Markus Andrews

Today’s daily politics briefingMinisters are involved in a “ferocious” row over a potential new UK-Australia trade deal, according to a government source. The division focuses on whether to give tariff-free access to Australian farmers, something which the international trade secretary Liz Truss favours but which Michael Gove opposes, according to the Financial Times. Meanwhile, a think tank has warned that the UK economy could see Italy-style stagnation within the next decade because of Brexit and the pandemic. The Resolution Foundation said that Britain’s economic outlook could resemble Italy more closely than Europe’s powerhouse Germany if it does not rise to the challenges it faces.“If the UK’s pace of underperformance relative to Germany continues at the same pace in the 2020s, then it will end this decade with GDP per capita much closer to that of Italy than Germany,” it said.Clive Cowdrey, the Resolution Foundation’s founder, added that Britain’s “recent record of weak productivity, stagnant living standards and high inequality makes a new economic approach desirable”.Show latest update

1621348815Sturgeon re-elected as Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon has been re-elected as Scotland’s first minister after a vote at Holyrood.The SNP leader gained 64 votes in the contest, compared to the 31 received by the Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross and the four given to the Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie. In total, 28 MSPs abstained. Speaking ahead of the vote, Ms Sturgeon said: “During the election campaign, I said that my overriding duty was to do everything possible to keep our country safe and, if nominated today, that will indeed be my first and my driving priority – to lead us through this pandemic, and to lead us into recovery.”In a reference to a possible second independence referendum, she added that “Scotland’s future must be Scotland’s choice”.Rory Sullivan18 May 2021 15:401621347615Labour urges government ‘to make all home safes’ by June 2022Labour has called on the government to “enshrine a cast-iron deadline to make all homes safe” by June next year. Lucy Powell, the shadow housing secretary, said nobody should be living in unsafe housing five years on from the Grenfell disaster. “For people trapped in buildings with dangerous cladding that dream has become twisted and become a waking nightmare,” she said. “Ministers have taken some welcome action like the moratorium on evictions, but, alongside housing charities, I’m deeply concerned that the rolling back of these protections will now lead to a wave of homelessness.”The Labour frontbencher added that the government’s planning bill was a “developers charter”, coming at a time when new social house building was 80 per cent lower than in 2010. Rory Sullivan18 May 2021 15:201621346558Lancashire city council becomes country’s second Greens-led authorityA former headteacher has become the second ever Green council leader, after her party united with the Tories to unseat the previous Labour occupant. Lancaster Council, which runs the city of 140,000 people, follows Brighton in becoming a Greens-led authority. Our North of England correspondent Colin Drury reports: Rory Sullivan18 May 2021 15:021621345212Government must reform ‘Kafka-esque’ bureaucracy in social care sector, MPs told The government must reform the social care sector and rid it of “Kafka-esque” bureaucracy, the son of a nursing home resident has said.Jonathan Freeman, whose mother had to sell her house to pay for care, told the Health and Social Care Committee that the process was “utterly outrageous”.His mother had her eligibility for financial support approved after two assessments, before it was withdrawn at a later date. Mr Freeman says it is wrong for families’ suffering to be compounded by financial worries. “It struck me as a very, very obvious tactic that you refuse as many as you can, and you then make it as difficult as you can to appeal, on the basis that most people aren’t as stupidly determined as me to actually pursue it and will just give up,” he said. He added that properly funded reform would ensure families do not have to “spend wasted years arguing with a bureaucracy that’s trying to dodge the bullet”.Rory Sullivan18 May 2021 14:401621344026Government ‘more interested in defending statues than women and girls’, Lammy says Shadow justice secretary David Lammy has claimed that the government is more interested “in defending statues than women and girls”.Speaking on Tuesday, he said: “The government’s 2019 manifesto promised to do right by victims and to fight crime against women and girls but I have to say to the secretary of state nothing has seemed further from the truth.“Women don’t need rhetoric, they need legislation but he appears more interested in silencing protest than giving a voice to victims of sexual crimes. More interested in defending statues than women and girls. Will the secretary of state show he cares by working cross-party to implement Labour’s bill on ending violence against women and girls?”In response, his counterpart Robert Buckland denied the implication, saying: “Well that wasn’t a question, that was a soundbite which bears no reality to what this Government has been doing.” Rory Sullivan18 May 2021 14:201621342836Nurse who looked after PM in hospital quits over ‘lack of respect’ for NHS Jenny McGee, one of the nurse who looked after Boris Johnson when he was in intensive care last year, has quit her job over how NHS staff are treated. Referencing the government’s proposed 1 per cent pay rise for NHS staff, she said: “We’re not getting the respect and now pay that we deserve. I’m just sick of it. So I’ve handed in my resignation.”“Lots of nurses felt that the government hadn’t led very effectively – the indecisiveness, so many mixed messages. It was just very upsetting,” Ms McGee added. Samuel Osborne has the details: Rory Sullivan18 May 2021 14:001621341603Rayner fails to land blow on Tory ‘sleaze’Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner secured an urgent question on “enforcement of the ministerial code and the publication of the register of members’ interests – or “sleaze”, as we all know it – but failed to land a blow.At the weekend, it was reported that Boris Johnson is locked-in a standoff with the Commons watchdog over the mystery of who paid for his Mustique winter break and how much it cost.Kathryn Stone has apparently concluded it was worth twice the £15,000 he declared in the register – and that the bill was not paid by Tory donor and Carphone Warehouse co-founder David Ross, as claimed.Ms Rayner raised the latest allegation, demanding to know: “We only learnt from the media that the prime minister has blocked publication of the independent commissioner’s report. Why the delay?”But she wrapped it up in wide-ranging sleaze accusations against other Cabinet ministers and advisers – and Penny Mordaunt, the cabinet office minister, found it easy to wriggle free.She alleged Ms Rayner was claiming “the people she names are somehow on the take”, adding: “It is not plausible. It is based not in fact, but on speculation, innuendo and smear.”Meanwhile, Christopher Geidt, the prime minister’s adviser on ministerial interests, will publish the long-delayed list of those interests – with any recent, juicy declarations that have been made – by “the end of the month”.Rob Merrick 18 May 2021 13:401621340400Britons should not travel to ‘amber list’ countries, says PM Boris Johnson has cleared up the confusion surrounding the country’s new travel guidance, after one of his ministers said Britons could go to “amber list” countries to “visit family and friends”.The prime minister clarified that holidaymakers should not travel to “amber list” destinations on holiday. Rory Sullivan18 May 2021 13:201621339181Government ‘keeping everything under close observation’, Johnson saysBoris Johnson has said “we are keeping everything under very close observation” following the emergence of the Indian coronavirus variant of concern.Speaking at a vaccination centre in London, the prime minister said: “We are looking at the epidemiology the whole time as it comes in and, at the moment, partly because we have built up such a wall of defences with the vaccination programme, I don’t see anything conclusive at the moment to say that we need to deviate from the road map.”But we’ve got to be cautious and we are keeping everything under very close observation.”We’ll know a lot more in a few days’ time.”Samuel Osborne18 May 2021 12:591621338169Vaccines could have been in use earlier if greater risks taken, Cummings suggestsBoris Johnson’s former aide Dominic Cummings has suggested that vaccines could have been in use earlier in the pandemic if greater risks were taken.Mr Cummings, who will give evidence to MPs later this month, said success in the vaccine rollout had “blinded” Westminster to important questions about what could have been done better and how the Government will respond to variants.Writing on Twitter he said “I think we’ll conclude” that human challenge trials – where volunteers are deliberately infected – should have begun immediately which could have meant “jabs in arms summer”.Mr Cummings also said that “one of the most fundamental and unarguable lessons” of February-March 2020 is that “secrecy contributed greatly to the catastrophe”.”Openness to scrutiny wd have exposed (government) errors weeks earlier than happened,” he said.He questioned why MPs were now accepting “the lack of a public plan now” for the vaccine taskforce to respond to variants.Samuel Osborne18 May 2021 12:42 More

