Category Archives: Boris Johnson

Boris Johnson promised to tear up NI protocol, says DUP MP Ian Paisley

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Paisley says Johnson told him he ‘would sign up to changing that protocol and indeed tearing it up’

Boris Johnson gave personal assurances to Northern Ireland MP Ian Paisley that he would commit to “tearing up” the Brexit protocol that is now the centre of a major row between the UK and the EU, it has been claimed.

The Democratic Unionist party MP made the comments on BBC’s Newsnight just hours after the prime minister’s former adviser Dominic Cummings claimed it was always the intention to sign the withdrawal agreement in January 2020 but “ditch bits” they didn’t like in the protocol.

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EU offers to scrap 80% of NI food checks but prepares for Johnson to reject deal

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Maroš Šefčovič attempts to end tussle at press conference but ‘big gap’ remains to UK’s demands

The EU will scrap 80% of checks on foods entering Northern Ireland from Britain but Brussels officials were “preparing for the worst” amid signs Boris Johnson is set to reject the terms of the deal.

Maroš Šefčovič, the EU’s Brexit commissioner, also announced that customs checks on manufactured goods would be halved as part of a significant concession to ease post-Brexit border problems.

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Damning Commons Covid report should be seen only as a start

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Analysis: report is not short on lessons but a full public inquiry is needed to get to the bottom of UK’s response to pandemic

It might not have been the immediate public inquiry sought by opposition parties and bereaved families, but the landmark joint report into the UK’s handling of Covid proved less toothless than some feared.

Published almost exactly a year to the day since the MPs’ inquiry was first announced, the “lessons learned to date” report, prepared by two Commons committees after mammoth evidence sessions, is not short on lessons – some of them expressed with notable bluntness.

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Priti Patel’s fury as Johnson blocks public sexual harassment law

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Home Office fears PM views aggressive targeting of women and girls as ‘mere wolf whistling’ amid moves to create specific offence

Boris Johnson has infuriated the home secretary by overruling attempts to make public sexual harassment a crime. This has prompted concern at the Home Office that the prime minister views the issue as mere “wolf whistling”, rather than the aggressive targeting of women and girls going about their daily lives.

Sources say tensions have emerged between Johnson and Priti Patel, and other senior Home Office figures, after he blocked plans to make public sexual harassment a specific offence.

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Boris Johnson laughs off the Pandora papers as the super-rich’s cash rolls in

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Western politicians seem complacent about or complicit in the iniquity of hidden wealth

It was a classic TV doorstep. After doing the morning media round, Boris Johnson emerged from a booth and set off with his minders across the main hall of the Conservative party conference in Manchester. What was his reaction to the Pandora papers?

And would the Tories be giving back the money they had taken from certain donors?

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‘Economically illiterate’: PM’s Tory conference speech gets frosty reception

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Next boss, thinktanks and unions criticise Boris Johnson, saying ‘shortages cannot be blustered away’

Boris Johnson’s vision for the UK has had a frosty reception with business and union leaders, with one thinktank condemning the prime minister’s speech to Conservative conference as “economically illiterate”.

The Adam Smith Institute’s head of research, Matthew Lesh, also called Johnson’s address “bombastic but vacuous”, while the travel industry union chief, Manuel Cortes, said it was “nothing but hot air”.

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Boris Johnson to brush off petrol queues as ‘change of direction’

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Prime minister will tell Tory conference that despite the supply chain crisis a bright future lies ahead

Boris Johnson will brush off petrol queues and empty shelves as evidence of a “change of direction” towards a high-wage economy on Wednesday, as he closes a Conservative conference at which supply shortages have barely been acknowledged.

The prime minister channelled Margaret Thatcher on Tuesday to insist “there is no alternative” but to press ahead with the post-Brexit transition to a labour market less reliant on immigration.

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Boris Johnson: petrol crisis and pig cull part of necessary post-Brexit transition

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PM’s remarks come as Liz Truss insists it’s the role of business, not ministers, to resolve such problems

Queues for petrol and mass culls of pigs at farms because of a lack of abattoir workers are part of a necessary transition for Britain to emerge from a broken economic model based on low wages, Boris Johnson has argued.

His comments, on the first day of the Conservative conference, came as Liz Truss, the foreign secretary, insisted it was the role of business, not ministers, to sort out such problems.

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UK to slash international travel ‘red list’ to just nine countries

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Quarantine will no longer be required for fully vaccinated travellers from 45 other countries from later in October

The prime minister, Boris Johnson, will open up more countries for hotel quarantine-free travel later this week, the Sunday Telegraph reported, saying the UK’s “red list” of destinations would be slashed to nine from 54.

Fully vaccinated arrivals from countries including Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico and South Africa will no longer have to quarantine in a government-designated hotel for 10 days when they get to England from later in October, the newspaper said.

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Emergency visa scheme extended in major U-turn by Boris Johnson

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Threat of Christmas being ruined by driver shortages forces ministers to expand range and duration of visas

Boris Johnson’s government has made a dramatic U-turn in an attempt to save Christmas – with a raft of extended emergency visas to help abate labour shortages that have led to empty shelves and petrol station queues.

New immigration measures will allow 300 fuel drivers to arrive immediately and stay until the end of March, while 100 army drivers will take to the roads from Monday, the government announced late on Friday.

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Stephanie Grisham book sheds light on Trump’s bizarre brushes with world leaders

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Memoir reveals Trump once discussed strength of kangaroos in meeting with UK PM – one of the few European leaders he liked

Boris Johnson once devoted a considerable part of a meeting with Donald Trump to discussing how strong kangaroos are, as the British prime minister struck up a robust relationship with a fellow “pudgy white guy with crazy hair”.

In contrast, the then US president considered his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, “a wuss”.

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Boris Johnson expected to announce new armed forces chief this week

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Navy chief Tony Radakin and SAS general Sir Patrick Sanders are frontrunners for the position

Boris Johnson has interviewed five candidates to head Britain’s armed forces with navy chief Adm Tony Radakin and the general responsible for the SAS Sir Patrick Sanders frontrunners for the job.

Defence sources said the prime minister had been advised to pick a new military leader with “operational experience” to replace the outgoing Gen Sir Nick Carter, whose credibility was damaged by the chaotic exit from Afghanistan.

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Boris Johnson to consider using army to supply petrol stations

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Ministers to discuss emergency plan Operation Escalin after BP reveals a third of its forecourts have shortages

Hundreds of soldiers could be scrambled to deliver fuel to petrol stations running dry across the country due to panic buying and a shortage of drivers under an emergency plan expected to be considered by Boris Johnson on Monday.

The prime minister will gather senior members of the cabinet to scrutinise “Operation Escalin” after BP admitted that a third of its petrol stations had run out of the main two grades of fuel, while the Petrol Retailers Association (PRA), which represents almost 5,500 independent outlets, said 50% to 90% of its members had reported running out. It predicted that the rest would soon follow.

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Supply chain crisis: Tories poised to U-turn on foreign worker visas

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Boris Johnson believed to have overruled ministers unwilling to compromise on post-Brexit immigration as forecourt queues mount

Ministers are poised to agree an extraordinary post-Brexit U-turn that would allow foreign lorry drivers back into the UK to stave off shortages threatening fuel and food supplies.

Boris Johnson ordered a rapid fix on Friday to prevent the crisis escalating. Ministers met in an attempt to agree a short-term visa scheme permitting potentially thousands more lorry drivers from abroad to come to the UK.

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‘Donnez-moi un break’: Johnson says France needs to ‘get a grip’ over submarine deal – video

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Boris Johnson has said French officials need to 'prenez un grip' amid continued anger at the US and UK's recent submarine deal with Australia. France recalled its ambassadors from both countries in response to Sunday's announcement. On Wednesday the prime minister said: 'It is not exclusive. It is not trying to shoulder anybody out. It is not adversarial towards China, for instance. It is there to intensify links and friendship between three countries'

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Brazilian minister tests positive for Covid after meeting maskless Johnson

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Marcelo Queiroga sat close to Boris Johnson and Liz Truss at New York meeting

Brazil’s health minister, Marcelo Queiroga, has tested positive for Covid and gone into isolation, 24 hours after meeting a maskless Boris Johnson and other British officials in New York.

Queiroga, who sat close to Johnson and the foreign secretary, Liz Truss, on Monday during their meeting with Brazil’s president, Jair Bolsonaro, announced his positive test on Twitter on Tuesday night.

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Joe Biden warns UK not to damage Northern Ireland peace over Brexit – video

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 Joe Biden has underlined the importance of ensuring peace in Northern Ireland is not jeopardised by post-Brexit tensions. Asked about a UK-US trade deal, the US president told reporters in Washington on Tuesday: 'There are two separate issues: on the deal with the UK, that continues to be discussed, but on the protocols, I feel very strongly about those. It was a major bipartisan effort made, and I would not at all like to see – nor, I might add, would many of my Republican colleagues – like to see a change in the Irish accords, and the end result having a closed border again'

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US-UK ‘special relationship’ faces new challenges despite signs of healing

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Relationship between Biden’s US and Johnson’s post-Brexit UK remains complicated and inevitably transactional

What a difference a month makes.

In August Joe Biden was being denounced in the British parliament for a “shameful” retreat from Afghanistan that blindsided the UK and other allies. The US president reportedly took a day and a half to return prime minister Boris Johnson’s call.

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Boris Johnson welcomes decision to open UK-US travel ‘in time for Thanksgiving’ – video

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Boris Johnson has welcomed the US decision to lift Covid-19 travel restrictions to allow fully vaccinated passengers from the UK and most EU countries to travel into the country from early November. The move signals the end of a travel ban imposed by Donald Trump more than 18 months ago in the early stages of the pandemic, and comes after intense lobbying from Brussels and London

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Meeting Cop26 finance goals ‘going to be tough’, says Boris Johnson

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Prime minister estimates just 60% chance of securing $100bn in aid pledges before Glasgow conference

Boris Johnson has said he fears there is only a 60% chance that the $100bn in climate finance viewed as key to securing an ambitious outcome to the Cop26 summit will be in place by the time world leaders meet in Glasgow in November.

Speaking to journalists en route to New York at the start of a three-day visit to the US, in which he hopes to “galvanise” progress towards a new climate deal, the prime minister said he would be urging developed countries to come forward with additional funding.

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