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.
Continue reading...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”.
Continue reading...MPs vote on the EU withdrawal agreement bill, and Clive Lewis becomes the second Labour MP to enter party’s leadership contest
Brexit secretary Steve Barclay said the general election had delivered a clear instruction to parliament to leave the EU and so MP should respect that decision and back the bill.
This bill is not a victory for one side over the other. The time has come to discard the old labels to move from the past divisions and to come together as one United Kingdom.
Keir Starmer, the shadow Brexit secretary who is predicted to run for the Labour leadership, warned Conservative MPs to “be careful”. “Doing things because the government has a majority doesn’t mean those things are right,” he said.
He said that the move to water down commitments to child refugees is an example of that. “That is a moral disgrace,” he said.
I turn to my own benches. We may have lost the general election, but we have not lost our values and our beliefs and we must fight for them – day in, day out – in this parliament and we will.
That doesn’t mean that the deal negotiated by the prime minister is a good deal. It isn’t. It was a bad deal in October when it was signed. It was a bad deal when it was first debated in this House in October. It was a bad deal last Thursday and it’s a bad deal today.
Continue reading...Johnson government outlines tougher laws on sentencing and constitutional reform
Boris Johnson has set out his vision for the Tories to govern for the next decade as he published a Queen’s speech that points the way towards a harder Brexit and sweeping constitutional reforms.
The prime minister claimed that he wanted his programme for government to last for more than one parliament, describing it as a “blueprint for the future of Britain”.
Continue reading...Rishi Sunak highlights £34bn health spending, but appears to water down social care pledge
Boris Johnson will try to use the Queen’s speech to refocus attention away from Brexit and on to the NHS, the government has confirmed.
The prime minister intends to put the health service at the centre of the legislative programme, according to the chief secretary to the Treasury, Rishi Sunak.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...Rapper defends remarks about Boris Johnson at his old primary school as ‘the truth’
Stormzy has defended himself after Piers Morgan took issue with him criticising Boris Johnson to a group of children.
The UK grime star was talking to young pupils at his old primary school in Thornton Heath, south London, when he was asked why he was not a fan of the prime minister. He replied that Johnson was “a very, very bad man”.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...Simon Hart named new Welsh secretary as prime minister announces that Morgan – who stood down as MP – will get life peerage
Here’s a host more middle and junior-ranking ministerial appointments just announced by No 10:
A mooted plan to merge the department for international development (DfID) and the foreign office (FCO) risks allowing British aid money to be spent on “UK foreign policy, commercial and political objectives”, rather than on helping the world’s poorest people, more than 100 charities warn.
Related: Johnson to tell new Tory MPs they must repay public’s trust
Merging DfID with the FCO would risk dismantling the UK’s leadership on international development and humanitarian aid. It suggests we are turning our backs on the world’s poorest people, as well as some of the greatest global challenges of our time: extreme poverty, climate change and conflict. UK aid risks becoming a vehicle for UK foreign policy, commercial and political objectives, when it first and foremost should be invested to alleviate poverty.
By far the best way to ensure that aid continues to deliver for those who need it the most is by retaining DfID as a separate Whitehall department, with a secretary of state for international development, and by pledging to keep both independent aid scrutiny bodies: the Independent Commission for Aid Impact and the International Development Select Committee.
Continue reading...PM intends to set plans for Brexit bill, carry out minor cabinet reshuffle and present Queen’s speech before Christmas
Boris Johnson will tell the next generation of more than 100 new Tory MPs that they have a responsibility to change the the party for good, as he sets out plans for a first vote on his Brexit bill before the festive season.
With just a week until Christmas, the UK prime minister intends to accelerate plans for his Brexit bill, carry out a minor cabinet reshuffle and present a Queen’s speech, before shifting his focus to reshaping Whitehall in the new year.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...Labour and the Conservatives in scramble for votes on the final day of campaigning
Here’s Labour’s campaign ad this morning, invoking the Blitz spirit.
Let's get back on track. pic.twitter.com/nITBAzhJUO
A busy day all round. Johnson will be travelling from Yorkshire to the Midlands, Wales and London.
Continue reading...The mood may be one of despair, but this election is critical to the country’s future. The best hope lies with Labour, despite its flaws
Britain has not faced a more critical election in decades than the one it faces on Thursday. The country’s future direction, its place in the world and even its territorial integrity are all at stake, primarily because this is a decisive election for Brexit. The choice is stark. The next prime minister is going to be either Boris Johnson, who is focused on “getting Brexit done” whatever the consequences, or Jeremy Corbyn, who with a Labour-led government will try to remodel society with a programme of nationalisation and public spending.
Continue reading...Dave Merritt criticises PM for seeing terrorist attack as opportunity instead of tragedy
The father of Jack Merritt, who was murdered in the London Bridge terrorist attack last month, has directly criticised the prime minister for treating his son’s death as a political “opportunity”.
As Boris Johnson sought on Tuesday to get his general election campaign back on track, Dave Merritt accused him of seeking to capitalise on his son’s murder.
Continue reading...Target seats such as Grimsby have not been blue for decades. To win here will require more than giant cod and snappy slogans
Boris Johnson does not look like a prime minister who believes he is just about to lose the office he has coveted since boyhood.
Brandishing a giant cod and joking with fishmongers, he is in his campaign comfort zone. It is the mode of the Vote Leave tour bus: eye-catching photo ops, a snappy slogan and informal stump speeches that play fast and loose with the facts about Brexit.
Continue reading...Foreign minister challenges Johnson’s claim about goods moving from Northern Ireland to Britain
Simon Coveney, Ireland’s foreign minister, has challenged Boris Johnson’s claim that under his Brexit deal there would be no checks or controls on goods moving between Northern Ireland and Britain.
Coveney insisted that under the terms of the withdrawal agreement the prime minister negotiated with the European Union there would be inspections on goods moving in both directions.
Continue reading...Boris Johnson accused of not caring after refusing reporter’s requests several times
Boris Johnson has been accused of not caring after he repeatedly refused during a TV interview to look at a photo of a four-year-old boy forced to sleep on the floor at an overcrowded A&E unit, before pocketing the reporter’s phone on which he was being shown the picture.
In an ITV interview during a campaign visit to a factory in Sunderland, the prime minister was challenged about the plight of Jack Williment-Barr, who was pictured sleeping under coats on a hospital floor in Leeds as he waited for a bed, despite having suspected pneumonia.
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