Probable PM told he is on collision course with parliament unless he drops hardline agenda

Boris Johnson has been put on notice by rebel Conservatives that he will not survive long as prime minister unless he drops his no-deal Brexit agenda, as he stands on the brink of entering Downing Street.

Johnson is expected to be announced as the choice of the Conservative party to be the next prime minister on Tuesday morning after running a campaign against Jeremy Hunt that promised to take the UK out of the EU by the end of October “do or die”.

To wrest the mantle of progressive change from other rivals in Westminster will need Jo Swinson to find her voice and a new set of attractive policies beyond Brexit

Jo Swinson arrives at probably the best time to be a Liberal Democrat for a decade. In May the party posted a record European election result, attracting both Labour and Conservative voters disaffected by their own parties’ divisions over Brexit. A few weeks earlier local elections saw the party gain hundreds of seats and control of a series of councils in England. The party hovers near the top of the polls. Ms Swinson’s job will be to keep it there.

This has been a remarkable turnaround. In 2015, as the Oxford academic Tudor Jones notes in his forthcoming book The Uneven Path of British Liberalism, the Lib Dems suffered an electoral collapse as great as the two great vanishings that the Liberal party managed in the 20th century. What almost finished the Lib Dems off was not just their hand in austerity, but the party’s perceived political irrelevance in the minds of a majority of British voters. If history was any guide, the road back to significance would have been a long one.

James Goddard is banned from area around parliament for abuse of pro-remain MP

Self-styled yellow vest protester James Goddard has been handed a suspended prison sentence and banned from an area around parliament for hurling abuse at the remain-supporting MP Anna Soubry. The pro-Brexit campaigner, 30, was filmed calling the former Conservative a Nazi and a traitor outside the Houses of Parliament in December and January.

Goddard was sentenced to eight weeks’ imprisonment, suspended for a year, on Monday after pleading guilty to one charge of using disorderly behaviour with intent to cause Soubry harassment, alarm or distress.

Jo Swinson has been elected the new leader of the Liberal Democrats, taking over from Vince Cable, winning 47,997 votes against Ed Davey's 28,021. During her victory speech in London, Swinson spoke about 'the catastrophe of Brexit', as well as making a dig at likely prime minister Boris Johnson, saying: 'Britain deserves better'

Rolling coverage of the day’s political developments as they happen

• Afternoon summary
• Blair ridicules Johnson’s claim ‘can-do spirit’ can solve Brexit
• Millions of Brexit voters do not support no-deal, says Gordon Brown
• Almost 1m public sector workers to get above-inflation pay rises
• Duncan claims Speaker blocked bid to hold confidence vote in Johnson

5.56pm BST

Because freedom of navigation is a vital interest of every nation, we will now seek to put together a European-led maritime protection mission to support safe passage of both crew and cargo in this vital region.

We have had constructive discussions with a number of countries in the last 48 hours and will discuss later this week the best way to complement this with recent US proposals in this area.

It is wrong to deny there is antisemitism in the Labour party. And those who deny that it does exist are part of the problem. We have to stand for a serious, anti-racist, inclusive socialism.

Labour is not an antisemitic party. But one antisemite is always one too many.

As part of tackling antisemitism, the shadow cabinet has today supported the proposal for summary exclusion outlined by the Labour leader, which he will put to the national executive committee tomorrow.

The shadow cabinet also supports the proposal to introduce independent oversight of our processes, and will continue to seek to engage with Jewish community organisations to build confidence.

5.42pm BST

This is a fascinating chart. The tweet is from James Morris, a pollster who in the past has worked for Labour, but the data is from a poll published by Lord Ashcroft earlier this month (pdf). This graphic presents the information in a much clearer way than the table in the Ashcroft report (table 10).

The two most positive readings in this chart are those that show what remain-voting Labour voters feel about the Green party (they prefer it to Labour) and what leave-voting Tories feel about the Brexit party (they prefer it to the Conservative party).

