Budget news – live: Secure recovery before raising taxes, Labour warns Sunak as trust in Boris Johnson falls

The post-Brexit replacement for the European Arrest Warrant (EAW) is facing multiple legal challenges, Police Scotland has said. Brexit has left forces with “suboptimal measures” for dealing with crime across the continent, MSPs have been told.

Holyrood’s policing committee heard that the legality of the fast-track arrangement introduced to replace the EAW is now facing challenges in the courts.

Police Scotland deputy chief constable Will Kerr told MSPs: “There’s a number of ongoing legal challenges to the UK in respect of extradition and the European Arrest Warrant, they will take some time to resolve.”

He explained that the replacement system retained “mandated time limits for surrender” to return suspects to Scotland quickly and an executive power of arrest for warrants issued from the start of January.

Boris Johnson said he was “absolutely confident” that the Budget would “build on everything we have done to look after the businesses” and paves the way for a “strong, jobs-led recovery”.

During a visit to Stoke-on-Trent on Monday morning, the PM also insisted the UK has “one of the toughest border regimes anywhere in the world” despite the Brazilian coronavirus strain being detected.

Among his other interesting remarks to reporters, Johnson claimed the government “moved as fast as we could” to launch its quarantine hotel policy – despite criticism from Labour he has been too slow.

Shadow chancellor Anneliese Dodds said now is “not the time” for tax rises, but signalled that she could support an increase in corporation tax in the future.

It comes amid a split in the party over the mooted plan, after reports suggested the chancellor is considering hiking corporation tax to as much as 25 per cent from 19 per cent.

Some Labour MPs have arguing for a hike since it’s a progressive tax. Ms Dodds said that over the last 10 years Conservative-led governments have “pulled the UK further and further away from the average corporation tax level of OECD nations”.

But she added: “Should the chancellor be focused on particularly imposing additional tax rises right now? … Now is not the time for immediate tax rises – it is the time for a chancellor focused on jobs and securing our recovery.”

Michel Barnier – who is finally stepping down as the EU Commission’s head of task force for relations with the UK – has thanked his Brexit negotiating team.

“Each and every person was outstanding,” he tweeted. “Today is the 1st day of the rest of our lives.”

A controversial decision to halt work on permanent inspection posts for Brexit port checks in Northern Ireland is a matter for the devolved administration, No 10 said.

On Friday, DUP agriculture minister Gordon Lyons ordered officials to stop work on new permanent border control posts at ports in Belfast and Larne.

Opposition parties accused the minister of a political “stunt”, adding he did not have the authority to stop full implementation of the checks.

The prime minister’s official spokesman said: “That is a matter for the Northern Ireland executive and we obviously remain in close contact with them.

“Goods, including food, continue to flow through ports in Northern Ireland with the existing, interim agri-foods facilities in place.”

Asked whether halting work would be a breach of the Northern Ireland protocol, agreed between the UK and the European Union, the spokesman again said it was a matter for the devolved executive.

“We will obviously will continue to liaise and speak to them.”

Boris Johnson has said the government is determined to crack down on people traffickers smuggling migrants across the English Channel.

Speaking on a visit to Stoke-on-Trent, the PM said: “It is outrageous that the gangsters, the people smugglers, these thugs, are still putting people’s lives at risks in the way that they are, taking money to help people cross the Channel in unseaworthy vessels, risking their lives.

“What we are going to do is to absolutely, ruthlessly stiffen the sentences for anybody who is involved in this kind of people smuggling and trafficking human beings across the Channel.”

Home secretary Priti Patel wants to upgrade the maximum term for people smugglers to increase the average length of sentences of those found guilty.

The latest piece on Britain’s Brexit by The New York Times focuses on the bad blood created by last month’s row over vaccines.

Mujtaba Rahman, an analyst at the Eurasia Group, is among the experts telling the US newspaper that No 10 appears stuck in old habits of antagonism – despite significant trade disruption.

“Brexit is the gift that keeps giving for the Johnson government,” he said. “In Europe, there is this sense that the UK keeps trying to score points. The risk is that the Europeans will feel the need to smack back.”

Timothy Bale, a professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London adds: “Why not kick the EU when it’s down? That’s long been a reflex for this government, and it is very hard to get out of this reflex.”

Labour’s shadow chancellor Anneliese Dodds has been asked about the party’s approach to Brexit at a Q&A session after her speech at Bloomberg.

“Would we would be seeking to immediately renegotiate this deal? No, we’ve got to make the current deal work,” she said. Dodds said she did not want to be “blasé about the challenges around customs that we face at all”.

She added: “I’ve time and time again highlighted the enormous gulf where the government have said we would be around the number of customs agents and customs officials, compared to where we are right now.

“Businesses have faced so much uncertainty because of coronavirus, they shouldn’t have to be facing this current degree of uncertainty because of the government’s lack of preparedness around Brexit as well.”

Labour’s new Scottish leader has challenged Keir Starmer to end his silence on Brexit and campaign for “greater alignment” with the EU.

Anas Sarwar became the first senior party figure to push for what would be a renegotiation of the threadbare trade deal negotiated by Boris Johnson.

“I support the EU, I want us to have as close a relationship with the EU as possible,” Sarwar told The Guardian. “I have been advocating for us to have greater alignment around the single market and customs union ever since the UK voted to leave the union.”

He also described Scottish independence as “an amplifier” of economic problems – “a multiplier of the negatives of Brexit.”

Rishi Sunak will answer questions from both the public and media on Wednesday afternoon following his big statement – claiming it to be a “Budget first”. The event will take place at 5pm on Wednesday.