Brexit news: EU leaders vow to block any trade deal if Boris Johnson breaches withdrawal agreement as Ireland accuses PM of ‘unprecedented provocation’

‘Well done Liz Truss’: Reaction to UK-Japan trade deal

Foreign secretary Dominic Raab tweeted: “Well done Liz Truss - great to be forging an even stronger relationship with Japan, as we look to the enormous opportunities for the future in the Indo-Pacific region.”

Commons leader Jacob Rees-Mogg added: “Two independent nation states, islands off great continents, may trade together and prosper.”

But as our economic editor Ben Chu points out, the UK’s trade with Japan is tiny compared with the EU.

Tory MP demands debate on ‘draconian restrictions on our liberty’

Backbencher Sir Christopher Chope has raised concerns that the government has yet to lay new Covid-19 regulations before parliament.

On Monday, a new so-called “rule of six” is being introduced limiting the number of people who can socialise together indoors or outdoors in England to six people. However, the statutory instrument needed to enact the rule change has yet to be laid before parliament.

Raising a point of order in the Commons, Sir Christopher said: “I’m very concerned about the lack of opportunity for people, the public first of all, to see the text of these new regulations and I’m also concerned about the continuing reluctance of the government to give any opportunities to members to debate this.”

The MP added: “What we are talking about is the most draconian introduction of new restrictions on our liberty with criminal sanctions and we need to be made aware of what’s happening and given the opportunity of debating it.”

Gordon Brown warns of post-furlough jobs crash

Britain is a facing a “tsunami of unemployment” unless efforts to protect jobs are stepped up, Gordon Brown has warned.

The former Labour PM told the BBC: “I think that there should now be an operational target that interest rates will not rise and stimulus will continue until employment returns to pre-crisis levels.

“I think the Bank of England, at this point, is, I’m afraid, behind the curve. They have got to send a signal that employment really matters. We are facing a tsunami of unemployment. The Office of Budget Responsibility says unemployment will double in the next few weeks.

He added: “I think the government has got to change course here.”

Asked if that meant keeping the jobs furlough scheme beyond the end of October, Brown said: “That means keeping people in the labour market if at all possible. Probably by some incentive like in France and Germany for part-time work, which is going to go through in these countries right through 2021.”

He said this is “a one-in-100-year event”, adding: “This is unprecedented. It’s totally unique.”

Spitting Image is back

The legendary political satire Spitting Image returns to our screens at the start of October – just in time for the mounting Brexit mayhem. The programme makers have released this rather terrifying image of Michael Gove. Sweet dreams.

Government announces Christmas ‘truce’ on evictions  

Bailiffs have been told they cannot evict people over Christmas in a “winter truce” announced by the government.

A ban on eviction enforcement in the run up to and during the holiday season will hold in England and Wales except in the “most serious circumstances”, such as anti-social behaviour or domestic abuse, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) said on Thursday.

Labour said the ban on evictions must not end until the government had a “credible plan” to keep its promise that no renter should lose their home because of coronavirus.

PM: Britain will thrive as a trading nation outside the EU

Boris Johnson has hailed the free trade agreement with Japan, congratulating his trade minister Liz Truss.

“Congratulations to Truss Liz and all who took part in these negotiations. We have taken back control of our trade policy and will continue to thrive as a trading nation outside the EU.”

PM to address Tory MPs this afternoon

Boris Johnson has called a Zoom meeting of Conservative MPs for 5pm this afternoon, according to reports. He is preparing to gee them up to back his international law-breaking Brexit bill?

The second reading of the UK Internal Market Bill is on Monday, and a group of rebels have already table an amendment that would give parliament a veto on the bill.

Sir Bob Neill is thought to be one of up to 30 Tories ready to vote against the government.

Has PM planned to ignore withdrawal deal all along?

Did Boris Johnson, Dominic Cummings and Michael Gove know all along they would tear up parts of the withdrawal deal? It’s the intriguing idea floated in respected commentator Fintan O’Toole’s latest piece.  

As he points out, the PM’s most senior advisor Dominic Cummings wrote on his blog back in March 2019: “Don’t worry about the so-called ‘permanent’ commitments this historically abysmal Cabinet are trying to make on our behalf.  

“They are not ‘permanent’ and a serious government — one not cowed by officials and their bullshit ‘legal advice’ with which they have herded ministers like sheep — will dispense with these commitments and any domestic law enforcing them.”

Michael Gove wrote back in December 2017: “If the British people dislike the agreement that we have negotiated with the EU, the agreement will allow a future government to diverge.”

And as Tory MP Steve “Brexit hardman” Baker wrote in May of this year: “[Cummings] said we should vote for the original Withdrawal Agreement without reading it, on the basis Michael Gove articulated: we could change it later.”

Has the truth been hiding in plain sight?

‘Hot and heavy’ debate on stalling Brexit port checkpoint work

Stormont ministers are to resume debate on a contentious proposal to stall work on new Brexit port checkpoints following fractious exchanges on the issue.

It is understood Northern Ireland’s agriculture minister Edwin Poots is seeking to halt construction of the new Irish Sea infrastructure following the government’s big legislative move to tear up parts of the withdrawal agreement.

In the summer, the government said enhanced regulatory checks would be required on animals and food products crossing the Irish Sea from GB to NI under the terms of the deal.

The NI Executive assumed a legal responsibility to undertake the work for the government to enable it to fulfil its international obligations under the withdrawal agreement.

But Poots has made clear that he was not in favour of building the infrastructure, emphasising that it was a UK government decision. “They have agreed a protocol that I do not agree with, quite frankly,” he said.

Stormont ministers convened for an Executive meeting on EU exit issues on Thursday night. When the port infrastructure issue was raised it prompted heated exchanges. One source described it as “hot and heavy” and another characterised it as a “shouting match”.

A vote proposing the halting of the work was defeated, but the issue is due to be revisited when ministers meet again. The meeting was adjourned around 9pm so legal advice could be sought.

What a terrible mess.

EU taking fight with UK ‘step by step’

The European Commission has said it will consider what action to take if the UK fails to withdraw legislation overriding elements of the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement by the end of the month.

Speaking at the daily commission briefing in Brussels, chief spokesman Eric Mamer said it would take a “step by step” approach in the dispute.

“We have set a deadline for the UK. We are going to take this step by step. We are going to wait for the reaction of the United Kingdom by that deadline,” he said.

“We will consider next steps once we have reached that particular bridge.”

Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove said on Thursday that the government “could not and would not” withdraw the provisions in the Internal Market Bill as the EU is demanding.