Students delay studying abroad and some even switch continents because of visa delays
Thousands of British students have been hit by post-Brexit visa hurdles, leaving many struggling to complete their language courses or take up internships in the EU.
While some have delayed studying abroad or even switched continents because of visa delays, hundreds of undergraduates taking modern foreign language courses may miss out on a vital part of their degree.
Continue reading...Corrinne and Brett Giles live in Donegal and Derry counties due to ‘borderline unconstitutional’ application of immigration rule
A South African doctor and her British husband are living on either side of the Irish border because of what one MP called a “borderline unconstitutional” application of post-Brexit immigration rules.
Corrinne and Brett Giles live 25 miles apart in Donegal and Derry counties respectively, with Corrinne in a “constant state of anxiety” waiting for a family permit to join her husband in the UK.
Continue reading...Two-thirds of people say a border poll should be held at some point in the wake of Brexit
Two-thirds of voters in Northern Ireland believe there should be a vote over its place in the UK, but only 37% want it to take place within the next five years, according to a new poll for the Observer.
Some 31% of voters said there should be a vote at some point about Northern Ireland’s place in the UK but after 2026, the LucidTalk poll found. A further 29% said there should never be such a vote. There is currently a seven-point lead for Northern Ireland remaining part of the UK should any vote take place.
Continue reading...Poor pay and conditions for HGV drivers and the loss of many thousands of EU workers are plunging the UKs supply chain into crisis
Gaps on supermarket shelves. Fast food outlets pulling milkshakes and bottled drinks from their menus. Restaurants running out of chicken and closing. Empty vending machines. Online grocery orders full of substitutions. Fruit and vegetables rotting in the fields.
These are just some of the most visible signs of Britain’s deepening supply chain crisis, which has seen stocks in shops and warehouses slump to their lowest levels since the Confederation of British Industry began surveying in 1983.
Continue reading...Business secretary reported as saying foreign labour only offers ‘temporary solution’ as companies face supply chain crisis
Employers have been told to invest in UK-based workers rather than relying on labour from abroad as supermarkets and suppliers struggle to contend with a chronic shortage of lorry drivers caused by the exodus of hauliers from EU countries because of Brexit and Covid.
The business secretary, Kwasi Kwarteng, wrote to business leaders on Friday saying foreign labour only offered “a short-term, temporary solution” after industry groups, Logistics UK and the British Retail Consortium (BRC) called on the department to provide temporary UK visas to EU truck drivers. They said the lack of drivers was “increasingly putting unsustainable pressure on retailers and their supply chains”.
Continue reading...Culture secretary says move could lead to an end to irritating cookie popups and consent requests online
Britain will attempt to move away from European data protection regulations as it overhauls its privacy rules after Brexit, the government has announced.
The freedom to chart its own course could lead to an end to irritating cookie popups and consent requests online, said the culture secretary, Oliver Dowden, as he called for rules based on “common sense, not box-ticking”.
Continue reading...Campaigners say Britons are facing problems with Home Office over rights to return to UK
Ministers have been accused of breaching their promise to secure the post-Brexit rights of thousands of British nationals who settled in the EU and married foreigners.
Campaigners at British in Europe (BiE) have written to the Foreign Office minister Wendy Morton and the immigration minister Kevin Foster telling of the “heartbreak” and “distress” endured by British citizens who are facing problems with the Home Office over their rights to return home to the UK.
Continue reading...They produce half the country’s sugar needs, but expect new trade deals to make their tough situation worse
In a field in Norfolk, the sight of lush green leaves sprouting from the soil are giving farmer Ed Lankfer cause for optimism. “I think this is one of the best crops we have ever grown,” he says, surveying one of his fields of sugar beet.
The signs are promising so far for this year’s harvest – known in the trade as a campaign – which takes place later than for other crops, during the autumn and winter. It would mark quite the turnaround from 2020’s terrible harvest, when bad weather and pests caused yields of the white sugar-yielding root to plummet by as much as 60%, leaving Lankfer with a £12,000 loss.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Roland Rudd, pro-EU group’s former chair, resigns along with director Richard Reed
Roland Rudd, one of the leading campaigners in the fight to keep Britain tied closely to the EU, has stepped down as a director of the company behind the People’s Vote group.
In a move one insider said marked as a “sorry end” to the slow decline of the movement forged during the fierce battle over Brexit, Rudd and another director, Richard Reed, resigned and handed over the reins of PV Campaign Ltd to Mark Kieran.
Continue reading...Exclusive: ministers to make traffic provisions indefinite in expectation of further cross-Channel disruption
Emergency powers to handle post-Brexit queues of lorries heading for France are being made permanent, signalling the government expects further cross-Channel disruption.
