Tag: Scottish National Party

The EU council determining the length of an extension to article 50 should put to rest the decades-long Europhobe lie that the EU is run by “unelected bureaucrats” (Britain told leave by 31 October, 11 April). Brexit has also exposed Michael Gove’s campaign claim that “the day after we vote to leave we hold all the cards and can choose the path we want”. Dr Simon Sweeney University of York • Over the last three years I have followed the whole Brexit imbroglio pretty closely, both home and abroad. In all that time I have heard representatives from the other 27 EU countries make coherent and telling arguments in a foreign language, English, often far more cogently and concisely than English politicians have done in their own tongue. No wonder the zeitgeist of the nation is one of unalloyed angst and the rest of the world has a justified feeling of schadenfreude. Peter Lewis Burley-in-Wharfedale, West Yorkshire • Tony Greaves is absolutely correct that the d’Hondt method means that divided remain parties may end up with nothing. The situation is even more difficult in Scotland, where the strongly pro-remain SNP is added to the mix. Sadly Tony Greaves’s party, the Lib Dems, abhor the SNP even more than Brexit, which would make such a pact extremely unlikely. Andrew Syme Perth, Scotland • In the forthcoming election, could we arrange to have three candidates in each EU constituency. If a constituency can only muster two potential candidates I would be prepared to stand on any of the three platforms.

The Conservative party’s second biggest donor has called for a government of national unity to be formed as soon as possible to solve the Brexit crisis. John Griffin, the taxi tycoon who has given £4m to the Tories over the last six years, said the party should reach out to MPs from Labour, the Lib Dems and the Scottish National Party if it is to emerge from EU negotiations with a successful deal. It follows similar demands from fellow Tories including Nicky Morgan and Sir Nicholas Soames. Other Conservative donors have threatened to withhold funds unless it solves the current political crisis, it emerged on Thursday. Griffin, founder of the cab firm Addison Lee, told the Guardian that Theresa May’s government should use a new team and adopt a different negotiating strategy with the EU. Morgan, the treasury select committee chair, told MPs in December that the Commons should come together to stop a no-deal scenario. A national unity government was first formed during the Napoleonic Wars in 1806 and last occurred in 1931. Soames has previously mooted the idea of a national unity government, telling Channel 4 News: “I must say, if I had my way, we would have a national government to deal with this. It is the most serious problem this country has faced since the war.” It emerged on Thursday that donations to the Conservatives are drying up as backers unhappy with splits over Brexit refuse to fund the party. All said they were unsure whether to give cash to the party at present.

The SNP will ask for the power to hold an independence referendum if the UK leaves the EU. The party's Westminster spokesman Ian Blackford MP told BBC's Sunday Politics Scotland the party would put forward an amendment this week asking for the power to hold a second vote. 'Scotland's choice' However, Mr Blackford said that the Scottish Parliament has a mandate to hold an independence referendum and said that Theresa May should respect the sovereignty of the Scottish people. Brexit could be lost if deal rejected, Jeremy Hunt says Brexiteer MPs say delay would be political calamity One more push needed to get deal through, says May Mr Blackford continued: "What we're going to do is put down an amendment asking for the government to recognise that Scotland voted to remain. AdChoices "We're making reference in that to the claim of right and the debate we had in Parliament in July 2018 that Parliament accepted the motion that sovereignty rests with the Scottish people. "We will do what we can to work with other parties to stop Brexit, we have no desire to see Scotland dragged out against its will, but we need to recognise that if that does happen then the people of Scotland have got to determine their own future." Brexit: Does anyone really know what happens next? Mr Blackford said that the SNP would vote to rule out a no-deal Brexit and extend the Article 50 process if the prime minister's vote on Tuesday is defeated. SNP 'excuses' A UK government spokesman said: "Scotland had an independence referendum in 2014 and voted decisively to remain in the UK. That is what people and business in Scotland expect."

In a statement in Downing Street on Wednesday night, the prime minister exhorted politicians from all parties to “put aside self-interest”, and promised to consult with MPs with “the widest possible range of views” in the coming days. May keen to start alternative Brexit talks after no-confidence motion fails – Politics live Read more A day after overwhelmingly rejecting her Brexit deal, rebel Conservatives and Democratic Unionist party (DUP) MPs swung behind the prime minister to defeat Labour’s motion of no confidence by 325 votes to 306 – a majority of 19. With just five days to go before May must make a statement to parliament setting out her Brexit plan B, Downing Street continued to indicate that she was not ready to budge on her red lines, including membership of a customs union. “We will support any real opportunity to take down the Tories with relish. We will not be party to Corbyn using spurious means to avoid Labour policy, by pursuing unwinnable no-confidence votes,” the source said. May’s spokesman said a no-deal Brexit could not be ruled out. May’s spokesman suggested a customs union was not up for discussion: “We want to be able to do our own trade deals, and that is incompatible with either the or a customs union.” After meeting party leaders, May is expected to extend the invitation to opposition backbenchers over the coming days, as well Tory Eurosceptics. The prime minister has lost control and the government have lost the ability to govern.” Labour’s deputy leader, Tom Watson, wound up the debate for his party by saying May would for ever be known as “the nothing-has-changed prime minister”. A group of more than 70 Labour MPs announced on Wednesday morning that they were backing the call for a “people’s vote”. Failing that, all options are on the table, including that of campaigning for a second referendum.

Live: BBC News Channel UK Prime Minister Theresa May has seen off a bid to remove her government from power, winning a no-confidence vote by 325 to 306. Rebel Tory MPs and the DUP - who 24 hours earlier rejected the PM's Brexit plan by a huge margin - voted to keep her in Downing Street. What is a vote of no-confidence? Giving her reaction to the result, Mrs May told MPs she would "continue to work to deliver on the solemn promise to the people of this country to deliver on the result of the referendum and leave the European Union". But Mr Corbyn, who tabled the no-confidence motion, said in the Commons that before any "positive discussions" could take place, the prime minister should rule out a no-deal Brexit. Mr Corbyn's no-confidence motion was backed by all the opposition parties, including the Scottish National Party and the Liberal Democrats. His party has not ruled out tabling further no-confidence motions - but Mr Corbyn is under pressure from dozens of his own MPs and other opposition parties to now get behind calls for a further EU referendum instead. How did my MP vote on the motion of no confidence? Mr Blackford has also written to Mr Corbyn, along with other opposition leaders, to urge him to back another referendum as Labour's official position. "As the prime minister says, Brexit has to mean Brexit, not a different relationship that doesn't actually deliver on Brexit," he added.

Labour will not allow a representative of the People’s Vote campaign to take part in any televised Brexit debate involving Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn, with the party instead pushing for a format that would allow the opposition leader to criticise the prime minister’s domestic policies. It also led to calls from parties that support a second EU referendum – including the Scottish National party, the Green party and the Liberal Democrats – to have a representative on the panel. One Downing Street source said formal talks with broadcasters had yet to begin, with questions around scheduling still to be decided. Discussion about the format of leaders’ debates has become a cornerstone of British politics over the past decade, with months spent trying to agree a debate format during the 2015 general election. Time pressure means political parties have a matter of days to come to an arrangement this time. The Daily Telegraph has been briefed that the prime minister favours holding a “primetime, Sunday night televised debate” with Corbyn, with a “Question Time-style session with a televised audience hosted by David Dimbleby” lined up if terms cannot be agreed with the Labour leader. However, Downing Street’s desire for a peak slot may come against the brutal reality of TV schedules. The prime minister’s team want the largest possible audience for such a debate, but the only logistically possible Sunday night that could work is 9 December, which could bring its own problems if they wish to appear on one of the biggest terrestrial channels. Meanwhile, ITV will be showing the final of I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here. During a Facebook Q&A last year, she justified skipping the head-to-head contest with her Labour rival: “What I think is more important is actually that I and he take questions directly from the voters”

Theresa May has been accused of bringing the honours system into disrepute after handing a knighthood to a former minister known to be wavering on whether or not to support her Brexit deal. Downing Street announced the award had been granted to John Hayes MP, a junior minister to May when she was the home secretary, on Friday afternoon. “People will rightly look at this knighthood and wonder how it relates to the looming Brexit vote in the Commons,” said a spokesman for the Scottish National party leader, Nicola Sturgeon. We need to know if anything has been promised in exchange for this honour.” Chris Green, a Conservative MP who followed the former Brexit and foreign secretaries, David Davis and Boris Johnson, in resigning from his Department for Transport job over May’s Chequers plan in July, told the Financial Times: “They will use whatever patronage is available to them. They are feeling the heat.” Theresa May prepares to face biggest threat to date: the Tory party Read more Will Dry, the co-founder of the Our Future, Our Choice anti-Brexit campaign group that focuses on younger people, highlighted the strength of Tory opposition to the prime minister’s Brexit deal. He said: “If this is May’s plan to win them round, will a knighthood mean anything by the time this Brexit mess is all over?” Hayes, 60, the MP for the Lincolnshire constituency South Holland and the Deepings, has been vocal about his discomfort with the deal. A week ago, he told his local paper, the Spalding Guardian: “Whilst I can live with much of this agreement, I have been clear that we must look again at the transition arrangements and how they end.” He added that he hoped May would listen to Tory opposition and come up with a deal that he found more acceptable. May was critical of the former prime minister, David Cameron, for handing out numerous honours as he left office in 2016. Responding to the allegations against May on Friday, a Downing Street spokesman highlighted that Hayes had said he remained undecided on the deal. Hayes had not responded to the Guardian’s request for comment but was quoted by the Sun as saying: “I still need a lot of persuading to vote for this [May’s Brexit deal].”

Dominic Raab, the Brexit secretary, has told MPs that the Canada-style Brexit favoured by Tory Brexiters would be “a shortcut to no deal”. He made the comment in the Commons as he gave a statement on developments in the Brexit talks. He also insisted that any backstop agreed to by the UK government would be time limited, and he ruled out what Labour MPs said might be a “blind” Brexit, saying the deal would have to include precise details of the future trade relationship. Nicola Sturgeon has told the Scottish National party conference that Brexit makes independence more likely than ever, as she challenged activists to ramp up their efforts in persuading voters across the country of the case for leaving the UK. The economic boost of a Brexit deal involving preferential access to the UK for EU citizens could outweigh the benefits of ending free movement, according to the goverment’s migration adviser. As Jamie Grierson reports, the prime minister, Theresa May, has confirmed that people from EU countries will be treated the same as those across the rest of the world when the new immigration system is introduced after Brexit. But Prof Alan Manning, whose migration advisory committee (MAC) drew up a government-commissioned report recommending the change, said there would only be “modest” benefits from ending the current system. Jeremy Hunt, the foreign secretary, has warned Saudi Arabia that its friendship with the UK depends on shared values, after he demanded answers over claims that a Saudi hit squad may have played a role in the disappearance and possible killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. That’s all from me for today. Thanks for the comments.

Labour has recovered three points since the end of last week. Voters strongly back ‘trustworthy’ May as Johnson’s leadership bid backfires Read more The poll, taken after Theresa May’s conference speech, revealed that her personal approval rating rose from -14% to -12% since last week. Meanwhile Jeremy Corbyn’s personal rating fell from -18% to -20%. In her conference speech she sought to drive a wedge between moderate Labour voters and Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership. Of the two party leaders, 25% of respondents said they thought May had performed best during the conference season, while 20% thought Corbyn had. He said he was determined “to rebuild our economy, communities and public services, but also to democratise them, and change the way our economic system is run in the interests of the majority”. Among Tory supporters this figure rose to 87%. The latest poll findings are a boon for May’s leadership, because they place her ahead of both Corbyn and her Tory rival Boris Johnson – 43% of respondents said they thought that May has the nation’s best interests at heart, compared with 38% for Corbyn and only 30% for Johnson. The figures suggest that Johnson’s star appeal, which drew long queues of conference delegates to watch his speech, does not translate into broader political support among Tory voters. Opinium’s findings are based on a survey of 2,007 adults online.