New trade barriers were compounded by Covid and tax changes
Kimi Karjalainen and his brother Marko poured their life savings into Bone Machine Brewing Co when it opened in Pocklington, East Yorkshire, in 2017 before moving to Hull, as part of the craft beer revolution that swept Britain.
“The entire investment, not including time and labour that we gave for free, was about £70,000,” Karjalainen said. Four weeks ago, it was gone. “That was my parents’ retirement.”
Continue reading...When asked how she would vote in a referendum, former Labour leader in Scotland says she will ‘decide at the time’
Former Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale has said her stance on independence has “moved”, as she can no longer argue for staying in the UK with the same strength she did in the run-up to the 2014 referendum.
Dugdale said she felt that Scots will eventually get a second vote on the future of the UK but did not believe another referendum would take place within the next decade.
Continue reading...Government source reportedly says there are concerns extra red tape could fuel further inflation
Brexit checks on fresh farm produce coming to the UK from the EU have been delayed for the fifth time, according to reports.
The decision to suspend plans to enforce the controls, which have been applied in the other direction to British exports to the EU since January 2021, is due to be announced imminently, according to the Financial Times.
Continue reading...Government bows to pressure from industry over costs of switching over to British marking
The UK will retain the EU’s product safety mark indefinitely, in the latest climbdown from proposed post-Brexit changes, after the government bowed to pressure from industry and manufacturers.
The CE (Conformité Européenne) mark is used by the bloc to certify that a wide range of items – from electrical goods and construction materials to medical devices and toys – meet safety standards.
Continue reading...Committee concerned illegal migration legislation will jeopardise sharing of DNA, fingerprinting and criminal records
The UK’s post-Brexit policing pact with the EU on sharing DNA, fingerprinting and criminal records could be put at risk by Suella Braverman’s migration laws, a House of Lords committee has said.
Lady Hamwee, the chair of the Lords justice and home affairs committee, has written to the home secretary to say its members are “particularly concerned” that the new illegal migration legislation along with new data laws could lead to the “termination and/or suspension” of the security cooperation elements of the Brexit trade deal.
Continue reading...Plans, unveiled by Humza Yousaf, include significantly reducing application fees
An independent Scotland would adopt an “open and inclusive” approach to citizenship based on the current Irish model, according to proposals set out in a Scottish government paper.
The plans, unveiled by Humza Yousaf on Thursday, include ditching citizenship tests and significantly reducing application fees in contrast to Westminster’s “regressive” approach to migration.
Continue reading...Requirement for animal medicines to be batch-tested in EU could see products discontinued, BVA warns
Northern Ireland could lose half of its veterinary medicines in a new Brexit row threatening to prolong the political stalemate in the region, it has emerged.
The British Veterinary Association told the Lords committee on Northern Ireland in written evidence that it was “extremely concerned” about the issue even though the Windsor framework sealed between Rishi Sunak and Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, in March was sold as a solution to the protracted saga regarding Northern Ireland.
Continue reading...Government survey finds that fewer than 30% of holiday homes are on continent – compared with 40% a decade ago
They used to go wild for villas by the Med and ski chalets in the Alps; now they are forking out for views of the Channel and hilly walks in Shropshire.
According to figures released this week by the English Housing Survey, the proportion of English owners of second homes who have properties in Europe has fallen again, with 60% of holiday homes located in the UK rather than outside it.
Continue reading...UK asks bloc to clarify position after Buenos Aires declares ‘triumph’ over use of term in declaration
Forty-one years after the Falklands war, the UK has suffered a diplomatic defeat over the archipelago as the EU appeared to endorse the Argentine name for the disputed territory, Islas Malvinas.
Brussels supported an Argentina-backed declaration referring to Islas Malvinas at a summit of EU leaders with Latin America and the Caribbean (Celac) leaders on Tuesday, which Buenos Aires called a “diplomatic triumph”.
Continue reading...Bricklayers and other construction jobs added to list alongside care workers and engineers
Bricklayers, plasterers and other construction jobs have been added to the government’s “shortage occupation list”, making it easier for foreign builders to come to Britain amid labour shortages partly caused by Brexit.
The UK government has relaxed visa restrictions for a number of sectors that face severe worker shortages, and has added bricklayers and masons; roofers, roof tilers and slaters; carpenters and joiners; plasterers and other construction workers to the list. Fishing jobs have also been added to the list.
Continue reading...‘Expected’ return could help retain scientists and researchers lost after grants were cancelled in Brexit row
British scientists and academic researchers will be able to reapply to the prestigious European Research Council (ERC) for grants if, as expected, the UK rejoins the flagship Horizon European programme, it has been confirmed.
The re-entry comes almost a year after 115 grants approved for British candidates were terminated by the council because of the delay in ratifying the UK’s associate membership of the £85bn Horizon funding scheme.
Continue reading...Expected return also greeted with dismay at UK’s decision to avoid being a net contributor to EU’s flagship programme
Scientists including the physicist Brian Cox have reacted with a mixture of caution, anger and relief that the UK appears set to rejoin the EU’s flagship £85bn Horizon science research programme after a protracted Brexit row.
Sources indicate that an announcement could come in days, possibly next week when Rishi Sunak is scheduled to meet the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, at a Nato summit.
Continue reading...Prime minister says he knows people will be anxious about rate rise but ‘it is going to be OK’
Rishi Sunak has posted a thread on Twitter setting out what the government is doing to help people with the cost of living. It starts here.
He ends by saying “if we can hold our nerve” he is confident the plan will deliver.
Continue reading...Plan to charge £43 per consignment could see some small businesses struggle to stay open
Many UK businesses which import food products from the European Union will have to pay a special “Brexit tax” that will further drive up prices, particularly in smaller shops such as delicatessens, under proposals set out by the government last week.
The planned charge of £43 per consignment, outlined in a consultation document issued by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), was described on Saturday by a leading industry figure as “the sting in the tail of a post-Brexit food inspection regime” that was already fuelling inflation.
Continue reading...Husband, Chris Jagger, uses 1972 album cover to support settlement application for Moller, who has lived in UK for 74 years
As a result of Brexit, Norwegians living in the UK were required to apply to the EU settlement scheme – despite Norway not being a member state – to remain living in Britain.
But after former model turned yoga teacher Kari-Ann Moller was stopped by British immigration officials earlier this year and told she was not allowed to remain because of her Norwegian passport, her husband, Chris Jagger – brother of Rolling Stone Sir Mick – got involved.
Continue reading...Ken Murphy says higher costs of grocery imports because of Brexit are partly to blame for rising prices
The chief executive of Tesco has said food inflation has probably peaked but warns that prices are likely to stay high.
Ken Murphy, the head of the UK’s biggest supermarket chain, said the price of milk, bread, cooking oil and some vegetables such as broccoli had come down this month but inflation continued in other essentials, including rice and potatoes, as aweather issues and locked-in increases in the price of labour and energy continued to bite.
Continue reading...Boris Johnson accepts post of crown steward and bailiff of the Chiltern Hundreds after accusing PM of talking ‘rubbish’. This live blog is now closed
Full story: Boris Johnson formally steps down as MP
The EU has dashed UK hopes of an early review of the Brexit trade deal saying is unlikely to re-open talks until 2026.
European commission vice-president Maroš Šefčovič, who leads for the EU on Brexit matters, said the deal was only in force for two years and it would be pointless re-opening it until its full potential was realised.
If the decision is just to simply go for more divergence … some of the fundamentals of the withdrawal agreement and the TCA would be thrown into the shredder.
Rishi secretly blocked the peerages for Nadine and others. He refused to ask for them to undergo basic checks that could have taken only a few weeks or even days. That is how he kept them off the list – without telling Boris Johnson.
Continue reading...Alliance for Responsible Citizenship includes prominent Brexit voices and Bjørn Lomborg, who has questioned the urgency of the climate crisis
The former prime ministers Tony Abbott and John Howard are among six Australians who have joined a global group fronted by Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson and backed by a pro-Brexit hedge fund billionaire and a Dubai-based investment group.
The group – The Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (Arc) – has been gathering high-profile figures from politics, industry, academia and thinktanks for an inaugural three-day conference in London in late October.
Continue reading...Deputy Labour leader says former PM has ‘no respect’ for Tory voters and ‘knows he is in the wrong’
Boris Johnson is a “coward” who has “no respect” for the 2019 Conservative voters who put their faith in him, Labour’s deputy leader has said, after he dramatically quit parliament before the findings of a cross-party investigation into whether he lied to the Commons had been published.,
The former prime minister resigned on Friday night after learning that an investigation into the Partygate scandal found he misled parliament, and he was likely to face a lengthy suspension from the Commons.
Continue reading...As ever with the former PM there was plenty of barely hidden subtext as he took aim at perceived enemies
Boris Johnson’s statement announcing he will quit the Commons is not brief – more than 1,000 words – and, as ever with the former prime minister’s pronouncements, there is a lot of often barely hidden subtext:
I have received a letter from the privileges committee making it clear – much to my amazement – that they are determined to use the proceedings against me to drive me out of parliament.
They have still not produced a shred of evidence that I knowingly or recklessly misled the Commons.
They know perfectly well that when I spoke in the Commons I was saying what I believed sincerely to be true and what I had been briefed to say, like any other minister.
They know that I corrected the record as soon as possible; and they know that I and every other senior official and minister – including the current prime minister and then occupant of the same building, Rishi Sunak – believed that we were working lawfully together.
Most members of the committee – especially the chair – had already expressed deeply prejudicial remarks about my guilt before they had even seen the evidence. They should have recused themselves.
In retrospect it was naive and trusting of me to think that these proceedings could be remotely useful or fair. But I was determined to believe in the system, and in justice, and to vindicate what I knew to be the truth.
It was the same faith in the impartiality of our systems that led me to commission Sue Gray. It is clear that my faith has been misplaced. Of course, it suits the Labour party, the Liberal Democrats, and the SNP to do whatever they can to remove me from parliament.
Sadly, as we saw in July last year, there are currently some Tory MPs who share that view. I am not alone in thinking that there is a witch-hunt under way, to take revenge for Brexit and ultimately to reverse the 2016 referendum result.
My removal is the necessary first step, and I believe there has been a concerted attempt to bring it about. I am afraid I no longer believe that it is any coincidence that Sue Gray – who investigated gatherings in No 10 – is now the chief of staff designate of the Labour leader.
Nor do I believe that it is any coincidence that her supposedly impartial chief counsel, Daniel Stilitz KC, turned out to be a strong Labour supporter who repeatedly tweeted personal attacks on me and the government.
When I left office last year the government was only a handful of points behind in the polls. That gap has now massively widened.
Just a few years after winning the biggest majority in almost half a century, that majority is now clearly at risk.
Our party needs urgently to recapture its sense of momentum and its belief in what this country can do.
We need to deliver on the 2019 manifesto, which was endorsed by 14 million people. We should remember that more than 17 million voted for Brexit.
I am now being forced out of parliament by a tiny handful of people, with no evidence to back up their assertions, and without the approval even of Conservative party members let alone the wider electorate.
The Conservative party has the time to recover its mojo and its ambition and to win the next election.
I had looked forward to providing enthusiastic support as a backbench MP. Harriet Harman’s committee has set out to make that objective completely untenable.
The committee’s report is riddled with inaccuracies and reeks of prejudice but under their absurd and unjust process I have no formal ability to challenge anything they say.
The privileges committee is there to protect the privileges of parliament. That is a very important job. They should not be using their powers – which have only been very recently designed – to mount what is plainly a political hit-job on someone they oppose.
I am very sorry to leave my wonderful constituency. It has been a huge honour to serve them, both as mayor and MP.
But I am proud that after what is cumulatively a 15-year stint I have helped to deliver among other things a vast new railway in the Elizabeth line and full funding for a wonderful new state of the art hospital for Hillingdon, where enabling works have already begun.
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