‘High potential individual’ route will allow eligible individuals to come to Britain without a prior job offer
Graduates from the world’s top 50 non-UK universities can apply to come to Britain through a new visa scheme.
Ministers hope the “high potential individual” route, which launches on Monday, will attract the “brightest and best” at the beginning of their careers to work in the UK.
Continue reading...Exporters fear Northern Ireland protocol row will spur trade war with Brussels, making an already difficult job even harder
Mark Brearley is still frustrated by Brexit. More than a year from Britain’s formal withdrawal from the EU, on terms agreed by Boris Johnson’s government, exporting the goods his company produces hasn’t got any easier for the London-based manufacturer.
Describing it as “the same nightmare week after week”, he says: “A lot more time is spent with things going wrong. The EU really feels like the hardest place in the world to ship things to sometimes.”
Continue reading...Kira Rudik says on visit to UK that without further military help Ukraine will fail to push back invaders
A Ukrainian MP visiting Britain has urged the west to supply long-range rockets to her country – and warned without further military help her country risked deadlock or defeat in its war against Russia.
Kira Rudik, the leader of the opposition liberal Golos party, said she was afraid of the three-month long war “becoming the new normal” and that the west would not supply the Nato-standard weapons Ukraine needed to push back the invaders.
Continue reading...Senior figure warns that man mentioned 24 times in Sue Gray report would be ‘representing the Queen’ as ambassador to Saudi Arabia
Senior Tories are warning Boris Johnson against appointing an official at the heart of the Partygate scandal to a top diplomatic job after it emerged that the man was being lined up to be Britain’s ambassador to Saudi Arabia.
Martin Reynolds quit as Johnson’s principal private secretary in February following outrage about Partygate. He left after an email emerged in which he had invited hundreds of Whitehall staff to a “bring your own booze” party in the Downing Street garden in May 2020.
Continue reading...Laboratory chief blames Brexit for closure as money for corvid brain power research dries up
One of Britain’s most important, and unusual, centres for studying cognition is facing imminent closure as a result of Brexit. Set up 22 years ago to study the minds of crows, rooks and other birds noted for their intelligence, the Cambridge Comparative Cognition Laboratory is set to cease operations in July.
Its director, Professor Nicola Clayton, told the Observer she was devastated by the prospect of ending her research there. Nor was she in any doubt about the prime reason for the centre’s closure.
Continue reading...Sir Philip Barton castigated along with Dominic Raab in damning report by MPs into UK’s chaotic exit
The senior civil servant in charge of the Foreign Office should consider his position after presiding over a disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan that betrayed UK allies, put lives in danger, showed a total absence of planning and was chaotically managed, MPs have concluded in a damning report.
The report from the foreign affairs select committee said the absence of leadership – both ministerial and official, including the permanent secretary, Sir Philip Barton – when Kabul fell was inexcusable and a grave indictment on those supposedly in charge. It added that Barton failed to give candid evidence to the committee, and says as a result it had lost confidence in him. The committee also accused him of covering up political interference in the fast-tracking of some individuals out of Afghanistan.
Continue reading...Campaigners say ministers must change course as millions face famine in Africa and the Ukraine war threatens to disrupt global food supplies
Ministers have been accused of choosing the “worst moment in history” to slash the foreign aid budget, as provisional figures showed that UK overseas humanitarian funding was cut by more than half last year.
MPs and charity campaigners say the aid budget urgently needs to be increased to cope with the Ukraine conflict and the risk of famine in Africa. Up to 23 million people face acute hunger in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia due to drought.
Continue reading...Foreign secretary Liz Truss wants to protect the country south-west of Ukraine from Russia
Liz Truss, the foreign secretary, has disclosed that the UK has begun discussions with its international allies about sending modern weaponry to Moldova to protect it from Russia.
She said that she wants to see the country, which is to the south-west of Ukraine, “equipped to Nato standard.”
Continue reading...Micheál Martin visits Belfast to try to break deadlock over DUP’s opposition to Brexit protocol
Ireland’s taoiseach has said it is unacceptable for one party in Northern Ireland to block others from taking power, as he visited Belfast to try to break the deadlock over the Brexit protocol and power-sharing at Stormont.
After meetings with party leaders, Micheál Martin said the Northern Ireland assembly and executive should be formed while negotiations continued between the UK government and the EU over the protocol. “Our view is there should be parallel discussions,” he said as he urged the DUP to abandon its decision not to return to power-sharing until “decisive action” was taken over reforms to Northern Ireland’s Brexit arrangements.
Earlier he said it was “unheard of in a democratic world” that a parliament could not convene after an election. “We can’t have a situation where one political party determines that the other political parties can’t convene in a parliament,” he said.
Nine-strong delegation led by close Biden ally will also visit Brussels and Dublin in significant intervention on division over Brexit protocol
One of Joe Biden’s closest allies is due to arrive in London on Saturday as part of an influential US congressional delegation seeking to calm tensions over Northern Ireland.
