Budget 2021 – live: Universal Credit uplift ‘must be extended further’ as loyalists walk away from Good Friday

Boris Johnson has asked anyone over-80 who has been vaccinated to abide by the coronavirus restrictions.

The plea comes after an Office for National Statistics survey found that more than 40 per cent of this group have met someone outside their household or bubble.

Tim Wyatt and Andrew Woodcock report:

Labour has urged Boris Johnson to “take responsibility” and find “lasting solutions” that make the Northern Ireland protocol work.

Shadow Northern Ireland secretary Louise Haigh tweeted that the prime minister must lower the tension and stop “provoking instability”.

“It is time to lead. He should convene talks with all parties to the Protocol, and the political parties in NI,” she added.

Both Brussels and Dublin were informed that the UK would unilaterally extend post-Brexit grace periods, Downing Street has said.

A No 10 spokesperson said the European Commission was notified earlier this week.

They added: “We also informed the Irish government earlier this week and then Lord Frost last night in his call to (European Commission vice-president Maros) Sefcovic obviously discussed this at length and set out the rationale and the reasons for it.”

The US has agreed to halt all retaliatory tariffs on UK exports for four months.

The duties came into force under the Trump administration over a trade conflict on aerospace tariffs.

International trade secretary Liz Truss said she was “delighted” by the development, while Boris Johnson hailed the “fantastic news”.

The decision means that the current 25 per cent tariff rate on Scotch whisky will drop to 0 per cent.

The EU has shelved plans to approve the Brexit deal because it believes the UK has “violated” the agreement.

The decision comes after the UK said it would extend grace periods for Irish Sea border checks to help British businesses.

“The conference of presidents this morning decided not to agree a date to ratify the TCA, pending developments yesterday,” one EU source told The Independent.

Michael Gove’s name, address and a threatening message against him have been spray painted on a wall in a traditionally loyalist area of Belfast amid rising anger over Brexit’s Northern Ireland protocol.

The Cabinet Office minister’s details were scrawled on hoarding in the Sandy Row area of the city, along with the message: “We don’t forget, we don’t forgive.”

Loyalists have been staunchly opposed to the protocol, arguing that it created trade barriers between NI and the rest of Great Britain, therefore threatening the province’s constitutional status within the UK.

My colleague Matt Mathers has the full story:

The Loyalist Communities Council (LCC), which represents the views of outlawed groups including the UVF, UDA and Red Hand Commandos, have written to Boris Johnson to inform him that they are temporarily withdrawing their support from the Good Friday accord.

The decision was made to protest at Brexit’s Irish Sea border. The group called on the prime minister to scrap the NI protocol.

Matt Mathers reports:

The prime minister has said that “goodwill and common sense” would help to solve the problems around post-Brexit trade in Northern Ireland.

Boris Johnson was asked what he made of the Loyalist Communities Council (LCC) umbrella group saying it had written to him to tell him the main loyalist paramilitary groups were withdrawing support for the Good Friday agreement.

He told reported at Teesport, Middlesbrough: “I haven’t seen which groups you’re talking about.

“But what I can say is we are taking some temporary and technical measures to ensure that there are no barriers in the Irish Sea, to make sure things flow freely between GB and NI and that’s what you would expect.

“Obviously these are matters for continuing intensive discussions with our friends.

“I’m sure with a bit of good will and common sense all these technical problems are eminently solvable.”

Record-breaking numbers of people in Wales are in favour of independence, a new poll suggests.

Conducted for ITV News Tonight by Savanta ComRes, the new survey found just under 40 per cent of Welsh citizens to be in favour of separating from the UK, representing the highest levels of support for Welsh independence ever recorded.

My colleague Chantal da Silva has more on this story:

Labour has demanded that the environment secretary, George Eustice, apologise for pushing fishing businesses to the brink of “collapse” because of the Brexit deal.

Tory backbenchers have also pressed him to ease the additional red tape facing UK fishers.

Speaking in the Commons, shadow environment secretary Luke Pollard said: “Fishing boats are tied up, fish exporters are tied up with red tape.

“Fishing was promised a sea of opportunity but the reality is many fishing businesses are on the verge of collapse. Much of the so-called extra fish may not even exist or be able to be caught by British boats.

“The fishing industry feels betrayed. Isn’t now the time for the Secretary of State to apologise to the fishing industry for the Brexit deal his Government negotiated?”

Mr Eustice replied: “I’ve made clear all along that the Government had hoped to get closer to a zonal attachment sharing arrangement in that first multi-annual agreement, but there is a significant uplift of 25% of the fish that the EU has historically caught in our waters that they’ve been required to forfeit as the price for continued access.

“That additional fishing quota is worth £140 million.”

But Mr Pollard added: “There was no apology, no sense of reality from the Secretary of State. He can’t wriggle out of this one, the net is closing in on him.

“The reality is that fishing has lost trust and confidence in the actions of Defra for all the broken promises.”

Mr Eustice defended the Government’s deal on fishing and said there had been some new “administrative processes” in place which had proved “challenging” for the sector in January, with a support fund put in place.