Brexit news - live: Majority unhappy with trade deal as Boris Johnson ‘driving Scottish independence support’
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Your support makes all the difference.Significant backlash has forced Northern Ireland’s ruling DUP into backtracking on measures intended to ease agri-food trade disruption in NI caused by Brexit.
Under post-Brexit customs rules, checks are required on animal-based products entering the UK from the EU, and subsequently on goods moving between Great Britain and NI too.
It was decided that a ‘Swiss-style’ trading arrangement with the bloc would ease such regulations, therefore mitigating trade disruption, but the DUP’s economy minister Diane Dodds on Tuesday ruled out such an arrangement – because it would require the UK to “slavishly” follow EU rules “in every respect”.
Meanwhile, Wales’ former Labour first minister accused Boris Johnson’s “anti-Scottish” outlook of driving support for Scottish independence. Carwyn Jones told the Constitutionally Unsound podcast that Downing Street was playing into the hands of the SNP.
“If you keep on saying ‘no’ to democrats you give succour to people who are far more extreme,” he said, referring to Mr Johnson’s repeated refusal to allow an indyref2 vote to go ahead. “How do you say in the long term ‘no, no, no’ when people in Scotland keep voting yes, yes, yes? That’s a fundamental problem that can only end badly.”
Morning, and welcome to The Independent’s rolling UK politics coverage.
EU accuses UK of failing to live up to Brexit agreement on Northern Ireland
Maros Sefcovic, the European Commission’s vice president, has accused the UK of failing to live up to the terms of the Brexit deal on Northern Ireland.
Speaking on Tuesday, Mr Sefcovic said the failures included controls not being performed at border posts.
Our political editor Andrew Woodcock has the details:
EU accuses Britain of failing to live up to Brexit agreement on Northern Ireland border
Commission vice-president blames threat to invoke emergency measures on ‘administrative mistake’
Labour demands pay rise for social care workers
Labour will on Wednesday urge the government to increase social care workers’ earnings to at least £10 per hour, while warning that “poverty wages” are harming the economy.
In a keynote speech, the party’s deputy leader Angela Rayner will say the pay rise is “well overdue” and that social care staff have been long “underpaid and undervalued”.
She will add that Tory ministers should be ashamed that many of these workers “are struggling to support themselves and their own families”, despite risking their lives during the pandemic.
Inside politics
Nicola Sturgeon has stolen a march on Boris Johnson by announcing that primary schools in Scotland will open to some pupils from Monday.
Here’s Adam Forrest with a round-up of this and today’s other leading politics stories.
Nicola Sturgeon adds to pressure on No 10 to reopen schools – your daily politics briefing
Scotland’s first minister has stolen a march on Boris Johnson by revealing her plan to get pupils back in class, writes Adam Forrest
Government must do more for young people, says children’s commissioner
The prime minister needs to put young people at the centre of plans to “build back better”, England’s children’s commissioner has said.
In her last speech in the role, Anne Longfield will warn Boris Johnson on Wednesday that “levelling up” the UK will be merely a “slogan” if children are not central to those plans.
She will also accuse the government of “institutional bias against children”, noting that only £1 billion has been assigned to help pupils to catch up with missed studies, despite a warning from the Institute for Fiscal Studies that lost education during the pandemic could cost the economy £350 billion in the long term.
UK calls for ceasefires to help international coronavirus vaccine rollout
The UK will call for ceasefires around the globe to allow coronavirus vaccines to be given to people in conflict zones.
The foreign secretary Dominic Raab will tell the UN Security Council on Wednesday that the world can only win its fight against Covid-19 if vaccines are made available everywhere.
Speaking ahead of the meeting, he said: “Global vaccination coverage is essential to beating coronavirus.
“That is why the UK is calling for a vaccination ceasefire to allow Covid-19 vaccines to reach people living in conflict zones and for a greater global team effort to deliver equitable access.”
In 2001, a two-day ceasefire in Afghanistan allowed health workers and volunteers to vaccinate 5.7 million children under 5 against polio.
UK calls for ceasefires to get vaccines to people in war zones
Fears that unvaccinated areas will become pools for development of new variants
Chancellor should quadruple pandemic recovery spending, says think tank
The chancellor should quadruple coronavirus crisis spending to £190 billion to kickstart the economy, the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) has suggested.
In a report titled “Boost it like Biden”, the think tank said that without further support from Rishi Sunak, the UK economy risks falling into a “stagnation trap”.
“At this March’s Budget, the chancellor should look to his transatlantic counterparts and pass support measures commensurate to the size of the economic peril the UK is in,” the IPPR said.
Its proposal of £190 billion works out as 8.6 per cent of GDP.
Ashley Cowburn reports:
Rishi Sunak urged to boost pandemic recovery with £190 billion stimulus
‘This is not the moment for caution: the risk of doing too little far outweighs the risk of doing too much,’ says IPPR think-tank
Green policies should be at core of economic recovery, say MPs
The government should put nature and climate at the core of economic recovery, MPs have said in a report.
The Commons’ environmental audit committee (EAC) urged ministers to cut VAT on green homes upgrades and also called for electric cars to be made more affordable.
Tory MP Philip Dunne, who chairs the committee, said that coronavirus crisis is a “symptom of a growing ecological emergency” and should serve as a “wake-up call”.
He added: “The economic recovery will shape our national economy for decades to come and it is crucial that tackling climate change and restoring nature is at its core.
“A tax system fit for net-zero Britain is key. It will encourage innovation, give confidence to the sector and support companies to make the low-carbon transition.”
PM to bring back mass testing plans - after failed ‘moonshot’ scheme
Boris Johnson will reportedly re-announce plans for mass coronavirus testing next week, as he lays out the country’s route out of lockdown.
It is thought that the scheme will involve 400,000 lateral flow tests being sent out in the post each day.
This comes after the failure of the government’s “moonshot” testing initiative, which had aimed to carry out millions of daily tests by February 2021.
Our policy correspondent Jon Stone has more:
Boris Johnson to resurrect mass testing plans after ‘moonshot’ fails to materialise
Focus returns to test-and-trace ahead of lockdown lifting
Piers Morgan blasts Dominic Raab for being ‘extraordinarily arrogant'
Journalist Piers Morgan has described the foreign secretary Dominic Raab as “extraordinarily arrogant”, after the minister clashed with one of his ITV colleagues.
The foreign minister reacted with anger on Wednesday when the Good Morning Britain host Kate Garraway interrupted him to clarify a question she had on the government’s hotel quarantine scheme.
“I think people get fed up with the media not allowing us to give honest answers,” he fired off.
In response, Mr Morgan tweeted that “Dominic Raab is extraordinarily arrogant for someone with so little to be arrogant about”.
Piers Morgan blasts ‘extraordinarily arrogant’ Dominic Raab after GMB clash
‘Why don’t you pause and let me explain it?’ says minister when challenged on quarantine plan
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