Brussels won’t give in to blackmail over Northern Ireland protocol, warns EU
Boris Johnson will hold emergency talks with Northern Ireland’s political leaders in a bid to break the Stormont deadlock caused by disagreements over post-Brexit trading arrangements.
The government is also expected to set out plans that would allow ministers to unilaterally scrap part of the Brexit deals.
More details would be released “in the coming days”, said the prime minister in an editorial in the Belfast Telegraph newspaper, despite warnings that they could trigger a trade war with the European Union.
The move has prompted a furious row with the EU as Brussels warned that such unilateral action to walk away from a key plank of the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement would represent a clear breach of international law.
Ministers are engaged in a standoff with the EU over the Northern Ireland protocol after the recent Assembly elections, with the DUP refusing to re-enter a devolved government in protest at the contentious arrangement which has created economic barriers between the region and the rest of the UK.
Ireland’s foreign minister hopes for ‘message of willingness to work together’ on protocol issues
Ireland’s foreign minister Simon Coveney acknowledged there were problems with the Northern Ireland Protocol and he hoped Boris Johnson’s visit to Belfast would be constructive.
Mr Coveney told reporters in Brussels: “The prime minister is in Northern Ireland today and I hope we’ll get a message of a willingness to work together to try to respond to these issues.
“There are real issues in relation to the implementation of the protocol that need the attention of both the UK and the EU working together to make sure that we can respond to concerns on the ground.”
Northern Ireland protocol ‘not working in current format’, minister says
The Northern Ireland Protocol “isn’t working in its current format”, government minister Rachel Maclean also said this morning ahead of the PM’s visit.
“I think the key thing here is that the prime minister is going to Northern Ireland today because he recognises that the protocol needs to be reformed,” she told Times Radio.
“It isn’t working in its current format and we need to have the executive up and running, because that is how we will actually deal with those issues affecting businesses and the cost of living in Northern Ireland.”
‘I need another coffee’: Minister in a muddle over stop-and-search plan
A Home Office minister admitted she did not have the numbers to hand on her department’s stop-and-search changes as she appeared to muddle the amount of hours the powers could be extended for.
Home secretary Priti Patel has made permanent changes to Section 60 extending the length of time the extra searching powers can be in force from 15 to 24 hours.
Rachel Maclean, asked how long a Section 60 can be put in place for, told LBC: “I think the time is 12 hours.”
Told it was not 12 hours, but 24 under the changes, she replied: “Oh, forgive me, 24 hours. I need another coffee.”
Pressed further, she responded: “I think it is ... No, I’m being quite upfront with you, I haven’t got the paper in front of me, forgive me.”
Asked whether she thought she should know such information, she said: “I do know. But ... you’re doing a very good job of demonstrating that I don’t have the papers in front of me now.”
Watch: Minister claims over better-paid jobs and cost-of-living crisis
Here is the clip from below:
Minister’s suggestion at how to cope with cost-of-living crisis
Britons struggling with the cost-of-living crisis should consider taking on more hours at work or moving to a better-paid job, a minister in Boris Johnson’s government has said.
Home Office minister suggests people ‘take on more hours’ and make use of local job centres
Ex-Northern Ireland secretary calls for ‘political deal’ with EU
Julian Smith, the former Northern Ireland secretary, has called on the UK to form a “political deal” with the EU over the Northern Ireland Protocol.
Asked his thoughts on the UK government overriding elements of the protocol, the Tory MP urged the EU to “go the extra mile” and be flexible over any negotiation.
“I think my view would be to try to delay, to give space now to looking at what the EU could do to solve those practical issues. Business supports the protocol but there are major technical issues,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme.
“I think we do need the EU and UK negotiators to spend some positive time in a locked room and come up with a deal, we need a political deal, we need a fudge.”
Energy price cap ‘could change twice as often'
Energy regulator Ofgem has revealed plans that, if implemented, would see the price cap on bills changed twice as often.
The watchdog said it might change the price cap to update every three months, rather than every six.
Ofgem said this will help customers when wholesale gas prices fall from current peaks by passing on savings to households more rapidly.
Priti Patel overrode legal advice in asylum cases, leading to record costs
Priti Patel has repeatedly overridden Home Office legal advice on immigration and asylum cases, adding to record costs for the taxpayer, The Independent can reveal.
The department spent £35.2m on legal bills for lost cases and paid out a further £9.3m to people wrongly held in immigration detention in 2020-21.
The figures stand at their highest level since the Conservatives came to power, having rocketed from £17.1m and £2.2m respectively in five years.
Home Office sources told The Independent that Ms Patel and other Home Office ministers had rejected legal advice in individual cases on numerous occasions.
Legal experts had shown clear instances where “immediately settling cases offered best value to the taxpayer, and set best precedent for presenting future cases to the courts”, a Home Office source said.
Read the details in this exclusive by our correspondents Anna Isaac and Lizzie Dearden:
Exclusive: Home office sources say Priti Patel overrode legal advice that cases would fail, pushing up rising legal bills
Jeremy Hunt declines to call Boris Johnson an honest man
Former Conservative minister Jeremy Hunt has declined to say that Boris Johnson is an honest man in the wake of the Partygate scandal.
Mr Hunt was asked the question by Sophie Raworth on the BBC’s Sunday Morning programme.
In response, he twice replied that “talking about personalities is not a helpful thing to do”, despite being told by Ms Raworth that it was a “simple question”.
On the issue of whether Mr Johnson was the best person for the job, Mr Hunt said: “I hope he can turn things around.”
He did say, however, that he thought that Tory MPs should support the prime minister “in the situation we are now in” with the war in Ukraine.
Whitehall editor Kate Devlin has the details:
Talking about personalities is ‘not helpful,’ he says
Margaret Thatcher statue egged within hours of going up
Onlookers voiced their disapproval of the new memorial to the divisive former prime minister, with several motorists booing loudly as they drove past. One man shouted “Tear it down” while another said “This is no good for Grantham, is it?”
The £300,000 statue was lowered into place in the Lincolnshire town on Sunday, after plans to put it in Parliament Square in London were opposed because of fears it would be vandalised.
My colleague Liam James reports:
Protester arrived in the morning with a carton of eggs as memorial to former PM installed