The nine-strong delegation includes Democratic and Republican delegates from the House of Representatives and Senate including members of the powerful ways and means committee chaired by Richard Neal, who will lead the group.
Continue reading...Pascal Lamy says row is solvable if PM stops using emotional Brexit politics to solve ‘technical problem’
Boris Johnson’s row with the EU over Northern Ireland’s Brexit arrangements is “absolutely solvable” but only if the UK accepts that a border is inevitable, the former head of the World Trade Organization has said.
But Pascal Lamy said the prime minister could only achieve a breakthrough if he stopped mixing “oil and vinegar” and throwing emotional Brexit politics on to what he said was essentially a technical problem.
Continue reading...Home Office initially had 100 people on list of Jamaican nationals to be removed, say reports
A Home Office deportation flight to Jamaica took off in the early hours of Wednesday morning with seven people onboard.
Some media reports said the Home Office initially had 100 people on the list of Jamaican nationals that officials hoped to remove.
Continue reading...Analysis: leak blindsided US officials, caused shock waves in Europe and appears to have annoyed No 10
Given that it has just announced a bill that could spark a trade war in the middle of a cost of living crisis, it is remarkable how often members of the government say that what they want is for everyone to calm down.
The intention to legislate is now formally announced but when the bill will be seen by MPs is intentionally unclear. The Northern Ireland secretary, Brandon Lewis, says it was never meant to be this week. Of course it wasn’t. Now the only commitment is “before the summer”.
Continue reading...Foreign secretary confirms plans to ditch parts of deal, saying Good Friday agreement ‘under strain’
Liz Truss has claimed the east-west relationship between Great Britain and Northern Ireland has been “undermined” by the Northern Ireland protocol, as she confirmed plans to table legislation that would scrap parts of the agreement.
The UK foreign secretary, who is also responsible for Brexit, set out plans for the move in a statement in the House of Commons. The bill is not expected to be published for several weeks, but if enacted could spark a trade war with the EU.
Continue reading...Archie Norman backs UK plans to scrap parts of protocol, saying lorries require ‘700 pages of documents’
The chairman of Marks & Spencer has backed government plans to override parts of the Northern Ireland protocol, saying that some food exported south of the border now requires 700 pages of customs documents, partly written in Latin.
Archie Norman, a former Conservative MP, called on the UK government and EU to come to an agreement, saying the rules for sending food between them were “highly bureaucratic and pretty pointless” given that British food standards were in line with or higher than those of Brussels.
Continue reading...Analysis: bloc has various retaliatory weapons available through the post-Brexit trade agreement
The EU could impose tariffs on UK fish and agricultural goods in just seven days if Boris Johnson goes ahead with moves to disapply parts of the Northern Ireland Brexit protocol, legal experts have said.
The short, sharp shock is one of the three key retaliatory weapons available through the trade agreement, according to Catherine Barnard, a professor of EU law at Cambridge University.
Continue reading...Northern Ireland secretary reiterates stance as Liz Truss prepares to tell MPs of plans to lift checks
The UK will not “shy away” from legislating to change the Northern Ireland protocol without agreement from the EU, the Northern Ireland secretary has said, as Liz Truss prepares to tell the Commons about plans to unilaterally lift checks.
The foreign secretary will tell MPs of plans to bring forward the draft legislation after a cabinet discussion on Northern Ireland. However, the timetable for the draft laws has slipped, with the text now only promised before the summer break, according to Whitehall sources.
Continue reading...Ministry of Defence says Putin’s campaign in the east has lost momentum and has failed to make big gains in past month
Russia may have lost a third of the invasion force it sent into Ukraine as its offensive continues to struggle in the face of stiff resistance, British military intelligence has said.
In its latest assessment, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said the Russian campaign in the east of Ukraine had “lost momentum” and was now “significantly behind schedule”.
Continue reading...Foreign minister criticises ‘sabre-rattling’ from UK amid signs British rhetoric is softening over Northern Ireland protocol
Plans to shred parts of the Northern Ireland protocol “would send headlines around the world” that the UK is prepared to break treaties, Ireland’s foreign minister has said, as a British cabinet minister insisted the UK did not intend to break the law.
The business secretary, Kwasi Kwarteng, said the UK had “the right to act in a sovereign way” and to “reopen or re-examine the protocol” but denied the actions would constitute a breach of international law.
Continue reading...After an initial shock to businesses, manufacturing jobs are growing four times faster here than the UK average
Whenever Boris Johnson’s government wades into battle over the Northern Ireland protocol, it wields one assertion like a broadsword: that the protocol is ruining the region’s economy. Checks on goods entering Northern Ireland are disrupting trade, increasing prices and bankrupting businesses, and the damage will worsen unless the protocol is changed, goes the argument.
The Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), a rightwing thinktank, joined the fray last week with a report that estimated the annual cost of the agreement at £850m.
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