Category Archives: brexit

Brexiters Up In Arms As Former Chief EU Negotiator Secures Top Job As French PM

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The EU’s former Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier has just been appointed to be France’s new prime minister – and Eurosceptics with long memories are not happy.

French politics has been going through a tumultuous period since president Emmanuel Macron’s party lost its majority in parliament and the far-right saw a huge uptick in support.

Although Macron chose Barnier, the former EU commissioner still needs to survive a vote of confidence in parliament to get the job.

And while the French president may see Barnier as a unifying figure, Brexiters over in the UK certainly do not.

Barnier led the EU negotiations with Britain between 2016 and 2021. He was known for taking a particularly firm stance against the UK, and calling then-PM Boris Johnson a “bulldozer”.

In response to Barnier’s appointment, Reform leader and Clacton MP Nigel Farage posted on X: “Michel Barnier becomes the new French prime minister. An EU fanatic that will suit sell-out Starmer.”

Former Brexit Party MEP, Alex Phillips, posted a much angrier message, writing that his appointment was proof “the machine doesn’t even try to hide the fact anymore that instead of rigging elections, it just ignores them.”

Meanwhile, John hayes, the Tory MP for South Holland and Deepings, one of the constituencies with the highest level of support for Leave in 2016, lashed out at the former negotiator.

told GB News: “We thought we’d seen the last of ‘Monsieur Barnier’ after the Brexit negotiations – where he was determined to get Britain the worst possible deal.”

Former Tory leader and MP for Chingford and Woodford, Iain Duncan Smith, also told the broadcaster that Barnier’s appointment “shows the desperation of France”.

A question mark remains over Barnier’s job, though, as he still needs most of parliament to back him.

Marine Le Pen, leader of the far-right National Rally in France, has already announced her party would not back Barnier in a coalition government.

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Nigel Farage Reveals 1 Unexpected Element Of Life In Parliament – And It’s To Do With Brexit

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Nigel Farage expressed surprise that this was a “Remainer” parliament in his maiden Commons speech today.

The Reform UK leader, who was elected to the Commons for the first time earlier this month after seven failed attempts, revived some old EU tensions.

The famous Eurosceptic said: “I spent nearly 21 years as a member of the European Parliament in Brussels.

“I have to say, this place is very different indeed.

“It’s smaller, there is no chauffeur driven Mercedes available for each member, no large lump sums of money which you don’t have to spend on anything or show receipts for, and I wonder, perhaps that is why so many in the British political system love the European Union so much – it is a rather wonderful place to work.”

But, he added: “What I perhaps didn’t expect was to come here and find I am more outnumbered here with my Reform team than we were in the European Parliament.

“There are more supporters of Brexit in the European Parliament than I sense there are in this parliament of 2024.

“This is very much a Remainers’ parliament, I suspect in many cases, it’s really a Rejoiners’ parliament.”

There are five Reform MPs in this parliament, having had just one before the election – Tory defector, Lee Anderson, moved to Farage’s party earlier this year.

Reform was previously known as the Brexit Party, and used to advocate for no-deal with the EU – the harshest version of Brexit possible.

The Brexit Party also won the most seats at the 2019 European Parliament election in the UK, but won no seats at the general election that year.

And now, eight years after the referendum and four years since the UK officially left the trade bloc of the EU, it seems more people would like to return to the European fold.

A Techne survey for Independent Media from June showed 43% of voters are in favour of rejoining the bloc, compared with 40% who want to stay out.

Meanwhile, Farage has come under criticism for going to the US days after he was elected to support his friend Donald Trump.

Farage said “it was the right thing that I came” after Trump faced a failed assassination attempt.

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Labour Minister Patrick Vallance Calls For Easier Migration From EU To Boost Science Industry

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A Labour minister has called for easier migration to the UK from the European Union in an apparent break from government policy.

Patrick Vallance, who was given a life peerage and appointed science minister following the election, said “Brexit was definitely a problem”.

He said he wanted to see the visa rules loosened to make it easier for scientists and their families to live in the UK.

Vallance’s comments put him at odds with Keir Starmer, who has insisted Labour will not bring back freedom of movement with the EU.

Speaking on Radio 4′s World At One, Vallance , who was the government’s chief scientific adviser during the Covid pandemic, said leaving the EU had damaged the competitiveness of the UK science sector.

He said: “Brexit was definitely a problem for science. We were part of a very successful European funding scheme with very large collaborations right the way across Europe which took a setback when we had to leave that scheme, and getting back into it has been a big achievement. I’m really pleased we are back in it.”

That was a reference to the Horizon scheme, a Europe-wide scientific co-operation project which the UK has agreed to rejoin after initially leaving as a result of the Brexit vote.

Asked if he would be pushing the prime minister to agree closer ties with the EU, even if that meant making concessions on free movement, the minister said: “You can’t do the type of science that everyone is trying to do to make progress in isolation.

“You need brains that come with other backgrounds, other thought processes, other training.”

On loosening the visa rules, Vallance said: “There is an opportunity there to try and make this easier for people who come in to do contributions to scientific knowledge creation and to companies.

“We’ve got to be realistic as to how we do that, but we need to be as competitive as other countries in terms of attracting that talent.”

He added: “There are lots of visa issues, including the cost, which is very high at the moment for people coming to the UK, that needs to be looked at.

“We need to think about how we make the environment right for people to come who we want to have here contributing to science.”

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Journalist Asks David Cameron Outright If Rwanda Bill Is A Consequence Of Brexit

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David Cameron was asked outright by a journalist if the government’s controversial Rwanda bill is a result of the UK’s departure from the EU.

Speaking shortly after parliament finally passed the legislation to deport asylum seekers to Africa on Monday night, the foreign secretary defended the policy – but dodged the questions about his main legacy, Brexit.

ITV News’ deputy political editor Anushka Asthana asked: “Hand on heart, if this had come up when you were PM, would you have gone for this policy?”

Cameron, who was in No.10 from 2010 to 2016, said: “Well, we had a totally different situation, because we had a situation where we could return people directly to France.

“Now I would love that to be the case again – that’s the most sensible thing.

“People land on a beach in Kent, you take them straight back to France, you therefore break the model of the people smugglers.”

“Shouldn’t you be trying to get that?” Asthana asked.

“Well, that’s not available,” the foreign secretary replied.

The journalist asked: “Because of Brexit?”

Cameron ended up resigning as prime minister in 2016 because his campaign to stay in the EU lost.

He did not answer Asthana directly and just said: “Well, because of the situation we’re in.”

The foreign secretary did not explain what he meant by that.

Rishi Sunak has also threatened to take the UK out of the European Court of Human Rights if its judges try to stop the Rwanda policy altogether.

Cameron told Asthana that the UK has to deal with illegal immigration, but added: “I don’t think it’s necessary to leave the ECHR, I don’t think that needs to happen to make this policy work.”

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Ex-Tory Chair Lord Patten Shreds Party For Becoming ‘More Right-Wing And More Unpopular’

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The Conservative’s former chairman has launched a bruising attack on the party for becoming “more right-wing”.

In an interview on Tonight with Andrew Marr on LBC, Lord Chris Patten, a former cabinet minister, also labelled Brexit the “biggest disaster in British policy making since the Second World War”.

The Conservative grandee, who has also been an EU Commissioner and the last governor of Hong Kong, was asked about the upcoming general election, and whether there was a chance of a repeat of the 1992 vote, when Lord Patten was the Conservative Party chairman and John Major pulled off a victory despite more than a decade of Tory rule.

He said voters would not give the current government the “benefit of the doubt”.

Lord Patten said: “When asked about my experiences of being party chairman of the Conservative Party, and what the relevance is to my views on things today, I make initially the very important point that I was chairman of the Conservative Party when there was one.

“And I think what we’ve seen over the years, is the Conservative Party becoming more right-wing, as it becomes more right-wing, it becomes more populist, as it becomes more populist, it becomes more unpopular, as it becomes more unpopular, it becomes more right-wing.

“And I think what it does in the process is lose something which won John Major the election 1992.”

On Brexit, Lord Patten said: “What nobody is allowed to say is that Brexit was a bloody disaster.

“And you hear politicians, even ones I quite respect, talking about the difficulties in the economy because of the war in Ukraine, and the effect on oil prices, the effects on the economy of Covid.

“What neither of those issues are ones where to use an awful social scientist’s word, we had agency. So, you can perfectly well say that was bad luck for the government. But Brexit we did ourselves. And it was the biggest disaster in British policymaking I think since the Second World War.”

He went on: “I’m 79, I don’t think there’s a chance in hell of us re-joining European Union in my lifetime. .. but I do think there are better ways of organising our relationship with our biggest market, and we should do them, and we shouldn’t when we try to do them, be put off by tabloid headlines’.

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This Image Marks A Major New Era For Northern Ireland. Here’s Why

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Michelle O’Neill has just become Northern Ireland’s first minister – making her the first ever leader of a nationalist party to take on the key role.

She was pictured officially taking up the role on Saturday when the Northern Ireland Assembly formally returned.

It also comes after almost two years of deadlock in the Northern Ireland Assembly – also known as Stormont – which stopped the devolved government from sitting at all.

Although the Good Friday Agreement means both nationalists and unionists have to share power for Stormont to operate, politicians from the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) held the position of first minister for more than 100 years – until now.

Elections held in May 2022 saw nationalist party Sinn Fein secure the largest number of seats, meaning its own politicians could take the top job in the Executive for the first time ever.

The DUP, as the second largest group in the Assembly, are therefore entitled to install a politician in the deputy first minister role.

Technically, Sinn Fein should have been leading Stormont since the last election, but DUP have been boycotting the government altogether.

In February 2022, the DUP withdrew from the Northern Ireland Assembly in an effort to make Downing Street act on their concerns that the post-Brexit deal was making the region too separate from the rest of the UK.

Trade going from Britain to Northern Ireland was subject to intense checks, unlike trade going between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

This has been a major sticking point ever since Brexit negotiations began after the EU referendum.

The DUP only agreed to a deal with Westminster to resolve the deadlock on Tuesday, and the legislation was fast-tracked through the UK parliament in a bid to get Stormont restored.

According to DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, the new deal means there will “no longer be physical checks or identity checks save where, as normal anywhere in the UK, there are suspicions of smuggling of criminal activity”.

O’Neill celebrated the new deal and the restoration of Stormont, describing Tuesday was a “day of optimism”.

She also told the Washington Post she would be a “minister for all” during her remaining term.

The next Stormont election will be held no later than May 2027.

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Question Time Audience Member Calls Out Claim UK Hasn’t ‘Properly Brexited’

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A Brexit voter appearing on BBC Question Time has called out the excuses made by politicians for leaving the European Union not living up to the promises – as a prominent supporter of quitting the bloc claimed the country hasn’t “properly Brexited”.

The corporation’s flagship politics show on Thursday held a “special” in Clacton-on-Sea in Essex to mark the seventh anniversary of the 2016 vote. Some 70% of people in the area voted to get out of the union and only Brexit voters were in the audience for the programme.

It was held on the same day interest rates were hiked for the 13th month in a row as the UK’s rate of inflation remains higher than other major economies, with Brexit in part being blamed.

On the show, panellist Ben Habib, a businessman and former Brexit Party MEP, who is now part of the successor Reform UK, claimed the country hasn’t “properly Brexited” and blamed former prime minister Boris Johnson for being “loose in his association with the truth when he promised to get Brexit done”.

But it was too much for one audience member, who responded directly to Habib’s comments.

She said: “Literally the first thing that people with your opinion say … it’s like Brexit could be good if it went to a different school. I’m so sick of that.

“Where is the gumption from both Labour and the Conservatives to say, actually, no, this is what we’re going to do about it.

“This boils my blood when all that is rolled out is ‘well, there could have been a good Brexit if …’”

Habib later claimed that Irish prime minister Leo Varadkar and then deputy Simon Coveney “weaponised the border and threatened violence”.

Another audience member also said Brexit “hasn’t started” as a result of the pandemic and war in Ukraine.

Campbell, the Tony Blair-era Labour Party spin chief, said they had been told it “would be pain-free” and “all be upsides”, as he pointed to the fall in the pound, a lack of a trade deal with the US and the claim of more money for the NHS.

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Alastair Campbell Tells Question Time Brexit Voters ‘You Were Lied To’ By ‘Conmen’ Johnson And Farage

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Alastair Campbell has hit out at “conmen” Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage as he told Brexit voters on BBC Question Time they were “lied to”.

The corporation’s flagship politics show on Thursday held a “special” in Clacton-on-Sea in Essex to mark the seventh anniversary of the 2016 vote. Some 70% of people in the area voted to get out of the bloc and only Brexit voters were in the audience for the programme.

Campbell, the Tony Blair-era Labour Party spin chief, has been a fierce critic of leaving the European Union. On the show, the Rest is Politics podcaster said he understood why the audience members wanted to exit the EU – but that they were “lied to” and told it “would be pain-free” and “all be upsides”, as he pointed to the fall in the pound, a lack of a trade deal with the US and the claim of more money for the NHS.

He said: “Look, I understand why a lot of you guys voted for Brexit because you felt that Johnson, Farage … these conmen were coming along offering you something that was going to make your lives better.

“And I was in a school today, just a few minutes away from here. Clacton Coastal Academy. Really bright kids. Really nice teachers. Fantastic school in a very tough area, and I asked the kids what they thought of Brexit and all but two said they would vote to rejoin the European Union if they had the chance.”

He went on: “I don’t blame you for voting. I blame them for lying to you. They lied. They’ve not been properly held to account.

“Johnson’s gone from lying about Covid. He’s still not properly been held accountable for Brexit.

“And we’re all of us paying a higher price in our cost of living and everything else because of the lies that we were told.”

He later said Brexit is “one of the biggest acts of self-harm that we as a country have ever inflicted upon ourselves”, and that Johnson “never believed in Brexit”.

“Boris Johnson went for the referendum as a way of advancing his own career and becoming prime minister,” Campbell said. “The mess he’s left this country in, he should never be forgiven.”

Critics of leaving the EU have cited the impact on the pound, imports and labour costs, and other economies on the continent powering ahead. Britain’s higher rate of inflation compared to other major economies has also been blamed in part on Brexit thanks to higher administration costs and a small pool of workers.

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‘You Sound Crackers’: Boris Johnson Ally Called Out For Claiming Downfall Is ‘Revenge For Brexit’

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An ally of Boris Johnson has been labelled “crackers” for suggesting the devastating report that could end the former prime minister’s political career is “revenge for Brexit”.

On Thursday, the privileges committee of MPs found Johnson deliberately misled parliament over partygate.

It recommended a 90-day suspension for the ex-prime minister, which he will escape after resigning as an MP, and said he should not receive a pass granting access to parliament which is normally given to former members.

MPs are expected to have a free vote on the proposed sanctions.

On the BBC’s Politics Live soon after the report was published, Lord Stewart Jackson, a former Conservative MP, echoed Johnson’s words by describing the process as “a sham court” and “a kangaroo court”, and said the MPs had conducted a “quasi-judicial process”.

He added: “And there are people there who were out to get him, and what this is effectively is revenge for Brexit dressed up as a judicial process.”

After Jackson insisted the majority of parliament was “hostile to his position on Brexit”, he faced pushback from Ellie Mae O’Hagan from the Good Law Project, which has launched a number of legal challenges against the government.

She said: “I’m sorry, I really don’t like being rude to fellow guests. But you sound crackers … the things you are saying are just crackers … it as like the idea that this is about Brexit, the idea that Britain is now a banana republic …”

You can watch the full exchange below.

Other Johnson loyalists have taken to the airways to defend Johnson.

Conservative MP Brendan Clarke-Smith told the BBC that the report was “vindictive, spiteful and an over-each”, adding: “90 days and taking their pass off them is the equivalent of putting somebody in the stocks and touring them round the country.”

Former Cabinet minister Simon Clarke was also among Johnson’s allies to indicate they would vote against the report, saying “this punishment is absolutely extraordinary to the point of sheer vindictiveness”.

Johnson was said to have deliberately misled MPs with his partygate denials and accused of being complicit in a campaign of abuse and intimidation, with the former prime minister hitting out at the “deranged conclusion”.

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Sunak Hails ‘Atlantic Declaration’ Despite Abandoning UK-US Free Trade Deal

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Rishi Sunak and Joe Biden have agreed a new partnership that the British prime minister said cements the “indispensable alliance” between the UK and US – but the deal fell well short of a prized and full-blown free trade deal.

The Atlantic Declaration, announced as the PM and US president met in the White House, includes commitments on easing trade barriers, closer defence industry ties and a data protection deal.

UK officials insisted the new, “targeted” approach was a better response to the economic challenges posed by China and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine than a trade deal – which has long been hailed by Brexiteers as one of the potential benefits of leaving the EU.

During a joint press conference in Washington DC where the declaration was announced, Sunak was pressed by the BBC’s political Chris Mason on whether the lack of a free trade deal represented “failure” to deliver on a 2019 manifesto promise.

Sunak replied the declaration was a response to the “particular opportunities and challenges we face right now and into the future” and that the UK-US relationship is “strong and booming”.

For the president’s part, Biden said: “It’s a testament to the depth, breadth and I would argue the intensity of our co-operation and coordination which continues to exist between the United Kingdom and the United States.

“There’s no issue of global importance – none – that our nations are not leading together.”

What’s in The Atlantic Declaration?

The deal mitigates some of the issues cause by Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), with proposals for a critical minerals agreement to remove barriers which affected trade in electric vehicle batteries.

An agreement would give buyers of vehicles made using critical minerals processed, recycled or mined by UK companies access to tax credits in line with the IRA.

The Inflation Reduction Act provides a $3,750 incentive for each vehicle, on conditions including that the critical minerals used in its production – principally used in the battery – are sourced from the US or a country with whom the US has a critical minerals agreement.

An agreement could help companies all over the UK, including firms carrying out nickel production in Wales and lithium processing in Teesside.

Biden has committed to ask Congress to approve the UK as a “domestic source” under US defence procurement laws, allowing for greater American investment in British firms.

Work will be carried out to improve the resilience of supply chains and efforts will be stepped up to shut Vladimir Putin’s Russia out of the global civil nuclear market.

The agreement will also include a push for mutual recognition of qualifications for engineers, although this could require state-by-state approval in the US.

A deal on data protection will ease burdens for small firms doing transatlantic trade, potentially saving £92 million.

The two nations will also collaborate on key industries – artificial intelligence, 5G and 6G telecoms, quantum computing, semiconductors and engineering biology.

It also commits the UK and US to partnership across all forms of space activity, including on communications and space nuclear power and propulsion.

Why not a proper trade deal?

Officials believe the deal is a less sentimental and more pragmatic approach to the UK-US “special relationship”, based on the need to ensure the allies can maintain their economic power and security.

The global energy shock caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine illustrated the vulnerability of major economies reliant on supply chains beyond their political allies.

There are fears that a Chinese invasion of Taiwan could cause a similar economic meltdown due to the disputed territory’s significance in global semiconductor supplies.

Labour said the absence of a trade deal in the Atlantic Declaration represented a “failure”.

Shadow foreign secretary David Lammy said: “This statement shows the Conservative government has failed to deliver the comprehensive trade deal they promised in the 2019 manifesto, or to secure the ally status under the Inflation Reduction Act that is so important for the automotive sector and for the green transition.

“While the Biden administration have enacted the Inflation Reduction Act to de-risk its economy from China and create jobs at home, the Conservatives have left Britain’s cupboards bare. Instead of taking similar action, the chancellor has attacked the US approach as ‘dangerous’ and ‘not the British way’.”

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