The Telegraph March 13th, 2019 Tuesday started well for the Government. The Prime Minister had lost her voice. “If you think mine’s croaky, you should hear Juncker’s” she quipped at a hastily called 1922 Committee in the morning. Yet she seemed to have come back with a bounce and an improved Deal from Brussels. […]
The Sun March 5th, 2019 Now that Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party is backing a second EU referendum, a “People’s Vote”, I would like to put on record here and now that I support a third referendum, the “Democratic Vote on the People’s Vote”, preferably within three years of the second one. Unlike some in […]
The Telegraph February 21st, 2019 When I entered the House of Commons, I voted for equality so that men could have sex with men at the same age as men could legally have sex with women: 16. I lost that vote back in the early 90s, but the age was dropped to 18 from 21. Eventually, […]
The Telegraph 16th February 2019 On Thursday, the Government lost its main Brexit motion before the House of Commons by attempting to be all things to all wings of the Conservative Party. Incorporating not only changes made by the Brady Amendment which called for the backstop to be renegotiated, but also Caroline Spelman’s amendment ruling […]
The Telegraph 22 January 2019 When Theresa May rose to answer Prime Minister’s Questions the day after the unprecedented defeat of her deal last week, the atmosphere was flat. Even the later debate on the no confidence motion – normally a high voltage affair – was low key, bar the rumbustious summing up by Michael […]
The Telegraph 14th January 2019 United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom, Woody Johnson CREDIT: ALASTAIR GRANT /AFP Woody Johnson has stiffened my resolve not to vote for the Withdrawal Agreement. Let me explain. Last month, the Prime Minister and I sat down in her private office in the House of Commons; a dark room, completed in […]
The Telegraph Saturday 5th January 2019 Tories are warming to the idea of Brexit without an Agreement – and even the EU plans to make it work On Wednesday next week, with just 79 days before Brexit is due, MPs will commence the debate on whether to accept Theresa May’s Withdrawal Agreement. The […]
Conservative Home 1st January 2019 One of the many old jokes in the Carry On films is: “where is all your get up and go?” The answer comes: “it got up and went.” It seems, sometimes, that half the population feels that way, when I read some of the more depressing letters and articles […]
Daily Telegraph 13 December 2018 In politics, timing is everything. And, with less than four months until we leave the EU and no obvious successor in place standing out as a popular alternative to Theresa May, the timing of Wednesday’s vote of no confidence could not have been worse for those who have sought to […]
Lichfield Mercury 6th December 2018 Before I became an MP, a friend and I started a company from scratch which supplied broadcasting equipment and services to radio and tv stations. We eventually ended up supplying broadcasters in 48 countries around the world. Some were in Britain and the rest of Europe while many others were […]