Brexit

Former British prime minister John Major has said Brexit is ‘a colossal misjudgment’ that could lead to the break-up of the UK. Photograph: Eric Luke/The Irish Times. Brexit a ‘colossal misjudgment’ that could break-up UK, Major warns

Ex-prime minister criticises ‘princelings’ making false promises to further careers

Haulier Stephen Heasley at Manfreight in Portadown, Co Armagh. Photograph: Liam McBurney for The Irish Times Brexit, the truck driver and 20 tonnes of frozen chicken
A defaced ‘Welcome to Northern Ireland’ sign is displayed on the Border in Derry. Photograph: Charles McQuillan/Getty Brexit explained: Why does the Border matter and what is the backstop?

European Union’s chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier attends an EU General Affairs Council in Luxembourg, on October 16, 2018.Photograph: Yves Herman/Reuters Brexit explained: What would a no-deal Brexit mean for Ireland?
What remains uncertain is whether more time will bring new concessions from the EU or increase pressure on MPs to back her plan rather than risking a no-deal Brexit. Brexit deal within Theresa May's grasp but party backing elusive
A defaced ‘Welcome to Northern Ireland’ sign is displayed on the Border in Derry. Photograph: Charles McQuillan/Getty Brexit explained: Why does the Border matter and what is the backstop?
Pro-European Union demonstrators protesting outside the Houses of Parliament in central London. Photograph: Tolga Akmen/AFP/Getty Images Chris Johns: The closer Brexit comes, the more you wonder why
Haulier Stephen Heasley at Manfreight in Portadown, Co Armagh. Photograph: Liam McBurney for The Irish Times Brexit, the truck driver and 20 tonnes of frozen chicken
Theresa May and members of her Cabinet in her country retreat Chequers in July 2018. Photograph: Joel Rouse via Getty Images Brexit explained: What is Theresa May’s Chequers plan?
EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier in Brussels on Wedmesday. Photograph: Yves Herman/Reuters Shape of backstop begins to emerge as Brexit talks inch forward
“After careening wildly to the right across a number of lanes, the former cabinet minister swerved left before stopping in the middle of the road.” Photograph: Getty Images Brexit: Trapped inside a fatal metaphor for UK departure
Could Northern Ireland become Ireland’s Gibraltar for EU citizenship purposes? Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire Rights of Irish citizens in North a thorny post-Brexit problem
Former British prime minister John Major has said Brexit is ‘a colossal misjudgment’ that could lead to the break-up of the UK. Photograph: Eric Luke/The Irish Times. Brexit a ‘colossal misjudgment’ that could break-up UK, Major warns
EU chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier and European Council president Donald Tusk. Photograph: Olivier Hoslet/EPA Brexit: Coveney’s optimism contrasts with Tusk ahead of summit
Ireland’s ambassador to London Adrian O’Neill: “A backstop that has a time limit on it ceases to be a backstop.” Photograph: Brian O’Leary Irish Ambassador criticises British backsliding on backstop
Labour leader Brendan Howlin TD. Photograph: Cyril Byrne/The Irish Times. Brexit: Howlin hearing that deal on backstop may be ‘postponed’
British prime minister Theresa May has so far shown little sign of moving away from her Chequers plan. Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images Brexit: More time needed to reach agreement, says Barnier
Andrew Adonis: ‘Once the treaty is rejected and there can’t be a no deal, it is inevitable that there will be another referendum.’ Photograph: John Phillips/Getty Images DUP says talk of backstop ‘is little more than a con trick’
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DUP leader Arlene Foster: “I fully appreciate the risks of a ‘no deal’ but the dangers of a bad deal are worse.” Photograph: Niall Carson/PA Wire No surrender? DUP holds hard line as business fears build
European Council president Donald Tusk. Photograph: Olivier Hoslet/EPA Theresa May says EU and UK ‘not far apart’ on backstop
EU chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier. Photograph: Emmanuel Dunand/AFP/Getty Images Brexit: Legal argument over scope of article 50 central to difficulties
Theresa May addressing MPs in the House of Commons on Monday Brexit: Theresa May warns against ‘permanent limbo’ of border backstop
Democratic Unionist Party leader Arlene Foster speaks to the media outside St Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin. Photograph: Tom Honan/The Irish Times. Arlene Foster hopes for a deal on what she described as a ‘sensible Brexit’
EU chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier: “Despite intense efforts, some key issues are still open, including the backstop for Ireland/Northern Ireland to avoid a hard border.” Photograph: Francisco Seco/AP Britain and EU fail to reach deal ahead of summit
Ted Webb, managing director and Tom Godfrey, chief executive of IBI Corporate Finance, which has been involved in more Irish deals than any other adviser in the past decade IBI chief says ‘good time to sell businesses’ as clouds gather
Suzanne Lacy mapped the Border using a variety of yellow lines. Artwork to explore Border identity with yellow line aesthetic
About 90 per cent of lamb produced in Northern Ireland is exported. Photograph: Brenda Fitzsimons No-deal Brexit could ‘decimate’ NI’s lamb industry, says DUP MP
Democratic Unionist Party leader Arlene Foster: ready for a no-deal scenario, which she expects to be the likeliest one. Photograph: Olivier Hoslet/AFP/Getty Taoiseach to discuss Brexit with Arlene Foster
Brexiteers inside and outside cabinet insist that a backstop that keeps the entire UK inside a customs union with the European Union must have a time limit. Photograph: Reuters May’s wriggle room in Brexit negotiations narrows further
Brexit secretary Dominic Raab arrived mid-afternoon in Brussels and stayed for less than two hours and refused to meet journalists. Photograph: Will Oliver/EPA Talks between Raab and Barnier fail to lead to Brexit breakthrough
Britain’s Brexit secretaty Dominic Raab is flying to Brussels on Sunday for talks with the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier. Photograph: EPA Brexit: Raab dashes to Brussels for meeting with Barnier
Secret plans to allow an extension of the transition period in the Brexit withdrawal agreement could result in the UK living under all EU rules well beyond the 21 months so far negotiated. Brexit plans could see UK tied to EU rules well beyond end of 2020
Hildegarde Naughton, TD and Tánaiste Simon Coveney at the Getting Ireland Brexit Ready workshop, Friday, at NUI Galway. Photograph: Julien Behal British and EU Brexit negotiators in weekend talks to firm up backstop text
DUP leader Arlene Foster and deputy leader Nigel Dodds: with Conservatives, they argue the backstop would split the North economically and constitutionally from the rest of the UK. Photograph: Michael McHugh/PA Post-Brexit joint EU-UK working group for North being considered
The Central Bank has previously calculated that a no-deal Brexit could mean output here falls by 2.7%, costing up to 40,000 jobs over five years. Theresa May’s Chequers plan may cost State 20,000 jobs
Britain’s prime minister Theresa May talks to employees at advertising agency WPP on Thursday as she launches her government’s Race at Work Charter. Photograph: Henry Nicholls/AFP/Getty Images Backstop negotiations likely to drag on into November, admits Theresa May
‘Little indication the budget is Brexit-proof because as money is being spent as quickly as it is coming in’. Photo Gareth Chaney Collins Ireland ‘vulnerable to inevitable downturn’, says financial watchdog head
Carwyn Jones, first minister of Wales, in Dún Laoghaire, Co Dublin. Welsh first minister fears Brexit ‘fudge’ on Border solution
British prime minister Theresa May in action today from the government benches in the House of Commons. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images DUP to vote against Tory budget if Brexit deal crosses red lines
Bono in Brussels: the U2 singer with Antonio Tajani of the European Parliament. Photograph: François Lenoir/Reuters Bono calls on artists to celebrate ‘romance’ of Europe
Reports of progress on the Border backstop helped to underpin sterling. Photograph: iStock Sterling hits 3½-month high against euro on fresh Brexit hopes
The UK’s Brexit secretary, Dominic Raab addressing the House of Commons. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images Future relationship will ‘provide lasting answer’ to NI issue – Raab
EU chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier with DUP leader Arlene Foster (right), and DUP MEP Diane Dodds at the European Commission in Brussels. Photograph: Emmanuel Dunand/ via AP DUP delegation reiterates stance to EU negotiators in Brussels
DUP leader Arlene Foster clarified her recent controversial “blood red” lines remark as “deep red”, in contrast to “pink” lines. DUP chief signals to EU there can be no barrier to NI-UK trade
The surveys found that 87% of Leave voters in Northern Ireland, who are overwhelmingly unionist, see the collapse of the peace process as an acceptable price for Brexit. Photograph: Getty Images Almost four out of five Northern Ireland Leavers put Brexit above peace process
Coillte chief executive Fergal Leamy at its offices in Newtownmountkennedy, Co Wicklow. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw Coillte profits up as it pushes ahead with Brexit-proofing plans
