General Election Reflections
Labour List has published my article on why the Party’s ambivalence toward Brexit prior to and during the General Election, ended up being the worst of both worlds.
Articles & letters
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My Latest Article in Labour List
Reflecting on the poor election result for our party in Labour List, I argue that our Brexit policy was not wrong, but that it did not go far enough.
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Labour can’t be ambiguous about the next EU referendum
Writing in Labour List I explain why Labour cannot afford to be ambiguous about the next EU referendum.
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Labour must become the party of Remain & Reform
I have co-written an article in Labour List with my colleague Jude Kirton-Darling MEP and Mike Buckley of the Labour for a People’s Vote campaign.
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Why the EPLP voted for Ursula von der Leyen
My response to an article in Thursday’s Labour List which criticised the EPLP’s decision to vote in support of the nomination of Ursula von der Leyen as the next European Commission president.
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Brexiteers are falling behind
In my latest article for Labour List, I argue that while the European election results were not good for Labour, nor were they good for the Brexit supporting parties. Labour must move to a wholehearted backing of a public vote on Brexit in order to stop haemorrhaging votes.
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Why misgivings about a new referendum are unfounded
Some Labour MPs are uneasy about our leadership calling for a referendum on May’s Brexit deal. They have four main arguments against this position. My latest article in Labour List challenges their assertions.
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Labour MPs who’ve ruled out a referendum should think again
I have co-written an article for Labour List with Wakefield’s MP Mary Creagh. We recognise that some Labour MPs are hesitant about holding another EU referendum, but although we understand their caution, the arguments simply don’t stack up.
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Brexit Options Are Running Out
Although the new year has seen several Brexit options being discussed, in fact the actual options for Labour MPs on Brexit are increasingly clear. My latest article for Labour List.
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Why Labour MPs in Leave seats shouldn’t fear voting down a Tory Brexit
Writing for Labour List I argue Labour colleagues should not enable right-wing Tory and UKIP politicians – who fear that the people may have changed their minds – in opposing a public vote on the Brexit deal.
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What does Labour Conference’s Brexit Motion mean in practice?
Brexit has been one of the main issues discussed at this year’s Labour Party Conference, and Labour’s policy has been clarified. Here is a summary of where we stand now, and how the various options may play out in the coming weeks.
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We can tackle immigration – without cutting ourselves off from the EU
Labour List have published my piece explaining how many concerns about immigration can be addressed under current EU rules, if the UK government was prepared to use the powers it has available.
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Brexiters are wrong to think they’ll win a golden trade deal with the Commonwealth
In my latest piece for Left Foot Forward, I warn the Tory ministers making far-fetched claims that the Commonwealth Games are an opportunity to tout for post-Brexit trade, that they’re deluding themselves.
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Labour’s vision of staying in a customs union will protect jobs, rights and standards
After Jeremy Corbyn’s speech on Monday I have written for Left Foot Forward on how the position he outlined could put pressure on the chaotic and damaging Tory Brexit plans that emerged from Chequers last week.
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Theresa May’s ‘Road to Brexit’ will lead us off a cliff edge when it comes to security
With no (WTO equivalent) fallback positions on security, defence, policing and aviation, May’s Road to Brexit risks taking us on a journey that would diminish our safety and security at home and influence abroad. My latest piece for Left Foot Forward.
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We do not have to leave the Single Market to address migration concerns
The New Statesman has published my piece which challenges the myth that the UK has no control over EU migration. Membership of the Single Market gives national governments considerable powers, but Theresa May – both has Home Secretary and Prime Minister – has failed to implement them.
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Democracy Rules OK in the EU
I responded to John Redwood‘s bogus claims in The Yorkshire Post that Brexit is justified because it is somehow undemocratic for 28 democracies to work together in the EU. (Redwood will try anything to avoid discussing economic damage of Brexit!)
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Should Labour fear single market rules?
Are there specific aspects of single market rules that would be problematic for a Labour government? Several are cited from time to time. Writing for Labour List, I point out that none in fact would cause insurmountable problems to delivering our manifesto,
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There is no Brexit fee, but there are liabilities
Writing for Left Foot Forward, I explain what the financial settlement with the EU actually is and why we shouldn’t let hard line Brexiters hijack this issue.
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Interview in Tribune
I was interviewed by Tribune Magazine on becoming Labour’s new Leader in the European Parliament.
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Labour must ensure that Brexit is not used to degrade our environmental protections
I was invited to write an article for SERA – Labour’s environment campaign – on why it is important to maintain transnational cooperation on environmental legislation, and the threats to this presented by Brexit.
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Tory Brexit talks show why Britain is teetering on the cliff edge
Once again, the Brexit talks have stalled as the Tory government stumbles on. Here is my latest piece for Labour List, outlining just how calamitous the situation is.
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Why the Tories are terrified of releasing the Brexit impact papers
The Conservatives know the scale of the disaster Brexit poses – and they want to keep voters in the dark, I argue in my most recent argue for Left Foot Forward.
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As Labour’s MEPs leader in Europe, I hope to help my party in the Brexit debate
In my first article as Leader of Labour MEP’s, I have written for Labour List about how we can help the party and the public understand the issues facing the country as the Brexit debate intensifies.
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Latest Article in The New Statesman
The New Statesman has published my latest article ‘Brexiteers are not being honest about negotiations because they are panicking’
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What the single market actually is – and what will happen if we leave it
My latest piece is published in The Independent today: Some argue that staying in the single market does not respect the result of the referendum. Yet, it was Leave campaigners themselves who promised that we could leave the EU without economic damage because we’d stay in the single market.
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The British left should lead in resisting Brexit
Labour List have published my article on why the left should be resisting Brexit.
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Labour must distance itself from the Tories’ Brexit disaster
My lastest article for Labour List argues that Labour can ill afford to be on the wrong side of the Brexit debate.
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As Labour politicians, we reject a hard-right Brexit, and defend the single market
I am one of the fifty signatories of a statement from Labour MPs, MEPs and Lords calling for our party to campaign to at the very least remain in the single market as part of the Brexit negotiations, because of the enormous damage leaving it would do to our economy.
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Labour must not be complicit in this hard Brexit disaster
Writing for Left Foot Forward, I argue for Labour must continue to fight the Tory’s hard Brexit over the coming weeks and months.
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The ‘no deal is better than a bad deal’ fallacy
My article pointing out the ‘Fox paradox’ has been published in Parliament Magazine.
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What red lines should Labour lay down for the Brexit negotiations?
Writing for Labour List on the eve of the triggering of article 50, I argue for the red lines that Labour should insist on.
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Now the Brexit bill has passed, what red lines for Labour?
Labour List published my response to the passing of the unamended Brexit bill through parliament on Monday evening. What should Labour do now?
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Fabian Review | The Next Steps
Fabian Review has launched a regular series of pieces looking at the view from Brussels on Brexit from the UK and EU politicians playing key roles in the negotiations, to which I will be regularly contributing.
To start the series, I explain what the EU is planning while it waits for Britain to fire the Brexit starting pistol.
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State aid within the EU
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.
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Tusk calls out Tory hypocrisy
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.
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Brexit at any cost?
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.
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The Brexit nightmare we will soon be unable to ignore
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.
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Why the EU is an exemplar of democracy, not anti-democratic
As part of their ‘Brexit Debates’ I have written for Unlock Democracy about why the EU is the most democratic of all the international structures to which the UK belongs and that UK sovereignty is not undermined by our membership, but enhanced by it.
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Red lines
In an analysis for the Fabian Society, I suggest a range of possible ways to square the circle between voters’ genuine concerns about migration and the urgent need to keep our economy afloat.
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We still don’t know what Brexit policy is
I wrote an editorial for Left Foot Forward on the government’s mixed-up policy on Brexit.
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Brexit deadlines
I wrote this letter to The Times: Sir, Contrary to reports, triggering Article 50 in March 2017 doesn’t mean we will leave the EU in March 2019. The two-year deadline in the treaty is just a last resort, in case negotiations totally fail. Otherwise, the date for departure is set in the Article 50 agreement […]
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How Britain shaped Parliament
To coincide with the publication of The European Parliament in its ninth edition, John Harper Publishing have commissioned a series of studies in the evolution of the institution.
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We shouldn’t fall into the right’s trap on migration
Left Foot Forward has just published an article of mine on why Labour should be careful not to fall into the right’s trap on immigration.
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Truths and myths about the months to come
I wrote an article for the Fabians’ new edited collection on Brexit, entitled What next? Truths and myths about Britain’s institutional possibilities in the months to come.
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Conservative MPs accused of being a bunch of wimps
Parliament Magazine has quoted extensively from my blog on the role of pro-EU Conservative MPs in the debate over Brexit
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Brexit referendum: things are far from settled
Parliament Magazine has republished my blog post about what to expect next from the Brexit debate.
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Here’s how the left should respond to Brexit
I wrote a piece for LabourList on the next move for the Labour party in response to the ongoing Brexit debate.
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A clean bill of health
An exchange of letters in the Times brought up the old myth that the EU accounts had not been signed off by the auditors. I wrote the following reply, which was not printed. Sir, When it comes to the EU accounts, Alan Sked (letters, May 25) should go back to primary sources rather than trusting […]
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Gove exploiting lack of knowledge
I wrote a point-by-point criticism of Michael Gove’s argument for LabourList this week: Gove knows full well that most of his readers will not be conversant with the intricacies of EU procedures. He is cynically and dishonestly trying to exploit that, to try to restore his side’s chances to make inroads into the Remain vote. […]
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Nasty tactics in referendum race
My article in Progress magazine was published today: Some nasty tactics have already appeared in the European Union referendum campaign. One is the way that anti-EU campaigners try to bully or discredit their opponents, rather than discuss the issues. Their response to any message they do not like is to threaten, dismiss or try to […]
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Fighting political battles
A representative of ‘Trade Unionists Against the EU’ has been a regular correspondent in the Guardian letters column recently. I responded to his most recent assertions with a letter of my own, published today: Fawzi Ibrahim (letters, 30 March) wants to use the EU referendum to inflict maximum embarrassment on the government. He need not […]
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By the strength of our common endeavour
Policy Network commissioned a piece from me on Labour’s role in the upcoming referendum, and published it today: Whatever we think of the balance of Cameron’s reforms — and they are mostly a mixture of trivial and useful, with a few bad ideas thrown into the mix — we are not forced, like the Tories, […]
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Journalistic shorthand
A letter in last week’s Spectator magazine bemoaned the journalistic habit of using “Europe” as a shorthand for “the European Union”. I was amused, and sent them this further comment: Sir, Your correspondent Anthony Jennings takes umbrage at the shorthand “Europe” to refer to the European Union. A lady I met the other day told […]
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An unhealthy obsession with migration
My opinion piece on migration and the EU has just been published by New Statesman: If we want to take seriously people’s concerns about immigration, first and foremost we must be honest about what gives rise to those concerns. And if immigration is a problem, it is emphatically not an EU problem. It suits the […]
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What goes on at the sidelines?
I gave an extended video and written interview to ITV News today on the behind-the-scenes details of the European Council summit. A very difficult meeting to chair. You’ve got 28 prima donnas around the table who all think they are right and usually get their own way domestically. They’re suddenly in a meeting where none […]
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The useful and the trivial
My analysis of Cameron’s current EU negotiations was published this morning in Europe’s World: David Cameron seemed pleased with himself earlier this month when he stood up in the House of Commons and finally announced the details of the draft deal for his renegotiation of Britain’s relationship with the EU – a draft that will […]
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Labour should focus on the big picture
I wrote an article for Labour Movement for Europe’s op-ed series, assessing Cameron’s draft deal and what happens next in the ongoing debate about Britain’s EU membership. Are moments like these the first signs of genuine political engagement from a prime minister who has, up till now, been obsessed with trying to keep a lid […]
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The EU is made of democracies
My letter to the Telegraph was published over the weekend: SIR – European countries have not covered themselves in glory when it comes to addressing the migrant crisis. But it is wrong to suggest that the proposal to suspend Greece from the Schengen area is characteristic of a dictatorship. These proposals will be put to […]
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Retreating from the fight would betray our values
I write in the Huffington Post today that Europe is a political battleground where the left can, and do, win — which is why we must stay and fight: In fact, Labour is more united now on Europe than it has ever been – not just in parliament but at every level. Despite intense lobbying […]
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Parliament and Brexit
I contributed to a collected article published by LSE on MEPs’ views about the UK referendum. The role of the European Parliament in the UK’s renegotiation saga could be crucial or minor — depending on how the talks go — and in the ultimate case of an eventual Brexit, decisive as regards the terms and […]
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Are these really EU failures?
