Brexit news – live: Further delays to import checks announced as PM scrambles for Biden support over protocol

The government has come under renewed pressure to introduce a visa-waiver agreement to help UK musicians tour Europe.

Tory former Cabinet minister Lord Hunt of Wirral said the issue could and should have been resolved by now.

At question time the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport minister Baroness Barran assured the Lords the government would continue to try to “streamline” musicians’ ability to tour within the EU.

Lord Hunt said it was “self-evidently in the interests of all concerned that frictionless visa-free arrangements” were in place.

Lady Barran said the government remained disappointed that the deal it proposed for touring performers was not agreed by the EU.

“We understand the concerns of the sector and we are working at pace to address them so that touring can resume as soon as it is safe to do so,” she added.

Labour’s Lord Wood of Anfield said UK musicians faced an “impossible, overwhelming array of obstacles” and the vast majority of them considered a visa-waiver agreement was the “only sustainable solution”.

Independent crossbencher the Earl of Clancarty said the performing arts were “as one in asking for a bespoke visa-waiver agreement as a matter of urgency”.

He said such an agreement need not cross the Government’s red lines on free movement.

The UK has announced further delays to post-Brexit import controls, despite warnings the move will be a boon for tax cheats and smugglers.

Full controls on animal products were due to be enforced next month and other customs declarations introduced in July, having been shelved from January to ease pressures at the border.

But Michael Gove has now delayed them until October and next January respectively – blaming Covid-19, which has led to “greater” disruption” than expected.

Deputy politics editor Rob Merrick will have more on this story as it develops:

A Stormont minister has been challenged on why he and some of his officials were at odds on whether the import of cricket pitch clay is banned under the Northern Ireland Protocol.

Agriculture Minister Edwin Poots issued a statement on Wednesday night insisting the material known as loam was not prohibited under the terms of the new Irish Sea trade arrangements.

Thursday’s Assembly Agriculture committee hearing was told that Mr Poots’ statement contradicted advice previously issued by his department.

Offering an explanation, Mr Poots told the committee a departmental official may have provided an “initial position” but he said his department had now reached a different view on the status of loam.

Loam is usually imported into Northern Ireland from three counties in England.

It help stabilise cricket wickets, giving the ball a predictable bounce.

Ulster Unionist committee member Rosemary Barton told Mr Poots recent emails sent by officials stated the import of loam was “currently prohibited” under EU rules.

Cricketing figures within Northern Ireland had raised concerns following that advice, warning that pitches used for generations might have to be dug up and replaced.

“There has been confusion,” Mrs Barton told Mr Poots.

“Earlier in the week some of the Daera (Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs) officials said ‘I regret to inform you that importation of these products from Great Britain, as a third country, to Northern Ireland is currently prohibited’.

“Yet the minister yesterday put out a statement saying that this was not the case, that it was fine to import the loam?”

She added: “I’m not saying your statement’s wrong but is there an issue or is there confusion? Could you clarify it please.”

“A week after his Budget, it’s increasingly clear that Rishi Sunak has to climb a mountain of unfinished business that is now emerging through the fog of figures,” writes Andrew Grice. “Ministers admit privately the chancellor put off tackling the huge pressures on day-to-day public services until his government-wide spending review in the autumn.”

Sir Keir Starmer has said the allegations made by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex in their Oprah interview were a “matter now for the [royal] family” to resolve.

The Labour leader said earlier this week that Meghan and Harry’s claims of racism and lack of support when she had suicidal thoughts must be taken “very, very seriously”.

Buckingham Palace responded by saying race and mental health claims would be “taken seriously” and addressed privately. Prince William said on Thursday that the royals were “very much not a racist family”.

Adam Forrest has the story:

Downing Street today said that the Government was working with “law enforcement agencies, charities, women’s group” to develop a strategy to ensure women’s safety.

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman told a Westminster briefing: “(The Prime Minister) said he was shocked and deeply saddened by the developments in the Sarah Everard investigation.

