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Turning back to Marin Selmayr for a moment, Mina Andreeva, the European commission’s deputy chief spokeswoman has posted a tweet that seems intended to mollify Brexiters upset by the tone of his intervention earlier. She was responding to Fraser Nelson, editor of the pro-Brexit Spectator.
Lord Trimble, the former Ulster Unionist party leader who won a Nobel peace prize for his role in the Good Friday agreement, has announced that he and others “are planning to take the government to court over the protocol on Northern Ireland - which includes the so-called “backstop” - as it breaches the terms of the Good Friday agreement.”
The announcement came in a three sentence press statement from Global Britain, a pro-Brexit thinktank. It said:
The Nobel peace prize winner and architect of the Good Friday agreement plans to initiate judicial review proceedings to ensure that the protocol is removed from the withdrawal agreement.
Lord Trimble says that alternative arrangements - as outlined in A Better Deal And A Better Future - should be put in place instead.
Cross-party group unable to tell EU official that MPs would back deal with added protocol
A suggestion by one of the EU’s most powerful officials of possible further legal assurances on the Irish backstop has failed to win over Brexiter MPs, leading to heightened talk of the UK leaving the bloc with no deal.
After a meeting with Martin Selmayr on Monday, the cross-party Brexit select committee emerged clear that the European commission secretary general had floated the possibility of a legally binding adjunct to the withdrawal agreement.
Labour MPs and MEPs call on home secretary Sajid Javid to act over ‘digital discrimination’
Seventy-one Labour MPs and MEPs have accused the Home Office of “digital discrimination” for creating an Android-only app for EU citizens to apply for settled status.
In an open letter to home secretary Sajid Javid, frontbenchers including Luke Pollard, shadow environment minister, and Paul Blomfield, shadow Brexit minister, say the system “flies in the face of fair treatment of EU nationals”.
For 300,000 UK citizens in Spain, which does not allow dual citizenship, pension and healthcare worries are hard to resolve
A couple of years ago, Michael Soffe seemed to have a charmed life. A gourmet tour guide and wedding planner, he’d made a home and built a business in sun-soaked Málaga, the increasingly hip city at the heart of Spain’s southern coast.
Now he fears that everything he’s worked for is hanging in the balance as heedless politicians push Brexit negotiations to the brink. His biggest worry is that his partner, a two-time cancer survivor still in treatment, could lose his right to public healthcare.
Cold war plans revived to move royals to safe locations away from London if unrest follows no deal
British officials have revived cold war emergency plans to relocate the royal family should there be riots in London if Britain suffers a disruptive departure from the European Union, two Sunday newspapers have reported.
“These emergency evacuation plans have been in existence since the cold war but have now been repurposed in the event of civil disorder following a no-deal Brexit,” the Sunday Times said, quoting an unnamed source from the government’s Cabinet Office, which handles sensitive administrative issues.
Firm plans to move production claims Sky News, raising concerns about Brexit impact
Nissan has refused to comment on reports that it is abandoning plans to build a new model of one of its flagship vehicles at its Sunderland plant.
The Japanese car manufacturer said in 2016 it would be building the new version of the X-Trail SUV at the factory along with its next-generation Qashqai, prompting claims that Nissan and the government had struck a “sweetheart deal” to protect the company from any post-Brexit EU tariff wall.
Shadow chancellor criticises May over reports she pledged extra cash for leave-voting areas if MPs back Brexit deal
John McDonnell has criticised Theresa May’s rumoured approach to persuading Labour MPs to vote for her Brexit deal as “pork-barrel” politics, saying: “If there is money there to spend on our constituencies, it should be done anyway.”
The shadow chancellor’s accusation follows reports that the government is preparing to plough extra funding into deprived areas that supported leave, with the Nottinghamshire MP John Mann claiming that a set of job-creation measures targeted at former industrial towns would make it “very difficult for Labour MPs in leave areas to vote against the deal unless they want a second referendum”.
Exclusive: leaked emails show officials planning crisis centres to manage halt in waste exports to EU
Government officials are preparing to deal with “putrefying stockpiles” of rubbish in the event of a no-deal Brexit, according to documents leaked to the Guardian.
If the UK leaves the EU without a deal on 29 March, export licences for millions of tonnes of waste will become invalid overnight. Environment Agency (EA) officials said leaking stockpiles could cause pollution.
Footnote attached to EU regulation on insistence of Spain
A straightforward change in EU law guaranteeing visa-free travel for Britons in Europe after Brexit has sparked a diplomatic row after Brussels described Gibraltar as “a colony of the British Crown” in its no-deal legislation.
The footnote containing the contentious description of the Rock has been attached to the EU’s regulation on the insistence of Spain, with whom the UK has been in dispute over Gibraltar for three centuries.
Weyand, who this week shot down UK hopes of reopening talks, has a reputation for being ‘direct, quick, with no bullshit’
MPs voted this week to send Theresa May back to Brussels to restart Brexit talks, but the Commons apparently missed the message delivered in crisp English one day earlier: the talks were over.
The messenger was the EU’s deputy Brexit negotiator, Sabine Weyand: the German official with a British sense of humour who loves Shakespeare comedies and Harry Potter, and has been known to describe any outlandish idea as “bollocks”.
Exclusive: pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson fears border delays could disrupt flow of vital medical supplies
Emergency “trauma packs” flown into the UK during terrorist attacks are being stockpiled in Britain by the pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson over concerns of a risk to life from border delays in the event of a no-deal Brexit.
The company said the move was being made due to the danger posed to the “routine and rapid” provision of the vital emergency equipment it provides to the NHS in times of emergency from a distribution plant in Belgium.
The Good Friday agreement allows people to identify as Irish, British or both. We’re being forced, once again, to choose sides
One of my earliest childhood memories is of a circling red light motioning cars to stop near the border, silencing all who encountered its fiery glare. That red light filled my young heart with fear. I didn’t know if the gloved hand holding the torch was that of the RUC, the British army, the IRA or the UVF.
I grew up during the Troubles in the shadow of Cloghogue, one of the largest British army bases in Northern Ireland. Having to make detours to avoid customs and security checks along “bomb alley” – an atrocity-laden eight-mile stretch of road between Newry and Dundalk – was as frightening as it was familiar.
Tory unity already evaporating as Barnier reiterates Brexit deal cannot be reopened
Theresa May is under mounting pressure to spell out what changes to the Irish backstop she hopes to negotiate with Brussels, after the fragile Brexit truce in her own party appeared to fray on Wednesday.
And Nathalie Loiseau, the French Europe minister, has said much the same thing. She said:
Brexit will take place in two months. Time is running out.
We are ready to talk about the future but now is the time to agree on the conditions of the separation.
This is from the Express’s Joe Barnes.
German foreign minister Heiko Maas on prospect of renegotiating Theresa May's #Brexit deal: 'The withdrawal agreement is the best and only solution for an orderly withdrawal.
'Germany and the entire Union are firmly on Ireland's side.'
Jeremy Corbyn is expected to meet Theresa May to discuss Brexit, with 58 days remaining until the UK leaves the EU.
The meeting later on Wednesday was confirmed that morning by Stephen Barclay, the Brexit secretary, although the time is yet to be finalised. It comes two weeks after Corbyn rejected the prime minister’s invitation on the grounds that she should first rule out a no-deal Brexit.
Business groups have been reacting to tonight’s votes. While they view the non-binding vote against a no-deal Brexit as a bonus, and are moderately relieved that there is now at least a Commons majority for something, overall they are still fairly gloomy.
Here are the key quotes.
This is another deeply frustrating day for British business. The never-ending parliamentary process limps on while the economic impact of no deal planning accelerates.
The Brady amendment feels like a throw-of-the-dice. It won’t be worth the paper it is written on if it cannot be negotiated with the EU. Any renegotiation must happen quickly – succeed or fail fast.
Another day lost while the clock is ticking. Government and parliament are still going round in circles when businesses and the public urgently need answers.
The real-world result of Westminster’s interminable wrangling is market uncertainty, stockpiling, and the diversion of staff, money and investment. For every big-ticket business announcing high-profile Brexit-related decisions, there are many more quietly making the changes they need in order to safeguard their operations in the event of a disorderly Brexit. The net result of this displacement activity and uncertainty is slow but very real damage to the UK economy.
While it is something that MPs have managed to form a majority in any vote, the path ahead is still far from clear. The prime minister clearly faces a difficult task in winning a compromise on the backstop. However, if the choice is between trying to change the deal and leaving without one, business will have to hope the EU can be flexible and consider whether any legal changes at all could further clarify that the backstop is not a permanent fixture.
By passing the Spelman-Dromey amendment, parliament has formally echoed the voice of small businesses that a no deal exit in 59 days’ time is not an option. The amendment does not have any force in law, so a no deal Brexit on 29th March isn’t off the table yet. This vote cannot simply be a symbolic one, we need government and parliament redouble efforts to prevent it.
Small businesses are not ready, and the country is not ready for this scenario. Tonight has seen a small but significant step that shows parliament falling into line with the UK small business community, which is a small relief. However, we cannot lose sight of the reality that we are still no closer to securing a pro-business deal before 29th March.
While further delay does nothing to relieve the uncertainty hanging over the country, it is at least encouraging to see parliament saying it won’t support a no-deal outcome. It is vital that we not only have an orderly withdrawal but that we are set up to succeed in agreeing a mutually beneficial future relationship with our EU partners.
The EU27 are very good at message discipline. Leo Varadkar, the Irish prime minister, has just issued a statement through his office that reads very like the one from Donald Tusk. (See 8.55am. A spokesperson for Varadkar said:
The EU position on the withdrawal agreement, including the backstop, is set out in the conclusions of the December meeting of the European council. It has not changed.
The withdrawal agreement is not open for re-negotiation.
The risk of accidentally crashing out of the EU without a deal has been described as “very high” by a key EU architect of the Brexit deal, with parliamentary backing for changes to the backstop likely to be met with a brick wall in Brussels.
Senior Conservative MPs are seeking to form a majority in a Commons vote on Tuesday calling for Theresa May to demand an alternative plan to the Irish backstop for avoiding a hard border on the island of Ireland.
Survey shows Britons becoming more intolerant, politically disillusioned and disunited
Britons have become angrier since the referendum to leave the EU, according to a survey which suggests there is widespread unhappiness about the direction in which the country is heading.
Sixty-nine per cent of respondents said they felt their fellow citizens had become “angrier about politics and society” since the Brexit vote in 2016, according to the Edelman Trust Barometer, a long-established, annual survey of trust carried out across the globe.
Some of the ‘leading intellectuals’ cited supported wars in the Middle East and stayed silent in the wake of draconian anti-terror legislation, notes Liz Fekete
It was the “civilisational racism” unleashed by these that provided the political space for the far-right parties that now blight the European landscape. And the signatories could note that since 2015, “ordinary” Europeans have taken part in the biggest wave of humanitarian volunteerism since the second world war – supporting refugees, many from Syria, desperate and dying at EU countries’ militarised borders. We need those with powerful voices to speak out not just to defend Enlightenment values in the abstract, but also on the many occasions that the human rights of ethnic and religious minorities, or foreigners, are denied. Liz Fekete Director, Institute of Race Relations
Business group warns that companies are getting ready to shift operations abroad
Thousands of British companies have already triggered emergency plans to cope with a no-deal Brexit, with many gearing up to move operations abroad if the UK crashes out of the EU, according to the British Chambers of Commerce.
Before a crucial week in parliament, in which MPs will try to wrest control from Theresa May’s government in order to delay Brexit and avoid a no-deal outcome, the BCC said it believed companies that had already gone ahead with their plans represented the “tip of the iceberg” and that many of its 75,000 members were already spending vital funds to prepare for a disorderly exit.