Boris Johnson news: More than half of Britons ‘think Tories made wrong decision keeping PM’

Labour will vote against a government bill that would give powers to ministers to override parts of the Northern Ireland Protocol, Sir Keir Starmer says.

Speaking in Belfast after talks with political leaders, the party leader said: “We will vote against the legislation the government is putting before parliament. We think it is the wrong approach.

“I’m not pretending there aren’t issues and challenges with the protocol, of course there are.

“We have been listening to the political parties here, to communities, to business groups. I think those challenges can be overcome around the negotiating table with statecraft, with high levels of trust.

“It is that high level of trust that is missing with this Prime Minister, and I think he is making a mistake by going down the route of legislation which will breach international law and, actually, I think, be an impediment to the negotiations that, in the end, are going to resolve these difficult issues.”

Sir Keir confirmed that, if in power, Labour would scrap the proposed legislation to override parts of the Northern Ireland Protocol.

He also called for “give and take” from both EU and UK negotiators.

“We would scrap the legislation, and I think there has been an impasse in the negotiations because we haven’t seen the high levels of trust that we need for negotiations like this, not least from our prime minister.

“But also we need give and take on both sides. The EU, as well as the UK, to give and take, to be flexible about the approach.

“I do not think that the remaining issues of the protocol cannot be resolved with a different approach, with that high level of trust, with an honest broker prime minister getting people around the table and negotiating what needs to be negotiated.”

Downing Street has attacked a think tank’s allegation that Rishi Sunak wasted £11 billion of taxpayers’ money by paying too much interest servicing government debt.

A No 10 spokesman said: “It’s simply not true, and the measures that are proposed would’ve come with huge economic risks and would have undermined the Bank of England’s independence.

“Specifically, forcing commercial banks to swap reserves for gilts undermines the independence of the Bank of England and would be an act of financial repression.

“And the £11 billion figure itself is based on an implausible assumption.

“Getting to that figure requires perfect foresight of market prices. It essentially says that two years ago you would’ve known exactly where the Bank’s rate and bond yields would have been now.”

Sir Keir Starmer says Labour will oppose controversial legislation to address the legacy of the Troubles in Northern Ireland.

“We will vote against that legislation because it doesn’t have the support of any of the political parties here in Northern Ireland. It doesn’t have the support of victims’ groups here in Northern Ireland, some of whom have told me themselves they haven’t even been consulted,” he said.

“And it hasn’t got the support of the Irish government.”

Boris Johnson has condemned the “sham” trial of two Britons sentenced to death by the Russian authorities for fighting in Ukraine, as the government comes under pressure to ensure their release.

Downing Street said the prime minister was “appalled” at the sentencing of Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner, write Ashley Cowburn and Adam Forrest.

Sir Keir Starmer condemned the sentences, sayig he agrees with the Government’s approach to securing their release.

“I utterly condemn the action that’s been taken in relation to the two Britons involved and they should be treated as prisoners of war.

“The Government is right on this and I think it’s very important that we say there’s no party politics in this - we stand as one in condemning what is happening here and demanding in the strongest possible terms that they be treated as prisoners of war,” he said.

Sir Keir Starmer has called the government’s Rwanda plan a “chaotic diversion” and said Labour instead would form “a proper plan with the French authorities” to tackle people-smuggling.

When asked what Labour’s alternative to the policy would be, he said: “I think it’s very important that we all say, loud and clear, that we don’t want anybody making that dangerous crossing across the Channel.

“We don’t want these people-smugglers to make profit from their business and we need to go after them hard.

“That includes working with the French authorities, working upstream to tackle the criminals that are behind this.

“The Government’s Rwanda scheme is a chaotic diversion, not-thought-through scheme which isn’t going to solve the problem.”

Brexit is largely to blame for billions being lost in trade and tax revenues in recent years, according to a study by top economists.

The Centre for European Reform said that by the end of last year, Britain’s economy was 5.2 per cent – or £31bn – smaller than it would have been without Brexit and the Covid pandemic, writes Adam Forrest:

Tory peer David Frost – the former Brexit minister who quite government at the end of last year – has said he is “thinking” about standing as an MP.

“We’ll see if the opportunity arises and it might and it might not, we’ll see … I am thinking about it,” he told LBC.

Five days before the May 2015 general election, then Labour Party leader Ed Miliband unveiled a giant monument bearing a handful of policy pledges.

Telegraph columnist and sometime London mayor Boris Johnson called it a “weird commie slab”.

But what happened to it? Joe Sommerlad investigates:

Members of the public called out to the PM asking whether he was having a party, as he arrived at the Royal Cornwall Show.

Making an unannounced visit to the show, Mr Johnson was photographed alongside farm animals.

He said there were fantastic opportunities for development on brown-field sites in the county, and the government needed to use the tax system to ensure local people had the right to buy property locally.

Boris Johnson is expected to join the campaign trail in Tiverton and Honiton later today ahead of a crucial by-election fight in just under a fortnight, reports Ashley Cowburn: