Julian Dunkerton calls for second referendum and says fear is growing about prospect of no deal

The campaign for a referendum on the final Brexit deal has been boosted by a record £1m donation, amid growing public concern that Britain will leave the EU without any agreement.

Related: Julian Dunkerton: the man who gave £1m to the People’s Vote campaign

The Herefordshire legend of Black Vaughan tells the story of an evil 15th-century nobleman who returns in various spectral forms – a black fly, a black dog, a black bull, some gerbils – to molest farm girls, spill milk, and upset apple carts.

But the dead aristocratic pest is eventually subdued by 12 priests and a pregnant woman in the Welsh border town of Kington, in a priest/pregnancy-based variant on Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai. Folklore tells us that we too could defeat our current existential crisis, or Boris Piccaninny Watermelon Letterbox Johnson, as it is commonly known.

Life expectancy figures are going into reverse. But abandoning Brexit could save us

Britain and America are in the midst of a barely reported public health crisis. They are experiencing not merely a slowdown in life expectancy, which in many other rich countries is continuing to lengthen, but the start of an alarming increase in death rates across all our populations, men and women alike. We are needlessly allowing our people to die early.

In Britain, life expectancy, which increased steadily for a century, slowed dramatically between 2010 and 2016. The rate of increase dropped by 90% for women and 76% for men, to 82.8 years and 79.1 years respectively. Now, death rates among older people have so much increased over the last two years – with expectations that this will continue – that two major insurance companies, Aviva and Legal and General, are releasing hundreds of millions of pounds they had been holding as reserves to pay annuities to pay to shareholders instead. Society, once again, affecting the citadels of high finance.

I have deep feelings about cheese. It used to help when I fretted about Brexit. Not any more

On holiday in Corsica, I ate a lot of cheese: le niolo, which is made from goat’s milk and so addictively delicious I would sometimes eat a slice at breakfast, lunch seeming too far off; and brocciu, a fresh, ricotta-like cheese made from ewe’s milk that is excellent with bread and salad and rosé, but which we also ate in the form of a rich but pleasingly unsweet ice-cream. Naturally, my dreams grew worse with every day that passed; cheese gives me nightmares. But my consumption grew exponentially. And even when I wasn’t eating it, I was talking about it. Beside the pool, my friend S and I would describe the characteristics of our favourites out loud to one another, two crazy voluptuaries with pink shoulders and sun-frazzled hair.

I love cheese. It came into my life when I was nine, and my parents took me to France for the first time – we ate oozing supermarket camembert in some long grass by the side of a country road, and I knew in an instant that Dairylea triangles would henceforth no longer quite do it for me – and there it has remained, centre stage, ever since. Lately, though, it has begun to play an even more vital role in my life. When, not so long ago, my worries about Brexit threatened to take over my waking hours – if I wasn’t picturing the 13-mile lorry park that will be the M20 some time quite soon, I was thinking about medicines and which ones, if any, I should try to stockpile – cheese stepped in, acting as a kind of proxy, a repository into which I could hurl all my other anxieties. What I mean is that I now fixate almost exclusively on what supplies of brie and chaource will be like next spring – and the rest is just so much noise.

Ex-Lib Dem leader Menzies Campbell, comedian Rory Bremner and broadcaster Gavin Esler among speakers

Campaigners demanding a public vote on the final Brexit deal rallied in Edinburgh on Saturday to increase pressure on the UK government.

Backers of the so-called People’s Vote gathered in Festival Square to call for Theresa May’s deal on leaving the EU to be put to the electorate.

Josh Pappenheim’s short film based on the blockbuster features Cameron, Johnson and Gove as the doomed ship’s crew

When the satirist Armando Iannucci was asked if he would make a Brexit version of his show The Thick Of It, he replied that there was no point, such was the absurdity of the reality.

Yet political satire still has its place – a fact that was underlined last week when an online comedy short sending up Brexit became a viral hit, racking up more than 10 million views.

Chief executive warns of a devastating loss of wildlife if three new parliamentary bills do not rein in UK farming practices

Ministers may have only 12 months to rescue Britain’s degraded environment and to save its endangered birds and animals. That is the stark conclusion of Michael Clarke, chief executive of the RSPB, who has warned that parliamentary bills – to be published over the next year – will have to make crucial changes to the way our farms and fisheries are run if the wildlife and landscape of the nation are to be rescued from their dangerously depleted condition.

“We are on a cusp, and if we fail to act decisively we will pay the price in coming years,” Clarke told the Observer last week.

Impact would be so grave UK would have to review decision to leave EU, says Bob Kerslake

Britain may have to rethink the decision to leave the EU if the government is unable to strike a Brexit deal with Brussels, a former head of the civil service has said.

Bob Kerslake said the consequences of a no-deal exit would be so serious that the UK parliament would have to consider whether it could allow it to go ahead.

Controversial MEP links up with Leave Means Leave to fight Theresa May’s Brexit plan

Former Ukip leader Nigel Farage is to lend his support to a hard-Brexit campaign group, he has said.

Farage accused MPs and the Lords of refusing to enact the result of the 2016 EU referendum and said he would join forces with the property tycoon Richard Tice to argue against Theresa May’s proposed Brexit deal.

One of the most thoroughly debunked claims made about Brexit during the referendum campaign was that it would be easy. Leave campaigners said the terms of Britain’s future trade with the European Union and the rest of the world would quickly be settled. In July 2016, David Davis forecast that, within two years, the UK would have negotiated a new free trade zone “massively larger than the EU.” Mr Davis resigned as Brexit secretary without seeing that vision enacted.

In July 2017, Liam Fox, the international trade secretary, said that a post-Brexit deal with the EU “should be one of the easiest in human history.” Yet there is zero prospect of such a deal being complete by March next year, when membership of the single market – a trade partnership of unique depth and, very substantially, of British design – expires. Earlier this month, Mr Fox put the chances of the UK failing to strike any kind of deal in advance of that deadline at 60-40. Jeremy Hunt, the foreign secretary, said yesterday that such an outcome would be cause for generations of regret (… for the EU, he clarified under duress).

Group representing Britons living in EU countries argues referendum was not fair vote

Government lawyers have been given a two-week deadline to respond to the latest legal challenge over the legitimacy of the Brexit vote.

A judicial review has been launched by the UK in EU Challenge group, which represents Britons living in France, Italy and Spain.

Danish finance minister says he agrees with assessment that chance of no deal is 50-50

Time is running out to strike a Brexit deal, according to the Danish finance minister, who has echoed warnings that there is a 50-50 chance of Britain crashing out of the European Union without an agreement in place.

Kristian Jensen said the window of opportunity for striking a deal that was positive for both Britain and the EU was closing.

Support in Scotland for remain has risen since 2016 referendum, poll suggests

Almost two-thirds of Scottish voters believe the Westminster government is ignoring their concerns during Brexit negotiations, and there is now more support in Scotland for remaining in the EU than at the time of the 2016 referendum, polling suggests.

According to research for the People’s Vote campaign, 66% of Scottish voters (excluding don’t knows) support staying in the EU, compared with 62% who voted for remain in the referendum.

Support is growing for a People’s Vote. It could backfire spectacularly

At every turn, the politics of the Brexit process have been riddled with disastrous illusions: the referendum would settle the issue once and for all; leaving would mean a cash harvest for the NHS; an early general election would give the government a mandate; no deal would be better than a bad deal; as Brexit neared, the country would come together.

It was all wishful thinking, as most illusions are. We are now up to our collective necks in the consequences. Most of the wishfulness was on the side of the leavers and of the two most recent Conservative leaders. Now, though, it is the remainers who have to ask themselves whether they, in their turn, are not falling for another Brexit illusion – this time in the shape of a second referendum, or the so-called People’s Vote.

Officials dismiss hopes that May could break deadlock by negotiating with states directly

European officials have poured cold water on hopes that Theresa May could negotiate Brexit with other EU leaders in September to break the deadlock over Britain’s departure.

Diplomatic sources have rejected suggestions that May could hold direct talks on Brexit with the 27 other EU heads of state and government at a summit in Salzburg next month.

The catastrophic economic consequences of a hard Brexit for the UK and damage to the rest of the EU understandably dominate the headlines. It must be a concern for everyone, regardless of how they voted in the referendum, that after a two-year wait for a government plan the main customs proposals have already been ruled out and warnings are growing about a damaging no-deal Brexit.

Related: UK could run out of food a year from now with no-deal Brexit, NFU warns

Foreign secretary says risk of no deal has been increasing, as he begins tour of Europe

Jeremy Hunt has called on the EU to change its approach on Brexit, and said the risk of failing to reach a deal has risen in recent weeks.

The British foreign secretary was speaking at the start of three-day tour of continental Europe aimed at persuading member states to back Theresa May’s Brexit plan.

There’s a line in Alan Bennett’s play The History Boys where Mrs Lintott, the teacher played in the original production by Frances de la Tour, finishes an irate monologue about the essence of history by concluding: “What is history? History is women following behind with the bucket.”

Related: More than 100 seats that backed Brexit now want to remain in EU

As a soft Brexit becomes ever more implausible, Jeremy Corbyn is going to feel the heat from young Labour pro-Europeans

The referendum that propelled Britain towards exit from the European Union was called because David Cameron ran out of options for holding the Tories together. It would be a neat historical symmetry if the country voted on a reversal because Jeremy Corbyn faced the same problem with Labour.

A referendum on Brexit terms is not Labour policy. In March, Owen Smith was sacked as shadow Northern Ireland secretary for saying it should be. But nuance has crept on to the frontbench since then. “We’ve not ruled anything out,” John McDonnell said in July. “But our preference is a general election.”

As Brexit talks continue, we answer the key questions on the free flow of goods

As concerns over Donald Trump’s import tariffs intensify and ministers renegotiate Britain’s trading relationship with Europe, the postwar consensus towards ever-closer economic cooperation between wealthy nations is being unpicked.

Tips to stretch your holiday cash as sterling continues to plummet amid Brexit fears

The drop in the pound against the euro and US dollar is bad news for anyone heading to Europe or America this summer. In April £1 bought you around €1.15, or $1.43. Today it is closer to €1.11, or $1.28. It means America is now 10.4% more expensive to visit, while the cost of a European meal out will be 3.5% pricier.

It’s not all bad news. Those going to Turkey won’t believe their spending power. They are getting 52% more Turkish lira to the pound than a year ago, receiving £171 more of local currency for every £500 exchanged.

Tory activists claim party members admire former foreign secretary’s “straight talking”

Boris Johnson’s support among grassroots Conservatives, already resurgent in the wake of his resignation over Brexit, appears to have been bolstered further by his claim that Muslim women in burqas resemble letterboxes and bank robbers.

Tory activists have claimed that party members admire the former foreign secretary’s “straight talking” on the controversial issue and suggested his words implied he had listened to some of their concerns about community integration.

What options are still on the table and what are the various camps up to this summer?

It’s been 25 months since the referendum in which voters narrowly decided the UK should leave the European Union, and there are just eight months left until Brexit is scheduled to happen. After Theresa May’s Chequers deal and the subsequent departures from the cabinet of Boris Johnson and David Davis, the Conservative party is divided and the Brexit debate has entered its final, critical phase. How did we end up here? And what could happen in the coming months?

Despite Brexiters’ hopes that tough talk will resonate in Brussels, some are dismissing it as bravado

When Gavin Barwell, Theresa May’s chief of staff, invited febrile Tory constituency chairs to Downing Street to brief them on the Chequers deal last week, he faced a mutinous band.

His warnings about the dangers to the UK economy went down particularly badly among the Brexit-supporting majority. One veteran activist scolded the fresh-faced aide: “I’ve had more years in business than you’ve been alive. I’m not afraid of no deal.”

The prime minister has revealed what she likes to do in her spare time. At a Q&A session at a factory visit in Gateshead, she was asked how she unwinds from the 'world's most stressful job' and revealed her keen interest in walking, cooking and watching the crime drama series NCIS. 

