Director of @TheGrowthComm and Press Secretary to @trussliz. Ex: @ukhomeoffice @BrexitCentral @the_tpa @ConHome @Telegraph @bbc; owns every @NOWMusic album.
London
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- Followers 20,306
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👇🏻The brass neck of the Labour leader claiming our failure to leave the EU today is Boris Johnson’s fault is staggering. Corbyn and this rotten Remainer Parliament conspired at every turn to prevent Brexit today - despite being elected on a ticket of delivering Brexit in 2017. 🤬
Boris Johnson has spent months promising we'd leave the EU today. The failure to do so is his and his alone. Labour will get Brexit sorted by giving the people the final say within six months with the choice of a credible leave deal or remain. And we'll carry out what you decide.
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Every time I hear a politician talk about the need for a Brexit compromise, I wonder again what compromises would have been offered by Remainers to defeated Leavers if Remain had won the 2016 referendum. I think we all know the answer.
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Where were all those howling “constitutional outrage” today throughout the last 45 years as thousands of laws, directives and regulations were foisted on a powerless UK by unelected bureaucrats in Brussels?
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👇🏻At this hyper-critical juncture in the Brexit negotiations, here is a British party leader revelling in getting together with the EU's Chief Negotiator. Little wonder that Brussels won't strike a reasonable deal when the UK's negotiating position is being so undermined 😡
Pleasure to meet @MichelBarnier today. His job is to negotiate a deal, but I’m clear that the best deal we have is as members of the EU and that is what I will keep fighting for.
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I can only speak as I have found and in the 20 years I’ve known @pritipatel, I’ve never seen her bully anyone or been passed reports of such. She is an extremely determined politician on a tough beat with a mission to deliver what she’s promised. All power to her elbow!
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Amazing how Philip Hammond can predict what the economy will look like in 15 years' time when the Treasury routinely gets its annual forecasts wrong from one single year to the next...
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Three years ago today more people voted for Brexit than have ever voted for anyone or anything in British electoral history. Failure by our political class to deliver on that result - and very soon - will surely result in, to use the parlance of the time, a "democratic emergency"
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Corbyn says Boris Johnson has shown "contempt for democracy". But what about all those behind the legal challenges? Aren't they themselves guilty of "contempt for democracy" since their joint aim is to reverse the biggest democratic mandate in UK electoral history?
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As the Commons allows departing MPs to make valedictory speeches this afternoon, there’s just been a lovely contribution from Brexit hero @KateHoeyMP who reminds us that for thirty years as an MP she has put country before party. The Labour benches will be poorer without her.
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BREAKING: Sir Bill Cash & ERG lawyer MPs have written to the PM questioning her right to delay Brexit, saying the Govt’s attempt to gain approval of the extension after the event has “called into question the lawfulness of its actions”. Images of letter follows as thread...
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Am detecting an increasing sense of anger throughout the Tory parliamentary party that the very public anti-No Deal antics of Amber Rudd & Co have sent the EU the message that the UK is blinking and therefore Brussels need not respond to Cox with substantial backstop concessions
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Sir John Major is currently demanding that Brexit be put to a free vote in Parliament. Can someone help me out and remind me if he offered his MPs a free vote on the Maastricht Treaty?
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The Electoral Commission have put my friend @darrengrimes through a living hell these past few years. Today justice has been done and this taxpayer-funded quango has serious questions to answer about its hounding of a young and inspiring campaigner.
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"The chairman of the People's Vote campaign joins us from Davos," announces the interviewer on @BBCr4today. No further comment required.
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BREAKING: @BorisJohnson responds to the Withdrawal Agreement Bill passing: "At times it felt like we'd never cross the Brexit finish line, but we’ve done it. Now we can put the rancour and division of the past three years behind us & focus on delivering a bright, exciting future"
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Well, well, well. Michel Barnier is the latest EU figure to admit that in the event of No Deal there will be “no hard border” on the island of Ireland. This demonstrates the EU has been negotiating in bad faith in respect of its insistence on the backstop.
