Inside Politics: Ireland open to ‘modest’ Brexit extensions

Batten down the hatches. Britain faces a battering from snow, ice and gale-force winds as part a front dubbed the ‘Beast from the East 2’. The winter weather may send a chill through No 10, with some Covid jab centres forced to close because of the beast’s return. Speaking of icy sequels, Michael Gove will once talk again to his EU counterpart Maros Sefcovic about problems in Northern Ireland. Can they thaw the frosty relations of the post-Brexit period?

Inside the bubble

Our political correspondent Ashley Cowburn on what to lookout for today:

Brexit will dominate business on the committee corridor.Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove will be grilled on border issues at theEuropean scrutiny committee at 2.45pm. Meanwhile, culture minister Caroline Dinenage faces questions from MPs on arrangements for artists touring in the EU at the petitions committee at 4.30pm.

Daily briefing

NICE AND EASY DOES IT: European Commission vice president Maros Sefcovic will visit London this week for talks with Michael Gove aimed at easing post-Brexit friction in Northern Ireland. Irish foreign minister Simon Coveney – in regular touch with both – says Ireland is open to “modest”extensions of waivers easing the movement of certain goods from GB to NI. But dialling down tensions in the six counties won’t stop the UK’s export crisis. Exports going through British ports to the EU fell by a whopping 68 per cent last month, according to the Road Haulage Association (RHA). The RHA has written to Gove pleading for“urgent intervention” to ease supply chain woes. “It’s very clear that government are not doing enough to address them,” said chief exec RichardBurnett – calling Gove the “master of extracting information from you and giving nothing back”. It comes as the Food and Drink Federation Cymru revealed that it’s now easier for EU countries to import lamb from New Zealand than from Wales.

THIRD TIME LUCKY? Vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi says the public can still have “confidence” in the UK’s vaccines, despite concerns about the Oxford-AstraZeneca jab’s effectiveness against the South Africa variant. It follows worrying news of a trial showing it offers “minimal protection” against mild disease from the variant. South Africa has put its own roll-out of theOxford vaccine on hold following the “disappointing” results. But Prof SarahGilbert, Oxford’s lead vaccine developer, has insisted the vaccine will still protect against severe disease. Scientists are busy working on a more effective “booster” vaccine which should be ready by autumn. Zahawi said millions of people are likely to need a third dose around then. Despite some vaccine centres closing early because of the wild weather yesterday, the government is confident of hitting 15 million jabs by 15 February – and reaching all over-50s by the start of May. Ministers “privately believe” it could be done by the end of March, according to The Times.

PAPERS, PLEASE: So what about the vaccine “passports” many predicted would be a feature of 2021? Won’t be happening, according to Nadhim Zahawi. The minister said the government had ruled out the idea of standardised certification to enable those who’ve had the jab to travel abroad. Interest rose again after the Greek prime minister said he would welcome British tourists if they could prove inoculation. But Zahawi said vaccine passports would be “discriminatory” – suggesting there were civil liberties concerns. “As Boris Johnson has quite rightly reminded parliament, that’s not how we do things in the UK, we do them by consent.” Labour’s shadow business secretary Ed Miliband said the government should at least remain “open” to the idea. Meanwhile, Labour’s Rachel Reeves will urge ministers to “clean up” Covid contracts. She gives a speech today calling for a new ethics watchdog, saying procurement had been “rife with conflicts of interest”.

EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT FLOP: Labour continues to offer the government political presents. Shadow attorney general Lord Falconer managed to help the Tory cause after he described the pandemic as a “gift that keeps on giving for lawyers”. The opposition frontbencher reportedly made the comment during an online Covid briefing for a law firm last June. “I very much regret my choice of words,” he said. Ed Miliband explained that his Labour colleague had been“talking in the context of lawyers and the way the law was changing”. But theTory party co-chairman Amanda Milling was unforgiving – claiming it showed that Labour was “playing politics” with the crisis. Miliband also struggled over the whole business of flag waving and patriotism during his appearance on Marr, saying “people have different views” about the UK flag. In other culture war news, Boris Johnson has commission former Labour MP John Woodcock to look into the influence of both the hard left and far-right in British politics.

PRIME TARGET: Has the time come for an Amazon tax? The online giant and other companies making large profits during the pandemic face an “excessive profits tax” now under consideration by the government.Chancellor Rishi Sunak has reportedly asked these firms to a meeting in the coming weeks to discuss how an online sales tax might work. The move is opposed by both The Telegraph and The Sun in editorials this morning. But the bosses of 17 major retailers – including Tesco and B&Q – back the move, saying in a letter: “We urge the government to rebalance the tax base.” Moving on from the retail wars to the civil war in the SNP, MP Neale Hanvey has been sacked from his frontbench role as vaccine spokesman. One SNP source claimed Hanvey had backed a campaign to sue fellow SNP MP Kirsty Blackman, who has clashed with recently-sacked justice spokesperson Joanna Cherry. “My principles are intact,” Hanvey tweeted.

DEM BONES: Joe Biden suggested he wanted to reset US-China policy after the Trump administration, saying there was no need for conflict between the two nations. But he managed to create unfortunate headlines by saying Chinese president Xi Jingping does not have a democratic “bone in his body”. In his CBS interview, Biden said: “I don’t mean it as a criticism, just the reality … he doesn’t have a democratic, small-D, bone in his body.” The first in a long series of gaffes with President Biden? He also said reading the up coming book by his son Hunter – documenting his substance abuse problems –had given him hope that “my boy’s back”. Meanwhile, Biden is set to announce that the US will re-join the UN Human Rights Council (whichDonald Trump left in 2018) to fight “injustice and tyranny” around the world.Washington is gearing up for the start of the Trump impeachment trial onTuesday. An ABC News poll found that 56 percent of Americans believe he should be convicted, while 43 percent say he should not be. 

On the record

“I find it pretty surprising that people find it controversial that Keir Starmer would appear with a union jack – he wants to be prime minister of the country.”

Ed Miliband defends his party’s leader.

From the Twitterati

“The woke warriors trying to stir up an advertising boycott of GB News, a channel that hasn’t even started broadcasting, are hilarious. 

Andrew Neil on those tweeting about his soon-to-launch GBNews…

“The irony is: Nobody is talking about actually censoring GBNews. I talked about simply refusing to pay them via their advertisers. And right-wingers gave me so much abuse I twitter-trended for 6hrs!”

…and Femi Oluwole defends tweeting potential advertisers.

Essential reading

Patrick Cockburn, The Independent: The UK-EU clash over Northern Ireland will have grave consequences

Fiona Sturges, The Independent: Jackie Weaver’s meeting exposes the sidelining of women everywhere

Nesrine Malik, The Guardian: Labour won’t beat the right at flag waving – it needs progressive patriotism

Albert Hunt, The Hill: ‘Purple America’ will determine the country’s political future

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