British prime minister Theresa May’s official spokesman said on Monday there could be no legally binding withdrawal agreement without a precise political declaration about the future relationship between Britain and the EU. File photograph: Matt Dunham/PA Wire Brexit: UK and EU play down talk of immediate breakthrough
The European Union’s chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier in Rome after a meeting with Italian prime minister Giuseppe Conte on Monday. Photograph: Riccardo Antimiani/ANSA via AP Brexit: EU postpones key paper on future UK relationship
Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon at the Scottish National Party’s conference in Glasgow, Scotland on October 8th. Photograph: Russell Cheyne/Reuters Scotland should have its own Brexit backstop says Sturgeon
Brexit protest: Bob Geldof has organised the open letter to Theresa May. Photograph: Lorne Thomson/Redferns/Getty Bob Geldof letter warns Theresa May of Brexit danger
Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe: “I hope that both sides can contribute their wisdom and at least avoid a so-called disorderly Brexit.” UK would be welcomed to TPP ‘with open arms’, says Japanese prime minister
“On Brexit the politics overtook the economics quite some time ago now.” Businesses in North run shy of political feuding over Brexit
Iain Duncan Smith: We can conduct regulatory and customs checks together in a way that respects the EU’s single market. Photograph: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg Brexiteers hint at softening EU withdrawal stance
European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker: ‘Our will to reach an understanding with the British government is unbroken’. Photograph REUTERS/Lisi Niesner Juncker confident EU will reach Brexit deal with UK
Eoin Ro Wilson casts his vote during the Irish Youth Referendum in west Belfast. Photograph: Matt Bohill Pacemaker Why was Mike Nesbitt moved to utter republican slogan?
Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney said the Government had “a whole series of contingency plans in place”. Contingency plans in train for no-deal Brexit
Chris Winning, Margaret Horgan, Una Scally and Tánaiste Simon Coveney, at the Getting Ireland Brexit Ready conference in Cork. Photograph: Julien Behal Supermarkets urge suppliers to ‘map’ sources to prepare for Brexit
Campaigner Gina Miller arrives at the Sean Hollywood Arts Centre in Newry. Photograph: Brian Lawless/PA Anti-Brexit campaigner Gina Miller takes her ‘End the Chaos’ message to Newry
More than €2.5 trillion of global fund assets are domiciled in Ireland in an industry that employs about 14,000 people Half of Central Bank's Brexit applications from asset managers
The European Union’s chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, meets Sinn Féin deputy leader Michelle O’Neill, SDLP leader Colum Eastwood and Steven Agnew, leader of the Green Party, in Brussels. Photograph: Francois Walschaerts/Reuters North’s Remainer leaders warn against any DUP veto on backstop
Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney said: “We have simply heard concepts from the UK so what’s required is an intensification of the negotiations in Brussels.” Photograph: Julien Behal Lock yourselves in a room to reach deal, Coveney tells Brexit negotiators
EU environmental policy has had a global impact and enabled member states to achieve what they could not do alone, Nigel Haigh, honorary fellow of the Institute for European Environmental Policy has said. File photograph: iStock Ireland will suffer environmentally because of Brexit, conference hears
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar (right) and EU Council president Donald Tusk meet in Brussels on Thursday. Photograph: EPA Brexit: Taoiseach says any new trade arrangement must have level playing field
British prime minister Theresa May speaks during the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham. Photograph: Anthony Devlin/Getty Images Tory divisions could lead to UK staying in EU, Theresa May warns party
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and British prime minister Theresa May. Photograph: Yves Herman/Pool/AP Government backs May’s plan for all-UK customs union with EU
May promises under no circumstances will there be a border down the Irish Sea, and no diminishing of the constitutional status of the North within the UK. So say all of us, says Dublin Deep in the heart of political unionism lies a great fear of betrayal by London
Some 8,600 businesses exported goods from the Republic in 2016, with nearly 80 per cent exporting to the UK. Photograph: iStock Brexit: 3,400 Irish exporters trade exclusively with UK, CSO report finds
Democratic Unionist Party leader Arlene Foster attends the Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham on Tuesday. Photograph: Neil Hall/EPA DUP leader Arlene Foster: ‘Our red line is blood red’