Barnier: 'In the case of no deal in all scenarios the GFA will continue to apply. The UK will remain a co-guarantor. There will be no hard border. We have to respect the SM but also out of respect for UK internal market there are going to have to be checks carried out somewhere.'
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Government ministers, including the PM, have been saying they disagree with the Supreme Court’s decision, and think it was wrong - but that they respect the decision and are abiding by it. It’s a shame so many vocal Remainers won’t treat the referendum result in the same way.
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Imagine FIFA had announced last night that despite England's victory on the pitch, it will be Sweden who play Croatia in the semi-final. That's the way a lot of Brexiteers are feeling now: angry and powerless over what they see as an unaccountable elite overriding a clear result.
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I've said it before and I say it again: all the concessions being given by the PM are in one direction, ceding more and more ground to the forces of Remain. The referendum was a binary choice and Leave won. If Remain had won, what concessions would they now be offering Leavers?
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So it turns out Tony Blair and Gordon Brown still don't like Brexit - a revelation that has been leading news bulletins this morning. In other news, the Pope is still a Catholic...
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👇🏻If the penalty is expulsion from the EU, I think I’d be fine with that...
📑We have launched an infringement procedure against the #UK 🇬🇧 for failing to name a candidate for EU Commissioner #Brexit 👇 ec.europa.eu/commission/pres…
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EXCLUSIVE: @BrexitCentral has just published the House of Commons' confidential legal note on the Withdrawal Agreement which was leaked to us. It vindicates Trump's latest claim, contradicts the PM and adds to Brexiteers' concerns in numerous areas... brexitcentral.com/leaked-com…
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Roses are red
I wish my passport were blue
It's 43 days
Until we leave the EU!
Happy Valentine’s Day! ♥️♥️♥️
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Electoral Commission: Remainers Broke Electoral Law order-order.com/2019/09/17/e… via @GuidoFawkes
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It is beyond parody that politicians who’ve spent a year warning about the dire consequences of No Deal - I’m thinking the Lib Dems and SNP in particular - will today back No Deal by voting against a trade deal with the EU. How can they expect ever to be taken seriously again?
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There has been a prorogation of Parliament pretty much every year before a Queen’s/King’s Speech since time immemorial. But for some reason the media have never reported any previous prorogation as a “shutdown” or “suspension” of Parliament...
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How could anyone ever achieve a successful negotiation if they gave a running commentary exposing their position to the other party involved?
.@JustineGreening: "We have a right to see what's being negotiated on our behalf... the Government is running a 'Get Ready for Brexit' campaign, why would it not be transparent about the Brexit it's trying to achieve,"
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Beware of self-selecting surveys and disingenuous headlines! Only 7% of UK businesses even trade with the EU, which makes this bunkum on a number of levels...
NEW: Nearly a third of British businesses planning to quit UK over Brexit, industry chiefs warn
politicshome.com/news/uk/for…
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Tony Blair is on the TV doing his best to scupper Brexit again. So it’s a good time to recall my piece from a year ago explaining that Blair himself was the one who created Nigel Farage and put rocket boosters under UKIP in the late 1990s brexitcentral.com/sorry-lord…
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👇🏻Some might say the ripping up of the Commons rulebook by the Speaker to the advantage of Grieve et al is “constitutional anarchy”...
Grieve: “I’m concerned some people seem to want a kind of constitutional anarchy...if you start to take a sledgehammer to the constitution’s structure in a cavalier way, you will smash it into pieces and you won’t be able to put it back together again.” #cpc19
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NEW: Jacob Rees-Mogg announces that MPs will tomorrow debate a motion for a conference recess next week, followed by a general debate on “the principles of democracy and rights of the electorate”
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After three and half years, 1,085 daily briefings and more than 2,000 posts from over 500 authors, I have just sent out my final @BrexitCentral email to our loyal readers. Thanks to all who have read and supported us during this momentous period. brexitcentral.com/thank-you-…
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Unconfirmed and from a single (always previously reliable) source - but hearing that the 48 letters are in and Downing Street are preparing for a no confidence motion in Theresa May as Conservative leader...
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👇🏻Remainer Labour MP with a majority of 30 (thirty votes) standing down in Staffordshire seat where more than 60% of his constituents voted Leave...
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BREAKING: @JohnnyMercerUK appointed Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Ministry of Defence and the Cabinet Office
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Unsurprised by this polling: with the EU being intransigent and unwilling to compromise on its unreasonable demands, it’s little wonder the public are saying “thanks, but no thanks. Time to walk away.” 👇🏻
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Significant that Boris Johnson says the UK will not nominate a new European Commissioner (who would serve if the UK were still in the EU as of 1st November). Nails the point that he is absolutely serious about the 31st October deadline.
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This is a disgraceful flouting of the rules by @SadiqKhan 👇🏻
There are no political advertisements on the tube. They are banned, explicitly.
Unless they fit @SadiqKhan’s agenda.
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So the EU are concerned about fishermen losing their jobs? Funny how Brussels was unconcerned about the decimation of the British fishing industry caused by the Common Fisheries Policy while the UK was a member state...
Thing is, level playing field is worth a lot more in monetary and political terms to EU BUT it sounds quite abstract to voters. Fishermen and women losing their jobs, industries dwindling .. that would be very visible very quickly - this elevates importance of fishing rights /2
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Go on, Theresa, surprise us: Stand up to Brussels tonight and embrace a clean break on Friday - my advice to the Prime Minister ahead of today's European Council meeting brexitcentral.com/?p=11436
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Theresa May's noting that Brexit "touches almost every area of national life" is a reminder that europhiles were utterly dishonest over the years when they scoffed at eurosceptics who suggested that the tentacles of Brussels were responsible for huge swathes of British law.
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BREAKING: MPs vote AGAINST having a mini-recess next week for the Conservative Conference by 306 votes to 289 (maj: 17) - a sign, as if it were needed, that any sense of co-operation between the Government and Opposition has entirely broken down...
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Remember the Labour MEP telling people during the campaign to vote Labour "to stop Brexit"? He just lost his seat to @brexitparty_uk in the North East...
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Merchandise celebrating Brexit voters dying. Sick. All the more hurtful to read on my father’s second anniversary. His generation voted to give their grandchildren an independent nation, having voted Remain in 1975 but then seeing how the EEC evolved. order-order.com/2019/03/22/s…
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Which part of "the Withdrawal Agreement is dead" did @MichelBarnier not understand?!?
We look forward to working constructively w/ PM @BorisJohnson when he takes office, to facilitate the ratification of the Withdrawal Agreement and achieve an orderly #Brexit. We are ready also to rework the agreed Declaration on a new partnership in line with #EUCO guidelines.
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BREAKING: Government has just published its response to Monday’s Commons motion demanding publication of the Operation Yellowhammer documents 👉🏻 gov.uk/government/publicatio…
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Remember anti-Brexit MPs voting down last year's pre-election programme motion for scrutinising the Withdrawal Agreement Bill because they wanted more time to examine it? Well, today MPs used just 4hrs 20 mins of 8hrs allotted for Cttee Stage - and 45 mins of that was voting.
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Last week Anna Soubry laughably claimed the Government was being held to ransom by the ERG. Today it is clear that the PM’s hand is being forced by the threats from Rudd/Clark/Gauke/Harrington/James/Perry/Ellwood etc who are all the while undermining the UK negotiating position😡
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I have every confidence the Government will take as much notice of your so-called People’s Vote March as you and Tony Blair did of the anti-Iraq War march and pro-hunting Countryside March...
MPs will have to take notice of the People’s Vote March gq-magazine.co.uk/article/pe…
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And there we have it… Sir Keir Starmer, architect of Labour’s Brexit policy, which helped deliver the party’s worst election drubbing since the 1930s, has been charged by its members with restoring its electoral fortunes. Good luck with that!
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Radio 4 reports that the Maltese and Czech PMs are telling the UK to have another referendum and change our minds on Brexit. EU has form for telling countries to vote again when they make the 'wrong' decision. But I can only see such interventions stiffening the British resolve.
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A government backbencher is tomorrow meeting ministers from a foreign government to undermine the UK Government. 👇🏻 #speechless
Exclusive:
Dominic Grieve will tomorrow hold a meeting with senior members of Emmanuel Macron's Govt to discuss extending A50 as path to 2nd referendum
Nathalie Loiseau will attend meeting in Grieve's parliamentary office with her advisers & officials
telegraph.co.uk/politics/201…
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The Lib Dems have now lost all three Leave-voting seats which they held in England: Norfolk North, Eastbourne and Carshalton & Wallington. Turns out the "Bollocks to Brexit" message doesn't go down well with Leave voters...
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🚨PERSONAL NEWS KLAXON 🚨
Delighted to share that this week I will be starting a new job as Press Secretary to former Prime Minister @trussliz. Really looking forward to being part of her team.
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BREAKING on @BrexitCentral: New polling suggests that the Tories would be swept out of power if they stick to the Chequers Brexit plan brexitcentral.com/conservati…
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Happy New Year to one and all! 2019 is when politicians must deliver the clean break from the EU that we voted for in 2016. I hope those of all parties and none will seize all the opportunities to make Brexit Britain an even better place to live for everyone for whom it is home.
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Page 36 of the 2017 Conservative manifesto states: “As we leave the European Union, we will no longer be members of the single market or customs union”. Remind me what happened when the Lib Dems broke their manifesto pledge on tuition fees...? issuu.com/conservativeparty/…
Telegraph splash:
Theresa May considers offering MPs vote on plans that could keep UK in the Customs Union, sparking Cabinet revolt
Cabinet minister: 'PM is in a very, very difficult position at the moment. It [indicative votes] would tip her over’
telegraph.co.uk/politics/201…
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Did you know only 24 of the 94 MPs in Theresa May's Government believed in Brexit enough to have voted for it in 2016? On @BrexitCentral today I call for the next PM to assemble an administration that believes in Brexit and the opportunities it affords. brexitcentral.com/we-need-a-…
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NEW: A group of Brexiteer middle-ranking ministers have just been in with the Govt Chief Whip threatening to quit en masse unless May quits. The Chief apparently did not try to make the PM’s case...
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An informed source suggests to me that Chris Grayling is considering his position as Transport Secretary. Would be another huge blow if Theresa May lost her campaign manager from the leadership election (and fellow former Merton councillor)
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NEW: Mass @ComRes poll of 26,000 people shows that the majority of Brits want the referendum result delivered (regardless of how they voted), with Leave outpolling Remain as preferred outcome by 54% to 46%. A timely reality check for Jo Swinson, David Lammy, Dominic Grieve et al.
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In case you missed this from yesterday's FT: "If the UK leaves on March 29 with no deal, economists are not now predicting a recession". Another Project Fear prediction out of the window...
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The UK now has a Prime Minister who backed Brexit in 2016 and believes in the opportunities of being free from the shackles of the European Union. Just rejoice at that news.
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Sad that this statement even needs to be issued. The hateful social media mobs going after @bbclaurak for doing her job are a deeply depressing development in the political discourse of today.
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“Jaguar Land Rover plans big UK investment” - wonder how the anti-Brexit crowd will explain this business decision? bbc.com/news/business-474202…
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A sovereign Parliament once again, for the first time since 1972. A positive note on which to end an otherwise lousy year. Bring on 2021. Here’s wishing a Happy and Healthy New Year to one and all #GotBrexitDone
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My take on @eucopresident Donald Tusk's outburst yesterday: he not only unfairly attacked Brexiteers (as plans had been worked up), but he reminded us that the EU is an anti-democratic beast brxcen.com/2GrpOly
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Reminder: @sarahwollaston - now on her third politiclal party of the year - was a co-sponsor of @CSkidmoreUK’s 2011 Bill to make defectors fight a by-election if switching party allegiance mid-term leftfootforward.org/2019/02/…
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🚨PERSONAL NEWS KLAXON🚨
Delighted to share that this week I have taken up a job in the @UKCivilService as Communications Private Secretary to Home Secretary @pritipatel in her Private Office at the @ukhomeoffice. Excited to get started in the new role!
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For “significant divergences”, read “unreasonable EU demands”...
After one week of intense negotiations in London, together with @DavidGHFrost, we agreed today that the conditions for an agreement are not met, due to significant divergences on level playing field, governance and fisheries.
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A question for @michaelgove: will he disown the actions of his declared supporter Oliver Letwin in conniving with the Opposition to undermine the negotiating position of whoever is the next Prime Minister?
BREAKING: Labour will use its Commons Opposition Day Debate tomorrow - with backing from Oliver Letwin and other opposition parties - to force a vote on seizing the Commons agenda on 25 June for the purpose of introducing legislation supposedly aimed at blocking a no-deal Brexit.
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"There are people in Parliament trying to frustrate Brexit," May tells @BBCr4today. True. But some might add that there are certain Cabinet ministers and civil servants at the heart of the UK's negotiating team trying to frustrate Brexit.
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Wrexham has not elected a Tory for 101 years. It just did.
Wrexham: Con GAIN
CON: 45.3% (+1.6)
LAB: 39.0% (-9.9)
PC: 6.4% (+1.4)
LDEM: 4.3% (+1.8)
BREX: 3.6% (+3.6)
Swing: Lab to Con (+5.7)
Turnout: 67.4%
Full results: ge2019.odileeds.org/card/Con #GE2019
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👇🏻Brexiteer Mark Francois's majority has just hit 31,000!
Rayleigh and Wickford: Con HOLD
CON: 72.6% (+5.9)
LAB: 16.1% (-8.2)
LDEM: 7.6% (+4.8)
GRN: 3.6% (+1.7)
Full results: britainelects.newstatesman.c… #GE2019
Mark Francois back in with an increased majority.
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Sorry, @DrPhillipLeeMP, but you are spreading falsehoods. Here are the figures:
1992 Tories: 14,093,007 of 33,614,074 votes = 41.9%
2016 Leave: 17,410,742 of 33,577,342 votes = 51.9%
Genuinely perplexed as to how you can compute those figures to back up your claim.
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Important: Theresa May going out of her way at PMQs to explicitly rule out extending Article 50
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This would be quite a development, if correct... via the @FT ft.com/content/c1bb68fa-4bed…
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In her Mail On Sunday article, @theresa_may says Parliament has not indicated “what it was prepared to vote for” in terms of Brexit. Not true. In January MPs backed the Brady Amendment which was the proposed Agreement with alternative arrangements replacing the Irish backstop.
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In the UK we had a #DemocracyDay on 23rd June 2016. And more people voted to Leave the EU than have ever voted for anyone or anything in British electoral history. Funny how the EU Commission and so many of its cheerleaders in the UK can't recognise that democratic decision...
Today is #DemocracyDay!
And democracy is the sum of all of us.
Take part in the debate → europa.eu/!gn93UW
#ThisIsTheEU
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👇🏻 MEPs in Brussels from Labour, the Lib Dems, SNP, Greens and Plaid in their plea to Donald Tusk here are now denying the mandate of the referendum, seeking to impair the British national interest by undermining the UK Government's negotiating position at this crucial juncture.
37 British MEPs - nearly all of them who aren't from the Brexit Party or Tories - have written to Donald Tusk asking him to grant a delay to Brexit at this week's European Council
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Huge congrats to Iain Duncan Smith @MPIainDS on his knighthood in the New Year Honours. Arise, Sir Iain!
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So sorry that he moots backing another referendum - which would be infinitely more divisive than the 2016 campaign. What about instead saying sorry for not allowing Whitehall to prepare for the prospect of a Leave vote, which created such a vacuum following the referendum?
NEW: David Cameron says he is 'truly sorry' over the divisions caused by EU referendum - but does not regret it
politicshome.com/news/uk/pol…
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👇🏻REMINDER: Rory Stewart is a serving Cabinet minister yet is indicating he is supportive of the antics of the official Opposition tomorrow. Extraordinary.
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👇🏻 If Merkel et al will only do a deal that gives EU control of trade policy for Northern Ireland and excludes it from the trade deals an independent UK will do, then it looks like No Deal it has to be...
1. PM spoke to Merkel at 8am this morning - No 10 source says she said there could only be a deal if Northern Ireland stays in Customs Union, if not, then deal is 'overwhelmingly unlikely'
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👇🏻 New EU Commission President evidently struggling with the concept of democracy here...
EU Commission President @vonderleyen "I think of the millions of ordinary British people who have taken to the streets in pro-European marches in the last few years. For them and for many millions more, the result of the referendum was a bitter pill to swallow."
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👇🏻A vital Labour marginal in which the @brexitparty_uk candidate has stood down to assist the Brexit-backing Conservative
It is with a heavy heart I have decided not to contest Dudley North as a Brexit Party candidate.
I am putting country before party as it is highly conceivable my candidacy could allow Corbyn’s Momentum candidate to win.
They are simply not fit to govern.
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BREAKING: A clutch of Brexiteers join the Government as junior ministers: @JamesDuddridge at DExEU, @SimonClarkeMP at the Treasury, @ZacGoldsmith at DEFRA/DfID and @NadineDorries at Health & Social Care. Congratulations all!
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👇🏻The EU’s totally unacceptable demands of an independent sovereign UK would suggest that Brussels doesn’t want a trade deal with us...
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A good day to remember the words of Shadow International Trade Secretary @BarryGardiner: “The only people campaigning for a second referendum are the ones who lost the first”
Ben, you should ask yourself why the only people campaigning for a second referendum are the ones who lost the first.
Precious few Leave Voters seem to be clamouring for the right to change their mind!
Labour must try to heal the divide not make it deeper.
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Astonishing - apart from the fact that the sovereign British people answered the referendum question and gave politicians instructions on which to act, @Anna_Soubry appears to be suggesting here that leaving the undemocratic/unaccountable EU is simply not possible or allowed.
The uncomfortable truth is that #Brexit cannot be delivered. It’s time we all faced the reality and were honest with the British people. We owe them a huge apology for a referendum with an option that was undefined & undeliverable.
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Brexit-watchers: if you only read one thing today, make it @HughRBennett’s masterful exposé of the EU’s cynical game-playing in respect of the Irish border on @BrexitCentral. He absolutely nails it. Do read and share widely! brexitcentral.com/eu-cynical…
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BREAKING: Jacob Rees-Mogg announces to MPs that tomorrow they will debate all stages of the Early Parliamentary General Election Bill (to provide for a 12th December election). He also confirmed the Government will not bring back the Withdrawal Agreement Bill.
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May tells @BBCr4today the backstop is "our guarantee to the people of Northern Ireland" to prevent a hard border. But what about the promise not to create a border in the Irish Sea, which yesterday's legal advice exposed to have been smashed to smithereens?
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Of the 6 ex-Tory MPs just handed peerages, only one, Peter Lilley, backed Leave at the referendum. Edward Garnier, Alan Haselhurst, Eric Pickles, John Randall and Andrew Tyrie all backed Remain. Hardly stacking the Lords with enthusiastic Brexiteers as some would have us believe.
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In a powerful intervention from the backbenches, Theresa May says that if Parliament didn’t mean it when parties said they would deliver the referendum result, it would be guilty of “the most egregious con trick against the British people”.
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Who said in 2017 she was concerned that the UK may “become a country that no longer respects democratic values” if MPs work to frustrate the result of the referendum? Answer: Yvette Cooper. Yes, really. More here: qmul.ac.uk/media/news/2017/h…
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Excellent recall (!) from @DouglasCarswell. Looks like @sarahwollaston has been again found to be happy to change her principles when it suits her 👇🏻
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