Category Archives: Foreign policy

Johnson visit to Lebedev party after victory odd move for ‘people’s PM’

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PM mingled with Russian elite amid claims of Moscow interference in UK politics

It was the equivalent of a V-sign cheerfully flashed at his critics. The day after his landslide election victory, Boris Johnson and his girlfriend Carrie Symonds dropped into a caviar-fuelled Christmas party in London hosted by former KGB agent Alexander Lebedev and his son Evgeny.

During the campaign Johnson had stubbornly refused to publish the Russia report, written by the last parliament’s intelligence and security committee.

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Boris Johnson dances around Varadkar’s claim of ‘hard’ Brexit

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Irish leader fears UK wants to ‘undercut’ European rivals in areas such as food after exit

Boris Johnson appeared to sidestep accusations from European leaders that he is on course to deliver a “harder Brexit”.

The prime minister is expected to have combative trade talks in the new year after ruling out adhering to Brussels’ rules after 2020 when the transition period ends.

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Brexit: MPs pass withdrawal agreement bill by 124 majority

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Bill passes second reading by 358 votes to 234 leaving UK on course to leave EU by end of January

Britain has taken a pivotal step towards leaving the European Union as Boris Johnson was rewarded for the Conservatives’ thumping general election victory with a majority of 124 for his Brexit deal in the House of Commons.

Addressing MPs on Friday morning, the prime minister sought to draw a line under three years of bitter parliamentary conflict, urging his colleagues to “discard the old labels of leave and remain”.

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Aid groups warn Boris Johnson against combining DfID with Foreign Office

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Charities caution that ‘UK aid risks becoming a vehicle for UK foreign policy’ if post-Brexit merger comes to fruition

A coalition of aid groups including the British Red Cross, Cafod and Oxfam GB has warned Boris Johnson that to abolish the Department for International Development would suggest Britain is “turning our backs on the world’s poorest people”.

One climate diplomacy expert said it would be “political suicide” to merge DfID with the Foreign Office in 2020, the same year the UK is hosting the UN climate summit, since the move would tie up senior civil servants when they were most needed to tackle the response to the climate crisis.

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Cliff-edge Brexit will hurt UK more than EU, says Von der Leyen

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EU president warns of time running out in the expected 11 months available to strike deal

Ursula von der Leyen has warned that a cliff-edge Brexit at the end of 2020 will hurt the UK more than the EU as she laid out her intentions to “make the most” out of the “extremely challenging” 11 months available to strike a trade deal.

The European commission president acknowledged the danger of time running out during the negotiations, a risk many fear has been amplified by Boris Johnson’s symbolic decision to legislate to block an extension of the transition period.

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Now Britain’s navel-gazing has to end. It’s time to keep our aid pledge to the world

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DfID must remain independent to safeguard aid commitments and our global reputation, says former minister

We are standing at a pivotal moment in the UK’s relationship with the rest of the world.

As parliament reassembles post-election, nations around the world, both within the EU and beyond, are waiting to see what direction the UK will take.

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Boris Johnson’s Brexit extension block ‘will limit UK options’

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Brussels prepares to restrict scope of talks in light of British PM’s ‘strange’ move

Boris Johnson’s plan to make it illegal for the government to extend the Brexit transition period beyond 11 months has been described as “strange” by Ireland’s deputy prime minister, as Brussels prepared to limit the scope of the coming negotiations.

Simon Coveney said it amounted to the “UK deciding to tie itself in terms of options” while the director general for trade in the European commission, Sabine Weyand, said the ambition of any deal would need to be pared back.

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EU looks at extending Brexit transition period beyond 2020

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Move is being considered by EU officials in face of Johnson not seeking extension beyond 11 months

EU leaders would take the initiative and request an extension to the transition period, keeping the UK under Brussels regulations beyond 2020, under a plan mooted for getting around Boris Johnson’s stated refusal to seek a delay.

The move is being considered by EU officials as a way out of the problem posed by the short time available to negotiate a new relationship and the prime minister’s insistence that he will not seek an extension beyond 11 months.

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UK must be loyal on standards in return for market access – Macron

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French president demands regulatory harmonisation as price of good Brexit deal

Emmanuel Macron has warned Boris Johnson that the UK must remain “loyal” to EU standards post-Brexit for British companies to maintain access to the European market.

In comments echoed by the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, the French president demanded continued regulatory harmonisation as the price for protecting the flow of trade, a demand that will be a cause of concern for the Conservative government.

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What will Boris Johnson’s majority mean for Brexit? | Anand Menon

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We will leave the EU in a few weeks. But it’s far from clear what kind of relationship with the bloc an emboldened PM will seek

Well it is truly remarkable. Not so much the result of the election, which is surprising enough. But, rather, the fact that following the “Brexit election”, one in which traditional party loyalties seem to have been stretched to breaking point by the leave-remain divide, we emerge not knowing what kind of Brexit the prime minister intends to deliver.

In the short term, there is now no doubt that he will be able to “get Brexit done” in the sense of taking the UK out of the EU by the end of January. And no, that does not mean that Brexit will, in fact, be done (on which more in a minute) in a practical sense. But it may – may – be possible for the government to give the impression that it is in a politically persuasive way.

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‘Politically we don’t count’: EU citizens fear for future in UK

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Most EU nationals living in the UK cannot vote – leaving many feeling like pawns in a political game

In a threadbare youth centre in Bradford, Vie Clerc, who got off a Eurostar from Paris 19 years ago with £50 in her pocket and never left, laments the irony. “It’s the first one I’ll actually be able to vote in,” she said. “Shame I’ve never felt less British.”

In a bright mezzanine office in Bristol, Denny Pencheva, who landed in 2013 from Bulgaria via Copenhagen and now teaches at the university, bemoans politicians “who use us to score their political points, but don’t actually have to consider us – because politically, we don’t count”.

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Brexit is one of most spectacular mistakes in EU history, says Tusk

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Exclusive: Donald Tusk says it would still be better for both sides if UK stayed in EU

Brexit has been “one of the most spectacular mistakes” in the history of the EU and followed a campaign marked by “an unprecedented readiness to lie”, Donald Tusk has said.

In his first interview since standing down as European council president last week, Tusk said Brexit was “the most painful and saddest experience” of his five years in office, a tumultuous period marked by the Greek eurozone crisis, bitter rows over migration and the election of Donald Trump.

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Let the UK continue to lead the world in global development | Letter

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Whatever the outcome of this general election, leaders should rise to the ambition of our own and global commitments, write representatives of 49 organisations

The UK has a well-earned reputation for being a key player on the global stage – respected for our record on international development, climate change, and humanitarian aid.

By 2020, this country will have helped vaccinate 76 million children, saving 1.4 million lives from preventable diseases. The UK has already helped 57 million people to cope with the effects of climate change over the last eight years and is on track to reach 60 million people with clean water by 2020. About 32 million people have been supported with humanitarian assistance in the face of conflict and disasters, including at least 10 million women and girls.

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How does Nato look at the age of 70? It’s complicated

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Squabbling, a spreading focus and Trump raise doubts about the effectiveness of the alliance

Seventy years after Nato was founded to protect western Europe from Joseph Stalin’s Soviet Union, the military alliance returned this week to its first home in London to discuss an increasingly sprawling set of goals while bickering leaders competed to see who could offer the most contentious soundbite.

Normally this is an arena that would be dominated by Donald Trump, although this time he was somewhat upstaged by Emmanuel Macron, whose pre-summit declaration that the organisation had become “brain dead” obliged Trump to describe his French counterpart’s comments as “very, very nasty”.

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EU risks splits over Brexit trade talks, says new council chief

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Charles Michel, who replaces Donald Tusk, says bloc has to work hard to keep unity

The EU is ready for the next phase of Brexit but risks greater internal divisions over trade talks with the UK, one of its incoming leaders has said.

In one of his first interviews since being nominated president of the European council, Charles Michel said Brexit may have played an important role in bringing the EU together.

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Windrush victim forced to sleep in London bin shed

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Roy Harrison, who came to Britain from Jamaica aged six, fighting deportation notice

A man caught in the Windrush scandal has resorted to sleeping in a freezing bin shed because the Home Office has not regularised his status and is trying to deport him.

Roy Harrison, 44, arrived in the UK as a six-year-old. He had been abandoned as a newborn in Jamaica by his mother and left on his grandmother’s doorstep.

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Corbyn ‘neutral’ on Brexit as Johnson attacked on trust

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Labour leader would negotiate new deal with EU, which would be put to a public vote alongside remain

Jeremy Corbyn would take a “neutral stance” in a future Brexit referendum, he has announced, after facing mounting pressure in recent days to pick a side.

Appearing in a special BBC Question Time programme, in which Boris Johnson was attacked over racism and Jo Swinson found herself on the back foot over Brexit, Corbyn confirmed for the first time he would not campaign either for leave or remain.

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No more orphans expected to be returned to UK from Syria

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Home Office unhappy with Foreign Office for potentially opening door to more Isis returnees

No other British children are expected to be repatriated from Syria in the foreseeable future, despite the announcement from the foreign secretary on Thursday that a small number of orphans who had been caught up in the conflict with Islamic State had been brought home.

Home Office officials view the repatriation of the children, who cannot be named for legal reasons, as highly exceptional – and there is unhappiness with the Foreign Office for potentially opening the door to more Islamic State returnees.

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UK growth will dip to 1% even if no-deal Brexit avoided, warns OECD

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Prospect of crashing out of EU leaves UK more exposed to global financial risks, thinktank says

The UK’s GDP growth rate will slip to 1% next year even if a no-deal Brexit is avoided, according to the Organisation for Economic Development and Cooperation.

The OECD said the economy would slow down from growth of 1.2% this year if parliament passes Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal before the 31 January deadline, before returning to 1.2% in 2021.

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UK criticised for its treatment of worker ‘tortured’ in China

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Simon Cheng, a former UK consular employee, has only been offered a two-year visa

Questions have been raised about Britain’s treatment of a former UK consular worker from Hong Kong, who said he was asked to resign after being detained and allegedly tortured on a work trip to mainland China.

Simon Cheng has been offered a two-year UK visa, but sources said it is a “working holiday” type, which only allows him to spend 12 months employed and leaves him without a path to permanent residency.

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