This Week in British Politics: 15-21 January 2018

A typically tumultuous  week in British Politics with developments on party leaders, Brexit and a new UKIP scandal. In case you were too caught up in the exam season, this is our roundup of the most important news in British Politics over this past week.

Brexit

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French President Emmanuel Macron has suggested it would be possible for the UK to get a special trade deal with the EU after Brexit, but only with the precondition that the UK would not have full access to the single market without accepting its rules.

European Council President Donald Tusk, has told MEPs that Britain would be allowed to stay in the EU if it was to have a “change of heart”, leaving the door open to a second referendum.

Jeremy Corbyn is put under pressure to change Labour’s stance on Brexit after an Observer poll suggested that a substantial majority of existing and potential Labour voters want him to back permanent membership of the EU’s single market and customs union.

UKIP

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UKIP leader, Henry Bolton, is under pressure to quit after a series of racist text messages about Meghan Markle sent by his glamour model girlfriend was released. In the shocking messages, Jo Marney, says that Prince Harry’s fiancee will ‘taint our Royal Family’ with ‘her seed’ and pave the way for a ‘black king’. Bolton has stated that he no longer has a romantic relationship with Marney.

Following the controversy, Henry Bolton posted on his Facebook page “an organised coup and insurgency against my leadership” had been launched. However many within the party has denied this stating that a fourth leadership election in 16 months would not be a good look for the party whose vote share in England collapsed from 22% to 2.1% in 2017.

The party has also been hit by a resignation since the scandal with its former general secretary, Jonathan Arnott, quitting the party and stating that Henry Bolton was “not up to the job”.

Boris Johnson

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Boris Johnson has said that Donald Trump should be welcomed to the UK and deserves respect and recognition, citing Trump’s role in helping to “end the tragedy of Syria” as one of his achievements. The praise comes on the one year anniversary of his inauguration and on a day in which the US government was forced to shut down for the first time in four years.

The shipping industry, architects and even the prime minister have expressed their scepticism and blatant rejection about Boris Johnson’s ambition to build a 22-mile bridge across the English Channel.

Other

Sinn Fein is to be led by a woman for the first time in its modern history with Mary Lou McDonald seemingly running unopposed for Presidency in February.

Theresa May will meet Donald Trump in Switzerland at World Economic Forum after cancelled state visit.

Momentum surges past 35,000 members and claims it has surpassed UKIP’s activist base.