The post-Brexit trading crisis in Northern Ireland must be solved before the “turbulence” of traditional Protestant celebrations in July, David Frost has warned the EU.Boris Johnson’s negotiator denied that July 12 – the date of the largest parade – is “a formal time limit or deadline” for talks on changes to the Protocol to succeed.But he said: “We all know that late spring and summer in Northern Ireland can sometimes be turbulent and some days are significant in that. We have to take that reality into account.“We have a responsibility to try and avoid further deterioration and difficulties in the situation – and that obviously is a possibility as we go into the spring and summer.”The comments come after the UK has repeatedly said it is ready to invoke Article 16 – giving it the freedom to act unilaterally if the protocol is causing “economic difficulties” – if necessary.Lord Frost said no decision had been taken yet and urged the EU to respond constructively if “measures of any kind” are taken.Every 12 July, members of the Orange Order carry banners and flags in parades across Northern Ireland, accompanied by marching bands. There are fears this could cause conflict with Republican communities.This year’s celebrations will come after the Democratic Unionist Party elected a hardline new leader demanding the scrapping of the protocol and border checks on trade with Great Britain.At the weekend, Lord Frost attacked the EU for intransigence and suggested the arrangements – an international treaty agreed by the UK – would not be “sustainable for long”.The Irish government is alarmed by a link being drawn between finding a solution and the loyalist marching season, one senior source calling it “irresponsible”.Speaking to the Commons European Scrutiny Committee, Lord Frost also:* Claimed that, on UK-EU trade as a whole, “the initial disruptions have been largely overcome” – despite goods exports remaining well below pre-pandemic levels.* Admitted the Irish Sea border checks were having “a bigger chilling effect than we thought”.* Nevertheless shot down calls for the UK to stick with EU food and plant rules, to minimise checks, saying – “we are not doing dynamic alignment”.* Argued the UK’s “naval presence” had forced a climbdown in the dispute over fishing in Jersey’s waters – while insisting “we don’t choose gunboat diplomacy”.* Claimed Brussels is putting pressure on EU member states not to strike deals to allow the UK to return asylum-seekers.Hilary Benn, of the cross-party UK Trade and Business Commission at Westminister, criticised the claim of near-normality on cross-Channel trade, telling The Independent: “This doesn’t square with the evidence we’ve heard in recent weeks.“This so-called initial disruption has become an impediment to smooth trade and some companies are now giving up on trade with the EU or Northern Ireland altogether, because of the additional bureaucracy and costs involved.”And James Withers, chief executive of Scotland Food and Drink, said the evidence suggested food exports are still down by roughly a third.“The chaos in January has given way to more order. However, the reality is that business is adjusting to a new normal, not getting back to the way things were,” he said. More

