Boris Johnson has warned that post-Brexit trade complications with Northern Ireland “can’t go on forever”, as his government considers whether to override parts of its agreement with the EU.
Speaking from New York on Monday, the prime minister said he was not trying to “stoke” the situation up for “political purposes”, insisting he just wanted “common sense” to prevail.
Critics, however, suggest that his government signed up to an agreement it knew would cause trade friction between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
Meanwhile, Mr Johnson has admitted the energy crisis could last for months, as ministers scramble to protect businesses and consumers from a sharp increase in gas prices, brought about by a surge in global demand and a shortage of wind power in the UK this summer.
Business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng will meet gas industry bosses on Monday to discuss the issue, after wholesale costs spiked 70 per cent in August alone. Four energy firms have gone bust in recent days, with others warning they could follow suit.
PM rebukes world leaders over climate crisis
Boris Johnson has rebuked other world leaders over their climate change record.
Co-chairing a discussion at the UN General Assembly, the prime minister said: “It is the biggest economies in the world that are causing the problem, while the smallest suffer the worst consequences.
“And while progress is being made all over the world, the gulf between what has been promised, what is actually being delivered, and what needs to happen… it remains vast.
“Too many major economies – some represented here today, some absent – are lagging too far behind.”
Mr Johnson is expected to put pressure on the Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro – a climate change sceptic – during a meeting later on Monday.
Sinn Fein criticises DUP over protocol threat
Sinn Fein has criticised the DUP for threatening to withdraw ministers from the executive unless Westminister acts over the Northern Ireland protocol.
Deputy first minister Michelle O’Neill called the move “reckless” and “irresponsible”, adding that the pandemic and the health service is currently the population’s top priority.
“It’s about ensuring that we prioritise the one billion in peace funding that we can have to distribute across communities here,” she said.
“So I think that it is totally irresponsible and reckless given the high stakes that are involved that the DUP is threatening to pull down the institutions whenever all the rest of the executive parties are here to do business and actually serve the public.”
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Climate campaigners damaging their own cause, claims PM
Boris Johnson has claimed environmental activists damage their own cause by repeatedly blocking motorways and other roads.
The prime minister spoke as 41 people were arrested in the latest Insulate Britain protests on Monday morning, which affected motorways and other major transport links.
He said: “I don’t think these people do any favours to their cause.
“I think what they do is detract from a very important moral mission that is widely shared by the people of this country.”
Ministers attempt to reassure public over winter gas supply and price cap
The government has tried to reassure the public about winter gas supply, as it insisted energy price cap would remain in force.
Speaking of the cap, a No 10 spokesperson said: “It’s in place to protect people’s energy bills.
“That’s what it does, that’s what it has done, and as I say, it’ll continue to do so.”
Farmers may have to slaughter pigs due to lack of feed, expert warns
Farmers might have to kill their own animals due to a shortage of space and feed, the chairman of the National Pig Association (NPA) has warned.
Rob Mutimer told the PA news agency: “If the situation doesn’t change, it’s going to spiral completely out of control.
“And the only end game there is we as farmers are going to end up slaughtering our livestock – not for the food chain but to put them into rendering, to dispose of carcasses like what happened in foot and mouth.
“And that’s a terrible situation to be in.”
France ‘remains a close ally’, No 10 insists
France is still “a close ally and friend” of the UK despite the recent diplomatic fallout, No 10 has insisted.
Tensions between the countries grew after Australia ditched a submarine deal with France in favour of an agreement with the US and the UK.
The British governmeny has insisted the Aukus deal was “in no way intended to be exclusionary”.
Speaking on Monday, a Downing Street spokesperson said: “France remains a close ally and friend of the UK, and we are proud of the relationship we have with France.
“We will continue to work closely with them. We work extremely closely in many areas – Mali being a good example, on counter-terrorism operations and in many other areas, and that work will obviously continue.”
Post-Brexit trade issues with Northern Ireland ‘can’t go on forever’, says PM
The prime minister has said that post-Brexit trade complications with Northern Ireland “can’t go on forever”.
Speaking from New York, Boris Johnson said: “I hope everybody knows this isn’t something that the UK government is trying to stoke up for our own political purposes.
“On the contrary, we want to fix this, we want common sense. We want no barriers in the UK for trading in our country and it’s crazy at the moment that we’ve got the protocol being enforced or being used in the way that it is.”
Critics, however, suggest that his government knew full well that the Brexit agreement it signed would lead to trade friction between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
Mr Johnson’s latest comments on Brexit come the day before he meets US president Joe Biden, who has been clear that the British government should do nothing to imperil peace in Northern Ireland.
Kwasi Kwarteng, the business secretary, will update the House of Commons on the energy crisis around 3.30pm.
Universal Credit cut will go ahead despite rising energy bills
The government is not considering a delay to the £20 a week cut to Universal Credit despite the additional cost households will bear from rising energy bills.
Downing Street said the “uplift to Universal Credit was always temporary” and was designed to “help claimants through the economic shock and the toughest period of the pandemic”.
The end of the uplift is set for 6 October.