The latest UK proposal is viewed on the Irish side as a hybrid version of a previous proposal, tabled by the UK in June, that would keep the UK aligned with the EU on customs, but for a time-limited period. Photograph: Getty Images EU official says ‘devil in the detail’ of possible UK border plan
“This is not what we voted for”: Conservative Party politician Boris Johnson. Photograph: Neil Hall/EPA Theresa May says she is ‘cross’ over Boris Johnson speech
DUP leader Arlene Foster during a Bloomberg interview at the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham. Photograph: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg DUP warns May against any deal that creates border down the Irish Sea
Christine Ourmières-Widener, Flybe CEO. Airlines want Brexit answers, says Flybe CEO
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar speaks in the Dáil on Tuesday. Varadkar insists ‘Good Friday Agreement not up for negotiation’ in Brexit talks
Boris Johnson speaking at the Conservative Party annual conference at the International Convention Centre, Birmingham. Photograph: Victoria Jones/PA Wire ‘Chuck Chequers’: Boris Johnson challenges May on Brexit
Sinn Féin has accused the DUP of showing a reckless disregard for the Good Friday Agreement. Photograph: Cyril Byrne/The Irish Times. British government cannot change the Belfast Agreement, Coveney says
Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European Commission, speaking in Strasbourg on Tuesday. Photograph: EPA Brexit: EU is sticking to ‘Ireland first’ stance on border, says Juncker
Photograph: iStock Investors facing two high-impact Brexit scenarios, says Citigroup
British prime minister Theresa May inspects a family farm in Bangor, Co Down, in March of this year. File photograph: Getty Images Brexit: Full animal checks proposed as part of ‘backstop’ deal
Warnings about the threats to the constitutional integrity of the UK raised the political temperature in the Brexit negotiations and the EU’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier (above) has since the summer been trying to “de-dramatise” the backstop in order to resolve the last big remaining issue to agree a withdrawal treaty. Photograph: Emmanuel Dunand/ AFP/Getty Images Pressure builds on May to present her Brexit border plan
UK Brexit secretary Dominic Raab: “The EU’s theological approach allows no room for serious compromise.” Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg Britain open to ‘alternative ways’ of delivering Brexit, says Raab
Chancellor Of The Exchequer Philip Hammond speaks during day two of the annual Conservative Party Conference on Monday in Birmingham. Photograph: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images Hammond: Technology may be solution to frictionless Border trade
The EU has given Britain until mid-October to strike a deal that will avoid creating a hard border with Ireland. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire Brexit explainer: The three options available with six months to go
EU/Brexit campaign sign north of the Border: concern at Irish economic prospects is being prompted by rising unease about Brexit. Photograph: Artur Widak No-deal Brexit fears trigger sharp fall in consumer sentiment
Ruth Davidson: she has called for a “period of silence” among her Conservative colleagues to allow the prime minister to get a Brexit deal “over the line”. Photograph: Yui Mok/PA Wire Scottish Tory chief to call for Conservative agreement on Brexit
Jeremy Hunt: “What happened to the confidence and ideals of the European dream?” Photograph: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images Brexit: Jeremy Hunt compares EU to prison and Soviet Union
Labour costs as low as the UK and the sophistication of French regulators have been cited as reasons for big financial groups expanding their Paris operations Paris set to triumph as Europe’s post-Brexit trading hub
Britain’s Prime Minister Theresa May walks to the Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham on Sunday. Photograph: Toby Melville/Reuters Senior Tories hit back over Johnson’s claim Brexit plan ‘deranged’
The Burnaston plant in south Derbyshire is one of nine the Japanese car giant has in the UK. Photograph: Matt Cardy/Getty Images Brexit: No deal could halt production at UK Toyota plants
Boris Johnson: “Go back to our EU friends and tell them that the December 8 Irish ‘backstop’ arrangement . . . is no longer operative” Boris Johnson calls on British government to abandon backstop for Border
Northern Ireland Secretary Karen Bradley said the Chequers proposal is ‘a good deal for Northern Ireland”’. Photograph: Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP/Getty Brexit: NI secretary says only May’s Chequers plan meets UK’s objectives
Northern Ireland’s power plants may have sufficient capacity to supply the region, albeit at higher prices than now. North faces post-Brexit electricity price hike of at least 30%