I sent this letter to the editor of the Daily Telegraph today. Dear Editor, You list “a democratic deficit, economic stagnation and chronic failure over mass migration” as the failures of the EU (Telegraph View, 10 Dec). But are they? “Democratic deficit” trips nicely off the tongue. But it would beggar belief that 28 democracies […]
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Tackling migration
A short piece I wrote a few weeks ago about Cameron’s plans to limit EU migration has just been published by Progress magazine: What does the government claim it wants to do? European Union freedom of movement, enshrined in the EU treaties, was not on David Cameron’s initial list of demands, but later became a […]
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Hopes and hurdles for the European project
My letter about the EU was the leader in today’s Guardian comments section: Paul Mason relies on tired old cliches – and, bizarrely, his dislike of the Belgian police – to justify his claim that there is no democratic control over the European Union (G2, 19 October). He talks of “vast bureaucratic structures” and “the […]
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There’s nothing left-wing about being anti-EU
This article was originally published on Labour List. Like Britain, the EU isn’t perfect. Political battles need to be fought at European level, just as at national level, to change things. But our economic and environmental interdependence with our neighbouring countries makes such battles at European level vital – and the idea of opting out […]
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How to oppose austerity without looking like deficit-deniers
LabourList have published an extended essay of mine about the current economic situation. Across Europe – from Spain to Scotland, from the Labour leadership contest to the situation in Greece – this is turning into a central political question. No party of the left can support savage cuts to essential benefits, nor to vital investments […]
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Steering between the trivial and the impossible
Policy Network today published my paper analysing Cameron’s reform agenda and the likelihood of success in each key area. The prime minister’s demands for the future of the EU vary hugely in relevance and plausibility. With the referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU now a certainty, David Cameron now has to finally spell out […]
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The EU is not the USSR
My letter was published this morning in the Times: Sir, The claim by John Neimer (June 29) that the EU is centralised “just like the old USSR” is absurd. The EU can only act in those fields where its member states, all democracies, have conferred powers on it. Even then, any EU legislation requires the […]
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Greece: don’t take things at face value
My blog on Greece (originally on this website) has been republished as an article by Left Foot Forward: At first sight, the natural sympathies of many people, especially on the left, will be with Greece. Is this not a plucky little country, standing up to the IMF and the richer eurozone countries to oppose austerity […]
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For a strong and progressive Europe
An article jointly written by Neil Kinnock and me has been published today in LabourList. The European Union is changing. This is nothing new. We Brits might not be very good at noticing, but the European Union (EU) has always been changing — sometimes gradually, sometimes rapidly. It changes in response to our needs as […]
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European reform is already happening
The article below first appeared today in The Guardian and is reproduced with permission. It’s rare to find a politician in Europe who can talk about the EU without mentioning the R-word. Reform is the apple pie of European politics: every politician wants a slice. This is fair enough. Nobody would seriously argue that the […]
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An open letter to David Cameron
British Influence have today published my open letter to David Cameron. The full text is below. Dear Prime Minister, Firstly, congratulations on your election result. Your majority is thin, and your government will be fragile — but it is a government nonetheless. In the course of winning power, you have committed us all to a […]
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Shaping transatlantic trade
The British Chambers of Commerce have just reprinted my column from a couple of months ago on TTIP and what’s at stake: The proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, or TTIP, is not all sweetness and light. Even as initial negotiations got underway between European and American trade representatives a couple of years ago, concerns […]
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EU reform: what do we actually need?
My thoughts on what ‘EU reform’ actually means for the current UK government have just been published on UCL’s Britain and Europe Blog: A strange thing happened in the second half of last year. As the British Prime Minister David Cameron proclaimed to the British people that he ‘won’t take no for an answer’ when […]
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How much UK law is made at European level?
I’ve just published an article in Business for New Europe’s blog on the simple point of how much UK law is made at European level, and how it has become a political hot potato: Of course, the question can be tricky to answer, because a lot depends on what counts as ‘a law’ and what counts as […]
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An opportunity for meaningful reform
I’ve just published an article in Progress on why the vacuum created by Cameron’s dilemma over his party’s EU policy is an opportunity for us to achieve real, meaningful policy reform in Europe: The truth is that European reform is an ongoing process about policy, not a one-off symbolic event. The whole point of the […]
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Idealism or pragmatism?
I wrote my first article for the UK European Movement since becoming Vice Chair, on the subject of balancing pragmatism and idealism about the European Union. The EU today might appear to be less about inspirational idealism, and more about nitty-gritty pragmatism. And pragmatism is important. But when we focus exclusively on self-interested arguments, we […]
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MEPs keep the Commission in line
As a member of the European Parliament’s constitutional affairs committee, I’ve been observing the commissioner hearings to see how the procedure can be improved in the future. The process, and my report, is yet to be finalised — but I have written some of my initial thoughts in an article for the Parliament Magazine: When it […]
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A common sense guide to EU reform
Europe’s World (a European policy journal) has published an article of mine that outlines my thoughts on EU reform: Reform in the European context is an ongoing process, not a one-off event to be initiated, negotiated and completed within a self-proclaimed deadline. Rather, the whole point of the EU is to be a non-stop negotiating forum, year […]
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A lesson in democracy?
Left Foot Forward have published an article of mine reviewing the hearings process and comparing it to the national political scene: How illuminating it would be, then, if the Commons took a greater interest in ministerial appointments and submitted ministers to close questioning in public confirmation hearings before they could take office! What a powerful […]
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Are British MEPs usually outvoted?
I sent this letter to the editor of the Telegraph today. Sir, The eurosceptic pressure group ‘Business for Britain’ has attempted to unpick the voting record of ‘the British’ in the European Parliament (How British MEPs are outvoted time and again in Brussels, 1 September). Sadly, their analysis is full of holes. First there’s the […]