Voting UKIP is the only way to ensure Brexit happens

Theresa May has secured a vote for a general election and the country will go to the polls on 8th June.

The Tories will be hoping to capitalise on an unprecedented 24% lead over Labour in the opinion polls and wipe out any opposition in the House of Commons. Conservatives and even some UKIP activists are flooding social media with calls to vote Conservative to deliver Brexit, echoing Theresa May's misleading comments yesterday. But this is not the way to get what we want.

Theresa May has a working majority in the House of Commons but she has a problem - the majority of her MPs are pro-EU. Thus far she has managed to keep a lid on rebellions because Brexit is two years away and MPs will be hoping to spend those two years watering it down. As independence day gets closer and a so-called "hard" Brexit becomes more likely she will face more opposition from her own ranks and it could well be blocked by MPs. Bye bye legacy.

What Theresa May tells us is that she needs the country to return a big Conservative majority so she has a mandate to deliver Brexit. She already has a mandate from last year's referendum but let's just explore this idea a little further. Her problem is that most of her MPs don't support Brexit and that's because the Conservatives are a pro-EU party and the majority of their candidates at the last election were Remainers. Most MPs and PPCs will be contesting the same seats they did two years ago which virtually guarantees a Remain majority once again. She will increase her majority but in doing so she will load the dice even more in Remain's favour.

So if an increased majority is going to make delivering Brexit harder, why is she risking an election now when the result is actually not as certain as the opinion polls might suggest and when the two post-referendum parliamentary by-elections that have been held have shown that Brexit is largely irrelevant when it comes to who people vote for? Because an increased Conservative majority in June will give them 5 years unopposed to do whatever they want to the country. We'll be out of the EU in 2 years' time if everything pans out as it should and then it's three years to the next election during which time the Tories will have no effective opposition.

Only yesterday the papers were talking about a proposal to introduce special immigration rules so EU citizens won't face restrictions if they want to come and work in coffee shops. There are 1.6m unemployed already living here and Theresa May's government thinks we need to import baristas from eastern Europe. Theresa May's government is handing over £12bn a year in foreign aid while tens of thousands of people in this country get fed by food banks. Hundreds of thousands of disabled people are losing their independence thanks to changes Theresa May's government are making to disability benefits. This is what Theresa May wants you to vote for in June.

If the Tories are serious about delivering Brexit they have nothing to fear from UKIP MPs who will support legislation that will deliver Brexit. And if they're serious about Brexit they will, of course, stand aside for UKIP in the 120 seats that UKIP came second in in 2015 to maximise the number of Brexit-supporting MPs in June. But they won't.

The best outcome from this general election is for UKIP to hold the balance of power, supporting the Conservatives in delivering Brexit and holding them to account for the rest of their platform. Tactical voting doesn't work, it just helps someone you don't want to win. Voting UKIP is the only way to ensure a Brexit majority in the House of Commons and an effective opposition.

Theresa May calls Commons vote for June general election

Theresa May is calling a vote of the Commons tomorrow to try and call a general election for 8th June.

In a statement she said that Labour, the Lib Dems and SNP have all pledged to block Brexit legislation and so the country should go to the polls to pass judgement on their plans.

The prime minister is absolutely right to say that a strong mandate is needed for Brexit in a general election but that isn't going to come from voting Conservative. She needs to call an election because so many of her own MPs are opposed to Brexit. The Conservatives have a majority in the Commons but they are a pro-EU party and there is absolutely no majority when it comes to a real disengagement from the EU - the so-called "hard Brexit" - that we will inevitably come to when the EU waste much of the next two years playing games.

The only way to make sure Brexit happens is with UKIP MPs in Parliament. Theresa May is a Remainer and she is surrounded by Remainers in her cabinet and on the back benches. Let's not forget that it has taken nine months just to trigger Article 50 during which time various legal challenges have been allowed to take place. This is no coincidence, the delay was deliberately calculated to give the Remainers an opportunity to block Brexit.

But it's not all about Brexit, the Tories are getting so many other things wrong. They are starving the NHS of cash whereas UKIP has a costed plan to give the NHS a cash injection. Immigration is at record levels and the Tories want to keep the door open whereas UKIP has the only credible immigration policy for a points-based immigration system that will control the quantity and quality of immigrants. Disabled people are losing the financial support they need to maintain their independence and support them into work whereas UKIP pledges to end the bedroom tax, end work capability assessments and remove the quotas for getting disabled people into work. Under the Tories, unemployment is going down but exploitative zero hour contracts are on the increase with no protection for employees whereas UKIP would ban exclusivity clauses in zero hour contracts and give employees the right to a permanent contract with fixed hours after a year.

If Theresa May's election gets voted through we have a relatively short time to tell voters why UKIP is not only relevant but desperately needed to steer the country through Brexit and into the world.

Queen gives royal assent to Brexit Bill, it's time Theresa May stopped dithering

The Queen gave royal assent to the Brexit bill today, paving the way for Theresa May to invoke Article 50 and begin the process of taking the UK out of the EU.

The Prime Minister still hasn't given a date when she will send the letter informing the EU that we are leaving, leading to yet more speculation about her motives. Is she hoping that it will be delayed again by vexatious legal challenges from the likes of anti-democracy campaigner Gina Miller who has promised to try to block Brexit again?

There really is no excuse for dragging this process out any further. The Prime Minister needs to move quickly if we are to avoid the next EU referendum and paying unnecessary membership fees. For every week that Theresa May delays invoking Article 50 we make a net contribution to the EU of a quarter of a billion pounds. That's almost the entire budget for transport being spent on an organisation that we voted to leave 9 months ago.

House of Lords pass Brexit Bill, nothing stands in the way of Brexit now other than Theresa May

The House of Lords have backed down on their wrecking amendment to the Brexit bill after the Commons rejected them and have passed it unamended.

Peers had passed amendments to the EU Withdrawal Bill that would have given parliament another vote at the end of the negotiation process and unilaterally guaranteed the rights of EU citizens remaining in the UK after we leave. Having already triggered Article 50, the only "meaningful" vote in parliament would been whether to accept the terms negotiated with the EU or whether to leave with no deal. The unilateral guarantee of EU citizens' rights would undermine future negotiations on the rights of UK citizens which are currently being blocked by several EU member states.

The decision not to force a game of parliamentary ping pong with the Brexit bill means that Theresa May can trigger Article 50 in time to avoid the need to pass legislation to prevent EU elections in 2019. We are told that Conservative MEPs currently sitting in Strasbourg believe that Article 50 will be triggered today although official sources are suggesting it will be at the end of the month.

If Theresa May does wait until the end of the month it will fuel speculation about her constant dithering over something she has promised to do since becoming prime minister. She has dithered and delayed for over 8 months allowing Remoaners time to launch vexatious legal challenges which have caused even more delays and produced even more opportunities to water down or block progress. There is a widely held belief that despite promising to deliver Brexit, the Remain-supporting prime minister is in fact trying to give her side as many opportunities as possible to scupper Brexit she can get away with.

Key points from Theresa May's Brexit speech

Theresa May has delivered her speech on the British government's approach to Brexit.

The key points are:

• MPs and peers will get a vote on the final EU deal
• Ministers from devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and NI will get a seat at the negotiating table but nobody representing England's interests
• EU law will all be transposed into domestic legislation
• The UK is prepared to guarantee the rights of EU immigrants in the UK now but some EU member states are refusing to agree to do the same for UK immigrants in the EU
• Keeping the Common Travel Area with the Republic of Ireland is a priority
• Free trade agreement with the EU but not membership of the single market
• Payments into the EU budget will end
• Retain parts of the EU customs union but not those parts that prevent the UK making its own comprehensive trade agreements
• Continue to collaborate with the EU on crime and terrorism
• Transitionary period of disengagement rather than a hard stop of EU membership

The Prime Minister talks a good talk but this is just a shopping list. We voted to leave half a year ago and we are no closer than we were then. She has refused to commit to introducing the same immigration controls on EU citizens as we do on non-EU immigrants and she is aiming to drag out our membership for some time after Brexit is supposed to happen on the pretext of limiting disruption. There is a serious risk that this Brexit-lite will become a strategic, rather than tactical solution - especially if Labour get rid of Corbyn and get the Tories out of power - and we won't actually leave.

Theresa May intends to trigger Article 50 in March

Theresa May has announced that Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty will be triggered in March 2017 as we predicted last month.

The timing is important because EU elections are due to be held in April or May 2019 and it would be incredibly expensive and wasteful to hold EU elections when we're about to leave or to tie up valuable parliamentary time legislating to allow the election not to take place.

With most MPs professing their undying love for the EU it will be a battle between the vested interests of politicians and the democratic wishes of the people they're elected to represent.

Theresa May rues out restricting EU immigration

Theresa May has ruled out a points-based immigration system for EU citizens, claiming that it wouldn't reduce immigration.

A points-based system would filter out the large number of unskilled immigrants from the EU but in itself doesn't give control over numbers. It needs to be coupled with a quota system to control both the quality and the quantity of immigrants arriving here.

Theresa May dishonestly cites Australia's large number of immigrants as evidence that a points-based system wouldn't work when she knows full well that Australia chooses to have a high number of immigrants because that's what they need. Every year the Australian government sets the number of immigrants they will accept and through the points and quota system they keep immigration to that level.

We officially have 1.65m unemployed people already living here chasing 741k available jobs. We need engineers, medical professionals, scientists and some other skilled professions which are on the shortage occupations list for non-EU visa applicants. We don't need to import labourers, factory workers and hand car washers because we already have 1.65m unemployed people who can do those jobs. A points-based system would filter out the unskilled workers that we don't need and prioritise the skilled workers that we do whilst a quota system would ensure that we get the right people in the right numbers.

Theresa May is deliberately misleading the public on immigration so she can keep unlimited EU immigration in place after we leave. This would suggest that she has already accepted unlimited EU immigration as the price for membership of the EEA despite it being a clear red line from the electorate. The benefits of EEA membership are tenuous at best when trading under World Trade Organisation rules costs less and has a lower regulatory burden. Unlimited immigration is too high a price to stay in the EEA.

Theresa May wants to lead the EU out campaign

Theresa May has refused to rule herself out of heading up the official campaign to leave the EU despite toeing the Conservative Party "renegotiation" line.

Nigel Farage said he would be "absolutely delighted" if Theresa May was to lead the campaign but this surely has more to do with it tearing the Conservative Party apart and undermining David Cameron's leadership than her suitability or otherwise to lead the campaign.

Putting a Tory minister in charge of the campaign to leave the EU would be a disaster. Labour supporters would never trust a Tory and neither would a great many UKIPpers. Theresa May disagrees with David Cameron's stance of staying the EU at all costs and she also disagrees with Nigel Farage's stance of leaving the EU at all costs. Like all senior Tories, she is a reformist who would accept some superficial concessions to maintain the status quo.

The official campaign to leave the EU needs to be headed up by someone with a record of success in the private sector, someone the Guardian and Huffington Post don't hate and someone known for their business acumen and philanthropy rather than their political views. Most importantly, it has to be someone who is absolutely committed to the cause and not someone who will turn the campaign to leave the EU into a campaign to reform it.

That rules out a lot of people - Nigel Farage included - but this is the only chance we're going to get and we need someone who can unite eurosceptics from across the political spectrum and be trusted not to sabotage the campaign.

Home Office unable to deport Nigerian drug dealer under EU laws

The Home Office has failed in its attempt to deport convicted Nigerian drug dealer, Cletus Okpala, because he has a Latvian wife.

Okpala was caught with nearly half a million quid's worth of cocaine in 2012 and was jailed for 4 years and 4 months. He was told that he would be deported once he'd served his sentence (or half of it as is usually the case) but he appealed the deportation and a tribunal found in his favour because EU laws say that he has the same right to live in the UK as his Latvian wife.

A spokesman for the Home Office said:

We firmly believe that foreign nationals who abuse our hospitality by committing crimes in the UK should be deported

Perhaps someone should tell the Home Secretary, Theresa May, because she's opposed to us leaving the EU and has introduced countless measures that increase EU interference in the justice system.

Theresa May's student repatriation plans dropped

Theresa May's plans to repatriate foreign students when they finish at university and force them to apply for a visa to come back have been dropped.

The Times of India says that UK universities have already seen a drop in applications from foreign students since the announcement was made and experts have warned that the UK could lose out on those lucrative fee-paying foreign students to Canada and Australia.

May has defended the plans, saying that on current figures there would be 600k foreign students living in the UK. Obviously something has to be done about immigration but these foreign students who stay are highly educated and qualified and almost certainly in a subject that is useful, given the cost involved. The Tories want to discourage highly educated foreign students with degrees from UK universities who have already been living here for two or three years, speak English and have made a home here from staying on and working in the UK to mitigate some of the impact of uncontrolled immigration from unskilled, poorly educated EU economic migrants.

Just like benefit "reforms" such as the bedroom tax and fitness for work assessments for disabled people, the Tories see the problem but get the solution completely wrong.

Theresa May considers repatriating non-EU students

The Home Secretary, Theresa May, is considering changing immigration laws to force non-EU students to go back to their home country and apply for a visa if they want to work here after they graduate.

Whilst it is obviously important to make sure that students wanting to remain in the UK should have to apply for a visa, it makes no sense to force them to fly back home and then fly back again when their visa application is approved. It could cost them thousands of pounds with no benefit to either side.

When you hear someone talking about repatriation of foreigners, it's usually the BNP or the English Democrats not the Tories but such is their desperation to appear to be tough on immigration that they'll resort to BNP rhetoric.