Category Archives: Michael Gove

Brexit: full controls on goods entering UK will not apply until July 2021

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Three-phased plan for Brexit border checks welcomed as UK formally rejects extension to transition period

Full border controls on goods entering the UK will not apply until July next year the government has announced, as it formally notified the EU it does not want an extension to the transition period.

The announcement of a three-phased plan for Brexit border checks was welcomed by industry leaders but represents the most dramatic change to international trading since 1993 when the single market was introduced.

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No-deal Brexit would be ‘major block’ to UK’s recovery, warns CBI

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Carolyn Fairbairn says most UK businesses cannot prepare for no-deal during Covid-19 crisis

Business leaders have pleaded with the government not to walk away from Brexit talks without a deal after Michael Gove claimed the Confederation of British Industry supported no extension to the transition period.

The CBI’s director general, Carolyn Fairbairn, said to crash out without a deal would be a “major block to recovery”.

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Business leaders demand delay to Irish Sea border checks

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Six months needed to prepare for Brexit border checks, warn Northern Ireland business groups

Northern Ireland business groups are calling for a six month delay to Brexit checks in the Irish Sea saying that Boris Johnson’s late admission that he is legally obliged to implement them has left them no time to prepare for the December cliff edge.

They have also hit out at Downing Street secrecy, saying they are refusing to discuss the plans with the very people that needed to implement them.

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Dominic Cummings: Tory unrest increases pressure on PM to sack adviser

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Extraordinary party revolt and public criticisms reflect anger over aide’s lockdown breaches

Boris Johnson faced an extraordinary and growing revolt from within his own party on Tuesday over his refusal to sack his chief adviser, Dominic Cummings, for breaching lockdown rules.

On a day of dramatic developments, a junior minister resigned and more than 30 other Conservative MPs called for Cummings to go, many citing inboxes overflowing with hundreds of angry messages from constituents.

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Brexit: Gove confirms plans for checks on goods crossing Irish Sea

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Minister says checks on animals and food products are needed to maintain island of Ireland’s ‘disease-free status’

The government has confirmed for the first time that there will be Brexit checks on animals and food goods entering Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK from next January.

The announcement, detailed in a 23-page document released by the government on Wednesday, comes months after Boris Johnson pledged there would be no checks on trade crossing the Irish Sea – telling businesses that if anyone asked them to fill in new paperwork, they could “throw it in the bin”.

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Gove ‘confident’ pupils and teachers will be safe at school – video

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The Cabinet Office minister has said he is confident children and teachers will be safe if they return to the classroom, but admitted the risk remained of contracting Covid-19. Appearing on BBC One’s The Andrew Marr Show, Michael Gove said: ‘The only way ever to ensure that you never catch coronavirus is to stay at home completely. There’s always, always, always in any loosening of these restrictions a risk of people catching the coronavirus’

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May and Johnson hung civil servants out to dry, report finds

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Inquiry into Whitehall’s Brexit role says prime ministers failed to protect officials

Theresa May and Boris Johnson let the former chief Brexit negotiator Olly Robbins and other civil servants hang out to dry after they became “targets for political attacks”, an investigation into Whitehall’s role in the Brexit drama of the past four years has found.

The independent thinktank the Institute for Government (IfG) spent months talking in confidence to Whitehall sources including officials, ministers and special advisers, to shine a light on the behind-the-scenes experience of some of those involved in one of the most controversial chapters in British political history.

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UK-EU trade deal with tariffs impossible in six months, say diplomats

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EU officials dismiss Michael Gove’s suggestion deal could be done without longer transition

EU diplomats have dismissed Michael Gove’s suggestion that Brussels and the UK could negotiate a trade deal with tariffs on goods in six months, saying it “will never happen”.

Giving evidence to the House of Lords EU committee last week, Gove said the government could “modify our ask” by giving up on a “zero-tariff, zero-quota” trade deal in order to keep the UK free from a duty to adhere to European standards on workers’ rights, environmental protection and state aid.

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PM Boris Johnson was ‘missing in action’ during early phase of pandemic, claims Labour

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Shortages of PPE set to continue and testing behind schedule after Gove admits Johnson missed key Cobra meetings

Boris Johnson’s government has come under pressure to defend its handling of the coronavirus pandemic after Michael Gove was forced to admit that the prime minister had missed five key emergency meetings when the crisis first hit.

With ministers warning that shortages of protective medical gear could continue, test rates remaining stubbornly low and the hospital death toll rising on Sunday to 16,060, some Conservative MPs have expressed private concern that Downing Street does not have a strong grip on the crisis.

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UK’s coronavirus lockdown will be in place for significant period, says Gove – video

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The Cabinet Office minister, Michael Gove, has said the peak of the coronavirus outbreak in Britain will depend on people’s actions. He told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show and that the lockdown would remain in place for a significant period

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Michael Gove: rate of coronavirus infection in UK doubling every three to four days – video

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Michael Gove has said the rate of coronavirus infections in the UK is doubling every three to four days. The Conservative politician gave the update during the government’s daily Covid-19 briefing after Boris Johnson was diagnosed with the virus

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Cabinet Office to investigate Priti Patel bullying claims

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Gove tells MPs government will not set up fully independent inquiry into allegations Patel breached ministerial code

The Cabinet Office is to launch an inquiry into explosive claims that Priti Patel lied and bullied officials in several government departments, Michael Gove has told MPs.