A cabinet minister has admitted local lockdowns are an “option” amid reports the government is considering multiple contingency plans to tackle the spread of the new variant first detected in India.According to The Times, local restrictions in hotspot areas could be based on the old tier four measures used at the end of 2020, with people being advised to stay at home and non-essential shops once again being ordered to close.Another scenario could be postpone the lifting of all Covid restrictions in England on 21 June — the final stage in the government’s roadmap to unlocking the economy. Boris Johnson has already said the new variant has created the “risk of disruption and delay”.Speaking on Sky News, George Eustice, the environment secretary, said the government would be in a position “shortly” before 21 June to assess whether the country can move to the final stage of the roadmap, but reiterated that a delay could not be ruled out.He said: “We want to do that [move to next stage]. That’s always been the plan — we want each step to be an irreversible step but we can never rule out there may have to be a delay.”Pressed on whether the government was actively looking at fully opening on 21 June while imposing local restrictions on areas struggling with the virus, Mr Eustice said: “That would be an option — we cannot rule anything out at this stage”.“Our preferred outcome is that we really double down and get the vaccination rates up in those areas that are seeing problems so that we can give them the immunity that they need for this virus then we won’t have to have any such local lockdowns”.According to The Times, businesses that are placed into local restrictions could receive grants of up to £18,000 while sectors affected by any delay to the government’s final stage of the roadmap, including nightclubs and festivals, could also receive a grant.It comes after Matt Hancock  told MPs the number of cases of the Indian variant had increased by 1,000 in just four days, with it now being “dominant” in the Lancashire areas of Bolton and Blackburn.However, the health secretary insisted that while the B1617.2 variant seemed more transmissible, the evidence suggested vaccines were effective against it, adding that testing had been “surged” across Bolton. More

The “highly transmissible” variant that first emerged in India is set to become the dominant strain in the UK within days, experts have warned, after a 75 per cent increase was seen in the infections caused by it in just five days.Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the strain is already “dominant” in the Lancashire hotspots of Bolton and Blackburn and as many as 2,323 confirmed cases of B.1.617.2 has been found across the UK.Variant B.1.617.2, which was classified as a “variant of concern” in the UK, is leading to runaway outbreaks similar to the Kent B.1.1.7 variant that intensified the second wave in the country.Microbiologist Paul Hunter said the B.1.617.2 variant is will replace the Kent variant, that was first detected in the UK and was more transmissible than the original virus.“There is no evidence that the recent rapid rise in cases of the B.1.617.2 variant shows any signs in slowing,” he told The Guardian. “This variant will overtake [the Kent variant] and become the dominant variant in the UK in the next few days, if it hasn’t already done so,” professor Hunter said.Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty also raised same concerns on Friday and said B.1.617.2 is “more transmissible than the B.1.1.7, adding that it is expected to overtake other variants and become “dominate in the UK.”It comes as the Boris Johnson government eased some of the lockdown restrictions in England, Wales and most of Scotland but delayed plans to announce an end to social-distancing rules till further review.The variant has also threatened the government’s plan to end all remaining limits on social contact from 21 June with authorities now promising full details by the end of May.The spread of the Indian variant has also put the British prime minister in a tough spot as he faced criticism from his former chief adviser Dominic Cummings. Mr Johnson also faced pressure on delay to adding India to the so-called red list of countries.Mr Cummings took a public swipe at Mr Johnson calling the UK’s border policy a “joke” and based on “nonsense.”Mr Hancock told the House of Commons there are now 86 local authorities where there are five or more confirmed cases.The variant has been found in 30 per cent of coronavirus samples in England in the week ending 8 May, according to an analysis by Professor Christina Pagel, the director at the University College London of the Clinical Operational Research Unit.Labour have accused the government of a “catastrophic misstep” and raised questions of delay in halting travel from India sooner to stop the spread of variant in the country. Labour’s shadow health secretary, Jonathan Ashworth, also hit out and said the UK had borders “about as secure as a sieve.”Mr Hancock pushed back criticism by saying they had put India on the red list on 23 April, which was almost a week prior to B.1.617.2 variant was subjected to studies and two weeks before it was labelled as being of concern. More

If nothing else David, now Lord, Frost seems a prime example of nominative determinism. In recent weeks, relations between the UK and the EU have indeed grown decidedly nippy, and the temperature continues to drop. Frosty the No Man, as some call him, has taken to the pages of the Eurosceptic press to complain about EU intransigence over trade via Northern Ireland, the short-lived threat to stop vaccines entering the province, and fishing. And, of course, there was that Lilliputian re-enactment of the Battle of Trafalgar just off Jersey. He hasn’t quite got around to asking President Macron “who do you think you are, Napoleon?”, but it cannot be far off. Appearing before the warm hearth of a Lords Select Committee, Lord Frost offered a seemingly attractive answer to the problem of the Northern Ireland Protocol, which is to just pretend it doesn’t exist. The Protocol was negotiated by Lord Frost, agreed by Boris Johnson, backed by parliament and then, to all intents and purposes, endorsed by the British people at the general election of 2019. The text, part of the Withdrawal Agreement and the overall Brexit deal, was in the public domain and provoked some discussion. Though few will have read it through (possibly including Mr Johnson), its implications were debated and well remarked upon. The Democratic Unionists, who regard it as a betrayal, voted against it and complained loudly. It was clear, as it was ever since Michel Barnier suggested it years ago, that it would mean an economic border down the Irish Sea and within the United Kingdom, and thus adding some checks to trade between Great Britain and Northern Ireland. In October and again at the turn of next year, further grace periods on GB-NI trade will expire, and the frictions at the border at the port of Larne – bureaucratic and political – will intensify. More

EU says UK is breaking Brexit trade deal amid Jersey fishing rowRelations 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.Read more:Show latest update

1621263293Labour has been ‘inviting people to vote for a vacuum’, says elections expertTurning 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”.Andy Gregory17 May 2021 15:541621262859Talks with EU over NI protocol ‘not hugely productive’ despite ‘bit of momentum’, Lord Frost saysLord 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.”Andy Gregory17 May 2021 15:471621262288‘Dust thrown in the eyes by the EU’ over NI cancer drug regulation, Lord Frost saysAsked 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.”Andy Gregory17 May 2021 15:381621261053Asked 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.” Andy Gregory17 May 2021 15:171621260285Asked 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.”Andy Gregory17 May 2021 15:041621259817New legislation must be ‘consistent with deregulation and the spirit of Brexit’, Lord Frost saysListing 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.”Andy Gregory17 May 2021 14:561621259421Relationship with EU ‘will be a bit bumpy for a time’, David Frost tells MPsDiscussing 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.”Andy Gregory17 May 2021 14:501621258873Number of MPs allowed to speak in HoC to nearly doubleThe 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.Andy Gregory17 May 2021 14:411621258073‘Commitments have been made’ to NI protocol, Taoiseach saysIrish 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.”Andy Gregory17 May 2021 14:271621257565Rishi Sunak withholding support for Joe Biden’s global minimum business tax rateIn 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.Andy Gregory17 May 2021 14:19 More

Government spending on measures to cope with the coronavirus pandemic has risen to at least £372bn, according to the National Audit Office.The independent public spending watchdog said the cost of Covid to taxpayers increased by more than £100bn since its last report in January this year.The figure includes more than £150bn in grants for businesses – such as the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and the Bounce Back Loan scheme – around £97bn for health and social care – including the Test and Trace service – and just shy of £65bn for other public services and emergency responses.The bill for supporting individuals affected by Covid, such as the Self Employment Support Scheme, was estimated at around £55bn, the NAO said. Other expenditures from across Whitehall departments included around £12bn on emergency measures for the railways, which have seen passenger numbers plummet, a £619m contribution to the global Covax vaccine programme, and close to £1bn on the Covid-19 education catch-up fund. The NAO said £172bn had already been spent, and the total figure included £26bn worth of guaranteed loans which are expected to be written off.The total estimated bill provided by the NAO is for “lifetime costs” of projects linked to the pandemic, meaning that while £372bn has been earmarked for the various schemes, not all of it has yet been spent.Chairwoman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), Labour’s Meg Hillier added: “Government expects to spend an eye-watering £372bn in response to the pandemic, and public accountability has never been more important.”The NAO’s cost-tracker tool is vital as the primary public data source on Covid spending across government.“With such huge sums going out the door, and [the] government guaranteeing loans worth over £90bn, [the] government faces a long road to recovery ahead.” More

The UK has proposed phasing in new controls on food imports to Northern Ireland from Great Britain to avoid a further flare-up in tensions over the new Brexit bureaucracy.The plan would see checks, which were supposed to come in earlier this year before they were unilaterally delayed by the British government, phased in in four stages from October, with meat products coming under scrutiny first. It comes as Brexit minister David Frost wrote a strongly worded newspaper article in which he told Brussels to stop “point-scoring” over the protocol. The European Commission said on Monday that “constructive” talks on the issue had made progress and that Lord Frost’s “unhelpful” article would not prevent a solution from being arrived at.But EU sources told The Independent the phase-in plan, first reported by BBC Northern Ireland, was submitted by the UK in March and had been the basis for talks between the two sides in the following weeks. Under the plan suggested by the UK, from 1 October health certificates would be required for fresh, meat, while from 1 February these would be extended to cover dairy products, garden centre plants, seeds and wine.A third phase would cover cover fruit and vegetables and pet food, and phase 4 would cover other foods such as highly perishable items.But there would be no concrete timeline for the third and four phases, which would be dependent on the success of the first two phases.The two sides have been working on a joint version of the plan more acceptable to both sides and it is understood that there has been some movement. The Northern Ireland protocol, which was agreed by Boris Johnson and the EU and came into effect on 1 January, is supposed to govern the province’s trade relations after Brexit. It was introduced to avoid a hard border between the UK and the Republic of Ireland in order to uphold the Good Friday Agreement.But it has caused supply problems and shortages in Northern Ireland, which have led to anger in the unionist and loyalist community, who see it as moving the territory economically closer to the Republic of Ireland at the expense of its place in the UK.Grace periods for supermarket suppliers included in the protocal were supposed to end earlier this year, and were expected to intensify the problems. The UK says extending the grade periods was necessary for reasons of political stability, but the EU says the UK should stick to the letter of the agreement.The UK last week replied to a letter of formal notice from the EU sent in March, which marked first step in legal action against the British government for breaking the agreement it signed just a year ago.The Commission said it would “assess the contents of the reply before deciding on next steps”.”I would recall that the EU and UK agreed just over a year ago after extensive negotiations, I would add, with prime minister Boris Johnson and David Frost, that the protocol is the best way to protect peace and stability in Northern Ireland,” a European Commission spokesperson told reporters in Brussels on Monday. “It provides a solution in Northern Ireland to the problems created by Brexit and the type of Brexit that the current British government has chosen.”If we are to achieve our goals then we need to implement this agreement – this is a shared responsibility and we expect the UK to uphold its political commitment.”The spokesperson added: “I would also add that every single step of the way the EU has tried to enhance dialogue and work constructively with the UK at both technical and political level to find solutions that are in line with the protocol. That’s why we have been engaging intensively with our UK counterparts over the last couple of weeks.”These exchanges have been constructive, we are making progress, and we will continue with this engagement to find solutions with the UK. The various unhelpful comments in the press will not prevent us from doing so. “Our focus now is on making the protocol work for the people of Northern Ireland and across the island of Ireland. Only joint solutions that are agreed in the joint bodies established by the withdrawal agreement can provide the stability and the predictability that people and importantly businesses in Northern Ireland need if they are to take advantage of the opportunities of the protocol.” More