Brexit news – live: Boris Johnson attacking ‘rule of law’, say lawyers as Keir Starmer warns of job losses

Covid test centre shut down to make way for Brexit lorry park

A coronavirus testing centre in Kent has been shut down in order to allow preparations for a lorry park to deal with queues expected after the Brexit transition period ends.

The land by Ebbsfleet international railway station is understood to be earmarked as one of a number of inland facilities being prepared to handle delays for hauliers caused by Brexit. 

Planning permission was granted to the site in September 2019 but works were put on hold when the coronavirus pandemic hit and the car park was employed as a testing site.

Here’s our political editor Andrew Woodcock with more:

Latest government approval figures out

The latest YouGov polling data shows 51 per cent of people disapprove of the government, up by 1 per cent on last week’s figure.

The data, recorded up to 14 September, shows no change in the percentage of people saying they approve of the government (30 per cent). 

Outlaw ‘fire-and-rehire’ tactics, says Starmer

Sir Keir Starmer has called for the “fire-and-rehire tactics” used by some employers during the pandemic to be outlawed.

Addressing the Trades Union Congress conference, the Labour leader said firing and rehiring — when people are made redundant before being hired back on worse pay — was “against British values”.

The practice should be illegal, Sir Keir said, adding: “These tactics punish good employers, hit working people hard and harm our economy.”

 He made specific reference to the use of the tactic by companies including British Airways and British Gas, both of which have been criticised for their treatment of workers during the pandemic. 

“So, I’m calling on the Government to act now – introduce legislation to end fire and rehire,” Sir Keir said.

No 10 warns peers not to block Brexit Bill

Downing Street has issued a warning to peers not to attempt to block the Internal Market Bill, which passed its first vote in the House of Commons yesterday.

“We would expect the Lords to abide by the Salisbury Convention,” a Downing Street spokesperson said, referring to a tradition whereby peers do not oppose government legislation set out in its manifesto at second or third reading. 

“Guaranteeing the full economic benefit of leaving the EU to all parts of the United Kingdom and ensuring Northern Ireland’s businesses and producers enjoy unfettered access to the rest of the UK were clear Conservative manifesto commitments which this legislation delivers.”

The 2019 Conservative manifesto states:  “Northern Ireland will enjoy the full economic benefits of Brexit including new free trade agreements with the rest of the world. We will ensure that Northern Ireland’s businesses and producers enjoy unfettered access to the rest of the UK and that in the implementation of our Brexit deal, we maintain and strengthen the integrity and smooth operation of our internal market.”

No social care plan this year, minister admits

The government’s long-awaited and much-promised social care plan is set to be delayed until next year, peers have heard.

Lord Bethell, the health and social care minister, said he could not commit to a plan before the end of 2020.

At question time in the Lords, he said it would require a “huge amount of political collaboration” and was likely to take longer.

The minister was replying to Labour’s Baroness Thornton who asked him to commit to publishing a plan for the future funding and provision of social care by the end of this year “as the Prime Minister promised in January”.

She also called for a clear social care winter plan to ensure no one with Covid-19 was discharged from a hospital into a care home “to prevent a repeat of the terrible impact this had in the first months of this crisis”.

Lord Bethell said: “I cannot commit to a social care plan before the end of the year. This is something that will require a huge amount of political collaboration and I suspect it will take longer than the next few months.”

If you’d like a reminder about how the promises of a social care plan have panned out, here is a story from March:

Hancock pressured over ‘rule of six’ and children

Chris Grayling has called on the government to make the “rule of six” “fair” for families.

The Conservative former cabinet minister told MPs: “If you are lucky or unlucky enough to have four very young children, under these rules you’re not actually allowed to meet another household at all.

“And I do hope that the government will keep the rules under careful review and to look at every way possible of making them as fair as possible for every family.”

Matt Hancock replied: “Yes, I do understand, I do understand the point that [Mr Grayling] is making and we do understand the impact that these rules that we have to put in place have.

“It is the same around the world that the rules that needed to be put in place to deal with the pandemic are not pleasant ones or ones that anybody would want to have enforced, but they are unfortunately necessary to save lives.”

And Huw Merriman, another Conservative, told the Commons: “Many of my constituents are struggling to understand why they can play five-a-side football but two connected families of five each cannot meet.

“Can I ask the secretary of state whether he will look at flexibility when local rates permit and also excluding under 12s? Christmas is just around the corner, I know he has to think about the health of the nation but I really would urge some flexibility on the part of the government.”

The health secretary said children did transmit Covid-19 and that the rule in place was “as simple as possible” considering the risks, adding: “We do take an approach that’s different in different areas according to the extent of cases locally and that’s a very important part of one of the tools in our armoury.”

Average travel distance for Covid-19 test has fallen, says Hancock

The average distance travelled for a coronavirus test has fallen to 5.8 miles from 6.4 miles last week, Matt Hancock has said.

Test shortage ‘to last for weeks’

The shortage of coronavirus tests hitting outbreak hotspots across the UK is likely to last for “weeks” the health secretary has admitted.

Matt Hancock was responding to an urgent question in parliament on Tuesday, amid reports of people are being told to travel to the other side of the country to get checked.

Breaking news: Disgraced former Tory MP jailed after sexual assault convictions

Disgraced ex-Conservative MP Charlie Elphicke has been given a two year jail sentence after he was convicted of three sexual assaults on two younger women.

The 49-year-old who declared himself a “naughty Tory” was found to have chased his first victim around his family home moments after groping her.

Follow the breaking story here:

Breaching Withdrawal Agreement is ‘serious error’, says former foreign secretary

Joining the ranks of Tory opposition to Boris Johnson’s Brexit Bill is William Hague, former foreign secretary and one-time party leader, who writes in his Daily Telegraph column that breaching the Withdrawal Agreement with the European Union would be a “serious foreign policy error”.

Lord Hague, who served as foreign secretary befrom 2010-14, said the Bill will have “a lasting and damaging effect on our international reputation and standing, diminishing our ability to exert our influence and protect our interests”.

Drawing from his own experience in international relations, Lord Hague said: “In the four years I spent at the Foreign Office, I doubt there was a single day that I did not rely on international law – the body of treaties, conventions and agreements that we and other nations have signed over the years – in some shape or form”

He went on to make an apparent reference to Theresa Villiers claim that  international law is a “political construct” that is violated as a matter of routine, saying: “International law is not some abstract concept that only comes up occasionally. It matters to British people every hour of every day. 

“It happens to be massively in the interests of the United Kingdom to be a strong upholder of binding international rules. We are a country particularly exposed to risk around the world, with the greatest financial centre on earth, large trade flows and citizens who like to travel a great deal.”

With Lord Hague’s intervention, every living former Conservative leader bar Iain Duncan Smith has now spoken out against the government’s plans.