Relations with the EU “will be a bit bumpy for a time”, the UK’s Brexit negotiator Lord David Frost has told MPs, after he and other UK officials appeared to raise the prospect of walking away from the Northern Ireland Protocol unless Brussels relents from what he called its “purist” approach to maintaining the customs border in the Irish Sea.
After a senior ally of Boris Johnson was reported as proclaiming the protocol to be “dead in the water”, Taoiseach Michael Martin said that in a meeting with Mr Johnson at Chequers on Friday, Dublin had been “very clear that this is an international agreement, commitments have been made and it needs to be worked”.
Meanwhile, the BBC has obtained a copy of the protocol “roadmap” shared by the UK with the EU, which the broadcaster said revealed where contentions lay on issues such as food products, medicines, and access to databases, in addition to a British proposal to phase in new Irish Sea border checks on food products in four stages from October.
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Labour has been ‘inviting people to vote for a vacuum’, says elections expert
Turning away from Lord Frost’s committee appearance for a moment, we have the following report from our political correspondent Ashley Cowburn on a warning by polling expert Sir John Curtice that Keir Starmer’s Labour Party has been “inviting people to vote for a vacuum” and has to stop being “so timid” in order win over voters.
In a post-election analysis, professor Sir John offered a scathing assessment of the party’s recent strategy, suggesting it “seemingly has virtually nothing to say about anything”.
Talks with EU over NI protocol ‘not hugely productive’ despite ‘bit of momentum’, Lord Frost says
Lord Frost has said that while there is “a bit of momentum” in discussions with the EU to resolve “practical issues” with the Northern Ireland protocol, such talks have not been “hugely productive” – suggesting that the deal he helped negotiate may “undermine” the Good Friday Agreement.
He told MPs on the European Scrutiny Committee: “At the moment we are talking to the [European] Commission about the range of practical issues that have arisen from trying to operate the protocol.
“I would say many of those issues don’t themselves go to the hearts of the problems, but we are talking to them and trying to find solutions.
“There’s a bit of momentum in that discussion, it’s not hugely productive, and we’ll have to try to see how far we can take it.
“The fundamental problem for us is that – if the way the protocol is operating is undermining the Good Friday Agreement rather than supporting it, then we obviously have a problem.
“That wasn’t what the protocol was meant to do, and if it is doing it then it isn’t working right. So we have to have the kind of discussion with the EU that enables us to fix those sorts of difficulties. At the moment, we aren’t quite, but I still hope that that might be possible in the next month or so.”
‘Dust thrown in the eyes by the EU’ over NI cancer drug regulation, Lord Frost says
Asked about the Northern Ireland protocol, Lord Frost told MPs: “There is the risk of gaps opening up in regulation between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK. The important thing is to make sure the protocol operates in a balanced and pragmatic way, which takes account of the real conditions.
“We saw an example of this over the weekend of the kind of problems that can be generated, whereby it was clear despite I think a little bit of dust thrown in the eyes by the EU, it was clear that they’re asserting their right to regulate cancer drugs in Northern Ireland, rather than the UK doing that – and that sort of thing is going to be a problem if we can’t find pragmatic ways through it that protect our UK national health service.”
Asked whether the provisions within the post-Brexit UK-EU trade deal for regulatory cooperation between the two powers made the bloc a “partner” or “competitor” in pursuing good regulation, Lord Frost said: “I think it’s probably both, is the honest truth.”
The UK’s chief negotiator added: “I don’t think we should accept that we are in the EU’s regulatory orbit for these purposes, we do need to develop our own ways of doing these things and our own philosophy behind it.
“We will certainly always want to talk about that with the Europeans just like we do with the other big economic powers round the world, but each time it will be about finding the right balance of advantages between going things our own way and taking into account what happens elsewhere.”
Asked by Tory MP Anne Marie Morris what the government’s “strategy for exercising its newfound regulatory freedom” is, Lord Frost said: “I think it is really important that we exercise that freedom in as useful and productive a way as we possibly can.
“I personally profoundly believe that it is a huge advantage to a country to have the control over its own laws and its ability to design arrangements that suit its own traditions and ways of doing things.”
He added: “It’s been mentioned over the weekend that we are looking at financial services regulations and seeing what we can do now that we are able to move on from EU arrangements in financial services, and we’ll be doing this in other areas.”
New legislation must be ‘consistent with deregulation and the spirit of Brexit’, Lord Frost says
Listing looming post-Brexit reforms contained within various upcoming bills, David Frost told MPs on the European Scrutiny Committee: “I think I have a role in making sure that what we put before parliament is genuinely reforming, genuinely consistent with deregulation and the spirit of Brexit, and goes forward on that basis.”
Relationship with EU ‘will be a bit bumpy for a time’, David Frost tells MPs
Discussing his main objectives as chief Brexit negotiator, Lord Frost listed the Northern Ireland Protocol (which he said is “clearly a very live issue”) and “getting the overall relationship, subject to that, off to a decent footing” – adding: “I think it will be a bit bumpy for a time.”
He said his third objective was to identify opportunities and “things we can do differently”, adding: “That’s what’s going to make the biggest difference to our economic success going forward.”
Number of MPs allowed to speak in HoC to nearly double
The House of Commons commission has said that, from today, a total of 64 MPs will be able to speak in the Chamber following a review of social distancing measures – nearly double the previous number.
The changes include seven marked seats in the under galleries beyond the Bar of the House which have had new microphones installed to enable this, the commission said.
Politicians must continue wearing face coverings when seated in the Chamber – and the commission also agreed that MPs should be encouraged to take part in lateral flow testing twice a week.
Options for a drop-in testing facility close to the Chamber are currently being investigated with a view to being introduced next week, in addition to the Attlee Suite in PCH. The House will also be providing testing kits for those who are unable to access testing on the estate to enable colleagues to test themselves at home.
‘Commitments have been made’ to NI protocol, Taoiseach says
Irish Taoiseach Michael Martin has said he did not get an immediate sense from his meeting with British counterpart Boris Johnson that London wants to rewrite Northern Ireland’s post-Brexit trading arrangements, Reuters reports.
Ireland’s national broadcaster RTE reported on Monday that the Irish government is increasingly concerned that London wants to completely rewrite the Northern Ireland section of its deal to leave the European Union.
Asked about the report, Mr Martin told an online event: “We were very clear and are very clear that this is an international agreement, commitments have been made and it needs to be worked and the processes that are in it need to be worked also.”
Rishi Sunak withholding support for Joe Biden’s global minimum business tax rate
In other news, our policy correspondent Jon Stone reports that Rishi Sunak is withholding support for Joe Biden’s minimum global business tax rate ahead of discussions about the issue at the G7.
The new US president is pushing for a 21 per cent rate as part of a plan to crack down on tax avoidance by multinational companies like Amazon – but the UK is resisting the proposal, set to be discussed at a meeting of the global powers in Cornwall, with officials reportedly believing that Mr Biden’s plans would disproportionately benefit the US.
