Brexit news – live: Brussels hits back at Boris Johnson after he brands EU 'abusive'

Biden’s Northern Ireland rhetoric ‘ridiculous’, says DUP’s Donaldson 

Remarks from Joe Biden and other leading US politicians are growing “increasingly ridiculous”, a senior DUP figure has said.

Following a warning from the presidential frontrunner that the Good Friday Agreement cannot become a “casualty” of Brexit, Sir Jeffrey Donaldson MP, the DUP chief whip, said: “The rhetoric coming from Washington is growing increasingly ridiculous as people who took no part in the negotiations, who clearly haven’t read the Belfast Agreement properly, and yet now use that Agreement to attack the UK’s exit from the European Union.

“If a presidential candidate and senior figures on Capitol Hill are going to speak about the Belfast Agreement, they should at least accept that a new border between Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom drives a coach and horses through the Belfast Agreement.

“Does the close alliance of the UK and the USA in defeating international terrorism count for nothing?”

Mr Biden’s warning came after Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the House of Representatives, said a US-UK trade deal had “absolutely no chance” of passing through Congress if the Good Friday Agreement were compromised. Yesterday, four US representatives (three Democrats, one Republican) signed a letter to Boris Johnson urging him to drop plans to override the Brexit withdrawal agreement.

Tom Watson lands job as Paddy Power adviser

Former deputy Labour leader Tom Watson has taken on a role as an adviser to one of the UK’s biggest gambling firms.

Mr Watson was a vocal campaigner for stricter rules on gambling before leaving parliament last year. He has previously called for an end to betting adverts on football shirts and called gambling a “hidden epidemic”.

Flutter Entertainment, which owns brands including Paddy Power and Betfair, confirmed it had appointed Mr Watson today, saying in statement: “His role will be to bring a fresh and robust voice into the business, as it continues to look for ways to protect vulnerable customers, while also serving the majority who enjoy gambling as a safe leisure pursuit.”

On his appointment, Mr Watson said: “I have a long-standing interest in this sector and consistently called for action to protect those that may be potentially vulnerable to harm.

“I strongly believe that working collaboratively with Flutter in this way will allow me to continue to drive positive change.”

Brexit Bill compromise ‘not enough’, says Lord Howard

Former Conservative leader Michael Howard has said the government’s proposed amendment to the Internal Market Bill “isn’t enough” for him to back it in the House of Lords.

Boris Johnson compromised with Tory rebels yesterday in order to grant MPs a vote before powers to break international law granted by the Bill could be used.

But Lord Howard, who preceded David Cameron as Tory leader, told the BBC that chances of the Bill passing through the House of Lords were currently “not great”.

“The government is still asking parliament to break international law,” he said.

“I don’t know what my colleagues will do, but as far as I’m concerned this is a matter of principle.”

‘Thank goodness Boris Johnson was not prime minister at the time of the Good Friday agreement’

Labour MP Sarah Jones spoke out against Boris Johnson’s plans to breach the Northern Ireland protocol of the Withdrawal Agreement during an appearance on the BBC’s Politics Live.

Disputing the prime minister’s claim that he aims to protect the Good Friday Agreement, the Croydon Central MP said: “Every interview I have seen with the Irish government says: They didn’t know this was coming … they think it’s damaging trust, they think it’s damaging their ability to protect the Good Friday Agreement.”

“We reached the Good Friday Agreement because of years of building trust, building relationships; not offending people, not blindsiding them, not doing things that they didn’t see coming.

She added: “Thank goodness Boris Johnson wasn’t prime minister at the time of the Good Friday agreement because he’s managed to upset Northern Ireland, he’s managed to upset every EU nation, he’s managed to upset America.

“Why does this matter fundamentally? Because we need a deal.”

No10 ‘concession’ on Internal Market Bill

The government has issued a new statement on the UK Internal Market Bill in an attempt to quell the Tory rebellion by promising to seek a “formal dispute settlement” with the EU over the withdrawal agreement.

It claims the controversial parts of the UK Internal Market Bill will used “only in the case of, in our view, the EU being engaged in a material breach of its duties of good faith or other obligations, and thereby undermining the fundamental purpose of the Northern Ireland Protocol.”

These include: the EU refusing to grant third country listing to UK agricultural goods for “manifestly unreasonable or poorly justified reasons”, an “insistence that the EU’s state aid provisions should apply in GB in circumstances when there is no link or only a trivial one to commercial operations taking place”,  an insistence that GB-NI tariffs and related provision should be “charged in ways that are not related to the real risk of goods entering the EU single market”, or an insistence on export declarations for NI goods going to GB.

The UK government says it will also activate “appropriate formal dispute settlement mechanisms” at the same time – which raises the question of why the Bill is necessary at all, other than a crude attempt to gain more leverage over the EU.

Boris Johnson seeks to reassure Biden over Brexit strategy

Downing Street has insisted that its threat to override the Brexit withdrawal agreement will not undermine the peace process in Northern Ireland, after US presidential favourite Joe Biden warned that a future trade accord is off the table if Westminster does not respect the Good Friday Agreement.

“We continue to remain absolutely committed to no hard border and no border infrastructure between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland,” a Number 10 spokesman said.

“And we will continue to engage with our US partners on a bipartisan basis to ensure that our positions are understood.”

Asked if Mr Biden was wrong, the spokesman said: “We will continue to work with our US partners to ensure our position is understood, but the whole point of this – as the PM has set out – is to make sure the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement is upheld.”

Brexiteer anger at Joe Biden

Former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith has told Joe Biden to focus on a “peace deal in the USA to stop the killing and rioting” instead of criticising Brexit.

Last night US presidential candidate tweeted: “We can’t allow the Good Friday agreement that brought peace to Northern Ireland to become a casualty of Brexit. Any trade deal between the U.S. and U.K. must be contingent upon respect for the Agreement and preventing the return of a hard border. Period.”

Brexiteers have responded furiously to the intervention, with Mr Duncan Smith telling the Times:  “We don’t need lectures on the Northern Ireland peace deal from Mr Biden. If I were him I would worry more about the need for a peace deal in the USA to stop the killing and rioting before lecturing other sovereign nations.”

EU position on Brexit Bill ‘not changed’ despite compromise

The European Union has not backed down from its demand for the UK government to drop plans to override key sections of the Withdrawal Agreement despite Boris Johnson’s compromise with Tory rebels yesterday.

Eric Mamer, spokesperson for the European Commission, was asked during a briefing whether the government’s compromise had altered the EU’s stance.

 He replied: “We have as you know set out a position extremely clearly, it is in our statement, and it relates to those clauses being withdrawn from the law.

“That position has not changed and we have asked the UK to do this at the earliest possible convenience and by the end of September at the latest. That has not changed.”

Guy Verhofstadt, who was the EU’s chief negotiator during Brexit deal talks, has said the UK government’s Internal Market Bill remains in breach of international law depsite proposed changes:

Brussels hits back at Johnson’s “good faith” remarks

The European Union negotiates in “perfectly good faith”, a Brussels spokesperson insisted this morning after Boris Johnson claimed otherwise.

The prime minister told MPs he did not believe the EU was acting in good faith during negotiations for post-Brexit relations, but Eric Mamer, spokesperson for the European Commission, today pointed to the EU’s long track record for international negotiations, which he said was “rather splendid”.

Mr Mamer said: “We have a habit of not commenting on comments by third parties but what I can say more generally is that I can point to our hundreds — literally hundreds — of international agreements signed with very, very different third parties of all kinds.

“And I think that they testify to — as I think you say in English — a rather splendid track record when it comes to carrying out negotiations in good faith, and indeed even concluding them.

“So what I would simply do is ask you to go and talk to those third parties with whom we have signed these agreements and further they will testify to the quality of our negotiation.

“And I think that Michel Barnier showed in the context of the negotiations on the Withdrawal Agreement that even on extremely complex and politically sensitive issues the Commission and indeed the EU negotiate in perfectly good faith.”