Boris Johnson news – live: Brexit talks paused as EU official catches Covid, while PM boosts military spending

Brexit trade talks have had to be suspended at a crucial moment after a member of the EU negotiating team tested positive for Covid-19.

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One of the EU’s negotiating team has tested positive for the virus, Michel Barnier has confirmed.

Fish and chip shops could face supply shortages and even lose thousands of jobs if the UK does not secure a new fishing deal with Greenland as well as the EU, the industry has warned.  

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The defence secretary has said he is “delighted” at the £16.5bn funding boost.

Here’s Ben Wallance on today’s big announcement:

A Tory peer says the defence review was “great”  – but said the question of whether the government could afford it was “a massive one”. 

“From what I can see, we can hardly afford anything at the moment. We’re practically bust,” Ed Vaizey said. 

Jeremy Hunt, a former Tory foreign secretary, urged Boris Johnson not to listen to those who might suggest cutting the UK’s aid commitment in order to fund defence spending.

He told the Commons: “Prime Minister, this is a fantastic announcement. He will remember last year that in the leadership campaign I said we should be moving towards 3 per cent of our GDP on our defence, so we think exactly the same on this.

“But could I urge him not to listen to any voices in his ear that say the way to fund this may be a temporary cut in the 0.7% aid commitment. 

“We spent a decade winning the argument for that, and even a temporary cut will create an enormous clamour of people who say we should not go back to it.

“Boris Johnson’s government can’t find £20m to feed poor British children over their school holidays, but it seems that there’s £16bn available to pour into the Ministry of Defence’s vast black hole,” columnist James Moore writes.

Read his piece in light of the funding boost announced today:

Echoing the Labour leader’s comments, here’s the shadow foreign secretary on the defence funding boost:

Labour Leader Sir Keir Starmer said while he welcomes the additional defence funding, it is “a spending announcement without a strategy”.

Responding to the Prime Minister’s statement, he told the Commons: “Under my leadership, national security will always be Labour’s top priority.

“Britain must once again show global leadership and be a moral force for good in the world – both in how we tackle present and emerging security threats, but also in how we build a fairer, greener and more secure world.

“So we welcome this additional funding for our defence and security forces and we agree that it is vital to end what the Prime Minister calls – I have to say, with complete lack of self-awareness – an era of retreat.

“But this is a spending announcement without a strategy. The Government has yet again pushed back vital parts of the Integrated Review and there is no clarity over the Government’s strategic priorities.”

Boris Johnson said a “once-in-a-generation modernisation” of the armed forces is required to extend British influence, adding emerging technologies “visible on the horizon” will make the returns from defence investment “infinitely greater”.

The prime minister told MPs: “The latest advances will multiply the fighting power of every warship, aircraft and infantry unit many times over, and the prizes will go to the swiftest and most agile nations – not necessarily the biggest.”

Mr Johnson sought to explain the plan to forge the UK’s military assets into a single network.

He said: “A solider in hostile territory will be alerted to a distant ambush by sensors or satellites or drones, instantly transmitting a warning using artificial intelligence to devise the optimal response and offering an array of options – from summoning an airstrike to ordering a swarm attack by drones, or by paralysing the enemy with cyber weapons.”

The prime minister also said UK warships and combat vehicles will carry “directed energy weapons” to destroy targets with “inexhaustible lasers”.