Category Archives: Brexit

White House warns Truss over efforts to ‘undo’ Northern Ireland protocol

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Biden administration says undoing the protocol would not be ‘conducive’ to a trade deal between the UK and US

The Biden administration has sent Liz Truss a message on her second day in office warning against “efforts to undo the Northern Ireland protocol”.

The warning came from the lectern in the White House briefing room, where spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre was asked about new British prime minister Truss’s first phone call with Joe Biden and whether a US-UK trade deal was discussed.

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Ukraine war and energy crisis on Truss agenda as British PM speaks to Biden

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The new British prime minister also spoke to Volodymyr Zelenskiy on her first day in office, pledging UK ‘assistance for the long term’

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the ensuing global energy crisis have emerged as a leading foreign policy priorities for Britain’s new prime minister Liz Truss, as she and her US counterpart Joe Biden promised to strengthen their relationship in face of Vladimir Putin’s aggression.

Truss’s call to Biden on Tuesday night followed a conversation with Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskiy, and focused on what she called “the extreme economic problems caused by Putin’s war”. Biden and Truss “reinforced their commitment to strengthening global liberty, tackling the risks posed by autocracies and ensuring Putin fails in Ukraine”, according to Downing Street.

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EU and UK could ‘have another go’ at Brexit talks, says NI minister

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Meeting of Conor Burns and Maroš Šefčovič a promising sign as taoiseach says dispute is ‘testing and fraying’ Anglo-Irish relations

Hopes that Brexit talks between the EU and the UK could restart after nine months of paralysis were raised over the weekend after Northern Ireland minister Conor Burns held talks with the European Commission vice-president Maroš Šefčovič.

He spoke as the Irish prime minister, Micheál Martin, said the deepening row over the Brexit arrangements for Northern Ireland was “testing and fraying” Anglo-Irish relations, but that the arrival of a new prime minister offered a chance for a fresh approach to break the impasse.

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Aaron Banks ‘writes off £7m loan’ as Leave.EU goes into liquidation

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Brexit campaign group fronted by Nigel Farage leaves thousands in unpaid fines for data law breaches

The Brexit campaign group Leave.EU has gone into liquidation with its controversial co-founder Arron Banks appearing to write off a loan worth more than £7m.

Documents submitted to Companies House also reveal that the anti-EU lobbying group, which was fronted by Nigel Farage during the 2016 EU referendum campaign, has failed to pay tens of thousands in fines owed to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) for breaches of data law.

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EU to invite next UK PM to summit on new pan-European security body

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European leaders will head to Prague on 6 October to forge European Political Community

The EU will offer an olive branch to the new British prime minister with an invitation to a summit to discuss a new organisation uniting the democracies of the European continent.

Britain’s next prime minister, widely expected to be Liz Truss, will be invited to join fellow leaders across Europe at a summit in Prague on 6 October to forge a European Political Community, a body dedicated to advancing security across the continent.

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EU warns next PM unilateral action on Brexit deal is of ‘great concern’

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European Commission vice-president, Maroš Šefčovič, says it is ‘legally and politically inconceivable’

The EU has warned the incoming British prime minister, likely to be Liz Truss, that any unilateral action to scrap part of the Brexit deal is legally and politically of “great concern” across the continent.

The warning by the European Commission vice-president, Maroš Šefčovič, comes just days before the new prime minister is expected to confirm they will press ahead with new laws to dismantle the arrangements for Northern Ireland.

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‘Festival of Brexit’ label puts visitors off Unboxed project

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Investigation reveals the £120m creative event series has attracted fraction of target numbers

The head of the £120m Unboxed, an ongoing project aimed at celebrating UK creativity, has conceded the scheme has been dogged by being nicknamed the “Festival of Brexit” after it attracted a fraction of the target visitor numbers.

Ministers had hoped that the festival would attract 66 million people, but with just over two more months to go, four of the events have so far only drawn 238,000 visitors, according to official figures.

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Eurostar to axe direct trains from London to Disneyland Paris over Brexit

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High-speed rail firm blames departure from EU and Covid for decision to halt service next summer

Eurostar has decided to stop direct services from London to Disneyland Paris from next summer, citing the fallout from Brexit and Covid.

The high-speed train operator said on Tuesday it was scrapping trains running from the British capital to the Disneyland site in Marne-la-Vallée, in the eastern Paris suburbs.

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Truss and Sunak face Tory hustings after both say Covid lockdown went too far – as it happened

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Latest updates: Tory leadership frontrunner reacts to Sunak comments, saying school closures went too far; pair meet Tory members in Norwich

Lee Cain, who was director of communications in Downing Street during the early phase of the Covid crisis, says Rishi Sunak’s comments about the lockdown policy (see 9.22am and 9.47am) are “simply wrong”.

But Sunak is not saying lockdown should not have happened, as Cain suggests. He is just saying that it was implemented too rigidly, and perhaps for too long, and that more consideration should have been given to the downsides.

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Number of EU citizens moving to UK plunges post-Brexit – report

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Data shows just 43,000 EU citizens received visas for work, family, study or other purposes in 2021

The number of EU citizens moving to the UK has plunged since Brexit closed the doors to low-paid workers, according to a report.

The dramatic decline in migration from the EU has hit hospitality and support services hard. But the Migration Observatory (MO) at the University of Oxford and ReWage, a group of independent experts, have said that while Brexit “exacerbated” chronic labour shortages in Britain, it was not the only cause.

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Revealed: Indonesian workers on UK farm ‘at risk of debt bondage’

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As farms look further afield for labour, investigation finds Kent pickers saying they struggle to pay fees charged by unlicensed brokers

Indonesian labourers picking berries on a farm that supplies Marks & Spencer, Waitrose, Sainsbury’s and Tesco say they have been saddled with debts of up to £5,000 by unlicensed foreign brokers to work in Britain for a single season.

Pickers at the farm in Kent were initially given zero-hours contracts, and at least one was paid less than £300 a week after the cost of using a caravan was deducted, according to payslips and other documents seen as part of a Guardian investigation.

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Brexit threatening endangered species as red tape hits zoo breeding programmes

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Transferring critically endangered species within Europe to broaden the gene pool is more difficult with Britain outside the EU

Breeding programmes designed to save critically endangered species are being jeopardised by Brexit, with zoos warning they are being prevented from transferring animals such as rhinos and giraffes by red tape created by the UK’s departure from the EU.

The animal health regulation was passed in 2016 before the EU referendum, but came into force in April 2021. There have been no reports that the UK dissented from the regulation.

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Tory leadership: Sunak frustrated government attempts to realise benefits of Brexit, Truss allies claim – UK politics live

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Latest updates: foreign secretary’s supporters accuse former chancellor of resisting changes to EU regulation as sixth hustings looms

Gordon Brown, the former Labour prime minister, has used an article in today’s Guardian to propose that the government should halt the increases in the energy price cap planned for later this year and next year and, if necessary, take energy companies into public ownership to ensure that they keep prices down.

Alongside the Lib Dem plan, with which it has some similarities (they also want a price cap freeze, and more money raised through a windfall tax), it is the most radical and ambitious proposal on the table to tackle the energy bills crisis.

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Ryanair boss blames Brexit for airport chaos and says era of €10 airfares over

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Michael O’Leary warns of rising cost of fuel and says policymakers need to get inflation back to about 2%

The boss of Ryanair has warned the era of ultra-low airfares is over and said Brexit is partly to blame for a shortage of airport workers that has created chaos during the peak holiday period.

The airline’s chief executive, Michael O’Leary, said surging oil prices would make it impossible to keep offering promotional tickets for less than €10 (£8.50). He added that Ryanair’s average fare would rise from about €40 towards €50 over the next five years as the company adjusted to rising inflation.

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Brexit stage left: British band tells of farcical barriers encountered on EU tour

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Groups such as Walt Disco are struggling to make ends meet – or giving up – because of new obstacles, a musicians’ charity says

Night after night, the Beatles honed their harmonies in the clubs of Hamburg.

But now, British bands trying to fine-tune their sound by playing in Europe are struggling to make ends meet – or giving up entirely – because of the barriers created by Brexit, a charity for musicians has said.

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Two-thirds of UK’s top restaurants in the red after Brexit, Covid and inflation

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Meanwhile £700m of support funds in business rates relief remains unpaid by local councils

Debt repayments, staff shortages and rising energy bills have pushed almost two-thirds of the UK’s top 100 restaurants into the red, according to research that reveals the impact of the pandemic, Brexit and the cost of living crisis on the hospitality sector.

With a recession looming and further increases in energy bills weighing on businesses, a separate report found that £700m of business rates relief remains unpaid with only half of English councils paying out the support funds.

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British farmers face paying for border checkpoints in EU after Brexit halts exports

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Pedigree livestock breeders in Britain could be forced to spend millions of pounds to build facilities in France for ‘red tape’ checks by vets so their animals are allowed to enter the single market

British farmers are trying to set up red tape and border checks in France costing millions of pounds – and may even pay for it themselves.

Breeders in Britain are unable to export their pedigree cattle, sheep and pigs to the EU because no one has built any border control posts where vets can check the animals before they enter the single market.

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Almost 35,000 Britons in limbo as Portugal fails to issue post-Brexit ID cards

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British nationals living in country are unable to access healthcare, change jobs or travel in and out

British nationals living in Portugal are unable to access healthcare, change jobs, or travel in and out of the country as its ministers have not issued them with post-Brexit residency cards, it has emerged.

The UK government has raised the issue at ministerial level and urged Portugal to implement fully the withdrawal agreement and protect the rights of the 34,500 Britons who made the country their home before Brexit.

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Scottish salmon industry urges ministers to act over Dover delays

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Action urged over Brexit-related delays of up to 48 hours caused by queues on the UK side of Channel

The Scottish salmon industry has called on ministers to urgently intervene to stop Brexit-related delays to the transportation of fresh fish to France.

It comes after the Brexit opportunities minister, Jacob Rees-Mogg, admitted he was wrong to say there would be no delays at the port of Dover caused by the UK leaving the EU.

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Brexit realism? The NHS? Some of the key issues ignored by Sunak and Truss

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Tory leadership candidates have clashed bitterly but many pressing matters have been overlooked

Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss have clashed vehemently over tax and spending, immigration and the UK’s stance on China in their acrimonious battle to become prime minister – but have had little to say about many other pressing issues. Here are some largely overlooked key issues of the contest so far.

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