Brexit day

Labour activists rose to their feet in a huge standing ovation today as Brexit chief Keir Starmer declared "nobody is ruling out Remain" in a second EU referendum. It was an apparently ad-libbed line, which did not appear in the original, approved text of the speech to Labour's party conference in Liverpool. It provoked a deafening roar of approval from the conference floor. It came as delegates tonight passed a motion that commits Labour to considering the "option" of a public vote on Brexit - if there's no deal and no general election. The motion was agreed after a torturous six-hour meeting. But John McDonnell and Unite leader Len McCluskey provoked a row by suggesting this vote would have no option to remain in the EU. A torrent of MPs and Shadow Brexit Secretary Sir Keir hit back, saying: "The meeting last night was very clear that the question of a public vote should be open. “We weren't ruling out options and nobody was ruling out remain." And in his keynote speech to … [Read more...] about Keir Starmer gets HUGE standing ovation as he tells Labour Conference ‘nobody is ruling out Remain’ in Brexit vote

Parliament will sit on a Saturday for only the fifth time since WWII after Boris Johnson returns from a crucial Brexit summit, it has been reported. The Government will call MPs to sit on Saturday, October 19 - the day after the crunch Brussels meeting that will decide whether an agreement can be reached. The Commons will sit whether Boris Johnson returns from the continent with or without a deal. MPs will be asked to approve any deal he brings back from Brussels. But if he comes back empty handed, they will be expected to vote on the next steps - which could include revoking Article 50 or a second referendum. The Houses of Parliament have only sat on a Saturday on four occasions since 1939. MPs debated the outbreak of World War II in 1939. A Saturday sitting took place to discuss summer adjournment debates in July 1949. Read More Brexit news and Brexit explained On 3 November 1956 MPs sat to debate the Suez Crises. And the most recent weekend session was to discuss the invasion of … [Read more...] about Brexit: Parliament to sit on a Saturday for only fifth time since World War II

There is only one reason why today’s election is happening: Brexit. Six weeks on, the 2019 election is still a Brexit election. You may want it to be about other things. You may be fed up and distressed with the whole Brexit argument. All this, though, is escapism. What is primarily at stake today is whether Britain leaves the EU on the Conservatives’ terms, or whether it doesn’t. Today, the nation’s votes will decide which it shall be. The leitmotif of Boris Johnson’s campaign has been Brexit. For someone who loves to speechify as much as he does, Johnson’s message discipline has been awesome. “Get Brexit done” has been the “strong and stable” of the 2019 campaign. The slogan is brilliantly succinct and well chosen. But it is a fraud. Johnson did not call the election because he lacked a parliamentary majority for Brexit. A Commons vote on 22 October showed that there was such a majority. But there was no majority for the … [Read more...] about This is a Brexit election. But Boris Johnson will not get Brexit done

Nigel Farage has claimed that Brexit party candidates have been “hounded and bombarded in the most extraordinary way”, complaining that “the tone of politics has deteriorated hugely” over the course of the election campaign. Speaking the day before the country goes to the polls, the Brexit party leader said the campaign had been “very, very nasty” and that he was surprised his candidates had been able to withstand the abuse they had been subjected to. “I’ve seen people who want to put themselves forward for election, which of course is our right in a free society, [be] hounded and bombarded in the most extraordinary way,” he said. Farage was speaking to a gathering of activists in the constituency of Doncaster Central, after a major poll – produced using a method that accurately predicted the last election – forecast the Conservatives winning a majority of 28, within the margin of error, and the Brexit party winning no … [Read more...] about Brexit party candidates have been ‘hounded’, says Nigel Farage

Facebook has been slammed for failing to do any extra work in its investigation into Russian influence on the EU referendum, after the company’s inquiry found just $0.97 (£0.72) of ad spending originating from the notorious Russian “troll army”. Damian Collins MP, the chair of the House of Commons digital, culture, media and sport select committee, said the company’s initial response to the Electoral Commission “does not answer the questions that I put to Mark Zuckerberg. “Facebook conducted its own research to identify tens of thousands of fake pages and accounts that were active during the French presidential election,” Collins said. “They should do the same looking back at the EU referendum and not just rely on external sources referring evidence of suspicious activity back to them.” The social network released the information to the Electoral Commission on Wednesday, in response to the organisation’s investigation … [Read more...] about Facebook criticised for response to questions on Russia and Brexit