Asked what practical steps the Government is taking now, the spokesman referred to the violence against women and girls strategy.

“That will help us better target perpetrators and support victims of these crimes and increase our ability to tackle new and emerging forms of violence against women and girls, such as upskirting and revenge porn,” he added.

“The Prime Minister said previously it remains his intent to ensure that we work to reduce crime across the country.”

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer told Mr Johnson to fix the “blind spot” on LGBT issues and said he would “absolutely” ban conversion therapy.

He said: “The Government has clearly got a blind spot here. It’s got a problem and the Prime Minister needs to address it, not least because it’s a pattern of behaviour.”

Sir Keir said he also supported a ban conversion therapy by law, adding: “It’s abhorrent and we’re 100% against it.”

It comes after two government’s LGBT advisers have quit their posts and criticised Equalities ministers Liz Truss and Kemi Badenoch.

Sir Keir Starmer today launched Labour’s local election campaign but refused to be drawn on if the party will make any gains at May’s elections, suggesting Covid-19 could cost the party votes.

“They’re going to be tough, these elections,” the Labour leader said, “we are in a pandemic and we are constrained in the way we can campaign.”

The Independent’s deputy political editor Rob Merrick has all the details

The European Union’s ambassador to the UK has called on London and Brussels to “give up on trying to score points” and ensure there is trust between both sides.

Joao Vale de Almeida told a Westminster briefing that he wanted there to be the “best possible relationship” between Britain and the EU post-Brexit amid disputes over trade arrangements.

He said the UK and EU had a “special relationship” as he called for the two sides to focus on making the agreements already reached work.

BBC presenter Emily Maitlis clashed with the DUP’s Brexit spokesman Sammy Wilson after telling him his party’s position on the Northern Ireland protocol was “extraordinary”.

The Newsnight host challenged the unionist MP on whether his complaints about trading disruption resulting from an Irish Sea border was “a bit rich”, given the DUP’s insistence on a hard Brexit.

The unionist party – which gave the Tories a nominal majority in the Commons between 2017 and 2019 – remained staunch objectors to the idea of the UK leaving the EU but staying part of a customs union.

Adam Forrest has more on this story:

Keir Starmer is putting the row over nurses’ pay at the centre of his campaign for elections in May, declaring that Labour would “give our key workers a proper pay rise”.

The Labour leader clashed with Boris Johnson in the House of Commons on Wednesday over the government’s 1 per cent offer to nurses after a year in which they have been on the frontline in the battle with Covid-19.

Launching his party’s campaign for the Scottish and Welsh parliamentary elections on Thursday, he will contrast the offer with the 40 per cent increase given to Dominic Cummings shortly before he resigned as Mr Johnson’s chief Downing Street adviser.

Politics editor Andrew Woodcock has the full story:

The government’s unilateral move to extend grace periods in Northern Ireland “just kicks the can down the road”, DUP agriculture Edwin Poots has said, as he called for a “reality check” on post-Brexit trading arrangements.

Mr Poots claimed checks on agri-foods entering NI from GB are unsustainable in the long-run, adding that moving vets from other food safety work would undermine Northern Ireland’s reputation for food standards and providence.

Addressing the Committee for Agriculture, Enviornment and Rural Affairs, he said: “So we do need a reality check on all of this. I welcome the extension of the grace period. “

He added: “But that, to some extent, just kicks the can down the road. We need people to be realistic about this. You know you were told last week that Northern Ireland would have as many checks as the rest of the EU put together. How can that be a sensible or a rational place?”

Mr Poots also suggested political rivals who had called for the “full implementation” of the protocol should apologise to the people of Northern Ireland.

“The consequence of that rigorous implementation of the protocol is a massive number of people involved in checks, additional cost to the industry, additional cost to consumer, damage to trading relationships that exist and significant consequences for business and the consumer in Northern Ireland,” he said.

“And perhaps those who were calling for the rigorous implementation would like to apologise to the Northern Ireland public and indeed send a message to the European Union that they no longer want rigorous implementation because they have seen what it’s like and rigorous implementation is going to wreck our economy if we don’t address this issue.”

The Conservatives’ London mayoral candidate Shaun Bailey can “absolutely” still run for office despite a controversial tweet relating to the ongoing Sarah Everard case, a government minister has said.

The Tory candidate was accused of an “utterly grotesque” attempt to politicise her disappearance after he tweeted that “it doesn’t have to be this way” and vowed to “deliver for the safety of women” if he wins.

Adam Forrest has the story:

Boris Johnson was prepared to cut Northern Ireland loose over Brexit, a former Theresa May aide has claimed while accepting there was a “collective failure” within government to fully understand the implications leaving the EU had for the region.

Denzil Davidson, who advised Ms May on Europe from 2016-2019, said the government only began to fully grasp Brexit’s consequences for NI in 2017, months after the referendum had already taken place.

In an interview with the UK In a Changing Europe think tank, Mr Davidoson said: “We had a kind of collective failure in government at the time properly to understand the implications for Northern Ireland, for which I must share the guilt.”

When asked if he was surprised by what Mr Johnson eventually agreed to, he said: “Kind of yes and no.

“Because I personally am a patriotic unionist, I had wrongly hoped that genuine unionist commitments were held more widely in the Conservative Party than they now are.”

He added: “But no, because I knew that Northern Ireland was not a priority for him, and that he was willing to cut them loose. I was surprised that the Conservative Party accepted what he agreed to so readily.”

Irish foreign affairs minister Simon Coveney has said politics is “very strained” in Northern Ireland as he called on the EU and the UK to find “collective” solutions to the protocol.

Mr Coveney criticised the UK’s decision last week to “unilaterally” act on extending grace periods on post-Brexit trading checks.

He added that it is his job to “ensure that what has been agreed” in the Brexit divorce deal is fully implemented.

He told Irish broadcaster RTE: “The truth is that politics is very strained in Northern Ireland because of perceptions around the protocol and its implementation.

“Of course, the EU has been considering and will consider further if flexibilities need to be accommodated, if there are genuine problems in terms of implementation, how we solve them.”

He added: “But that has got to be done collectively between the EU and the UK.

“We cannot move forward on the basis of one side just deciding unilaterally ‘Well, this is what must be done and we can’t wait for the other sides to agree with us’, and that’s essentially what the British government has done.”

“Of course the UK media industry is racist,” writes race correspondent Nadine White. “This is well established and yet those of us who are cognisant of the problem were gaslighted this week by the Society of Editors, one of the most powerful organisations in the industry.”

The government is giving private contractors profiting from the beleaguered test-and-trace programme and other areas of the pandemic tailored advice on how to win honours.

Serco, Capita, Deloitte, and Amazon are amongst firms that have been written to by civil servants urging them to apply for gongs like knighthoods and MBEs.

Sarah Munby, the permanent secretary at the government’s business department, wrote to the companies asking them “to submit honours nominations” on behalf of their organisations.

Policy correspondent Jon Stone has more details:

Brussels could initiate legal action against the UK this week over the government’s decision to unilaterally extend the grace period for fully implementing the Brexit agreement.

The action comes after Marcos Sefcovic, the vice president of the European Commission, said the UK’s move would be a “violation” of the Northern Ireland Protocol and he threatened to respond to the developments with “legal means”.

Politics correspondent Ashley Cowburn has the full story:

The EU is refusing to back down on its threat to launch legal proceedings against the UK after it unilaterally extended grace periods in Northern Ireland.

Joao Vale de Almeida, the EU’s ambassador to the UK, told ITV’s Peston programme last night the bloc would “move forward” in the coming days.

A senior official from the Northern Ireland office is being sent to the US in a bid to win support from the Biden administration amid a deepening row between the UK and the EK over the protocol.

Reports say the official will be tasked with forging stronger links with Irish Americans in particular, who have previously expressed concerns about the Good Friday peace deal post-Brexit.

President Biden has previously warned the UK that a breach of the accord could have consequences for any future trade deal between the two countries.