Operation Brock, a traffic management system designed to cope with queues of up to 13,000 lorries heading for mainland Europe across Kent, was meant to end by October 2021, after being extended once when the Brexit transition period ended in December 2020.
Continue reading...Provider joins EE in bringing back charges for people to use their phone in mainland Europe from next year
Vodafone is to reintroduce charges for UK customers who use their phones in Europe, despite Britain’s biggest mobile companies previously saying that they would not bring back roaming costs after Brexit.
Vodafone said new customers and those upgrading will have to pay up to £2 a day to use their monthly allowance of data, calls and text messages in mainland Europe.
Continue reading...James Ramsbotham, CEO of North East England Chamber of Commerce, says letter sent to Boris Johnson remains unanswered
A letter to Boris Johnson sent a fortnight ago by James Ramsbotham called on the prime minister to save the north-east from the “damage being done to our economy” by Brexit and urged him to give it his “most urgent and personal attention”. Two weeks later, it remains unanswered.
Ramsbotham is the chief executive of the North East England Chamber of Commerce and speaks for thousands of businesses caught by the red tape and extra costs of complying with EU rules. In a recent survey, 38% of members said sales to Europe had fallen since January.
Continue reading...Exclusive: David Cameron’s government said to have been one of ‘biggest supporters’ of idea in 2016
The British government was one of the “biggest supporters” of EU plans to require non-EU nationals to obtain authorisation and pay a fee to enter the bloc’s passport-free travel zone, the Guardian has learned.
David Cameron’s government backed the idea when it was floated by the European Commission in April 2016, three months before the EU referendum, when few foresaw the €7 (£5.95) fee would one day hit British travellers.
Continue reading...UK government says talks with other countries ongoing, after fears artists would incur huge fees post-Brexit
UK musicians and performers will be able to tour in a number of European countries without the need for a visa or work permit, the government has announced.
Rules that came into force at the beginning of the year do not guarantee visa-free travel for musicians in the EU and have prompted fears that touring artists will incur large fees in many of the countries they visit.
Continue reading...The Home Office appears to be in breach of the Brexit withdrawal agreement, says legal charity
European citizens who have applied for settled status are being detained and threatened with deportation, a development that contradicts assurances from ministers and appears to contravene the Brexit withdrawal agreement.
The Home Office has served EU nationals with removal directions even though they could prove they had applied for settled status, which should protect their rights to remain in the UK.
Continue reading...Former No 10 adviser pressed for appointment to be hurried through, saying he had ‘ordered it’ from PM
Dominic Cummings personally called a former colleague on the Vote Leave Brexit campaign and asked if his company would work for the government on its response to the Covid pandemic, leading to the award of a £580,000 Cabinet Office contract with no competitive process.
In an email on 20 March 2020, Boris Johnson’s former chief adviser asked the most senior civil servant responsible for contracts to sign off the budget immediately, and that if “anybody in CABOFF [the Cabinet Office] whines”, to tell them Cummings had “ordered it” from the prime minister.
Continue reading...Downing Street says Brussels overtures are insufficient and ‘comprehensive’ solutions needed
Boris Johnson has rejected Brussels’ latest attempt to iron out problems with the post-Brexit arrangements for Northern Ireland, insisting that the withdrawal agreement signed last year must be renegotiated.
Continue reading...Lords report calls on the government to ensure support remains in place to help late applicants secure their status
Significant numbers of Europeans in the UK aged over 65 failed to apply to the EU settlement scheme (EUSS) before the deadline, a parliamentary report has found, warning that this could make thousands of retirement-aged EU nationals vulnerable to Britain’s hostile environment policies.
Just 2% of all applications for the settlement scheme were submitted by people aged over 65, a percentage that is unlikely to reflect the population of older EU nationals living in the UK. Charities supporting older Europeans to apply said they had “encountered many individuals who have no mobile phone, no digital access and inappropriate or no documentation”, and the report warned that people who struggled with the digital technology required to apply were more likely to have missed the deadline for applications at the end of last month.
Continue reading...EU has already proposed changes to lessen impact on Northern Irish citizens, say officials
The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has rejected Boris Johnson’s move to renegotiate the Northern Irish protocol, raising the temperature of a simmering Brexit row.
“The EU will continue to be creative and flexible within the protocol framework. But we will not renegotiate,” she said after a call with the prime minister on Thursday.
Continue reading...Trading arrangements continue to be a significant flashpoint in relations with Dublin and Brussels
Just seven months after it came into force, the Northern Ireland protocol is proving once again a significant flashpoint in the UK’s relations with Dublin and Brussels.
On Wednesday, the UK published a “command paper” on the protocol. Some will see it as an attempt to tear up the agreement Boris Johnson struck in 2019, others will see it as a serious attempt to fix a deal they argue was flawed from the beginning but signed to help the British prime minister to get Brexit done, as he had promised.
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