Brexit news – live: UK’s biggest fish market left ‘like ghost town’, as Eurostar under threat

Tory MPs are being urged to “vote with their consciences” when Labour attempts to reverse some of the post-Brexit rollover trade deals the UK has made with countries that are committing genocide.

Ministers want to reverse key amendments to the Trade Bill, recently passed by the House of Lords, when it returns to the Commons on Tuesday – including one which would force the government to withdraw from any free trade agreement with countries the High Court rules are carrying out any form of genocide.

Labour has highlighted “the situation in Xinjiang”, where there is a “growing body of evidence of systemic human rights abuses being committed by the Chinese government against the Muslim Uigher people”.  

Iain Duncan Smith is among the Tory MPs backing the amendment. A rebellion of around 40 Conservative in the Commons could put the government at risk of defeat – and jeopardise a trade deal with China.

So how seriously is the government taking Brexit supply problems? Brandon Lewis denied empty shelves were anything to do with Brexit – and also said there was no reason for lorries in Northern Ireland to return empty from Great Britain without expected goods due to excessive customs paperwork.  

“Even on foodstuffs, there’s no reason for that to be the case,” the Northern Ireland secretary told Radio 4’s Today programme. Yet Lewis also suggested UK officials were working EU counterparts to get a “permanent resolution” to post-Brexit problems.

Some supermarket shelves were depleted this month as suppliers grappled with new rules surrounding sending goods from GB to NI. The protocol means Northern Ireland follows the EU’s rules on matters like animal product standards.

Strangely, Lewis also told Today that the complex arrangements which have created an Irish Sea border give NI the “ability to trade as part of the EU single market”, giving it “a competitive advantage over pretty much any other country in the world”.  

The AFP agency has shared some interviews with fishermen from Scotland who staged protests over significant customs problems at Westminster on Monday. Allan Miller, owner of AM Shellfish in Aberdeen, said: “We always knew there would be problems, but never did we foresee what we’ve got in front of us.”

It’s not only Scottish fishing chiefs. Industry leaders from the south-west of England have written to the government claiming customs problems “could be the final straw for many businesses”.

Boris Johnson has blamed some of the problems on incorrect paperwork. But Mark Moore, manager of the Dartmouth Crab Company, said “it’s not about the increased documentation per se” – claiming that new customs systems weren’t allowing things to happen quickly enough.

He added: “It’s the volume required and the timeframe in which to produce it, which doesn’t lend itself to live shellfish and fish generally.”

The head of Eurostar has sounded alarm over the future rail company. The cross-Channel train service has been hurt badly by a lack of travel during the coronavirus pandemic as well as Brexit.

Jean-Pierre Farandou, the CEO of French state-owner company SNCF – which owns 55 per cent of Eurostar – told France Inter radio that ‘the situation is very critical for Eurostar”.

It follows a warning from UK business leaders calling for Boris Johnson’s government to help rescue the operator. London First wrote to the Treasury at the weekend urging it not to let Eurostar “fall between the cracks of support” offered to domestic railways.

The UK government sold its stake in Eurostar to private companies in 2015 for around £750m.

Alok Sharma is currently facing questions from MPs at the business and energy committee – who are grilling him on the COP26 climate summit and the government’s net zero targets.

Last week, No 10 appointed Sharma full-time president in charge of the vital summit in Glasgow this November.

You can watch live here on Independent TV.

Labour have gained a narrow lead over the Conservatives in the latest YouGov survey. Keir Starmer’s party stays on 39 per cent, while Boris Johnson’s party falls one point to 38 per cent. At the weekend an Opinion poll showed Labour opening up a four-point lead on the Tories.

James Withers, the chief executive of the Scotland Food and Drink body, has shared images of the deserted fish market in Peterhead, near Aberdeen – the biggest anywhere in the continent. “What a sad sight. Europe’s biggest fish market in Peterhead like a ghost town.”

Long delays sorting out customs problems has meant EU buyers rejecting produce. Prices were reported to have dropped 80 per cent at Peterhead last week, and desperate Scottish fishing vessels have headed to Denmark to flog their produce.

The nominations to succeed Richard Leonard as the next leader of the Scottish Labour Party have closed – and MSP Anas Sarwar would appear the clear frontrunner. He received nominations from 16 MSPs and one MP, while Monica Lennon got the nod from five MSPs.  

It means Sarwar and Lennon will be on the ballot – which opens for members to vote on 9 February and closes on 26 February.

Former Conservative party leader Iain Duncan Smith has come out in favour of retaining the increase to Universal Credit until the pandemic is firmly behind the country.

Describing the measure as a “generous uplift” the former work and pensions minister said it was too soon to scrap the £20 a week increase to the benefit.

“Until [government] absolutely knows where we are with the fall-out from Covid, which may take many months yet they should not seek to make changes to the welfare system at this particular point - but to actually keep this under review and to see how this is working as we get through Covid”, he said on the BBC’s Politics Live.

“So if we are coming out and we see that then let’s look for the employment figures to fall back down again on unemployment and for people to be able to start to raise their incomes and that I think is the starting point for review.”

Musicians are being treated as "mere collateral" by the Government as the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement fails to provide touring visas, an SNP MP said.

Referring to his days touring in Europe with the band Runrig, Pete Wishart (Perth and North Perthshire) told the Commons: "Touring Europe means everything to our artists and musicians.

"The thrill of that first tour, crammed into the Transit van with all your gear, four to a room in a cheap hotel in Paris, Rotterdam or Hamburg. Using what's left of the fee for a post-gig beer.

"The dream that when you come back it will be a lavish tour bus, staying in five-star hotels.

"Gone, all gone. Musicians and artists mere collateral in this Government's obsession in ending freedom of movement."