Donald Tusk, the president of the European council, has played down the prospect of financial services being fully included in at Brexit trade deal. (See 4.12pm.) On a visit to Dublin, Tusk also said that it was hard to see how there could be “substantive progress” in the Brexit talks until the UK came up with a solution to the Irish border issue. In his statement he said:
We know today that the UK government rejects: “a customs and regulatory border down the Irish Sea”; the EU Single Market and the customs union. While we must respect this position, we also expect the UK to propose a specific and realistic solution to avoid a hard border. As long as the UK doesn’t present such a solution, it is very difficult to imagine substantive progress in Brexit negotiations. If in London someone assumes that the negotiations will deal with other issues first, before moving to the Irish issue, my response would be: Ireland first.
Leo Varadkar, the Irish prime minister, has hinted that he is still hoping for the UK to change its stance on Brexit. (See 4.26pm.)
Boris Johnson has been visiting a primary school. He looks a bit glum. Perhaps he’s been reading what Politics Live said about him earlier. (See 3.38pm.)
Boris Johnson sits with Year 1 pupils from the Stingray class during a visit to St Leonard’s Church of England Primary Academy in Hastings. Photograph: Dylan Martinez/AFP/Getty Images
In an interview for ITV Julie Etchingham asked Theresa May, after a series of questions mostly about the government’s proposed domestic violence legislation, what would be her perfect night out if she wanted to “let her hair down” with girlfriends. Etchingham got a very Mayish answer. After saying she did not have time to “have the girls round”, May said:
Well, I don’t think that when you let your hair down there’s only one way of doing it. I think it depends on the group that you’ve got, it depends on the time. But as I say, my International Women’s Day is rather more focused not on what we can do to enjoy ourselves but actually on what we can do to help women out there, women who are suffering, women who are being abused and whose lives are being made a daily living hell.
The leader of the Scottish Lib Dems, Willie Rennie, has written to other party leaders at Holyrood calling for them to meet to discuss the recall of MSPs.
The letter comes after the resignation from the SNP earlier this week of Mark McDonald, who admitted “unacceptable” behaviour towards women following a series of complaints, but has insisted on remaining as an independent MSP.
Rennie is inviting the other leaders to “collectively look at the range of sanctions and mechanisms available in future in the event that elected members are found to have done wrong”, noting that one of the powers devolved to the Scottish Parliament last year was the ability to make provisions for the recall of MSPs.
Last week, a survey of staff working at the Scottish parliament found that, of those who had experienced sexual harassment, 45% said that the perpetrator was an MSP.
Court rules Arlene Foster wrong to hold back funding for Troubles inquests
Henry McDonald
Westminster kingmaker Arlene Foster has been censured by a court in Northern Ireland today over her decision to hold back extra finance for inquests into unsolved killings from the Ulster Troubles.
The Democratic Unionist leader, whose 10 MPs still keep Theresa May in power, was criticised by a high court judge for her “unlawful and flawed” decision to block funds for a number of inquests when she was first minister.
Mr Justice Paul Girvan ruled today that Foster was wrong to postpone the funding of the inquests until a full political deal was reached on how to cope with the region’s violent conflict.
In the light of the ruling Amnesty International called on the secretary of state Karen Bradley to urgently release cash for the inquests most of which deal with controversial killings involving the security forces.
Victims are not political fodder - their right to justice must not be held to ransom until an agreement is reached at Stormont.
The secretary of state must act without delay following today’s ruling and immediately release funding for legacy inquests.
A failure to do so would show utter contempt for victims who have long been paying the price for the failure of government to effectively deal with the past.
It is time the UK government treated this issue with the urgency it demands.
Varadkar hints he's still hoping UK will change its stance on Brexit
Speaking alongside Donald Tusk in Dublin, Leo Varadkar, the Irish prime minister, hinted that he is still hoping the UK will change its stance on Brexit. He said:
I welcome the European Union’s assurance that we enter the negotiations with an open and positive, constructive mind that will allow for a possible evolution of the UK position in the future, allowing ours to evolve as well.
Varadkar was probably referring to Theresa May’s determination to take the UK out of the single market and the customs union - a red line that, as John Springford explains very clearly in this Centre for European Reform analysis, makes it impossible to see how she can also avoid the return of a hard border in Ireland, and protect the integrity of the UK as a single regulatory space.
Springford describes this as May’s Irish trilemma. She can have any two of the three outcomes she wants - but not all three because they are incompatible.
In the FTA [free trade agreement] we can offer trade in goods with the aim of covering all sectors, subject to zero tariffs and no quantitative restrictions.
But services are not about tariffs. Services are about common rules, common supervision and common enforcement, to ensure a level playing field, to ensure the integrity of the single market and ultimately also to ensure financial stability.
This is why we cannot offer the same in services as we can offer in goods. It’s also why FTAs don’t have detailed rules for financial services.
We should all be clear that, also when it comes to financial services, life will be different after Brexit.
When it was put to him that Hammond said it was in the interests of both sides for British banks to have easy access to the single market, Tusk replied:
I fully respect the chancellor’s competence in defining what is in the UK’s interest. He must allow us to define what is in the EU’s interest.
To drive the point home, Tusk, or more likely whoever runs his Twitter account, has also put this on Twitter.
Life will be different after #Brexit, also for financial services. I fully respect UK Chancellor’s competence in defining UK’s interest. I would ask to allow us define what’s in EU’s interest.
Ireland must come first in Brexit talks, says European council president
Donald Tusk, the president of the European council, has said that Ireland must come first in the Brexit talks. He made the comment on a visit to Dublin, where he is meeting the Irish prime minister Leo Varadkar.
These are from the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg and Sky’s Darren McCaffrey.
Tusk - "If in London someone assumes that the negotiations will deal with other issues first, before coming to the Irish issue my response would be: Ireland first.” - more on #Brexitcast soon
Jeremy Corbyn has admitted having been a member of a controversial private Facebook group about Palestine but denied ever seeing some of the antisemitic messages that were reportedly posted on it. Asked about this on a visit to Alfreton, Derbyshire, he told the Press Association:
I was joined on to that group without knowing it in probably about 2013/14.
I removed myself from the group in 2015. I replied by Facebook message to a couple of things about a suggestion on the vote on recognising Palestine, which I supported, and inviting a doctor to speak at an event.
I have never trawled through the whole group. I have never read all the messages on it. I have removed myself from it.
Obviously, any antisemitic comment is wrong. Any antisemitism in any form is wrong.
Corbyn also said that Labour “doesn’t tolerate” antisemitism “in any form” and that he would have challenged any abusive posts if he had seen them.
Had I seen it, of course, I would have challenged it straight away but I actually don’t spend all my time reading social media.
Jeremy Corbyn receives a gift that depicts him riding a llama, as he has a selfie taken with Katie Abey during a special event in Alfreton, Derbyshire on International Women’s Day. Photograph: Danny Lawson/PA
Boris Johnson, the foreign secretary, has posted this on Twitter to show that he is doing his bit for International Women’s Day.
Proud to support International Women's Day on my morning run. Much to celebrate, but still much more to achieve, including 12yrs of quality education & learning for all girls #IWD2018pic.twitter.com/kpThmWkrzK
Not everyone will be willing to accept the notion of Johnson as a feminist. Sonia Purnell, who published a good but highly critical biography of him some years ago, wrote this about him for the Guardian’s women’s blog five years ago, when Johnson was still mayor of London.
Repeated claims by Johnson to be a feminist have perhaps helped win him an unaccountably large proportion of the female vote. But they do not sit comfortably with his poor record in appointing women to senior positions or promoting them in the public eye – how many of you know Isabel Dedring, his only female deputy mayor with a portfolio?
Then there is the laddish banter he slips so easily into in private – or occasionally the pages of the Daily Telegraph, which for him is almost the same thing. Remember his references to Olympic female volleyball-players “glistening like wet otters”? He’s certainly not popular with many women at City Hall, and has been the subject of complaints about the offensive language that he hurls at female members of the London assembly. He described one of them as “economically illiterate”, addresses most of them as “dear” and overspeaks their contributions with such words as: “blah, blah, blah fishcakes”. The fact is that the closer people get to Boris the more sexist they realise he is – as the geniality wears thin.
The Commons Brexit committee has published the confidential government Brexit impact report which ministers wanted to keep private. It models three Brexit outcome, and concludes that Britain would become poorer over the next 15 years under all three. And it quashes suggestions that there would be a “Brexit dividend”. (See 1.16pm.) The government does not accept the conclusions are valid, because officials did not model the Brexit outcome it hopes to achieve, but campaigners claim the report shows Theresa May is pursuing a policy that she knows will damage the economy. Open Britain, which is campaigning for a soft Brexit, released a statement from the Labour MP Chris Leslie saying:
The government can no longer conceal the grim fact that they are leading us to a new era of austerity. As new facts like these emerge about the monumental costs of Brexit, everyone is right to keep an open mind about whether it is all worth it.
The president of the British Chambers of Commerce, Francis Martin, has suggested that firms could move abroad if the government does not secure a Brexit transition deal soon. Speaking at the BCC conference, he said:
Over the next fortnight, the government must deliver a swift agreement on transition that gives business short-term certainty - and they must strain every sinew to deliver a pragmatic long-term settlement that keeps trade and commerce flowing.
The time for political posturing on both sides is over. The time for getting stuck into the detail and answering those real world business questions has arrived, otherwise there’s the very real possibility that we will see business hiring less, investing less, or, worst of all, looking elsewhere for future growth.
Liam Fox, the international trade secretary, has suggested EU countries wanting to punish the UK for leaving are acting like a gang. Speaking at the BCC conference, he said:
Punishing Britain to me is not the language of the club it is the language of the gang.
The EU has said the UK owes it £2.4bn because of its failure to tackle customs fraud. (See 2.09pm.)
Jeremy Corbyn has aired his support for Picturehouse cinema employees who are staging a strike on International Women’s Day over a long-running pay row. As the Press Association reports, staff will protest outside Picturehouse Central near Piccadilly Circus in London between 6pm and 9pm on Thursday, and they will be joined for the protest by campaigners from the International Women’s Strike. Members of the Bectu union at five cinemas across the capital have been on strike for almost two years for the London living wage, sick pay, maternity and paternity pay, and union recognition. Corbyn said in a statement:
I want to send my solidarity to Bectu members on strike at Picturehouse cinemas on March 8. I fully support your campaign to be paid the real living wage and to tackle the injustices that you face in your workplace. We desperately need an economy that works for the many, not the few.
The former prime minister Tony Blair has been named as the first British recipient of an award for leadership in memory of Abraham Lincoln. As the Press Association reports, the Lincoln Leadership Prize honours figures who show “great strength of character, individual conscience and unwavering commitment to the defining principles of democracy” in a lifetime of service in the spirit of the 16th president of the United States. Naming Blair as its 2018 winner, the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation cited his stewardship of the Northern Ireland peace process, introduction of the National Minimum Wage and civil partnerships, “revitalisation” of public services including health and education, improvements to maternity rights, success in lifting people out of poverty and equality and human rights legislation. Previous winners include Bill Clinton, Lech Walesa, Steven Spielberg and Desmond Tutu. (They don’t include Jeremy Corbyn, but last year he was awarded the Séan MacBride Peace Prize - prompting complaints in some quarters that the media refused to cover the news out of bias.)
EU says UK owes it £2.4bn because of failure to tackle customs fraud
Jennifer Rankin
The EU executive has said the UK owes €2.7bn (£2.4bn) to Brussels for alleged failure to tackle customs fraud, as it launched legal action against the government.
While the case is unrelated to Brexit, the threat of a hefty payment to Brussels is bound to raise tensions as the UK and EU debate customs arrangements to avoid a hard border on the island of Ireland.
The European commission announced it was sending a letter of formal notice to the government over its refusal “to make customs duties available to the EU budget as required by EU law”. Citing a confidential report by the EU’s anti-fraud office Olaf, the commission said the UK “negligence” had allowed customs fraud that caused a €2.7bn loss to the EU budget. “The UK must assume the financial consequences of its violations of union rules,” the commission said.
A government spokesman said it would respond in due course to the commission, but did not recognise the estimates of alleged duty loss.
The case came to light last year, after EU anti-fraud investigators, accused British customs officials of turning a blind eye to criminal gangs using fake invoices and making false claims about the value of clothes and shoes imported from China. France, Germany, Spain and Italy lost a combined €3.2bn from 2013 to 2016 in VAT revenues, as a result of British failures in handling imports at its ports, according to Olaf.
A letter of formal notice is the first stage in the EU’s legal process against rule-breaking. It could lead to the government being taken to the European court of justice, although most cases are settled without going to a judge.
The British government has agreed that any cases registered at the ECJ on Brexit day, should be allowed to continue to a binding ruling. But the UK wants to ensure British lawyers can continue to be involved, a point that needs to be settled in ongoing Brexit negotiations.
We do not recognise the European commission’s estimate of alleged duty loss. We take customs fraud very seriously and we continue to evolve our response as new threats emerge.
HMRC has a very strong track record for tackling evasion and rule-breaking of all kinds, securing a record £28.9 billion last year that would otherwise have gone unpaid.
Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby greeting Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at Lambeth Palace today. Photograph: Yui Mok/AFP/Getty Images
Diverging from EU rules will damage the UK economy, the confidential government analysis suggests. After the recent Chequers meeting where a cabinet committee settled the government’s Brexit approach, pro-Brexiters briefed that divergence had “won the day”. But the analysis looks at how Brexit could affect the economy under three scenarios and concludes “the most important driver of the GDP estimates is the change in NTBs [non-tariff barriers - regulatory burdens that would increase as a result of regulatory divergence] in each scenario.”
Impact of regulatory divergence after Brexit Photograph: Brexit committee
My colleague Heather Stewart suggests that this is the chart showing how much Boris Johnson’s demands could cost the economy.
Remember the Chequers awayday when "divergence won"? Orange boxes here are govt's estimates of hit to GDP from "gradual regulatory divergence". The cost of keeping Boris on board? pic.twitter.com/8mvL49365a
The north east of England would suffer most economically, and London least, under Brexit, the government analysis suggests. But all parts of the UK would end up poorer under all three Brexit scenarios modelled.
Regional impact of Brexit under three scenarios Photograph: Brexit committee
The analysis quashes claims that the government would benefit from a Brexit dividend. This chart shows the estimated impact of the three Brexit scenarios on government borrowing. Although the Treasury would gain by not having to pay into the EU budget (the yellow bars - below the zero line because the impact of that on government borrowing would be negative), the analysis suggests this in no way compensates for the amount the exchequer would lose, particularly from lower tax receipts caused by the impact of NTBs on trade (the green bars). Overall (look at the line on the chart with the black diamonds), after 15 years annual net borrowing would be around £20bn higher under the EEA option, almost £60bn higher under the free trade agreement option and more than £80bn higher under the WTO option.
Impact of Brexit on government borrowing Photograph: Brexit committee
Of course, it has to be said that the government does not accept this analysis. It says the report is flawed because it does not take into account the Brexit trade deal it hopes to achieve.
In a briefing after the meeting last night, Number 10 said it would be “direct investment in the UK and new Saudi public procurement with UK companies” and called it a “significant boost for UK prosperity and a clear demonstration of the strong international confidence in our economy as we prepare to leave the European Union.”
New investment and procurement opportunities will be spread across education, training and skills, financial and investment services, culture and entertainment, healthcare services and life sciences, technology and renewable energy and the defence industry, a spokesman said.
On Thursday, the prime minister’s spokesman said there was not a specific timescale for the investment to happen. “This is agreement in relation to investment opportunities over the coming years,” he said. He went on:
Essentially, as and when the agreements are reached they will be announced in due course over the coming years. Precise details will follow. Yesterday’s agreement is an ambition.
Downing Street denied it was a guess. “It was obviously based on a meeting which the prime minister and the Crown Prince and other ministers had yesterday,” he said, though he said they could not be more specific on the timeframe.
At the Numbe 10 lobby briefing Downing Street would not be drawn on whether the condition of the British policemen seriously ill after the Salisbury attack would escalate the government’s response. “It’s important we establish the facts,” a Downing Street spokesman said. “If we move to attribution, we will need all the facts.”
Theresa May’s spokesman said the attack in Salisbury was “an appalling and reckless crime and the public will rightly want those responsible to be identified and held to account. He went on:
But it is important that we avoid speculation and allow police and others to rigorously establish the full facts.
As the home secretary and foreign secretary have made clear, our response to those found to be responsible will be robust.
Comments (…)
Sign in or create your Guardian account to join the discussion