Markus Andrews

Boris Johnson has promised British fishermen a Brexit “El Dorado” once problems caused by his new border bureaucracy have been dealt with.Fisherman have warned they are losing their livelihoods as delays caused by Brexit red tape decimate their export business to continental Europe.But speaking in the Commons on Wednesday prime minister said his Brexit deal would be good for the industry, likening the future to the mythical Spanish city rumoured to be paved with gold.El Dorado notably did not exist, a fact eventually established by explorers after numerous failed expeditions that often ended in death from hunger and disease.Asked at prime minister’s questions why he had previously falsely told fishermen they “would not face new export barriers or unnecessary form-filling”, the prime minister said Brexit would eventually “deliver”.”It is absolutely true that some British fishermen have faced barriers at the present time owing to complications over form-filling and indeed one of the biggest problems is that, alas, there is a decline in appetite for fish in continental markets just because most of the restaurants, as he knows, are shut,” he said.”The reality is that Brexit will deliver and is delivering a huge uplift in quota, already the next five years, and by 2026 the fishing people of this country will have access to all the fish in all the territorial waters of this country.Inside Politics newsletterThe latest news on Brexit, politics and beyond direct to your inbox every weekdayInside Politics newsletterThe latest news on Brexit, politics and beyond direct to your inbox every weekday”To get them ready for that El Dorado, we’re investing £100 million in improving our boats, our fish processing industry and getting fishing ready for the opportunities ahead.”But despite the prime ministers’ claim of a “huge” uplift in quota, the deal in fact only raises the UK share by about 25 per cent, according to the most optimistic estimates.
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Boris Johnson has refused to describe the treatment of China’s Muslim Uighur minority as “genocide”, despite use of the term by both the Trump and Biden administrations.Joe Biden’s nominee for Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, signalled a tough line on China from the new administration in Washington on Tuesday, when he told a Senate confirmation hearing that he backed his predecessor Mike Pompeo’s charge of genocide against Beijing.Mr Pompeo used his final full day in office as Donald Trump’s minister for international affairs to say: “I believe this genocide is ongoing and that we are witnessing the systematic attempt to destroy Uighurs by the Chinese party-state.”He cited the forced sterilisation and torture of some of the “more than a million” civilians he said were detained under the direction of the Chinese Communist Party in the western province of Xinjiang.But challenged to take the same step in the House of Commons on Wednesday, Mr Johnson insisted that, while he regarded the treatment of the Uighurs as “utterly abhorrent”, determining whether it amounted to genocide was a matter for judges, not politicians.Mr Johnson was speaking a day after his government overturned an amendment to its trade bill which would have forced the UK to withdraw from any free trade agreement negotiated with a state guilty of genocide.He told prime ministers questions in the Commons: “The attribution of genocide is a judicial matter.Inside Politics newsletterThe latest news on Brexit, politics and beyond direct to your inbox every weekdayInside Politics newsletterThe latest news on Brexit, politics and beyond direct to your inbox every weekday“But I can say for myself that I regard what is happening in Xinjiang and what’s happening to the Uighurs as utterly abhorrent.”Mr Johnson was responding to a question from Scottish National Party Westminster leader Ian Blackford, who told MPs: “People would find the prime minister’s claims about the UK’s global leadership a bit more believable if last night he hadn’t ordered his MPs to vote down an amendment to the trade bill that would have stopped trade deals with countries who commit genocide.”Genocide isn’t a matter of history, it is happening in our world right now. The international community has stood idly by as Uighur Muslim men, women and children are forced into concentration camps in China’s Xinjiang province. “Yesterday the outgoing US secretary of state officially said that genocide was taking place, and the incoming secretary of state, Anthony Blinken, agrees with his view.”Mr Blackford called on the PM to follow the lead of Pompeo and Blinken, and “stand up today and clearly state that genocide is being committed against the Uighur population in China”.Beijing rejected Mr Pompeo’s characterisation of its treatment of the Muslim minority.Hua Chunying, a foreign ministry spokesperson, said: “Pompeo‘s comment on Xinjiang is just another one of his ridiculous lies. Pompeo is a clown . . . Genocide has never happened in China and will never happen in China.”  More

An idyllic Wiltshire village made famous by the Harry Potter films is getting swamped with visitors – despite the lockdown. Some have openly admitted they’re breaking the rules for daytrips, enjoying a brief suspension of reality in a dreamy English fantasyland. Cabinet minister Brandon Lewis has been accused of fantasyland politics after his suspension-from-reality claim that Brexit isn’t to blame for supply disruption. However hard Boris Johnson and his ministers try to wish away the chaos with the magical phrase “teething problems”, the spell just isn’t working.Inside the bubbleOur political commentator Andrew Grice on what to look out for today: More

Boris Johnson has rejected mounting demands for an immediate inquiry into the government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, telling MPs it must wait until after the current crisis.With NHS hospitals facing immense pressures, the prime minister told the Commons that it would not be “sensible” to divert government resources away from the fight against Covid-19.Challenged at prime minister’s questions as the latest data showed the UK now has the highest death rate per capita, Mr Johnson dismissed a call from the Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey to launch the inquiry this year.“The NHS is under unprecedented pressure, the entire British state is trying to fight Covid and trying to roll out the biggest vaccination programme in the history of our country,” Mr Johnson replied.He added: “The idea that we should now concentrate state resources, vast state resources, to an inquiry now in the middle of the pandemic does not I think seem sensible to me, and I don’t believe it would seem sensible to members of the House.”Of course, we will learn lessons in due course and, of course, there will be a time to reflect and to prepare for the next pandemic.”Inside Politics newsletterThe latest news on Brexit, politics and beyond direct to your inbox every weekdayInside Politics newsletterThe latest news on Brexit, politics and beyond direct to your inbox every weekdaySpeaking to The Independent last week, Sir Ed stressed the government could begin preparatory work for an independent inquiry immediately, by outlining its remit, establishing a timeframe and beginning the process to appoint an chair to oversee the proceedings.Major questions remain over the format of an independent inquiry, including whether it will be established under the 2005 Inquires Act — on a statutory footing —  which will have the power to compel witnesses to give evidence, or a non-statutory basis similar to the Chilcot inquiry into the 2003 Iraq invasion.The Labour leader added at the weekend: “The government failed to learn lessons from the first phase of the pandemic. The tragic result is that Britain has now suffered more deaths during the second wave than the first.“Every life lost to this virus is a family shattered. The prime minister promised an independent inquiry, and those families deserve to know when it will start.” More

Britain’s borders should have been closed in March 2020 to stop coronavirus, the Home Secretary has said.Priti Patel said she had advocated the measure at the time but suggested she had been overruled by others in government.She made the revelation in comments to an online meeting of Conservative party supporters on Tuesday evening.”On ‘should have have closed our borders earlier’, the answer is yes,” she said, according to a recording of the event obtained by the Guido Fawkes website.”I was an advocate of closing them last March.”Speaking on Wednesday morning the Home Secretary rejected claims of government mismanagement and said people should not compare the UK’s high death rate to other countries. “Every single death is deeply tragic,” Ms Patel told broadcaster LBC when asked why the death toll was so large. Inside Politics newsletterThe latest news on Brexit, politics and beyond direct to your inbox every weekdayInside Politics newsletterThe latest news on Brexit, politics and beyond direct to your inbox every weekday”There’s no one factor as to why we have such a horrendous and tragic death rate.”Pressed on international comparisons, she said figures were “not comparable”.Speaking separately on the BBC she said: “I don’t think this is the time to talk about mismanagement”.Last week the government finally required anyone coming to the UK to produce a negative coronavirus test and said all arrivals had to quarantine for 10 days.
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Some of the UK’s biggest music stars have written to the government urging it to reverse its decision to end visa-free music tours to the EU.Musicians including Sir Elton John, Liam Gallagher, Ed Sheeran, and Brian May said upcoming acts had been “shamefully failed” ministers in Brexit talks.The Independent first revealed that the UK had turned down a reciprocal EU offer to allow musicians to perform abroad without needing a visa.Smaller artists are now warning that the new Brexit bureaucracy requiring visas and multiple work permits will make it impossible for many of them to tour.They are now being backed by dozens of more famous acts, who said the government’s “negotiating failure” threatens cultural exchange with the continent.Culture minister Caroline Dinenage earlier this week defended the government’s approach, saying the EU’s “very broad” offer “would not have been compatible with the government’s manifesto commitment to take back control of our borders”.The letter, which was organised by the Incorporated Society of Musicians, signed by over 100 artists, and published in The Times, says:Inside Politics newsletterThe latest news on Brexit, politics and beyond direct to your inbox every weekdayInside Politics newsletterThe latest news on Brexit, politics and beyond direct to your inbox every weekday”The reality is that British musicians, dancers, actors and their support staff have been shamefully failed by their government.”The deal done with the EU has a gaping hole where the promised free movement for musicians should be. Everyone on a European music tour will now need costly work permits for many countries they visit and a mountain of paperwork for their equipment.”Stating the extra costs would “tip many performers over the edge”, it continues: “We call on the government to urgently do what it said it would do and negotiate paperwork-free travel in Europe for British artists and their equipment.”For the sake of British fans wanting to see European performers in the UK and British venues wishing to host them, the deal should be reciprocal.”
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Conservative MPs have ripped out an amendment to the government’s trade bill to prevent the NHS being sold off or undermined by the government’s trade deals with other countries.The House of Lords had last month inserted a clause banning any agreement that “undermines or restricts” the UK’s ability to provide “a comprehensive publicly funded health service free at the point of delivery”.The amendment also restricted “the sale of patient data” and the government’s ability to control drug prices.But in a vote on Tuesday night MPs rejected the amendment by 357 votes to 266, with no Tory MPs backing the motion. The governing party’s MPs were the only ones to vote against the protections.Trade Minister Greg Hands said there was no need to protect the health service with legislation because “the NHS is not and never will be for sale”. He characterised such claims as “offensive and absurd”.But government ministers made similar promises not to undermine workers’ rights before Brexit, only to move to water down EU rules on rest breaks, holiday pay, and overtime. US officials and businesses have repeatedly said that the NHS must be “on the table” in trade talks, with US pharmaceutical companies and healthcare businesses eyeing the UK health market as a source of profit.Inside Politics newsletterThe latest news on Brexit, politics and beyond direct to your inbox every weekdayInside Politics newsletterThe latest news on Brexit, politics and beyond direct to your inbox every weekdayShadow Trade Secretary Emily Thornberry said she could “see why any Member of the House would disagree with” the amendment, saying it “cuts to the chase of the debate over whether the NHS is on the table when it comes to trade negotiations”She added: “To some people, that concept would mean private healthcare companies from overseas being able to compete against the NHS to provide taxpayer-funded healthcare, but in fact it is much more realistic and pernicious.“What it means is those same companies winning a greater right to provide services to the NHS through open procurement contracts and thereby gaining access to the vast resource of NHS patient data, which, quite frankly, they have been actively pursuing for years.”But Boris Johnson in October promised that “our national health service will never be on the table”. Outgoing president Donald Trump said the health service would definitely be up for negotiation, but later said the opposite following an outcry.The prime minister’s cabinet includes many enthusiastic “free market” conservatives such as Liz Truss and Dominic Raab, who hold positions of influence on trade.Johnbosco Nwogbo from the anti-privatisation campaign group We Own It warned: “We’re now at risk of higher drug prices, private companies having increased access to our NHS and those same companies being able to sue the government if it tries to limit their ability to profit from our healthcare.”Trade Minister Greg Hands said: “We do not see the need for this amendment, as protecting the NHS is already a top priority in negotiations.”
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The former prime minister criticised her successor for threatening to override Britain’s treaty obligations in the Brexit divorce settlement and his failure to commit to targets for defence spending and international aid.
In an article in the Daily Mail to mark the inauguration of Joe Biden as the US president, she hit out at the way outgoing president Donald Trump had “whipped up” his supporters to storm the Capitol after refusing to accept the election result.Ms May drew comparisons with the murder of PC Keith Palmer in a terrorist attack outside the Houses of Parliament in March 2017.
“What happened in Washington was not the act of a lone extremist or a secretive cell, but an assault by a partisan mob whipped up by an elected president,” she wrote.“I know from experience that leaving power is not easy – especially when you feel that there is more you want to do.“But anyone who has the honour of serving in such a position must always remember that the office is bigger than the individual.Inside Politics newsletterThe latest news on Brexit, politics and beyond direct to your inbox every weekdayInside Politics newsletterThe latest news on Brexit, politics and beyond direct to your inbox every weekday“The peaceful transfer of power is a hallmark of any democracy; it is what makes us special.”Ms May said the arrival of Mr Biden in the White House represented a “golden opportunity” for Britain, with the return of a more normal style of presidency.
However, for the full potential of “Global Britain” to be realised in this new era there needed to be a change in international affairs and an end to the “absolutism” which said “if you are not 100 per cent for me then you must be 100 per cent against me”, she wrote. More