Tag: Featured

    “All political lives end in failure.” These were the words of David Cameron when he realised he had lost the EU referendum in the early hours of 24 June, according to his biographer Anthony Seldon. The night before Mr Cameron made his resignation speech, the mood of the Prime Minister and his team swung from jubilant to morose as results came in and it became clear the Leave campaign had won. And despite pleas from some of his closest allies, including George Osborne, to stay on as Prime Minister in the case of a Brexit win, Mr Cameron decided before the first results were announced that he would leave if he lost the referendum. In an extract from an updated version of Mr Seldon’s biography of Mr Cameron published in The Times, the Prime Minister is quoted telling cabine...

    Andrea Leadsom The Conservative leadership contest should be cut short and one of the candidates given a coronation, a minister has said. Anna Soubry, the business minister, said a period uncertainty would be bad for the party and country at a time of instability. “It would be best if the candidates among themselves could just back one person and then we can get on with it,” she told LBC radio. “This uncertainty — for this to drag on till September — is not great for our country.” The Times newspaper cites an anonymous Conservative source as saying there will be “strong pressure” for MPs to start conceding if favourite Theresa May opens up an overwhelming lead in the race. Ms May, the Home Secretary, backs Remain, and is now in poll position in the contest after Bori...

    Thousands of people have gathered in central London to protest against plans to leave the European Union. Demonstrators wearing EU flags as capes and with homemade banners saying "Bremain" and "We Love EU" gathered on the streets around Park Lane for the March for Europe rally. Protesters taking part in the event, which was organised on social media, were due to march through London to Parliament Square. Comedian and satirist Mark Thomas organised the march to address his "anger, frustration and need to do something". He estimated between 20,000 and 40,000 people would be at the event. He said: "We would accept the result of the referendum if it was fought on a level playing field. But it was full of misinformation and people need to do something with their frustration." A...

    Let us separate matters. We face a political upheaval of the first order, but this is a necessary catharsis. Governments come and go. So do political parties. We face a much more serious constitutional crisis. It is why some of us want a national unity government, keenly alert to the interests of Scotland and Northern Ireland. As Professor Kevin O'Rourke from All Souls College argues here, most Leavers waltzed into Brexit with scarcely a moment's thought for trauma inflicted on both sides of the Irish border. This carelessness must be rectified immediately. What we do not yet face is a global financial crisis or a “Lehman moment”. The world’s central banks were ready for Brexit and have acted in unison. The S&P 500 index of Wall Street stocks has shrugged off the vote....

    Michael Gove has launched his bid to be the Conservative party leader, pitching himself as the candidate for change who will deliver on the British people’s desire to leave the European Union. In his speech in Westminster the day after he put Boris Johnson out of the race, Gove claimed to be a man of conviction, rather than ambition, who only entered the contest at the last minute after concluding the former London mayor was unsuited to the job. “I want this country I love – and which has given me so much – to embrace this opportunity for change with optimism and conviction,” the justice secretary said. “I never thought I’d ever be in this position. “I did not want it, indeed I did almost everything not be a candidate for the leadership of this party. I was so very relucta...