Ryanair crew waits as passengers disembark at Brussels South Charleroi Airport: If the UK crashed out of the EU without a deal, it would fall out of Open Skies. Photograph: Emmanuel Dunand/AFP Ryanair and Norwegian Air may be hit by no-deal Brexit
British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn at the inauguration of a square named after Jo Cox, a British Labour MP who was killed in 2016, in Brussels, Belgium. Photograph: Yves Herman/Reuters Brexit: Labour backs ‘no hard Border’, says Corbyn
One of the North’s main power stations, the Kilroot plant in Co Antrim, is due to close on Sunday, after it failed to secure subsidies to provide back-up power No-deal Brexit could result in blackouts in the North, leaked documents reveal
Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn after delivering his speech at the party’s conference in Liverpool on Wednesday. He said the Conservatives saw Brexit as an opportunity to impose a free market “shock doctrine” on Britain. Photograph: Hannah McKay/Reuters Corbyn says no-deal Brexit would be ‘national disaster’
To leave or not to leave: UK bankers are not flowing out of the country to quite the extent that had been predicted. Photograph: iStock Just 630 UK finance jobs have moved because of Brexit
Shadow secretary of state for Brexit Keir Starmer addresses delegates at the Labour Party conference in Liverpool. ‘Nobody is ruling out remain.’ Photograph: Leon Neal/Getty Images Brexit could be reversed in second referendum, Labour conference told
Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation Heather Humphreys: ‘We need to see an acceleration in contingency planning in the coming months.’ Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill/The Irish Times Businesses too slow in preparing for Brexit – Heather Humphreys
Royal London, the largest mutual life, pensions and investment company in the UK, with funds under management of £117 billion, has been operating in Ireland for over 180 years. Royal London looks to set up Irish operation to hedge against Brexit risks
Labour MP Stephen Pound: I think there is a bit of respect owed to Ireland. Screengrab: Channel 4/Twitter Who is Stephen Pound and why is he in the news?
Next is getting ready for Brexit. Next sets up new Irish company to avoid Brexit customs and duties
Northern Ireland secretary Karen Bradley will meet senior politicians on Capitol Hill who have a strong interest in Northern Ireland. Photograph: Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP/Getty Images Bradley to stress UK’s opposition to hard Irish border when in US
Former Labour MP Gisela Stuart (second, left), former Brexit secretary David Davis, Jacob Rees-Mogg and former secretary of state for Northern Ireland Theresa Villiers, on Monday. Photograph: Jack Taylor/Getty Images UK-EU flights could halt post-Brexit without deal, warn British
Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn and Shadow chancellor John McDonnell in Liverpool during the party’s annual conference. Photograph: Leon Neal/Getty Images Brexit: Labour divided over second referendum motion
Jeremy Corbyn said: “Let’s see what comes out of conference. I’m bound by the democracy of our party.” Photograph: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg Corbyn to accept Labour members’ decision on second Brexit vote
Campaigners take part in a People’s Vote March in central Liverpool on Sunday. The protest and march was to call for members of the public to be given a vote on the final negotiations of the UK’s exit from the EU. Photograph: EPA Labour set to oppose Brexit deal unless key tests met, says Corbyn
Britain’s Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab in London on Friday. Photograph: Kirsty O’Connor/PA Raab says UK will not be dictated to and election talk ‘for the birds’
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn delivers a speech at a Labour Party Conference Rally in Liverpool. Photograph: Will Oliver/EPA Brexit: Corbyn will back second referendum ‘if Labour supports it’
Tánaiste Simon Coveney speaking in Government Buildings on Thursday about Brexit preparedness. Photo: Julien Behal Brexit: DUP cannot be allowed to veto deal, says Coveney
Britain’s foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt said it was “counterproductive” to “insult” Britain’s referendum vote talks. Photograph: Ye Aung Thu/AP UK foreign secretary says EU needs to ‘step back from the abyss’
The Labour Party’s shadow chancellor of the Exchequer, John McDonnell. Photograph: Hannah McKay/Reuters Labour to push ahead with Brexit, says John McDonnell
British prime minister Theresa May makes a defiant statement on Brexit negotiations from Downing Street. Photograph: WPA Pool/Getty Images May accuses EU leaders of driving talks into impasse