Labour MEP for Yorkshire & Humber
The response to the referendum result is still playing out in both of Britain’s main political parties. While the last few weeks have given the appearance – in stark contrast to before the referendum – of a united Conservative party and a divided Labour Party, this could change significantly in the coming period. On the […]
The following is a summary of the Government’s Brexit White Paper – together with my comments in red: Great repeal bill and control of UK laws “We will bring forward a White Paper on the Great Repeal Bill that provides more detail about our approach.” The first promise of this white paper is to promise […]
The will of the people seems sacred to Brexiteers, except when the people have something concrete to vote on.
The 60-year-old Euratom Treaty is a separate legal entity from the EU. The referendum last June did not concern Euratom. Little thought seems to have been given as to what we should do about our membership.
I welcome the judgment of the Supreme Court on the proper process for the triggering of Article 50. We live in a parliamentary democracy. Only Parliament, not the government, can decide on a matter that can affect the rights of UK citizens. Parliament must now seize the opportunity to take control of this process, to determine the best way […]
There are no two ways about it: Theresa May’s intention to take us out — not just of the EU, but also out of the European Single Market, the Customs Union and indeed “all parts of the EU” — is deeply damaging, and not just in economic terms. Here are some of the key implications of her speech, which will […]
Antonio Tajani of the European People’s Party (EPP, aka Christian Democrats) has been elected as the new President of European Parliament, beating Gianni Pittella, candidate of the centre left Socialists & Democrats (S&D) in the fourth and final ballot. Tajani has been an MEP and a European Commissioner. He is also a staunch Berlusconi supporter. […]
Theresa May’s journey towards a bleak, deluded UKIP view of the world continued today as she abandoned key areas of potential negotiation over the Single Market (favoured by most businesses, trade unions and economists) and instead moved the battleground to an ill defined (and unlikely to be agreed) partial membership of aspects of the Customs […]
Much of the debate around Brexit thus far has rightly centred on the government’s shambolic handling of the process, and its cavalier attitude to the potentially disastrous impacts on the UK economy. However on the rather serious constitutional question of Ireland, the Leavers’ astounding recklessness has gone almost unnoticed.
My autumn 2016 quarterly report.
Writing for Verdict, a new geopolitical, finance and economics platform, I expose some of the myths about how state aid for industry works within the EU.
The difficulties that face the fisheries and related industries and communities in the upcoming Brexit negotiations have been at best underestimated, and at worst deliberately misrepresented by those insisting it is simply a matter of ‘taking back our waters’.
The reason why Theresa May is so silent on her Brexit plans is because, as soon as she comes off the fence, the Tory party civil war on Europe will flare up again in public. The divisions between those who consider it vital that Britain continues to participate in the single market and those who […]
Interesting that, today, there are simultaneous attacks on me in the Telegraph, the Sun and the Express, all about amendments I tabled weeks ago to a draft report by Liberal MEP Verhofstadt in the Constitutional Affairs committee of the European Parliament. It’s clearly a concerted effort, especially as they all give the same distorted view […]
I recently chaired a cross-party tripartite meeting for MPs, MEPs and Lords at which I was asked to outline the likely negotiation process for Brexit after Article 50 is triggered. Here is summary of my presentation.
A wildly inaccurate UKIP press release, picked up and sensationalised by the Express Online, has been published on the day that the EU parliament voted overwhelmingly to adopt rule changes that would increase transparency and efficiency, as well as holding all MEPs to a higher standard of behaviour than before. Given their less than impressive […]
I discuss the choices the Government must make, and reveal, in its plan
In the New Statesman’s rolling blog I point out how the Tory hypocrisy and inconsistency is already damaging our chance of negotiating anything like a good Brexit deal for the UK.
In Labour List, I argue that it may well be in the national interest, and Labour’s electoral interest, not to consider Brexit a done deal without a chance to reconsider when we eventually see what it actually entails.
The European Parliament vote on CETA – the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement between the EU and Canada – will be early next year.
I spoke to LBC’s Clive Bull about the proposal from Mr Charles Goerens, one of Luxembourg’s MEPs, for associate citizenship of the EU for nationals of a former Member State.
In The Staggers rolling blog in The New Statesman, I point out that extracting ourselves from the shared laws and many useful agencies which operate across the EU will be costly, complex and extremely inefficient.
In large parts of Yorkshire, chances are that the electricity you use was generated using wood from Virginia, Georgia and other southern states of the USA. This is because Drax power station, the largest in the country, has switched from coal to wood for two (soon three) of its six furnaces. This is both for […]
If a travel agent sold you a ‘holiday of a lifetime’ and it turned out to be everything you’d been promised, you would be delighted. But if it turned out to be unpleasant, unhealthy and far more expensive than you’d been led to believe, you’d rightly be upset. That’s why most of us double-check before […]
