Common Market 2.0

07 Jan 2019

Today the cross-party Norway Plus Group of MPs are publishing a major report advocating ‘Common Market 2.0’ – a plan to reset the UK-Europe relationship for the 21st Century. ‘Common Market 2.0’, co-authored by Lucy Powell MP and Robert Halfon MP, on behalf of the Norway Plus Group, sets out how stepping out…

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Parliament is stuck in a state of limbo. Only Norway Plus can dig us out of this crisis

14 Dec 2018

House Magazine Theresa May limped through her no confidence vote, but her dog’s dinner of a Brexit deal is still dead in the water. May’s decision to defer the Meaningful Vote was not only the most anti-democratic act by a British Prime Minister in living memory, it was also utterly…

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Remember The Golden Days Of Our EU Affair? A Norway Deal Could Return Us There

10 Dec 2018

The Times On Tuesday evening one of us will vote against Theresa May’s deal. The other will vote in favour. One of us will vote for Jeremy Corbyn’s amendment — and for any motion of no confidence in the government. The other will vote against. One of us is Welsh…

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Theresa May’s Dog’s Dinner Of A Brexit Deal Looks Almost Certain To Fall

05 Dec 2018

The Mirror Theresa May’s dog’s dinner of a Brexit deal looks almost certain to fall on Tuesday, not least because MPs know that it hands far too much power to the EU after 29 March. With no appetite for an economy-shattering No Deal, her own cabinet ministers must now persuade…

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Norway Is The Only Way To Avoid The Cliff

29 Nov 2018

New European Let’s be clear: Theresa May’s Brexit deal is a thumping victory for the EU, whichever way you slice it. On March 29, 2019 our country will effectively become a vassal state for the 21 months of the transition period – complying with all EU rules but without any…

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We Need A Chief Government Linguist To Promote Modern Languages

28 Nov 2018

House Magazine Languages are a vital part of our society and economy and yet their importance is neglected and overlooked. Being able to speak directly to those we deal with is an essential part of being a global citizen. But in the United Kingdom, the number studying a language is…

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Reaching Out To Reunite

27 Nov 2018

I gave the opening keynote speech at the Common Futures Forum, at Plexal City in the Olympic Park, to 500 young people from across Europe. You can read my speech below: REACHING OUT TO UNITE Thank you all very much, and thank you Mete(Coban) for that very kind introduction. A…

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Russia-West Relations In The Age Of Fragmentation

14 Nov 2018

The world is arguably more fragmented and polarised than it has been at any time since the end of the Cold War. The wave of optimism and internationalism that swept all before it in the 1990s has given way to a rising tide of nationalism. The seemingly unstoppable forward march…

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Pride And Paranoia – The Putin Influence

07 Nov 2018

Progress ‘What’s the definition of the Soviet Union?’ ‘Well, it’s where the workers pretend to work, and the bosses pretend to pay them.’ Of all the many jokes about the Soviet times that I heard during the three years that I lived in St Petersburg, this was probably my favourite.…

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Bring Together Cosmopolitans And The Communitarians To Avoid US-Style Culture Wars

02 Nov 2018

The Times The news of a so-called “Make America Great Again” bomber targeting 11 different addresses of high-profile liberal Americans should serve as a stark warning to all Western democracies about the dangers that US-style culture wars can pose. These barbaric acts might be rare, but it would be wrong…

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Opaque Election Campaign Financing Threatens British Democracy

02 Nov 2018

The Guardian The Electoral Commission’s decision to refer Leave.EU donor Arron Banks to the National Crime Agency for investigation has come not a moment too soon. Since February 2017 I’ve been asking the commission to do more to investigate how Banks’s money was spent during the EU referendum and, more…

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Monday’s Budget Is The Tories’ Moment Of Truth – Will They Bring Our Divided Country Together, Or Will They Continue To Deepen The Splits?

29 Oct 2018

South Wales Evening Post This year’s Westminster budget comes with the Westminster parliament in a state of disarray. Thanks to Tory in-fighting Theresa May has spent two years negotiating with her own party rather than with the European Union. Her scrambled ‘Chequers’ plan fails to solve the issue of the…

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Statement On Junction 41

27 Sep 2018

Commenting on a report produced for the Welsh Government into the monitoring of vehicle emissions between Junction 41 & Junction 42, which includes the option of closing the junction as a possible way to reduce pollution and meet legal requirements on emissions, Aberavon MP Stephen Kinnock said, “It is deeply…

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To Win The Next Election We Need To Show Communitarians That We Genuinely Share Their Values And Priorities

25 Sep 2018

House Magazine It’s fair to say that my party came out of the 2017 general election on a high. We went into the campaign with low expectations, but Jeremy Corbyn’s energy, an inspiring manifesto and a clear, socialist anti-austerity message took us to 40% in the polls. Yet we still…

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Austerity Has left councils At Breaking Point, Westminster Must Give Them The Money They Desperately Need

19 Sep 2018

South Wales Evening Post Theresa May claims to not have a magic money tree, but whenever she raids the back of the sofa she always comes up with the money she needs: there was the £1bn she found for Northern Ireland and then the £20.5bn for the NHS. Well now…

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New book: ‘Spirit of Britain, Purpose of Labour’ published

09 Sep 2018

Download the book here Our country is more polarised than at any time since the Second World War – by age, education, place and wealth – but above all by values. On one side of the Great Values Divide we have the Cosmopolitans – typically university educated, urban, highly mobile…

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How To Oust The Tories And Reunite Our Deeply Divided Country

05 Sep 2018

LabourList Britain is currently both polarised and paralysed. Our entire political system has fought itself to a standstill. This weak and divided Tory government is in disarray over Brexit, and parliament is in stalemate. Rees-Mogg and Johnson are doing all they can to pull us further towards a ‘no deal’…

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Daily Express Article

07 Aug 2018

Dear Friend, Some of you may have seen a lot of social media traffic around a Daily Express article which claims that a group of Labour MPs have apparently been meeting in a B & B in Sussex to ‘plot against the leadership’. Unfortunately, my name features in the list…

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This is the biggest threat to democracy we’ve ever faced in Britain

16 Jul 2018

Independent This month, draft findings of the Electoral Commission’s investigation into Vote Leave, the official pro-Brexit referendum campaign, were leaked, revealing Vote Leave of being guilty of breaking electoral law, on multiple accounts. They are expected to face the most hefty fines in the watchdog’s history. Then there was Cambridge…

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Why I Am Defying My Party Whip And Voting For The Lords Brexit Amendment

12 Jun 2018

The Independent This week the House of Commons will be asked to determine the type of Brexit our country seeks. Will MPs back a sensible lords amendment to the EU (Withdrawal) Bill that instructs Theresa May to negotiate a deal keeping Britain inside the European Economic Area, or will we…

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Trumps Tariffs Are Scatter-Gun And Utterly Self-Defeating

01 Jun 2018

Commenting on confirmation from Donald Trump’s Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross that 25% tariffs are to be placed on British steel imports to the USA – commencing 1st June 2018 – Stephen Kinnock, MP for Aberavon, home of the Port Talbot steelworks, said: “President Trump’s scatter-gun decision to impose steel tariffs…

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