Show Hide image UK 30 July 2015 The Returning Officer: Illustration III Liberal candidate Bob Webster was a graphic artist and much of his work appeared in the comic Sparky. Print HTML The Liberal Bob Webster ran for Sevenoaks in 1970 and October 1974. He was a graphic artist and much of his work appeared in the comic Sparky (produced by D C Thomson, which published the Beano) between 1965 and 1977, when it merged with the Topper. His main contribution was a strip called Klanky, which concerned the adventures of a robot from outer space who lived with the Huggins family. One of his predecessors as Liberal candidate was Nelia Muspratt, a niece of Max Muspratt (the Liberal MP for Liverpool Exchange between the two elections of 1910). She stood in the 1945, 1959 and 1964 elections, the last two attempts under her married name, Nelia Penman. She was a founding member of the Liberal debating society the 8:30 Club, along with Jo Grimond. › The usefulness of a pentaquark This article first appeared in the 22 July 2015 issue of the New Statesman, How Labour went mad for Jeremy Corbyn SUBSCRIBE More Related articles Labour should recognise that the best Brexit deal is no Brexit The Windrush scandal has shown the left how to make the case for immigration It’s OK to celebrate St George’s Day – if you accept Englishness is not exclusively white Subscription offer 12 issues for £12 + FREE book LEARN MORE Close This week’s magazine
Show Hide image Brexit 23 April 2018 Can parliament force a government U-turn on the UK’s customs union membership? Downing Street is trying to bully Conservative Remainers with the threat of letting in a Jeremy Corbyn government. Print HTML Nice precarious hold on power you’ve got there, Prime Minister. Shame if something happened to it. Downing Street is insisting that there will not be U-turn on the United Kingdom’s membership of any kind of customs union with the European Union after we leave, as they face a series of defeats in the Lords and a possible defeat in a non-binding vote in the Commons on the issue. As I explained on the Westminster Hour last night, while the defeats this week won't change government policy, they are a canary in the coal mine for the ones that can. The nightmare for Theresa May is that, thanks to the general election, she faces a situation in which a majority of the governing party favours one approach to Brexit but a majority of the House of Commons favours another. The question is: what happens then? Downing Street is also pushing the line that the vote on the customs union will be a “confidence issue”, ie they are trying to bully Conservative Remainers with the threat of letting in a Jeremy Corbyn government. But, of course, thanks to the Fixed Term Parliaments Act, there is no such thing as a “confidence issue” outside a very specific motion of no confidence. Or, at least, there is no such thing as a “confidence issue” – which can bring about a new parliament. May can make the issue one of confidence in her own leadership and resign if she is defeated, but, under the Fixed Term Parliaments Act, that wouldn’t trigger a new election: merely an invitation by the Queen to another politician to form a government. And frankly, as far as the Commons arithmetic goes, “another politician” is far more likely to be Michael Gove than Jeremy Corbyn. The process whereby you get even the glimmer of a risk of a Labour government by voting to keep the United Kingdom in a customs union is altogether more complicated and lengthier than Downing Street would like to pretend. But the problem for Conservatives in particular, and Brexiteers in general, is while they can change the Prime Minister, they can't change the parliamentary arithmetic. Whether the majority of Conservative MPs want it or not, a U-turn on the customs union may well be inevitable. Stephen Bush is special correspondent at the New Statesman and the PSA's Journalist of the Year. His daily briefing, Morning Call, provides a quick and essential guide to domestic and global politics. SUBSCRIBE More Related articles Labour should recognise that the best Brexit deal is no Brexit The selection of Mandy Richards exposes a longterm problem with how Labour vets candidates The Windrush scandal has shown the left how to make the case for immigration Subscription offer 12 issues for £12 + FREE book LEARN MORE Close This week’s magazine
