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

Our deputy political editor Rob Merrick has this report on the warning from England’s top medic that people should not expect to escape harsh restrictions over the next few months.

Boris Johnson’s top scientific advisers have warned Britons not to hug elderly relatives at Christmas, despite new rules allowing it.

Our political editor Andrew Woodcock has the details here:

Weston-super-Mare MP John Penrose has issued a statement criticising the “illogical” decision to place his area in the highest tier.

ITV’s Paul Brand points out that he may not have far to look for the person overseeing the most viable solution…

The UK’s former Brexit secretary has seen fit to write to Oliver Dowden to expedite a ban on phone companies selling “locked” handsets, following a personal row with Vodafone’s customer service team.

His decision to lambast the company on social media earlier this week drew this response from comedian James Felton:

Following reports that the EU’s chief Brexit trade talks negotiator Michel Barnier has arranged an “urgent” meeting with fishing ministers, various Europe-based correspondents have been told that this is not as a result of any breakthrough on the major sticking point.

EU assessments of whether to grant market access for banks and other financial firms from Britain will not be completed in time for January and stop-gap measures are being considered, an EU diplomat has said.

Britain's unfettered access to the EU under transition arrangements ends on 31 December, leaving the City of London faced with being cut off from its biggest export customer, worth around £26bn each year.

The EU assessments are being made by the European Commission, which declined to comment, under the bloc's system of direct financial market access known as equivalence.

“The European Commission told member states on Thursday that the equivalence decisions won't be ready from 1 January,” said the EU diplomat, who took part in the closed-door briefing.

"They are now looking at how to handle the gap," said the person, who spoke on condition of anony

Reuters

ICYMI yesterday, this clip of Emily Thornberry’s row with Liz Truss over the latter’s claims about the financial benefits of the UK’s post-Brexit deal with Japan is still doing the rounds on social media.

Ms Thornberry said: “Until she can provide her own assessment of the difference between the two deals, she should stop making exaggerated claims over – I quote – ‘the additional economic benefits’ of her deal because she, quite frankly, hasn’t got the figures to back them up.”

The FT’s Sebastian Payne reports that, with the appointment of Dan Rosenfield as Downing Street  chief of staff, “the culture shift in No 10 … could be marked”.

“Dan’s been clear about his terms,” the paper reported a friend of Mr Rosenfield as saying. “The rule of law, constitutional proprieties, less of the quixotic attacks on institutions.” 

Here’s our columnist Andrew Grice’s analysis of the battles facing Boris Johnson over the designation of much of England into the highest tiers of coronavirus restrictions.

He writes: “Ministers had come under intense lobbying from MPs, council leaders and mayors to put their areas in the lowest tier possible to protect businesses. But the government has rewritten the old saying that “you can’t please all of the people all of the time”; when it comes to Covid-19, it really cannot please anyone.”

If the Home Office were an animal, it would be a vulture, alligator, sloth or even a cockroach, young migrants have said in a new report focused on the mental health impacts of the UK’s immigration system.

Published today by We Belong, an organisation led by young people who migrated to the UK, the report features in-depth interviews with 15 young migrants living in the UK under the Limited Leave to Remain (LLR) programme. 

My colleague, Chantal Da Silva, has the details here: