Brexit news – live: Minister admits ‘devastating blow’ to shellfish trade but says EU action ‘indefensible’

An Irish MP has questioned whether the UK government is in danger of pushing things “too far” after Michael Gove said the implementation Northern Ireland protocol required “refinement”.

The Cabinet Office minister last night told MPs the protocol was “not working at the moment” and needed “refinement” amid ongoing difficulties at the Northern Ireland border.

However Neale Richmond, a Fine Gael member of Ireland’s parliament, said the UK had leapt at the opportunity to criticise the EU after the bloc tried to invoke Article 16 of the protocol in a row over vaccine supplies, and now risked making the situation worse.

“Are the British government now in danger of pushing this too far? We see extra demands, we see a consistent underlining that they are now preparing to trigger Article 16,” he said.

“We look at the, albeit typical, British newspapers and they’re demanding a renegotiation less than six weeks after the trade deal was agreed.

“I’m very worried that less than six weeks in, people are really damaging the house of cards.”

The Irish government will seek an “early warning system” in case Britain or the EU attempt to invoke a clause in the Brexit withdrawal bill overriding Northern Ireland’s unique customs position.

Article 16 of the Northern Ireland Protocol was intended as an emergency measure not to be used but the EU recently attempted to invoke it in a row over Europe’s vaccine supply, without warning Ireland.

Ireland’s European Affairs Minister Thomas Byrne said the Dublin government is seeking a new safety clause, to prevent a repeat of those events.

He told Ireland’s Committee on European Union Affairs:

Stonemanor, a specialist supermarket chain selling British produce in the EU, has been struggling to keep shelves stocked due to post-Brexit supply issues.

The chain was forced to shut up shop over recent weekends due to depleted stock levels and has been unable to get a single food delivery from the UK since 1 January.

Custard creams, Irn Bru and other sweet treats have been in particularly short supply in the Belgium supermarkets, with one shop worker saying her store was “down to the last scone”.

Read the full story from Adam Forrest here:

Downing Street has declined to say whether or not the government will publish an impact assessment on the post-Brexit trade deal with the EU.

“You have got the details of the trade deal and you have got what the prime minister said at the time when we signed it and we set it out to the British people,” Boris Johnson’s official spokesperson said.

“We have been clear that it is a good deal which allows us to maintain access to the EU market and it also allows us to take advantage of the opportunities that have arisen from leaving the EU.

“And you continue to see the work we are undertaking to secure trade deals around the world.”

Britain’s largest business lobby group has called on the government to provide extra help for the aviation sector after Matt Hancock’s announcement of tougher border measures to tackle coronavirus.

Moments after the health secretary made the announcement, Matthew Fell, policy director of the Confederation of British Industry, said:

Travellers face a jail sentence of up to 10 years if they try to hide a trip to a ‘red zone’ country, Matt Hancock has just told MPs.

“The new measures build on the tough action that we’ve already taken,” he said as he updated the Commons on the government’s coronavirus strategy.

Follow this breaking story as updates come in:

Brussels’ decision to place barriers on live UK shellfish exports is “indefensible”, the Environment Secretary has said.

Mr Eustice said the Commission changed its position last week, and that prior to that “they had been clear that this was a trade that could continue”.

He said in an interview with LBC that the action, which puts a “ban on the trade altogether” was “quite unexpected and really indefensible”.

The Home Office has admitted that more than 15,000 were accidentally deleted from the Police National Computer earlier this year.

Policing minister Kit Malthouse said in a written statement that a total of 209,550 offence records relating to 112,697 individuals had been deleted in error, 15,089 of them had their entire records wiped.

The government says the error may not lead to a permanent data loss as duplicate records may still be available on other systems.

Our policy correspondent Jon Stone has more on this:

The Cornish fishing industry will rename two of its most common catches in a bid to make them more appetising to British buyers, following the trade disruption caused by Brexit.

Megrim fish and spider crab, which both used to be sold en masse to the Spanish market, will be rebranded as “Cornish sole” and “Cornish king crab”.

Adam Forrest has the story:

A YouGov poll has found that 47 per cent of Britons believe the opening of a coal mine in Cumbria will negatively impact the UK, with only 9 per cent in favour of the scheme.

The government has so far refused to override the plan, which has been approved by Cumbria County Council.

Phil MacDonald, an analyst at the clean energy think-tank Ember, told The Independent: “The UK can’t meet its climate targets if we keep allowing coal mining – and it sends a terrible signal to the rest of the world just as we are hosting the climate conference in Glasgow.”

Here’s Jon Stone with more details: