Commons.
Members of the newly formed Change UK party (formerly called The Independent Group) tried to force the debate to a vote so that it could be continued in the main chamber.
But the chair Steve McCabe interrupted the closing speech and did not call the normal vote.
As he ended proceedings Change UK MP Chris Leslie was heard to yell out "no".
Brexit minister Chris Heaton-Harris said the Government remained opposed to revoking Article 50 or calling a second referendum. He recognised the “frustrations and concerns” of the “substantial” number of people who signed the online petitions and the “hundreds of thousands” who joined the recent People’s Vote march on Parliament.
Rejecting calls for a People’s Vote, he said: “If we cannot show that we will uphold and respect the result of one referendum what guarantees could we give that we would uphold and respect the result of a second? Would we need a third, is it best out of five?”
Mr Heaton-Harris said the Government believed the 2016 referendum result had “settled the question” over Brexit and to “undermine what was expressed in that vote is a harmful precedent to set”.
The most signed parliamentary petition of all time has had its parliamentary airing but the debate ended without even a vote.
More than six million people have backed calls for Article 50 to be revoked which would effectively cancel Brexit.
And today the petition debated in the smaller Westminster Hall chamber of the House of Commons.
Members of the newly formed Change UK party (formerly called The Independent Group) tried to force the debate to a vote so that it could be continued in the main chamber.
But the chair Steve McCabe interrupted the closing speech and did not call the normal vote.
As he ended proceedings Change UK MP Chris Leslie was heard to yell out "no".
Brexit minister Chris Heaton-Harris said the Government remained opposed to revoking Article 50 or calling a second referendum. He recognised the “frustrations and concerns” of the “substantial” number of people who signed the online petitions and the “hundreds of thousands” who joined the recent People’s Vote march on Parliament.
Rejecting calls for a People’s Vote, he said: “If we cannot show that we will uphold and respect the result of one referendum what guarantees could we give that we would uphold and respect the result of a second? Would we need a third, is it best out of five?”
Mr Heaton-Harris said the Government believed the 2016 referendum result had “settled the question” over Brexit and to “undermine what was expressed in that vote is a harmful precedent to set”.
Allowing the public a vote on the Brexit outcome is hardly undemocratic.
I would see it as a vote on the outcome rather than a second referendum.
It may yet be the only solution, to avoid no deal.
I have said many times that a peoples vote is not ideal.
Although many people would change their opinion dependant on the choice.
Brexit is clearly about choices.
I am certain that many people that disapprove of a people vote would change their view if faced with a choice of no deal or a referendum.
The choices we are left with are as follows,
No deal, although I am very doubtful on this as Parliament has already rejected this option a couple of times.
Pass the Withdrawal Agreement, which in many peoples eyes is the worst of all worlds, or the least worst option.
We have to apply for an extension to A50, and will need an acceptable reason to do so. This means a General Election or referendum.
I also don't that that to revoke A50 is ideal, but if we couldnt get an extension for some reason, I would find revoking preferable to crashing out with no deal.
Parliament seems to be going around in circles, voting on options that refer to trading arrangements. These arrangements are stage two of negotiations, and will all require the Withdrawal Agreement to be passed.
They wont pass the Withdrawal Agreement, we cant move any further forward with any deal until they do.
It is difficult to see that a General Election will help. It is likely to result in another hung Parliament, and we would be back to square one.
I think that the idea that this country will snap back to normality as soon as we leave the EU is foolish. People have become more intrenched in their views as the Brexit process has dragged on.
This is only the beginning, years of negotiations will follow.
So what is your idea of the solution?
It would appear that many of the general public that criticise Parliament for only being able to signal what they don't want, rather that what they do want, find themselves in exactly the same boat.
Live Brexit vote latest news: Philip Hammond to propose putting Theresa May’s deal to the country in a second referendum
MPs vote against all four Brexit alternatives Nick Boles quits the Conservatives after his Common Market 2.0 plan finishes third Lord Hague: The next Tory leader could find the party in ruins - or worse Janet Daley: If this is Parliament's best effort, maybe May's Brexit deal isn't so bad
Philip Hammond will propose putting Theresa May’s deal to the country in a second referendum, according to reports this morning. The Chancellor will tell Cabinet the government has to either make its own compromise proposal or admit that Parliament has failed “and put it back to the people in a referendum”,...
Jeremy Corbyn's bid to force second referendum foiled as Labour MPs rebel against party whip
Jeremy Corbyn’s policy of trying to force a second referendum was in tatters last night when Labour MPs rebelled against the party whip and helped vote down the plan. The Labour leader saw 40 of his MPs either vote against or abstain on the motion for a second referendum in defiance of the party whip. Eleven frontbenchers including three members of the shadow cabinet members abstained, one of whom was party chairman Ian Lavery. Lavery and Jon Trickett, shadow Cabinet Office minister and a close ally of the Labour leader, rebelled for a second time after refusing to back a second referendum last week. They were joined by the third shadow cabinet minister Gloria Del Piero, the party’s justice spokesperson,...
If Juncker is tired of Brexit now, a poorly timed British general election will really test his patience In all likelihood, there would be a hung parliament, possibly with Labour as the largest party, but without a clear policy. Same old faces; same old arguments; same old deadlock
A general election is now suggested as a way forward. It is no such thing. At best it is another disastrous May misjudgement – a gamble. Perhaps when the pieces fall they will fall her way – but most likely not.
Elections are fought on many issues. The parties’ manifestos would contain the usual mix of undeliverable prose and wishful thinking, entirely remote from what the EU might accept. Some rebels on both sides will renounce the EU section of the manifesto as soon as it is published. The first-past-the-post system yields perverse results, and even more so in such uncertain times.
An intervention by the new Brexit Party in a Conservative-Liberal Democrat marginal seat might result in a May loyalist leaver losing to a Euro-federalist Lib Dem. Or a Change UK in a Remain-leaning Labour-Conservative marginal seat could send a hard Brexiteer back to Westminster. In all likelihood, there would be a hung parliament, possibly with Labour as the largest party, but without a clear policy. Same old faces; same old arguments; same old deadlock. The mess might even get messier than it is now: The better way to win clear consent is via a referendum.
It may take time to resolve the EU issue methodically and democratically; but there is no better way of doing it, and indeed no other way of doing it at all.
EasyJet shares slump as Brexit stops travellers booking flights
Budget airline easyjet admitted on Monday that bookings had succumbed to Brexit uncertainty, sparking a wider sell-off of airlines and holiday firms by spooked investors. The company’s shares tumbled almost 8%, or 85p, to 1032.5p as it admitted the political chaos over the UK’s EU exit and a spreading economic malaise in Europe had forced a more “cautious” approach to the second half of its financial year. Easyjet chief executive Johan Lundgren said: “For the second half we are seeing softness in both the UK and Europe, which we believe comes from macroeconomic uncertainty and many unanswered questions surrounding Brexit, which are together driving weaker customer demand.” While easyJet’s loss for the six months to March will be £275 million as expected, the airline is also facing a combined £45 million headwind from higher fuel bills and a weaker currency.
Its warning over the more turbulent outlook also hammered its major rival Ryanair, whose shares sank 6% to 1106 euro cents, while British Airways owner IAG dropped 7.8p to 504.2p. Among the tour operators, Thomas Cook fell 1p, or 4%, to 23.9p while TUI, which issued a warning of its own last week over the impact of grounded Boeing 737 Max jets, dropped another 1%, or 7.2p, to 728.4p. UBS analyst Jarrod Castle said he saw “material downside pressure to forecast consensus numbers” at easyJet, which stand at £564 million for the full year.
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Deputy leader says party must support fresh Brexit vote to beat Tories in an election
Tom Watson has called on Labour to support a second Brexit referendum under all circumstances if the party is to beat the Conservatives in a general election.
As the party considers whether to call another no-confidence vote in Theresa May’s government, its deputy leader said a people’s vote would bring the country back together.
His latest call comes after May’s deal was struck down for a third time in the Commons on Friday, and as MPs prepare to vote on a series of Brexit options, including a second referendum, on Monday.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/mar/31/labour-may-call-fresh-vote-of-no-confidence-in-theresa-may
EU officials expect leaders to demand a justification from Theresa May for a long Article 50 extension
EU leaders are prepared to let Britain delay Brexit again to allow time for a second referendum, The Independent understands.
After parliament rejected Theresa May’s deal for a third time, the bloc called a summit on 10 April – two days before the UK is on course to leave without a deal.
And senior Brussels officials familiar with leaders’ thinking say that barring a credible plan to get a majority for the withdrawal agreement, the UK would be given more time only if it was for another clear option such as a general election or a referendum.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/brexit-news-latest-second-referendum-eu-revoke-article-50-a8846146.html
Words such as "feud" and "open warfare" are used to describe divisions at the top of government as ministers and MPs enter another week seeking ways to end the gridlock over Brexit.
The Guardian claims Theresa May's government is "on the verge of meltdown" as cabinet ministers prepare to clash over whether to support plans for a softer Brexit and a possible lengthy delay to Britain's departure from the EU.
With MPs about to vote again on a range of options, The Times says the prime minister has been warned that she risks shattering the Conservative Party if she bows to the will of the Commons, should it opt for a customs union arrangement with Europe.
The paper says that under such circumstances pro-Brexit ministers have made clear they would consider resigning. "Tories at breaking point" - is how the i newspaper sums up the party's predicament.
The Financial Times reports that ministers and Mrs May's most senior advisers are at loggerheads over the prospect of a snap general election to break the impasse. It says many MPs are aghast at the idea - put forward by some of the prime minister's aides - warning that it could result in a wipe-out for the Tory Party.
Transport Secretary Chris Grayling has told the Daily Telegraph that the Conservatives must appoint a senior Eurosceptic to lead them through the next phase of the Brexit negotiations and must delay a full-scale leadership contest until after a general election in three years' time.
The paper believes his comments will be seen as an effort to streamline the race to replace Mrs May, amid speculation that as many as two dozen MPs could slug it out in a campaign that could go on for months.
"We are ready for power" is the front page headline in the Daily Mirror, which declares that Labour is primed to lead the country and take control of Brexit.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-the-papers-47768928
The polls show a shift in favour of Remain, but this advantage is narrow and fragile
The wind seems to be in the sails of campaigners looking to keep Britain in the EU as, for the first time in the Brexit crisis, they see signs of the public mood shifting in their favour.
Hundreds of thousands marched in support of EU membership last weekend, and a petition calling for article 50 to be revoked, reversing Brexit, secured almost 6m signatures in 10 days. Meanwhile, Theresa May’s withdrawal agreement was voted down for a third time in the House of Commons on Friday, and a second-referendum proposal was one of the most popular options in the “indicative vote” process developed by MPs to gauge support for ways to break the deadlock. A second referendum has never looked nearer and, polling suggests, Remainers would enter the contest narrowly ahead.
The UK needs a year-long extension on Brexit – to really take back control
Gordon Brown
Read more
A range of polling suggests the public have moved in a pro-EU direction since 2016. The polling average compiled by Sir John Curtice and the body What UK Thinks puts Remain ahead, by 54 to 46, with practically every poll conducted in the past year or so recording a small Remain lead.
The share of the public who think the Leave vote was “in hindsight the wrong decision” has slowly crept up, and is now consistently above the share who still believe Britain made the right choice. Public approval of May’s deal is also exceptionally low, and the share of voters who think it will deliver a good outcome for Britain has fallen steadily. Time, perhaps, to go back to the people?
There are certainly good reasons to believe this shift in public opinion is real. The rise in support for Remain is mainly driven by those who did not vote in 2016, either because they abstained or were too young. Abstainers and new voters now heavily back Remain, and their numbers are growing steadily, with about three-quarters of a million new voters joining the electorate each year.
Meanwhile, the concentration of Leave support among older voters puts Brexit campaigners on the wrong side of demographic change. There are other headwinds for Brexiters, too. Concern about immigration, a key driver of voting for Leave in 2016, has declined sharply since the referendum. And voters who were enthusiastic about Brexit in 2016 have become more negative about the deal the government has managed to negotiate.
The Remain advantage is, however, narrow and fragile. There has been very little change in sentiment among those who voted in the referendum, and little evidence that Leave voters have changed their minds. Instead, Brexit partisanship has consolidated and intensified, with Leave and Remain voters increasingly seeing their choice as a core part of their political identity. This makes their views very hard to shift – and those who voted last time are more certain to turn out again than the former abstainers and new voters driving Remain’s current polling leads.
https://www.theguardian.com/global/2019/mar/30/how-do-brexit-voters-feel-about-the-eu-now
1:45 long.
So that really should be that now for Theresa May’s Brexit deal, at least in its present formulation. Her four-month-long effort to win her Eurosceptic ERG and DUP critics round has finally failed
The other evening she made a broadcast in which she appealed over the heads of MPs to the public – “I’m on your side.” Well, if she is, and they are on her side, then all she needs to do is to take her case to the country, in a final rebuke to her rebellious parliamentary colleagues.
In any case, we need to move on. Fortunately some of our MPs are taking their responsibilities seriously, and moving towards something like a consensus about the way forward. Two things – complementary in fact – seem to be emerging from the spitballing of our elected representatives. First, a closer economic relationship with the EU that includes membership of the customs union – something that we agreed to in 1972 as the “economic club” we thought we’d joined.
Second, the need for a Final Say referendum on whatever deal emerges from the current imbroglio.
We could, then, have a referendum based on a choice between Remain; Leave on “soft Brexit” terms; or Leave on WTO terms. That would allow a sovereign people to choose between three realistic options that are acceptable to the EU. If the prime minister had any sense – and her judgment seems to have become increasingly erratic – she should indeed have the courage to put her deal to the people
Then again, the prime minister herself may not be around for much longer. She promised to quit as soon as Brexit became effective in May – but it seems very unlikely that there is any way that can happen now. Given everything, it would be even more chaotic to have a Conservative leadership election in the middle of this crisis and it would in any case solve nothing.
We also know we cannot crash out of the EU on 12 April, because parliament has ruled it out overwhelmingly. That leaves only one reaming path to stability. May must go to the EU and explain that she needs the time to form a consensus in the Commons (and not her own party). If they give us a year – “a year for Britain” – then she can leave her successor to take the task forward, towards the Final Say referendum. A year should be sufficient for the Tories to elect a new leader, for that new PM to amend the deal, and for them to put it to the people.
Thus far we have run Brexit in reverse. Not all of the effort has been wasted – but we really do need to start again.
https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/brexit-vote-result-deal-theresa-may-commons-wto-a8845631.html
‘After the referendum we could all feel the obvious feeling that we are not wanted here’
A few months after Britain voted to leave the European Union, Maria was waiting to see a doctor at a London hospital when an elderly English woman told her to go back to her native Romania. “You are a foreigner,” Maria, who was heavily pregnant at the time, recalls the woman saying. “Your place is not here.”Maria was stunned. Until that moment, she had never faced direct abuse over her nationality in her 10 years in the country.
But ever since the 2016 Brexit campaign – when some Leave supporters said they wanted Britain to take more control of immigration – Maria said hostility towards EU nationals such as her has come into the open. The 31-year-old, who asked to use just her first name, said she was now preparing to leave Britain later this year with her husband and two children, fed up with what she described as xenophobia, as well as the rising cost of living in London.
“After Brexit we could all feel the obvious feeling that we are not wanted here,” Maria said. “I don’t want my kids to grow up in this sort of environment.” She worries about her children being bullied at school. Last year her Romanian nanny and two-year-old daughter were playing in a park when a woman publicly accused them of being thieves.
https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/photography/immigrants-leaving-britain-escape-brexit-hostility-photos-a8841026.html
Jeremy Corbyn has put the party on an ‘election footing’ amid speculation over prospect of a snap poll, says deputy leader
Tom Watson has said a second referendum is the “only way” to unite the country and it
would be “inconceivable” to not include the plan in a Labour election manifesto.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/brexit-second-referendum-tom-watson-labour-general-election-latest-a8847766.html
Quite a contrast isn’t it. But that’s roughly how it’s been ever since David Cameron stuck a knife into the heart of Britain in the hopes of settling a debate in the Conservative Party
Spot the difference: on Saturday, hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets to peacefully request a democratic vote in a march to Parliament Square where a rally was held.
Today hundreds of people in the same place threaten rioting and violence in an attempt to push the opposite point.
Quite a contrast isn’t it.
But that’s roughly how it’s been ever since David Cameron stuck a knife into the heart of Britain in the hopes of settling a debate in the Conservative Party, which his successor Theresa May set about twisting with the same aim in mind.
One side politely requests a vote, the other responds with a pair of hobnailed boots. Or hobnailed heels in the case of May, who’s comments could be seen as inciting violence against MPs.
I was marching, or rather wheeling because the distance is beyond my limited capacity to walk, on Saturday with my mother and my 11-year-old son. I was perfectly relaxed about taking him because he was probably as safe in that good natured, jocular crowd as he would have been at his school.
We’ve been on nearly all the big London demos, which have only grown in numbers as a dismal government has played out the dismal process of Brexit. About the worst thing that has happened? A few F bombs, a lot of booing around Downing Street and someone posting a **** to Brexit sticker on the nameplate of Brexiteer Liam Fox’s Department for International Trade.
It was probably removed before he arrived for work on Monday morning, but the thought of him seeing it at least made me chuckle.
Dr Fox has been among those resorting to dire warnings and ill-judged hyperbole in an attempt to dragoon people into accepting his and his boss’s prescription for the country, with the threat of what the thugs may do if they don't always in the background.
Fox was at it again this morning, dribbling on about a “chasm of distrust” if MPs failed (as they did) to deliver his boss’s rotten apple of a deal.
Perhaps he needs his eyes testing, because that chasm already exists. He helped to open it up, and to sow that distrust he was complaining about with the lies he told during the Brexit campaign. It was Fox, remember, who said securing a super duper Brexit have your cake and eat it deal would be the “easiest thing in human history” while promising to secure a raft of whizzy new trade pacts with the rest of the world. Remind me, where are they now? He hasn’t even managed to replicate most of the existing ones we benefit from courtesy of our membership with the EU.
Still, what do you expect from a ministerial code breaker.
Lies are the stock in trade of the Brexiteers, of whatever hue. Take Ukip leader Gerald Batten. This is what he tweeted this morning: “There are reports that water cannon may be deployed tomorrow in London, and that some of the police may try to aggregate and provoke Brexiteers. There is always the danger of provocateurs planted to cause trouble. I hope it is not true but I call on everyone present to be peaceful.”
The Metropolitan Police retweeted him, along with its response: “Those reports are indisputably false.”
Translation: liar, liar, pants on fire.
Batten appears to have been indulging in a case of projection, in anticipation of his pals going over the top.
Regardless of what the actual thugs do, and what thuggish politicians like Fox and Batten say, here’s what you should remember. Whenever there is a terrorist outrage, we are always, always, told Britain will not be cowed and that the British people are as tough as old boots and won’t give in to violence. It doesn’t matter whether the outrage is perpetrated by the IRA or some al-Qaeda offshoot, the response is the same.
We are also told that the perpetrators will be pursued and brought to justice with the full force of the law. Their lickspittles are roundly condemned.
Please tell me why it should be any different in the case of the Brexit hard right?
https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/brexit-march-final-say-leave-protests-liam-fox-theresa-may-a8845876.html
Many of Tuesday's papers react after MPs again failed to agree on proposals for the next steps in the Brexit process.
"April Fools" is how the 'i' sums up MPs after last night's Brexit votes in Parliament. "MPs choose nothing," says the Daily Mirror.
"It's back to square one," according to the Daily Mail. Both that paper and the Daily Express call the failure of a majority of MPs to back any of the four alternative Brexit solutions debated a "farce".
The Guardian says today's cabinet meeting will be dominated by "crisis talks" after MPs failed to back either a softer Brexit or a referendum last night.
The Independent says the cabinet meeting promises "fireworks" as ministers discuss the increasingly likely general election "nobody actually wants". The Daily Telegraph says Theresa May will use the threat of an election, or a long Brexit delay, to try to persuade her party to put aside their differences and back her withdrawal deal.
Britain's highest-ranking civil servant, Cabinet Secretary Sir Mark Sedwill, has issued a "doomsday" analysis of how the country would be affected if the UK left without a deal, the Daily Mail reports.
The paper has seen extracts of a leaked letter to ministers which it says warns of a 10% spike in food prices, the collapse of some small businesses and the re-introduction of direct rule in Northern Ireland. It also says it'll be more difficult for the police and security services to keep people safe. Downing Street declined to comment.
Writing in the Daily Telegraph, former Conservative leader William Hague says he inherited a party in ruins after the 1997 election, but the situation in the party is much worse today - and there's every possibility of those hoping to replace Theresa May finding they are leading "not very much at all".
He warns that if they don't get Brexit over the line now it'll probably never happen, and if the Tories don't start to function as a party again they'll be in more trouble than they can ever imagine.
The headlines are much the same in Europe. In Germany, Bild says "again nothing", while the Frankfurter Allgemeine reports that EU politicians were horrified by the repeated rejection of all Brexit options.
The Danish paper BT says the crisis in Parliament has now grown almost abysmal. Wyborcza in Poland calls what happened a "fiasco". While in France, Le Figaro thinks the prospect of a new election has been raised.
A writer for the Spanish paper El Pais thinks the defeat of a soft Brexit will calm the mutiny of Eurosceptics and increase support for Mrs May's deal. The Irish Times believes she could now bring her plan back to the Commons for a fourth vote.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-the-papers-47781817
Britain's highest-ranking civil servant has issued a doomsday analysis of how the country would be affected by a No Deal Brexit, as MPs yet again failed to break the deadlock last night.
The House of Commons rejected all four alternative Brexit plans in another series of votes last night, leaving Britain with no clear plan just 10 days before a possible cliff-edge exit.
MPs rejected a customs union and a Norway-style agreement, dealing a blow to Remainer hopes of a soft Brexit, and also voted against a second referendum.
The customs union plan proposed by longstanding Tory Europhile Kenneth Clarke was closest to victory - losing by just three votes, 276 to 273.
Sir Mark's 14-page letter warns:
No Deal would result in a 10 per cent spike in food prices and the collapse of some businesses that trade with the EU;
The Government would come under pressure to bail out companies on the brink;
It would hamper the ability of the police and security services to keep people safe;
It would lead to the reintroduction of direct rule in Northern Ireland for the first time since 2007;
A recession will hit the UK and the pound's depreciation will be 'more harmful' than in 2008;
Our legal authorities and judicial system would be put under 'enormous pressure'.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6875015/Top-mandarins-bombshell-No-Deal-Brexit-warning.html
More than six million people have backed calls for Article 50 to be revoked which would effectively cancel Brexit.
And today the petition debated in the smaller Westminster Hall chamber of the House of Commons.
Members of the newly formed Change UK party (formerly called The Independent Group) tried to force the debate to a vote so that it could be continued in the main chamber.
But the chair Steve McCabe interrupted the closing speech and did not call the normal vote.
As he ended proceedings Change UK MP Chris Leslie was heard to yell out "no".
Brexit minister Chris Heaton-Harris said the Government remained opposed to revoking Article 50 or calling a second referendum.
He recognised the “frustrations and concerns” of the “substantial” number of people who signed the online petitions and the “hundreds of thousands” who joined the recent People’s Vote march on Parliament.
Rejecting calls for a People’s Vote, he said: “If we cannot show that we will uphold and respect the result of one referendum what guarantees could we give that we would uphold and respect the result of a second? Would we need a third, is it best out of five?”
Mr Heaton-Harris said the Government believed the 2016 referendum result had “settled the question” over Brexit and to “undermine what was expressed in that vote is a harmful precedent to set”.
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/revoke-article-50-most-signed-14220845
I would see it as a vote on the outcome rather than a second referendum.
It may yet be the only solution, to avoid no deal.
I have said many times that a peoples vote is not ideal.
Although many people would change their opinion dependant on the choice.
Brexit is clearly about choices.
I am certain that many people that disapprove of a people vote would change their view if faced with a choice of no deal or a referendum.
The choices we are left with are as follows,
No deal, although I am very doubtful on this as Parliament has already rejected this option a couple of times.
Pass the Withdrawal Agreement, which in many peoples eyes is the worst of all worlds, or the least worst option.
We have to apply for an extension to A50, and will need an acceptable reason to do so. This means a General Election or referendum.
I also don't that that to revoke A50 is ideal, but if we couldnt get an extension for some reason, I would find revoking preferable to crashing out with no deal.
Parliament seems to be going around in circles, voting on options that refer to trading arrangements. These arrangements are stage two of negotiations, and will all require the Withdrawal Agreement to be passed.
They wont pass the Withdrawal Agreement, we cant move any further forward with any deal until they do.
It is difficult to see that a General Election will help. It is likely to result in another hung Parliament, and we would be back to square one.
I think that the idea that this country will snap back to normality as soon as we leave the EU is foolish. People have become more intrenched in their views as the Brexit process has dragged on.
This is only the beginning, years of negotiations will follow.
So what is your idea of the solution?
It would appear that many of the general public that criticise Parliament for only being able to signal what they don't want, rather that what they do want, find themselves in exactly the same boat.
MPs vote against all four Brexit alternatives
Nick Boles quits the Conservatives after his Common Market 2.0 plan finishes third
Lord Hague: The next Tory leader could find the party in ruins - or worse
Janet Daley: If this is Parliament's best effort, maybe May's Brexit deal isn't so bad
Philip Hammond will propose putting Theresa May’s deal to the country in a second referendum, according to reports this morning.
The Chancellor will tell Cabinet the government has to either make its own compromise proposal or admit that Parliament has failed “and put it back to the people in a referendum”,...
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/04/02/brexit-vote-latest-news-philip-hammond-propose-putting-theresa/
Jeremy Corbyn’s policy of trying to force a second referendum was in tatters last night when Labour MPs rebelled against the party whip and helped vote down the plan.
The Labour leader saw 40 of his MPs either vote against or abstain on the motion for a second referendum in defiance of the party whip.
Eleven frontbenchers including three members of the shadow cabinet members abstained, one of whom was party chairman Ian Lavery.
Lavery and Jon Trickett, shadow Cabinet Office minister and a close ally of the Labour leader, rebelled for a second time after refusing to back a second referendum last week.
They were joined by the third shadow cabinet minister Gloria Del Piero, the party’s justice spokesperson,...
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/04/02/jeremy-corbyns-bid-force-second-referendum-foiled-labour-mps/
In all likelihood, there would be a hung parliament, possibly with Labour as the largest party, but without a clear policy. Same old faces; same old arguments; same old deadlock
A general election is now suggested as a way forward. It is no such thing. At best it is another disastrous May misjudgement – a gamble. Perhaps when the pieces fall they will fall her way – but most likely not.
Elections are fought on many issues. The parties’ manifestos would contain the usual mix of undeliverable prose and wishful thinking, entirely remote from what the EU might accept.
Some rebels on both sides will renounce the EU section of the manifesto as soon as it is published. The first-past-the-post system yields perverse results, and even more so in such uncertain times.
An intervention by the new Brexit Party in a Conservative-Liberal Democrat marginal seat might result in a May loyalist leaver losing to a Euro-federalist Lib Dem. Or a Change UK in a Remain-leaning Labour-Conservative marginal seat could send a hard Brexiteer back to Westminster.
In all likelihood, there would be a hung parliament, possibly with Labour as the largest party, but without a clear policy. Same old faces; same old arguments; same old deadlock. The mess might even get messier than it is now: The better way to win clear consent is via a referendum.
It may take time to resolve the EU issue methodically and democratically; but there is no better way of doing it, and indeed no other way of doing it at all.
https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/editorials/jean-claude-juncker-brexit-patience-european-commission-parliament-a8849561.html
Budget airline easyjet admitted on Monday that bookings had succumbed to Brexit uncertainty, sparking a wider sell-off of airlines and holiday firms by spooked investors.
The company’s shares tumbled almost 8%, or 85p, to 1032.5p as it admitted the political chaos over the UK’s EU exit and a spreading economic malaise in Europe had forced a more “cautious” approach to the second half of its financial year.
Easyjet chief executive Johan Lundgren said: “For the second half we are seeing softness in both the UK and Europe, which we believe comes from macroeconomic uncertainty and many unanswered questions surrounding Brexit, which are together driving weaker customer demand.”
While easyJet’s loss for the six months to March will be £275 million as expected, the airline is also facing a combined £45 million headwind from higher fuel bills and a weaker currency.
Its warning over the more turbulent outlook also hammered its major rival Ryanair, whose shares sank 6% to 1106 euro cents, while British Airways owner IAG dropped 7.8p to 504.2p.
Among the tour operators, Thomas Cook fell 1p, or 4%, to 23.9p while TUI, which issued a warning of its own last week over the impact of grounded Boeing 737 Max jets, dropped another 1%, or 7.2p, to 728.4p.
UBS analyst Jarrod Castle said he saw “material downside pressure to forecast consensus numbers” at easyJet, which stand at £564 million for the full year.
https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/easyjet-shares-slump-brexit-stops-102600613.html