Ursula von der Leyen has announced the EU will not take up Boris Johnson’s offer to renegotiate the post-Brexit agreement on Northern Ireland, despite a phone call from the PM urging her to reconsider.
The EU Commission president tweeted: “Boris Johnson called to present the UK Command paper on the Irish/Northern Irish Protocol. The EU will continue to be creative and flexible within the Protocol framework. But we will not renegotiate.”
Following their conversation, a No 10 spokesperson said the PM explained to Ms Von der Leyen that the Protocol is “operationally unsustainable” and insisted she engage with solutions put forward by the UK. Asked about her refusal to comply, the spokesman said only that the government continued to want to be “constructive and collaborative” in a bid to mend the issues.
It comes after business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng conceded earlier to Sky News that “nobody had any idea the actual effects of [the Protocol] until we left the EU”.
Stormont delays decision on easing Covid measures – report
Northern Ireland ministers today delayed final decisions on the majority of Covid-19 relaxations proposed for Northern Ireland next week, a report by PA suggest.
The news agency is said to be aware that Stormont today gave the green light to two further relaxations, but stopped short of ratifying a series of other planned moves.
From Monday, a cap limiting the number of households allowed to participate in 15-person outdoor gatherings will be removed and close contact services, such as hairdressers, will be able to accept walk-in customers.
PA said it also understands ministers have agreed to meet again on Monday and Thursday to consider whether to press ahead with other relaxations that had originally been earmarked for next week.
On Monday, ministers will consider whether to give the green light to steps considered to be moderate risk, including allowing theatres and concert halls to welcome back audiences and increasing the limit on gatherings in indoor domestic settings from six to 10.
Ministers are reportedly waiting to receive updated health data ahead of their deliberations, which is due on Monday.
Schools minister insists grades awarded this summer will be ‘valid’
Grades awarded to exam students this summer will be “valid,” the schools minister has said, following concerns “grade inflation” would be “baked-in” to the system.
Nick Gibb told MPs parents and pupils could “have confidence” the grades would stand, adding they “are supported by detailed guidance”.
“There is a robust quality assurance process, we trust teachers’ judgments as they are best placed to understand the content that their students have covered,” he said in the Commons.
He later added the “actual matter of grading” was a matter for Ofqual and decisions about it would be made in the autumn.
Mr Gibbs was responding to a question from Conservative MP Jonathan Gullis.
Govt to rethink £27bn road building strategy due to Covid
Boris Johnson’s government will review its £27bn roads investment plan because of “fundamental” changes in travel patterns brought on by the Covid pandemic, the transport secretary has announced.
Grant Shapps said it was right to look again at the strategy to expand the road network – arguing that the rise in homeworking and online shopping was unlikely to be “fully reversed” even as the economy recovers from lockdowns.
“In the last eighteen months, fundamental changes have occurred in commuting, shopping, and business travel,” the minister said in a written statement on Thursday, adding the government will now review its national policy statement (NPS) for major road schemes “in the light” of these trends.
Adam Forrest has more:
PM tells Merkel Protocol is not working and asks EU to cooperate
Clearly doing the rounds, Boris Johnson has now told Angela Merkel the Northern Ireland Protocol is “not sustainable”, according to No 10.
In a call with the German chancellor on Thursday afternoon, the PM said the Protocol had not achieved its aims, a key one being to respect Northern Ireland’s integral place in the UK’s internal market.
“On the Northern Ireland Protocol, the prime minister said that the disruption being caused to people and businesses in Northern Ireland by the current operation of the protocol was not sustainable,” a Downing Street spokesperson told reporters following the call.
“He explained that the protocol was failing to deliver on many of its intended objectives: to minimise disruption to everyday lives, to respect Northern Ireland’s integral place in the UK’s internal market, and to preserve the delicate balance in the (Belfast) Good Friday Agreement in all its dimensions.”
The spokesperson added Mr Johnson had urged the chancellor, and the EU collectively, to engage in a constructive and detailed discussion on the UK’s proposals.
“Both leaders agreed to remain in touch,” he added, echoing the end to his conversation with EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen earlier today.
NHS staff 3% pay rise will come at cost to other services, No 10 says
The Government has confirmed that there will be no new money to fund the 3% pay rise for NHS staff in England, and the health secretary has been told to find £1.5bn of savings to fund the NHS pay rise, despite criticism that it will mean cuts to other services.
No 10 said the rise would come out of the existing health service’s budget. Rob Merrick reports:
PM has not decided how to fund social care, No 10 says
No decisions have been made on how to fund social care in the future, Downing Street says.
Just hours earlier, business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng had said a rise in national insurance to help pay for social care had not been ruled out in the long-term but was not expected in plans due this year.
A spokesman for Boris Johnson said: “The Prime Minister has been clear that we will set out details later this year and that no decisions have been made. But we are and remain committed to setting out proposals in this area this year.”
Rob Merrick and Andrew Woodcock report:
Homelessness rising but still lower than before lockdown
Homelessness in the UK is rising after a sharp drop during the first wave of the pandemic but is still lower than pre-lockdown levels, government figures show.
The number of households assessed to be homeless between January and March this year was 68,250, a 9% increase on the 62,250 homeless households in October to December last year, according to Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government (MHCLG) data.
But current levels are 9% lower than the number of households recorded as homeless in the first three months of last year, while between April and June 2020 there was a sharp drop, according to the MHCLG quarterly release.
That decrease coincided with the Government’s “Everyone In” strategy housing a reported 37,000 rough sleepers during the pandemic.
Sign up for our free political newsletters
If you are interested in politics, why not sign up to our politics newsletters? Inside Politics is sent out every morning, Monday to Friday, while John Rentoul’s View From Westminster is sent out each weekday evening when parliament is in session. To find out how to sign up for free, click here:
Stormont issued fresh orders to commission abortion services in NI
The government has used new powers to direct the Stormont Executive to commission abortion services in Northern Ireland.
Northern Ireland secretary Brandon Lewis confirmed the widely-anticipated move in a written ministerial statement to Parliament on Thursday.
Abortion laws in Northern Ireland were liberalised in 2019 following legislation passed by Westminster at a time when devolution in the region had collapsed. However, while individual health trusts are currently offering services on an ad hoc basis, the Department of Health has yet to centrally commission the services due to an ongoing impasse within the Executive.
In March, the government handed Mr Lewis new powers to direct the region’s Department of Health to commission the services, which he immediately did – resulting in a stalemate between Stormont and Westminster.
“This ongoing stalemate leaves me no choice but to issue a direction,” said Mr Lewis. “At the heart of this matter are the women and girls in Northern Ireland, who have been, and continue to be, denied the same reproductive rights as women in the rest of the UK,” he said.
EU rejects Johnson’s call to renegotiate NI Protocol
Despite Boris Johnson’s best efforts, the EU has refused to renegotiate the post-Brexit agreement on Northern Ireland.
Downing Street said, in a phone call with EU chief Ursula von der Leyen, the PM said the Protocol is “currently operationally unsustainable” and urged her to engage with solutions put forward by the UK. He is also thought to have argued there is “huge opportunity to find reasonable, practical solutions to the difficulties” in renegotiating.
Asked about Ms Von der Leyen stating she would not renegotiate, a spokesman for the PM said the government continued to want to be “constructive and collaborative” in a bid to mend the current issues.
“The prime minister set out that the way the Protocol was currently operating was unsustainable. Solutions could not be found through the existing mechanisms of the Protocol. That was why we had set out proposals for significant changes to it,” the spokesman said after the call.
“He urged the EU to look at those proposals seriously and work with the UK on them. There is a huge opportunity to find reasonable, practical solutions to the difficulties facing people and businesses in Northern Ireland, and thereby to put the relationship between the UK and the EU on a better footing. They agreed to remain in touch.”