Labour Remain voters pretty much as positive about the Lib Dems as Labour

Labour Leave voters pretty much as positive about the Brexit party as Labour

Conditions for possible Pasokification pic.twitter.com/R28ZfzXcG2

Property company makes deal as a result of European Medicines Agency’s move to Amsterdam

A US firm run by two billionaire entrepreneurs is being paid €62m (£55.7m) in “financial inducements” as part of the Brexit-enforced relocation of the European Medicines Agency from London to Amsterdam.

WeWork, a $47bn (£37.7bn) property company founded by Adam Neumann and Miguel McKelvey, secured the cash from British and European taxpayers as part of a deal in which it will sublet the agency’s former headquarters, EU documents reveal.

Party knows better than most that a hyped revival can easily be followed by a calamitous fall

• All the day’s politics - live

As so many times in recent history, the Lib Dems’ fortunes have been largely linked to events beyond their control.

Labour’s equivocation on Brexit at the local and European elections, disarray in the Conservative party, whose next leader is likely to set the UK on a path to no deal, and the embarrassing collapse of Change UK meant the seeds of revival were being sown in fertile ground.

Brexit gives the new Lib Dem leader a unique opportunity. She must now channel the best of her party’s traditions and make new alliances

While we all obsess about Britain’s new Brexiteer Conservative government, don’t lose sight of this: under Jo Swinson, the new leader they have just elected by a clear majority, the Liberal Democrats have a chance of leading a fightback for liberal Britain. The great unrepresented liberal Britain, that is, that people around the world admire and miss. To achieve this, the Lib Dems must dramatically raise their game, reaching parts of a troubled country that they have not touched for a century.

“The Strange Death of Liberal England” is one of the most memorable book titles in British political history, so I am tempted to conjure up The Strange Rebirth of Liberal England. But liberal England never died, and nor did liberal Scotland – whence Swinson comes – and liberal Wales. Indeed, the British Social Attitudes survey shows that, in attitudes to sexual orientation and ethnicity, British society has become more liberal in recent decades.

Leaving without deal will ‘throw concrete’ in wheels of British-EU trade, says economist

The mounting risk of no-deal Brexit may have pushed the UK economy into a recession already, one of the country’s foremost economic forecasters has warned.

Sounding the alarm before the expected elevation of Boris Johnson to Downing Street this week, the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) said there was a one in four chance the country is in a recession currently.

UK-based owners of .eu domains could use transfer loophole to keep name

Leave.EU will be allowed to keep its name after a no-deal Brexit, the European commission has announced – but only if it transfers ownership of the domain name to an EU citizen.

The ruling is a backtrack from a previous decision in March this year, which said that, in the event of a no-deal Brexit, all UK-based owners of .eu domains would have to either physically move to the EU, or lose their website address permanently.

Foreign Office minister reveals he sought Commons debate to consider merits of next PM

• Latest political developments – live

Alan Duncan, a senior Conservative critic of Boris Johnson, resigned from the government in order to test whether the new prime minister commands the confidence of the House of Commons.

Duncan resigned as a Foreign Office minister on Monday before the expected arrival of Johnson at Downing Street, becoming the latest in a string of ministers to pre-emptively quit their jobs in protest at Johnson’s likely direction as prime minister.

The likely next prime minister must swallow his pride and make a deal with Dublin. Or parliamentary disaster awaits him

Build that wall! Build that wall! So Donald Trump’s fans roared their support for his xenophobic rants. So scream fans of Boris Johnson’s no-deal Brexit. He wants walls against the EU in place by 31 October. But he has no more idea than Trump about how to erect them. This is despite having been foreign secretary and with a former Brexit negotiator, Dominic Raab, at his side.

You cannot be outside a customs union and not have a border. You cannot have friction and no friction. A bureaucratic mountain of technology may withdraw the border some miles back, but somewhere there must be tariffs, payments, forms, regulation and inspection. A 40% tariff on a shipment of lamb is a barrier, wherever it gets levied. A chlorinated chicken inspection is a wall, wherever it is done.

Favourite to be PM compares Brexit to mission to put astronauts on moon in 1969

Boris Johnson has put his faith in optimism to find technological solutions to prevent a hard Irish border if he becomes prime minister, as the DUP impressed on him the need to resolve the issue of the backstop to keep their support.

Writing what is likely to be his final Daily Telegraph column before entering Downing Street on Wednesday, Johnson used the example of the 50th anniversary of the moon landings to argue for a “can-do spirit” in tackling the Brexit impasse.

The Conservative party’s choice of a new leader will also impact on Britain’s influence in the world. Friendship, not showmanship, is valued by foreign governments. Bluster at home diminishes lustre abroad.

Related: Brussels to offer Boris Johnson extension on no-deal Brexit

Likely new PM could find no-deal option thwarted by senior Tories such as Philip Hammond

Boris Johnson’s hoped-for triumphant march into Downing Street this week is set to be dampened by a carefully timed series of resignations by senior ministers, who will retreat to the backbenches with a vow to thwart any moves towards a no-deal Brexit.

The announcements by Philip Hammond and David Gauke that they will step down on Wednesday, immediately before Johnson is likely to head to Buckingham Palace, highlight the perilous political climate for Theresa May’s expected successor.

There can be no better illustration of the disconnect between the people and the Tory leadership than its wilful ignorance of the sheer scale of the growing countrywide opposition to its mindless stampede towards a no-deal Brexit. A poll by Hope Not Hate released on Monday will show that, by a margin of two to one, British people think that the economy, their families’ economic prospects, inward investment into the UK and even their exposure to terrorism will take a turn for the worse if we crash out of the European Union on 31 October. Only 17% of women think no deal would be good for Britain.

Related: Keir Starmer seeks alliance against no-deal Brexit with Tory ex-ministers

The media and public are well aware of his failings, yet this buffoon is set to become prime minister

How do you explain the Boris Johnson phenomenon? Is it the mainstream media’s fault or should we lay the blame on the people? On this, the eve of his anointment as leader of the Conservative party and therefore as British prime minister, it is fitting to ask why the unbelievable has become a reality.

His sins, both political and personal, were recorded in detail in last week’s Guardian. Together they painted a portrait of a man who should never have come close to inhabiting No 10 Downing Street. But the blathering, bumbling bluffer will be there all the same.

Chancellor joins David Gauke in saying he could not work for leader seeking a no-deal Brexit

Philip Hammond has confirmed he will resign as chancellor if Boris Johnson becomes prime minister next week, as the scale of opposition to a no-deal Brexit among some ministers became increasingly plain.

Shortly before the chancellor made his announcement, live on BBC One’s The Andrew Marr Show, the justice secretary, David Gauke, made the same pledge to a newspaper. Tobias Ellwood, the defence minister, also warned that leaving the EU without a deal was not the answer.

Officials unsure of next Tory leader’s true views on EU or whether MPs will back them

While Westminster has been gripped by the Conservative leadership race, Brussels has been on a Brexit break.

That respite will soon be over. And despite rumours of Brussels compromises in the works, the EU has no off-the-shelf Brexit plan for the new prime minister, who is expected to be announced on Tuesday.

Brexit is the big one but the next PM has plenty to worry about – starting with Iran

If Boris Johnson is declared the winner of the Conservative leadership contest on Tuesday and moves into Downing Street the next day, the hard work will begin immediately.

Here’s a look at what will be top of the Johnson in-tray.

One of the saddest aspects of our times is the harsh world that the right has constructed for our children as they approach adulthood. If you are 16, 18 or indeed 21, in employment terms you are an innocent. The young need to join an organisation that is aware of its social obligations and which has an expectation that it will survive over time, an organisation that recognises it is in its own interest to offer young people the chance to lay the foundations of a career.

It should not only be the town halls, the leading accountancy firms, the civil service, the BBC or the last few big British companies that are virtually the sole suppliers of such a chance, oversubscribed 20 or 30 times for every job they advertise. We need many more alongside them – even more so in an economy in which technology is making the life cycle of firms so much shorter, now closer to 20 years than the 50 of the mid-20th century.

It is time for rebel Tories to join the responsible majority and block Boris Johnson’s ‘do or die’ pledge

We are in the middle of the most intense political crisis for a generation. And in a few days Boris Johnson could well be handed the keys to No 10. That will make things worse, not better.

Any responsible future prime minister would have spent the past few weeks seeking to find a consensus in parliament for a way forward, building bridges with our European allies rather than Donald Trump, and making the case for unity not division across the country. For Labour, we have also made it clear that whoever becomes prime minister should have the confidence to put their deal, or no deal, back to the people in a public vote.

As the next Tory leader, and possibly a general election, loom, the UK electorate must consider one fundamental economic question: does it want a huge increase in government borrowing?

Both Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt are ready to break out of the austerity straitjacket and spend huge sums. Not just to blast their way through the chaos that will follow leaving the European Union on 31 October, but also to inflate spending on a long shopping list of items, from social care to defence.

A giant Boris Johnson blimp, inspired by the Trump baby blimp, flew in Parliament Square as pro-Europe protesters took to London’s streets on Saturday for a 'No to Boris,  Yes to Europe' march days ahead of Johnson’s widely anticipated move into No 10

The chancellor has said he fears the cost of a no-deal Brexit to the British economy. Speaking at the G7 in France, Hammond said that a report published by the Office for Budget Responsibility showed that even the most benign version of no deal 'would be a very significant hit to the UK economy'. The OBR revealed that it would plunge Britain into a recession

• No-deal Brexit would plunge Britain into a recession, says OBR

At the final Tory hustings on Wednesday, Boris Johnson held up a kipper and claimed regulations imposed by 'Brussels bureaucrats' were damaging trade. On Thursday the European commission said the claims were false. 'The case described by Mr Johnson falls outside the scope of the EU legislation and it’s purely a UK national competence,' it said

• Kipper rules Boris Johnson blamed on EU are actually British, says Brussels

Measure will make proroguing parliament more difficult – but not impossible

• Latest politics news – live

MPs have voted by a margin of 41 to approve an amendment intended to block a future government from proroguing parliament. Here’s what we know.

MPs have easily passed a backbench amendment which seeks to block any attempt by a future government to prorogue parliament to ensure a no-deal Brexit, in what is likely to be seen as a pre-emptive strike against Boris Johnson’s authority.

• MPs pass amendment seeking to thwart no-deal Brexit prorogation
  
• Brexit: MPs vote to stop Boris Johnson proroguing parliament for no-deal by majority of 41 - live news
  

Northern Ireland (executive formation) bill used as a base for amendments aimed at preventing prorogation

• Follow all the day’s politics news – live

The House of Commons will consider again on Thursday the somewhat dull-sounding Northern Ireland (executive formation) bill, a largely technical measure connected to the suspended devolved government, which has been used as a base for amendments on other subjects.

When it was first in the Commons last week, MPs overwhelmingly passed amendments extending the rights of same-sex marriage and abortion to Northern Ireland, the only places in the UK where they are not allowed.

While giving evidence to a Commons committee, Stephen Barclay responded to Tory MP Jonathan Djanogly's question on whether he would put the chances of a no-deal Brexit at one million to one (Boris Johnson's figure)

• UK politics - live

It became the stumbling block to Theresa May getting her deal approved by parliament, and remains a contentious Brexit negotiation issue

Once more commonly heard in talk about baseball than politics, the backstop has become one of the most discussed and contentious elements of the Brexit negotiations. It is a simple basic principle, but no one is able to agree precisely how it will work.

The EU commission president candidate Ursula von der Leyen was booed by Brexit party MEPs as she spoke of her openness to extend the UK’s membership of the EU after 31 October. Speaking in Strasbourg before a vote on Tuesday evening to confirm her position, the outgoing German defence minister said: 'I stand ready for a further extension of the withdrawal date, should more time be required for a good reason.' The leader of the Brexit party, Nigel Farage, accused Von der Leyen of wanting to build 'a centralised, undemocratic, updated form of communism where nation state parliaments will cease to have any relevance at all'

Tim Bale, Professor of Politics, Queen Mary University of London, was the speaker at our June dinner held at Eastbourne's Hydro Hotel and attended by over 80 members and their guests.

He opened his talk, ‘How to win a second referendum’ by saying that lessons needed to be drawn from the Leave and Remain campaigns of 2016. He looked at the reasons why the Leave campaign had won. In 2016 the campaign was at an immediate advantage following many years of negative messages in the media. Polls showed that the British never felt as European as other EU countries and politicians never made much of an effort to sell the upside of EU membership.

The message of ‘Take Back Control’ was simple and powerful as was the counter message ‘Project Fear’. The outcome of Brexit was deliberately vague so the Remain campaign found it difficult to counter. The Leave campaign was well planned, had charismatic leaders, very good data gathering and technical ability and was clever about using it, targeting people who wouldn’t normally vote.

He then looked at the reasons why the Remain campaign lost. It was predicted that Remain would win and it was just assumed that people would think the economic risk too high. The messages were complex and not easy to get across and the thrust of the campaign was overwhelmingly negative.

The Chancellor’s claim that each person would lose several thousand pounds was not credible. Many businesses did not want to come out publicly on the side of Remain. David Cameron made demands on the EU that were never going to be met. The campaign had no counter attack to the immigration issue. Jeremy Corbyn sat out the campaign and Labour voters were not given the cue from their party and the campaign did not target people who rarely vote.

Finally, he made suggestions that might help any future Remain campaign: use real working people, not celebrities, use simple, powerful messages about people who are disenfranchised, utilise SME rather than big businesses, don’t let outsiders get involved or interfere. The speaker at our next dinner on 10 July 2019 will be Clive Black talking about Brexit and the Business of Law.

If you would like to come along please call our Chair, Paula Welch on 07510 851722 or visit www.europeanmovementeastbourne.uk

The Labour leader said the incoming Conservative prime minister should hold a second referendum, adding the party would campaign to remain in the EU. Corbyn had been under intense pressure to shift to an overtly anti-Brexit stance, but has insisted on consulting the party’s stakeholders in recent weeks, including the trade unions.

• Corbyn says Labour would back remain in Brexit referendum

The former Conservative minister Ann Widdecombe became the first Brexit party MEP to speak in the new EU parliament. She said the UK's departure from the EU reflected a pattern of 'oppressed people turning on their oppressers' throughout history. 'We are leaving and we are pleased to be going. Nous allons, wir gehen, we are off!'

• Ann Widdecombe likens Brexit to emancipation of slaves
  

Theresa May has refused to criticise the Tory leadership frontrunner Boris Johnson’s dismissal of no-deal Brexit fears as ‘confected hysteria’. Under questioning from Jeremy Corbyn at PMQs, May insisted she had attempted to avoid no deal by voting for her deal, which was defeated three times in the Commons

Both Tory leadership hopefuls have made promises ranging from tax cuts to defence

Philip Hammond has warned the two Conservative leadership candidates their tax and spending plans would be impossible under a no-deal Brexit.

Here is an analysis of what Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt have promised and the constraints on their proposals.

Councillor Richard Thomas shares his experience of campaigning with the 1066 European Movement Branch in Bexhill.

The good news from Bexhill (one of the more strongly Leave supporting areas in the constituency) is overwhelming! When the 1066 branch did a Brexitometer Day in January, two options got quite strong support: No Deal and Remain, with Remain gaining the most support.  Opinion has shifted dramatically as No Deal is now rejected by 50:37. Staying in the EU is overwhelmingly favoured by at least twice as many people as in January. Moreover, support for a People’s Vote has nearly tripled since January. 

These are sensational results and undeniable evidence of very significant shifts in public opinion, reflecting both local and national efforts. So last Saturday was a massively rewarding day – see Brexitometer below. This was an incredibly encouraging result in the heart of a constituency that voted 58:42 to Leave, gave the Conservatives 67% of the 2017General Election vote, and 57% to hard Brexit parties at the European Parliament Election in May. 

Councillor Richard Thomas 

Boris Johnson says he will push for an Australia-style migration system. Here’s how it works

• Tory leadership latest – politics live

Boris Johnson has again pledged to push for a post-Brexit immigration system based on the Australian points method, a proposal that was raised many times during the campaign to leave the EU.

Details of what a UK-type system would involve are still hazy. Johnson’s camp said the idea would be to task the government’s official migration advisory committee with looking into the issue.

In Brussels this week to attend the 40^th anniversary of the Kangaroo Group – founded to provide the initial impetus to what became the Single Market just a few year later.

This week sees the 79th anniversary of the evacuation of 338,226 servicemen forming the backbone of the British army from Dunkirk. Officially known as Operation Dynamo; it is also described as the miracle of Dunkirk. The French port has found its way into the British conscience through the expression – the Dunkirk Spirit. A description of British ingenuity and resolve against adversity.

The polls failed to spot rising pro-Remain sentiment in May

London4Europe Committee member Michael Romberg compares the story told by the opinion polls for London with the actual results. A parallel blog published today looks at the results and asks What if?. A separate blog compares the results in 2019 with those in 2014.

1) The EU is history's most successful peace project

The EU was created to ensure peace in a continent torn by centuries of conflict that culminated in WW2. Within the European Economic Area, there has been no war since 1945; this peace, known as Pax Europaea (European peace), is the longest since the end of Pax Romana in 180 CE. For this achievement, the EU was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2012.

Travelling with my parents from the age of 10, at first in France, was – I now understand – an instructive and exhilarating rebirth. People in villages, seeing our British car, would stop and wave the most joyous of welcomes, others – to our astonishment – would cross restaurants to shake us by the hand and thank us for liberating them.

To me, Europe Day represents something unique in the history of our continent - an unprecedented period of peaceful co-operation between peoples previously so often at war among themselves.

I was born in 1951, soon enough after the war to experience the black dread amongst all the "grown ups" I met at any enquiry about "what it was like in the olden days before I was born". Everyone had happy memories of the 20s and early 30s, but no one could speak of the War period at the end of the 30s and early 40s. During the war, my relatives, like many others, had met refugees from Europe, many of whom had left a big impression. Just down the road from where we lived was a Polish family, who had escaped the German invasion of their country to fight for the allies. "War heroes" we were told. It was clear that WWll was a war with Europe, not against Europe.

At European Movement, on Europe Day (9th May), we asked our members to let us know why that day is important to them. Here are some of their responses: 

"It is important because it gives us the opportunity to show that we are Europeans" - Vicky Seddon

"The UK is made up of many races. My own family tree is made up of Celts from North Wales, Irish from Cork, English and even some from Scandinavia. The country is more European than it realises." Kelvin Lewis 

"The reason that Europe is important to me is very simple... peace, cooperation and friendship" Derek Leak

"We organised a Europe Day discussion with pro-Remain MEP candidates in Derby (Green Party, Lib-Dems, and Change UK). We had invited Labour and Tory remainers, but Labour dithered and then declined at the last minute, and the Tories never replied. We focused on positive reasons to vote in the election, the role of an MEP, what they can achieve, what they can do for their regions, and what the new Parliament might do in the next 5 years." Simon, European Movement Derbyshire 

Image provided by Simon from European Movement Derbyshire

First Epping Forest, then the world

London4Europe Committee Member Michael Romberg writes.

London4Europe's Chair, Richard Newcombe, moonlights as Chair of EM Waltham Forest 4 Europe. In that capacity he wrote recently to the Epping Forest Guardian calling for a referendum under the banner We need to know the will of the people in 2019. 

The local press - both on paper and online - is an under-utilised resource for Remain campaigners. Local press is seen as a surprisingly trustworthy source of local news according to a survey undertaken for local press campaign group Local Media Works. The tables have not been published. But it was undertaken by Yougov - so there will be some foundation to the claim. 

We have to win the argument with Leave voters who believe that the EU’s refusal to give the UK the sort of deal promised by Brexit campaigners is a punishment. London4Europe Committee member Michael Romberg writes

Punish v tr 1. Cause an offender to suffer for an offence. 2. Inflict a penalty for an offence (Concise Oxford Dictionary)

For such a widespread idea, it is quite hard to pin down what it means. It is easy enough to find the EU’s motivation to which it refers: the EU could not let the UK leave the EU and retain all the benefits of club membership without club obligations. Tick; that must be true – but is not of course punishment. Those who use the punish motif also refer to human emotions: annoyance at the affront to the EU’s self-esteem, say. Maybe; though it is hard to believe that would survive the reality of trade talks.

L4E secretary Andy Pye talks to his friend and former business colleague Chris Rand, who came down from Cambridge to experience his first London march for the People's Vote campaign.

The campaign is now more than a protest. We are, as Mike Galsworthy says, building a community. A community which is based on a solid foundation, is here to stay and will sustain until the end of the Brexit episode. It is a community which can put comfortably over a million like-minded people onto the streets of London. A community which is based on a solid foundation, is here to stay and will sustain until the end of the Brexit episode. It is a community which can put comfortably over a million like-minded people onto the streets of London.  How extraordinary that as many as 1 in 40 of the entire population of the UK took time off to visit London and protest - just think of what that means.

Leavers think so; but the question is different

London4Europe Committee member Michael Romberg looks at the opinion polls and sets out the arguments to make to those who think that a referendum on the terms would just be asking the same question again until Leave voters get it right.

Join us on the march for a People’s Vote on the 23 March in central London and show again that the will of the people is now to get a vote on the final Brexit deal. 

History is unfolding in front of our eyes, dizzyingly fast and with all the votes, amendments and amended amendments it can be easy to lose track of where we are and the fact remaining is still possible. This last week in Parliament, through all of the twists and turns of voices and votes lost, a couple of things are clear.

Sovereignty, freedom of movement, national identity

London4Europe Committee member Michael Romberg sets out the case. The harms of Brexit are real but we have a positive case to argue for. Economic prosperity is important but still just a means to an end. Leavers are right in this: the EU is a political project; the issues that matter are sovereignty, democracy, freedom, sense of community with particular reference to freedom of movement, sense of national identity. 

A huge Government defeat but not yet a victory

Charles Parselle reviews the government’s latest defeat and asks what will it take for MPs, so confident in their own ability to vote and vote again, to trust the electorate on whose behalf they supposedly hold their positions.

Hundreds of thousands of people marched in London last October for a People’s Vote on the final deal for Brexit. It was the biggest march since the anti-war protest in 2003 and sent a powerful message to our politicians here and in the rest of Europe that there is huge support for another vote.

It was a beautiful, sunny day and everyone was good natured and friendly. I have been on every march since the referendum and it was the only one when due to the sheer scale of numbers that I arrived in Parliament Square long after the speeches had finished. There were people from all walks of life and from every corner of the country and many families with young children who will never enjoy the rights and privileges I have been fortunate enough to enjoy and benefit from for almost my whole adult life, if Brexit goes ahead.

The Put it to the People march planned for 23rd March is so important. Tell everyone about it. It will only be six days before the UK is currently due to leave the European Union and it is a matter of urgency that as many people as possible come. It may be our last chance. We know far more now about the damaging consequences of Brexit than we did almost three years ago and those consequences will be with us for generations to come. There is too much to lose and it is still not too late.

If you want to attend the People's Vote March, click here to sign up. 

Maggy is a supporter and volunteer for European Movement and the People's Vote campaign. 

The single market enables British jobs

Under the single market with freedom of movement British citizens may easily establish businesses in other EU countries. Our correspondent, Penny Howard, did just that. She set up Beyondtheyelladog as a company providing tourists with artistic and cultural experiences to enable them to deepen their experience of Italy. Brexit threatens the feasibility of such businesses. Penny Howard's business is now facing closure.

Following the vote for Britain to leave the European Union the future of the European Structural and Investment Funds programme has been called into question. These programmes total 17.2billion Euros from 2014 to 2020 and provide funds to support schemes that help local areas to grow in disadvantaged areas in Britain. There are over 1,000 individual schemes.