The de facto deputy prime minister said the government would not set up a fully independent inquiry after Sir Philip Rutnam quit as permanent secretary of the Home Office.

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Johnson ‘knew about Vote Leave’s illegal overspend’, says MP

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Prime minister accused of ‘sitting on information’ after EU referendum

Boris Johnson knew of Vote Leave’s overspend during the 2016 EU referendum, but appears to have failed to tell the authorities, according to explosive new claims from a senior MP. The payment was subsequently ruled to be illegal.

Ian Lucas revealed that he has seen correspondence obtained during the parliamentary inquiry into disinformation and democracy which showed that Johnson’s most senior aide, Dominic Cummings, told the Electoral Commission that the prime minister, and his cabinet colleague Michael Gove, knew of the overspend by the pro-Brexit organisation.

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Cameron suspected Cummings of ‘dripping poison’ into Gove’s ear

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In an extract from his memoir, serialised in the Times, former PM makes claim about Boris Johnson’s senior aide

Dominic Cummings has developed a somewhat unsavoury reputation since taking over as Boris Johnson’s senior aide. But his nefarious influence over the machinations of No 10 stretches back much further, David Cameron claims in his forthcoming memoir.

Extracts printed in Saturday’s Times reveal that, in 2013, Cameron suspected a “bilious” Cummings of “dripping his poison” into the ear of Michael Gove, even though he was no longer serving as a special adviser to the then education secretary.

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Gove portrait ‘visible from space’ drawn on beach in Brexit protest

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Led By Donkeys group reminds minister of his statement that no one voted for no-deal Brexit

A portrait of Michael Gove so large it can “be seen from space” has been drawn on the sand on the North Yorkshire coast to condemn his stance on Brexit.

The anti-Brexit campaign group Led By Donkeys travelled to Redcar to install the drawing measuring 7,500 sq metres, which features a quote from the cabinet minister in which he said the UK “didn’t vote to leave without a deal” in the 2016 EU referendum.

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Gove watches no-deal Brexit practice run in Port of Calais

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New systems to ensure smooth transit of goods are tested in France before UK’s exit from EU

The Port of Calais has staged a no-deal Brexit rehearsal to test new systems ahead of the UK’s anticipated departure from the EU on 31 October. Michael Gove, the minister in charge of no-deal planning, witnessed the practice run during a visit to France on Friday afternoon.

Related: Rebel MPs confident they have time to stop no-deal Brexit

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Brexit: Michael Gove accuses ‘wrong and sad’ EU of intransigence

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Ireland warns on relations as Boris Johnson’s government seems intent on no-deal departure

Michael Gove has accused the European Union of intransigence over Brexit talks, calling it “wrong and sad”, as divisions between the UK and Brussels became further entrenched with the government seemingly intent on a no-deal departure.

Gove, who is in charge of no-deal preparations, reiterated Boris Johnson’s position that the only route to progress would be the EU starting again with withdrawal negotiations, something Brussels has repeatedly and consistently ruled out.

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Jeremy Hunt and Boris Johnson are final two in Tory leadership race

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Tory members now get chance to decide between two as Michael Gove is eliminated

Jeremy Hunt will go head to head with Boris Johnson in the race to be Britain’s next prime minister, after beating Michael Gove by just two votes in the fifth and final round of voting by Conservative MPs.

Johnson won 160 votes against 77 for Hunt and 75 for Gove. Johnson and Hunt’s names will now go forward to the Tory membership of around 140,000 – with Johnson the overwhelming favourite to take possession of the keys to 10 Downing Street next month.

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Tory leadership race: Stewart out as Johnson extends lead

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MPs suggest Johnson backers lent previous votes to Stewart to eliminate Brexiter rival Raab

Rory Stewart has been ousted from the Conservative leadership contest after losing 10 votes since the last round, sparking MPs’ speculation that Boris Johnson’s operatives may have previously pushed fellow supporters to vote for the outsider to help eliminate his Brexiter rival Dominic Raab.

Related: Rory Stewart knocked out of Tory leadership contest in third round - live news

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Tory leadership: Boris Johnson denounced as ‘racist’ by SNP at PMQs – live news

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Rolling coverage of the day’s political developments as they happen, including the third round of voting in the Tory leadership contest and Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn at PMQs

The SNP’s Neil Gray say in-work poverty has risen dramatically. Isn’t that May’s legacy?

May says the relative poverty has gone up because pensioners are better off. Gray may want to see pensioners worse off, but she doesn’t.

Julian Lewis, a Conservative, asks what May feels about the principle of bringing a dying soldier to court in Northern Ireland on the basis of no new evidence.

May says no one wants to see cases like this coming to court. But previous investigations have not been found to be lawful. She says she wants to see terrorist being properly brought to justice.

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