Brexit news: EU getting ‘impatient’ over negotiations says Merkel, as talks enter crunch week

Ireland’s foreign minister Simon Coveney said he believes a deal can still be done, but that it is time to stop the “blame game”.

“The British government was offered a much longer transition period, and they turned it down, yet they’re now blaming the EU for it – that’s just ridiculous,” Coveney told BBC Radio Ulster.

He added: “But I think a deal is possible because the consequences of no deal are so costly and so disruptive, particularly for the UK and for Northern Ireland, but for the Republic of Ireland as well. So I think there’s a big incentive to get a deal done.”

Tory former chief whip Mark Harper, chair of the Covid Recovery Group (CRG) group of lockdown sceptics, welcomed the promise of prospect of extra support for pubs and restaurants caught in the highest restrictions.

Downing Street will today publish impact assessments of the health and economic consequences of its new tier system – and is expected to find more money for the hospitality industry.

“I welcome the fact that the government has recognised our concerns about the enormous impact that its proposals will have on the hospitality industry and has suggested further support,” said Harper – who said he was looking forward to seeing the “cost-benefit analysis we’ve been asking for”.

Drinkers could order a Scotch egg with their pint to get around tier 2 restrictions in England, cabinet minister George Eustice has suggested.

The environment secretary said the snack would constitute a “substantial meal” under the rules which will only allow alcohol to be served with food from Wednesday, saying provision in Tier 2 was “understood very much by the restaurant trade”.

He told LBC Radio: “I think a Scotch egg probably would count as a substantial meal if there were table service.”

The EU’s chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier is giving little away this morning. As he way his way through a crowd of anti-Brexit protesters to enter trade talks in London, Barnier was asked if there was reason for optimism. “There are reasons for determination,” he said.

First minister Nicola Sturgeon has admitted to mistakes over Scotland’s care homes that will “stay with me forever”. The SNP leader has been criticised for the Scottish government’s decision to transfer Covid patients from hospitals into care homes between March and May.

“I wouldn’t claim to be proud to be any aspect of coronavirus – it’s been a tragedy. I’ve never tried to pretend that mistakes haven’t been made,” she told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

Asked if she had regrets over mistakes over care homes, the first minister said: “Absolutely, in particular over care homes. That will stay with me forever. We took decisions around care homes with the intention of protecting people in care homes as much as possible.”

Ms Sturgeon attacked the BBC over its use on coronavirus death statistics, after Andrew Marr cited figures showing there were 50.5 deaths per million in Scotland in the week to 15 November, compared to 40.6 in England. The SNP leader told Today that the BBC had been “pulling a few weeks [of figures] out of nine-month pandemic”.  

So where are we on fishing quotas, thought to be the final big stumbling block to a Brexit trade deal? Dominic Raab described it as the last “major bone of contention”.

Well, over the weekend, a UK government source demanded the EU bring “fresh thinking” on Sunday – deriding a reported offer to reduce EU fleets’ quotas in British fishing waters by just 15 to 18 per cent as “risible”.

Confused? The EU is said to be offering to give Britain back 15 to 18 per cent of the quota European boats currently take from British waters, but the UK government is thought to want 80 per cent of the EU quota returned to UK fishermen. So they’re still far apart.

British and EU negotiators were said to be talking “late” on Sunday night to try to resolved the stand-off and find a rough “landing zone” for quotas. One UK official told Politico: “We can see a way through on level playing field issues, but at the moment we don’t on fish.”

The government ethics watchdog has been urged to investigate allegations Rishi Sunak breached the ministerial code of conduct by failing to declare his wife's financial interests worth hundreds of millions of pounds.

Labour MP Tonia Antoniazzi has written to the chair of the Committee on Standards in Public Life – raising concerns about the shareholdings and directorships held by Akshata Murty and her family.

In her letter, shared with The Independent, she highlights that the code of conduct states that ministers should provide a list of interests of their spouse of partner and close family “which might be thought to give rise to a conflict”.

It comes after The Guardian reported that Ms Murty was “richer than the Queen”.

Boris Johnson has written two letters to Tory MPs in the past 48 hours, in a desperate bid to get their backing for the new tier system at Tuesday’s big vote. He has agreed to set out the economic and health data behind the system today.

The PM tried and failed to defuse a major revolt with his first letter at the weekend, which promised a “sunset” expiration date of 3 February (with MPs getting another vote on the rules at the end of January).

There is confusion over the potential for tier boundaries to change after health secretary Matt Hancock reportedly told Leicestershire MPs that rural areas with low infection rates could be “decoupled” from the city (which has a higher incidence rate).  

With Labour undecided on its stance ahead of Tuesday’s vote, shadow foreign secretary Lisa Nandy said support for the system was “not unconditional”.

George Eustice has promised that farmers who rely on EU subsidy payments will not be left high and dry by the government's new, post-Brexit payment system.

The new “environmental land management” (ELM) scheme which will reward farmers for sustainable farming practices, creating new habitats and even re-wilding land.

Speaking to BBC Breakfast, the environment secretary said: "We are very mindful of the dependency on these subsidy payments; that is why we are not going to do this overnight. This will be an evolution, not a revolution; we are going to change things over seven years."

He continued: “What we believe in all of this is that if we properly reward farmers for what they do for the environment.”

A no-deal Brexit offers “new opportunities for British farmers”, a cabinet minister has claimed – despite their warnings that it would be “catastrophic”.

George Eustice, the environment secretary, brushed off fears of an effective embargo on exports and soaring food prices in British shops with just a month left to strike an agreement.

Instead, he argued British farmers would sell more in this country, reports Rob Merrick: