Brexit news – live: EU may not turn up to trade talks as foreign aid cut to stay for ‘foreseeable future’

Amid anger over the government’s allocation of tier categories across England, the BBC’s Lewis Goodall reports that Tory health minister Helen Whateley has had a “pretty difficult” phone call with fellow MPs.

The head of Northern Ireland's judiciary has warned that problems from Brexit will probably fall to courts to resolve

Lord Chief Justice, Sir Declan Morgan stressed it was too early to say which, if any, issues would arise but noted public debate over the future of the European Arrest Warrant – which is used to send suspected criminals either way across the Irish border to face courts.

He noted from experience, he told a Stormont committee today, that it was rare that legislation was well written enough to avoid any prospect of legal challenge.

Sir Declan added: “It does not necessarily follow that civil and political rights are going to be materially impacted.”

Alongside the inevitable analysis of how Boris Johnson’s new chief of staff could influence the future direction of Downing Street, much is also being made of Dan Rosenfield’s committed support of Manchester United.

The Times’s Patrick Maguire highlights this insightful anecdote, gleaned from an interview with the Jewish Telegraph:

Boris Johnson will be holding a press conference at around 5pm, following the controversial announcement of coronavirus tier allocations across England.

Boris Johnson opens his Downing Street conference by saying:

“We now have reason to hope that by spring community testing and vaccines will combine to end this era of restrictions, but to get there we must first navigate a hard winter when the burden on our NHS is heaviest and the cold weather favours the virus.”

Boris Johnson said that while the lockdown has shown progress in diminishing infection rates, “if we ease off now, we risk losing control of this virus all over again, casting aside our hard-won gains, and forcing us back into a new year national lockdown with all the damage that would mean”.

“The tough measures in our winter plan are the best way to avoid this outcome. All our friends around the world are grappling with the same question of how to keep people safe without retreating into a winter of hibernation,” the prime minister said.

He cited a nightly curfew in Italy, the extension of Germany’s partial lockdown until 20 December, and France’s hospitality closure until January.

The government’s allocation of tiers are based on five indicators, Boris Johnson reiterates: cases across all ages, infection rates, testing positivity rates, and the possible strain on the NHS.

The government will be publishing data packs containing the reasons behind the decisions taken for each area on its website, he said.

Discussing the decision to place most of England in the highest tiers, the prime minister said: “I know this will bring a great deal of heartache and frustration, especially for our vital hospitality sector … in so many ways the soul of our communities.

“I really wish it were otherwise, but if we are going to keep schools open, as we must, then our options in bearing down on the disease are necessarily limited.”

The tiers “strike a balance”, he said, adding that they are “less intrusive” than a lockdown.

“There’s no doubt that the restrictions in all tiers are tough, and I’m sorry about that,” he said. “While the data is beginning to improve, the virus is still prevalent, and the faster we drive it down, the faster we can lift restrictions, and that’s exactly what these new tiers are designed to achieve.”

In a likely reference to widespread anger over the apparent lack of a visible path out of higher tiers, Mr Johnson insisted that the “new approach” to the tier system is “designed to reduce the R below 1, opening a path for areas to move down the scale as soon as the situation improves”.

He added: “Crucially, we now have the means to accelerate that moment of escape with rapid community testing”.

As the government seeks to explain why nearly all of England has been placed in Tiers 2 and 3, Chris Whitty has suggested that the lowest tier is not enough to stop rising infections, with the middle category of restrictions likely only enough to “hold the line”.

“Tier 1, which is very similar to the previous Tier 1, slowed things down but did not stop the rise anywhere … [in winter] almost certainly anywhere that goes into Tier 1 will rise,” England’s top medic said.

“Tier 2 looks as if it is strong enough to hold the line – so stop things rising but not reliably to pull things down. And Tier 3, we think based on previous experience, is strong enough to pull things down from a higher peak.”

“What we’ve got to do is keep our eye on the prize and remember that in just a few months, we will have a vaccine – I’m absolutely convinced of it now … Chris [Whitty] has finally talked me into it – that by April, things genuinely will be much, much better,” Boris Johnson said.

“But what we want to avoid is relaxing now too much, taking our foot off the throat of the beast now, when we’ve got it in a much, much better place than it was before the autumn measures came in.”