The EU's chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, raised serious concerns about Theresa May's white paper after a meeting of the EU27 member states on Friday. May wants an unprecedented customs system where the UK would collect EU duties, while having the freedom to set different tariffs on goods destined for the British market. Barnier said this 'facilitated customs arrangement' raised practical, legal, economic and budgetary questions

• Michel Barnier dismisses Theresa May's Brexit white paper demands

Former foreign secretary urged PM to change tack on Brexit but what does he actually want?

Boris Johnson’s resignation speech on Wednesday was uncharacteristically short on jokes, and stopped short of calling for the prime minister to step aside and make way for a more enthusiastic proponent of Brexit – such as himself. But there was plenty of material for his remaining fans in the Conservative party to seize on. We read between the lines...

I’m very proud that we have rallied the world against Russia’s barbaric use of chemical weapons, with an unprecedented 28 countries joining together to expel 153 spies in protest at what happened in Salisbury. We have rejuvenated the Commonwealth with a superb summit, that saw Zimbabwe back on the path to membership and Angola now wanting to join.

And as I leave we are leading global campaigns against illegal wildlife trade and in favour of 12 years of quality education for every girl.

Boris Johnson addressed the House of Commons on Wednesday, saying that it was 'not too late' to save Brexit.

In his speech he compared the differences in the Lancaster agreement and the agreement reached at Chequers, branding the future sketched out at Chequers a “miserable, permanent limbo”.

• Boris Johnson attacks May's 'miserable' Brexit plan in resignation speech

Tory MP Anna Soubry opened a debate on the third reading of the customs bill by asking: who runs the country – Theresa May or Jacob Rees-Mogg? 

The pro-European Conservative MP also said hundreds of thousands of jobs would go 'if we do not deliver frictionless trade'. She said: 'Nobody voted to be poorer. Nobody voted leave on the basis that somebody with a gold-plated pension and inherited wealth would take their job away from them.'

Commons seems likely to pass Brexit-related bills, but PM is not out of the woods yet

It is shaping up to be yet another big week for Theresa May on Brexit as she struggles to prop up her Chequers plan. In the next few days the focus will shift to two key Brexit-related bills.

When asked by the Guardian's Ewen MacAskill how he feels about planned protests in London and elsewhere in the UK ahead of his visit, Donald Trump insisted he was popular in Britain, citing his strong line on immigration. The US president also said he told EU leaders they had to be careful because immigration was 'taking over Europe'

• UK on different route to Brexit than people expected, Trump says

Speaking during a press conference at a western Balkans summit in London, the prime minister said the Brexit white paper would keep 'faith with the vote of the British people'. Earlier two Conservative party vice-chairs resigned in protest at her soft Brexit negotiating plan

• PM promises 'orderly' Brexit as two more Tories quit 

Boris Johnson leaves his official residence in Carlton Gardens along with his wife on Monday evening, hours after resigning as foreign secretary. 

Johnson had been expected to host a lunch at the western Balkans summit in central London, but had not shown up. 'We’re still waiting for our host,' Germany’s Europe minister complained on Twitter. He also failed to appear at an emergency Cobra meeting on the Salisbury poisoning, just round the corner on Whitehall

• May's plan 'sticks in the throat', says Boris Johnson as he resigns over Brexit

Dominic Raab, who has replaced David Davis as Brexit secretary, is looking forward to 'unflinchingly' implementing the Brexit plan agreed at Chequers. 

But he also said the government would step up preparations for leaving with no deal in case the 'spirit of pragmatism and compromise we've extended is not reciprocated'

• Dominic Raab named Brexit secretary in cabinet reshuffle

Opposition MPs can be heard laughing as the prime minister pays tribute to Boris Johnson's 'passion' in promoting a global Britain to the world. Johnson resigned as foreign secretary, becoming the third minister in 24 hours to walk out of the government rather than back Theresa May’s plans for a soft Brexit

• Boris Johnson quits as foreign secretary over May's Brexit plans

Theresa May and her cabinet have reached agreement on how to approach final Brexit talks

• PM secures approval from cabinet to negotiate soft Brexit
  

After a long day of talks at Chequers, the cabinet has agreed what Theresa May hailed as a “collective position for the future of our negotiations” on Brexit. It might yet be modified amid Brussels objections or MPs’ concerns but below is the plan as agreed, as set out in a government statement:

As the Prime Minister is set to encourage her Cabinet to back a complex new arrangement on post-Brexit customs, a cross-party group of MPs are increasingly confident they can deliver victory for amendments to key Government legislation that would instead offer business the certainty of remaining in a customs union with the European Union. The amendments have been tabled by MPs from across the House of Commons, including nine Conservatives.

Actor calls former prime minister a 'twat' twice during discussion on ITV's Good Evening Britain about Cameron's role in the EU referendum, and describes Brexit as a 'mad riddle' that nobody understands

• 'Where is the geezer?' Danny Dyer rages at David Cameron over Brexit
  

The West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner has today published a report warning  that “if the UK fails to reach a satisfactory Brexit deal or leaves the EU without any deal at all, the UK risks falling off a ‘cliff-edge’ in terms of certain security and UK-EU policing cooperation.”

The Government was forced to offer concessions to potential Conservative rebels today in order to stave off defeat on the so-called 'meaningful vote' amendment to the EU Withdrawal Bill.

Dr Phillip Lee MP has resigned from the Government over Brexit and said any final Brexit deal “should go to the people, once again, for their confirmation”.

The Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association (TSSA), a transport trade union affiliated to the Labour Party, today voted in favour of supporting a People’s Vote on Brexit at their annual conference.  

People are changing their minds about Brexit. The latest polls since June 2016 now show a solid lead for those in favour of a Peoples Vote on the terms of a Brexit deal and for staying in the European Union (EU).

It has been reported Leave.EU campaign backers frequently met officials from the Russian embassy.

The decision by Labour’s frontbench to vote to only stay in the Customs Union but not in the European economic area could cost the UK £29 billion a year and more than 300,000 jobs by 2030.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer has today delivered a ‘reality check’ to Brexit advocates stating, in Germany, that “we will have to give up some of the advantages of [EU] membership”.

The CBI have downgraded their forecast for economic growth for 2018 and warned that “risks remain … skewed to the downside. In particular a more disorderly outcome to EU negotiations”.

BuzzFeed News has obtained a leaked audio recording of Boris Johnson, the Foreign Secretary, admitting that the UK may well end up with a Brexit deal that is “far worse” than what Brexit supporters had hoped for. 

In a letter to Conservative MPs this evening, the Prime Minister has claimed the choice facing the UK on Brexit is between “the unacceptable” and “the unpalatable”.

New polling by YouGov suggests just 10% of the UK public think Brexit is going well, with 73% thinking it’s going badly. That includes 70% of Leave voters.

The Foreign Office Minister and Deputy to Boris Johnson, Alan Duncan MP, has thrown the Government’s opposition to a People’s Vote into confusion after reportedly agreeing today that there could be a People’s Vote on the final Brexit deal negotiated by the Government.

The Government has published a new proposal for the so-called ‘backstop’ option for the Northern Ireland border, after a morning of tense talks between Theresa May and David Davis.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan has called on MPs to back cross-party amendments to the Government’s Withdrawal Bill when it is debated next week in the House of Commons.

It has been confirmed this morning that MPs will debate amendments on the Withdrawal Bill next Tuesday and Wednesday.

There is reportedly more uncertainty today about whether or not the Brexit Secretary, David Davis, will resign over disagreements relating to the Government’s plans for the Northern Ireland so-called ‘backstop’ proposal.

Speculation has grown throughout the day that David Davis and Number 10 are locked in a fight over the so-called “backstop” on the Irish border.

At Prime Minister’s Questions today, Theresa May failed to say when her Government’s promised ‘Brexit White Paper’ would be published. 

One month ago, the major pro-Europe organisations came together to launch the single combined campaign, “People’s Vote”, i.e. for the British people to have a vote on the final Brexit deal to be proposed by the Government. 

In less than a year, Britain goes over the cliff edge of departing from the EU – with a 'transition' to unknown arrangements. If regrets set in afterwards, it will be too late as we will have to re-apply under Article 49 - just as any other applicant. When those `unknown arrangements’ become somewhat clearer during negotiations this summer, “the people” may well look at the implications and decide for themselves whether they want to proceed over the cliff.

It is becoming increasingly clear that while Theresa May’s Mansion House speech may have applied some sticking plaster on the gaping wounds within the Conservative government, it fails to address vital issues on which it simply offers more unrealistic fudge.

After her speech yesterday about the Brexit negotiations, the Prime Minister was asked by a German journalist whether she thought Brexit was worth all the effort and disruption it entailed. Although British withdrawal from the EU is probably the most important national decision taken since the Second World War and it will inevitably define the success or otherwise of Mrs. May’s Premiership, she was unable or unwilling to answer this question.

The European Union started out and continues to be an organisation whose primary objective is to create a lasting peace in Europe after centuries of conflict ending in two catastrophic world wars.  

When a young official at the nascent European Parliament introduced me to Altiero Spinelli, one of the people who had spurred my interest in European integration as a student, awe turned to action. In a very small way, everyone could contribute to shaping Europe’s future, as Jean Monnet had said.

On 22 June 1948, the MV Empire Windrush arrived at Tilbury Docks carrying 492 Caribbean passengers. More followed afterwards. These migrants and descendants of migrants have played a vital role in the construction of the NHS since its creation. Without them the NHS would not have been possible. More recently Indian, Filipino and European doctors and nurses have come to the UK to ensure that our NHS continues to be the best health care system in the world.

Brexit supporters are organised and disciplined in their constantly repeated sound-bites. Almost every day you can hear the mantra “Take back control of our money, borders, laws and trade”.

The realisation that any post-Brexit transition period will leave the UK still subject to EU legislation, including modifications to such legislation and to new legislation, has given rise to the idea that Britain should extend its membership so as to serve any transition period as a voting member rather than as a “vassal state”.

New Year media reports suggest the UK Government thinks the EU27 is bluffing when chief negotiator Barnier states that UK-based banks will lose their “passports” to do business in the EU27. Instead, DexEU Secretary Davis has called for a “Canada plus plus plus” trade deal – implying that financial services will not find themselves at a disadvantage.

The age demographics of the Brexit vote in June 2016 are well-known: around 73% of young people under 24 voted to remain, compared with only 40% of people over 60. Yet it is self-evidently young people who are going to have to live longest with the consequences of Brexit, if it happens. These consequences are numerous and wide-ranging, and can be grouped into three categories: economic, social and identity.

Even during the European referendum last year it was clear that those who wished the UK to leave the European Union fell into two quite different camps, those who wanted Brexit to mark a decisive break in the economic and social life of the United Kingdom; and those who wanted Brexit to take place with minimal social and economic disruption. 

Yesterday morning, briefings from both sides in the Brexit negotiations were confidently looking forward to announcing a deal on the phase 1 “divorce” package.

I am disappointed for all those who have worked hard in Leeds, and the other contending towns, to hear this news. But there is a degree of hollowness to those in the government who are claiming this is a total surprise or a vindictive move.

I was delighted to be invited to speak at the Brexit and Agriculture event in York last week organised by the National Farmers’ Union and the European Parliament UK office. It was extremely instructive to talk with farmers, NFU officials and agriculture students about their concerns regarding the Brexit negotiations. Over the course of the event and the discussions that followed, four main themes emerged.

In his recent testimony to the House of Lords, Sir Ivan Rogers, former British Permanent Representative to the European Union, criticized as premature and ill-prepared the Prime Minister’s triggering last March of Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty. This is unfair to Theresa May. No different date for the beginning of the Brexit negotiations could or would have rendered them any less painful for the British participants. No amount of extra preparation on the British side before triggering Article 50 could or would have resolved the numerous internal contradictions of the Brexit project.

Time is not on the UK’s side in these negotiations: The latest ONS annual Pink Book on the UK’s balance of payments shows a further deterioration of the current account to 6% of GDP (£114 billion) in 2016.

If Brexit is going to be so great, why have so many Brexiters been opposed to the government releasing its Brexit impact assessments? Why keep them hidden away if it’s going to be glorious? And why not show the EU that we’ll do spiffingly when we leave thank you very much, deal or no deal?

It is possible to maintain an “invisible border” in Ireland after Brexit, says the head of the Swiss customs service to House of Lords Committee, IF you have: