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Brexit news - live: Majority unhappy with trade deal as Boris Johnson ‘driving Scottish independence support’

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Rory Sullivan,Sam Hancock
Wednesday 17 February 2021 16:16 EST
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Attempt to trigger Article 16 was ‘mistake’, says EU vice president

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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.”

PM makes OJ Simpson joke as he struggles to make gloves fit

During a visit to a vaccination centre in Wales, Boris Johnson struggled to put on the blue latex gloves he had been given, joking that they were so small that it was “like OJ Simpson”.

The prime minister made the ill-advised joke in reference to the former American football star, who famously tried on a pair of gloves as a defendant in a 1995 murder trial. They were throught to have used in the killing of his former wife Nicole Brown and her friend, Ronald Goldman.

When the gloves did not fit, Mr Simpson’s defence team used it as a key piece of evidence. Although he was acquitted in the 1995 murder case, the sports star was later found liable and was made to pay the deceased’s survivors $33.5 million.

Adam Forrest reports:

Boris Johnson jokes about OJ Simpson as he struggles to make glove fit

Prime minister makes reference to infamous moment in 1995 murder trial

Rory Sullivan17 February 2021 14:46

Steady flow of post-Brexit trade into Northern Ireland, say port directors

Directors at four Northern Irish ports have told MLAs that trade has not dropped off as much as predicted under the Northern Ireland protocol.

Maurice Bullick, the finance and compliance director with Belfast Harbour Commissioners, was one of the people who spoke to Stormont’s infrastructure committee on Wednesday.

He said that the operating model of the port this year “has remained fairly stable overall”.

“But of course we all know that position is assisted by the presence of the various easements (grace periods) that are in place currently,” he added.

Rory Sullivan17 February 2021 15:14

SNP urged to bring in free school meals for all now

Patrick Harvie, the co-leader of the Scottish Greens, has urged Nicola Sturgeon’s government to provide free school meals for all primary school students.

While making the plea on Wednesday during First Minister’s Questions, he said that “getting food to hungry children is a postcode lottery in Glasgow”.

Mr Harvie added that pictures of people queueing in the snow for emergency food parcels are an “indictment on the failure to tackle poverty and hunger in Scotland”.

Scotland’s first minister replied by saying that, if re-elected in May, her party would provide free schools to all primary school and early years students.

However, Mr Harvie said she should not wait until May to introduce the policy.

Rory Sullivan17 February 2021 15:41

Majority of Britons dissatisfied with PM’s Brexit deal, study finds

Most Britons are unhappy with Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal and want it overhauled, a new study has found.

The think tank British Foreign Policy Group discovered that only 24 per cent of the population thinks that the agreement is the best framework for future relations with the EU.

Our policy correspondent Jon Stone reports:

Large majority of Britons dissatisfied with Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal

Strong support for closer EU relationship as Labour pledges to leave deal in place

Rory Sullivan17 February 2021 16:05

Government must set ‘acceptable’ level of Covid infections, say scientists

Scientists have said they are “crying out” for someone in a position of political power to divide what would be an “acceptable level” of Covid-19 infections so the outbreak can be “managed with that in mind”.

Dame Angela McLean, chief scientific adviser at the Ministry of Defence, called on MPs during the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee to set a level going forward.

She said: “I think it’s reasonable to say: ‘Let’s not have Covid winters that are any worse than bad flu winters.’ But, actually, bad flu winters could be quite bad.

“It’s one of the things we’ve cried out for again and again - could somebody in a position of political power tell us what is an acceptable number of infections?

“Maybe this past year, maybe in 2020 where the number of infections and deaths was so high, perhaps nobody would say that.”

Dame Angela, who is a member of Sage and also co-chair of the SPI-M Sage sub-group, added: “We do need to decide what level is acceptable and then we can manage our lives with that in mind.”

Professor Mark Woolhouse, professor of infectious disease epidemiology at the University of Edinburgh, added: “The answer is not zero.

“If you take the view that no Covid death is acceptable or something of that order, you are writing a blank cheque to do any amount of harm by the measures you have implemented to try and control it.”

Kate Ng17 February 2021 16:28

Restart Brexit talks because UK is ‘less safe and less secure’, Tory group tells Boris Johnson

Talks to rebuild security cooperation with the EU must restart now after the Brexit deal left the UK “less safe and less secure”, a Conservative group says.

The prime minister is accused of “not being ambitious enough” after the agreement shut down access to vital criminal databases, including records of stolen identities and wanted people, reports Rob Merrick.

Read the full story:

Restart Brexit talks because UK is ‘less safe and less secure’, Tory group tells Boris Johnson

‘Every day that passes is storing up problems....the government cannot simply cross its fingers and hope’

Kate Ng17 February 2021 16:45

End of trade border ‘grace period’ looming, NI port operators warn

A port operator in Northern Ireland has warned that the end of the Irish Sea trade border “grace periods” are nigh, and questioned whether Great Britain businesses are prepared.

The first of the grace periods ends at the start of April. These were agreed by the UK and the EU to allow businesses in Northern Ireland to get used to new rules on customs and product standards that came into effect on 1 January.

The country’s four port operators gave evidence to Stormont’s Infrastructure Committee about the effects of the NI Protocol, and said it was too early to assess the fallout from the border on traffic volumes via Belfast, Larne, Warrenpoint and Londonderry ports.

David Holmes, chief executive of Warrenpoint Port, told the committee that the full impact would only emerge when the grace periods end, adding that it was clear businesses in Great Britain were not prepared for the end of the transition period and that “begs the question how prepared will they be for the end of the grace periods”.

Kate Ng17 February 2021 17:21

Chief Brexit negotiator appointed full member of Cabinet

Chief Brexit negotiator Lord Frost has been appointed a full member of the Cabinet, Downing Street has announced.

He has been approved by the Queen as a minister of state at the Cabinet Office, with the appointment taking effect from March 1, No 10 said.

Kate Ng17 February 2021 17:40

‘Hugely honoured'

Lord David Frost has said he is “hugely honoured” to be appointed minister of state at the Cabinet Office.

In a tweet, he also credited Cabinet minister Michael Gove for doing “an extraordinary job for this country in talks with EU over the past year”.

Kate Ng17 February 2021 18:00

Scotland facing ‘mental health crisis’, declares Holyrood

Holyrood has voted to declare that Scotland is facing a “mental health crisis”, with opposition MSPs uniting to defeat the Government.

The vote in the Scottish Parliament came as the Health Committee warned that after the coronavirus pandemic “a mental health tsunami is coming, if indeed the first wave has not already reached us”.

Committee convener Lewis Macdonald raised concerns in a letter to public health minister Mairi Gougeon, urging her to set out how the Scottish Government would deal with the situation.

That came as the Liberal Democrats raised the issue in a debate at Holyrood, where the motion, which “recognises that there is a mental health crisis in Scotland”, was passed by 65 to 58.

During the debate mental health minister Clare Haughey told MSPs that mental health funding in 2021-22 would be more than £1.2 billion.

She also highlighted a £120 million mental health recovery and renewal fund, announced by the Scottish Government on Tuesday, hailing it as the “single largest investment in mental health in the history of devolution”.

However Ms Haughey accepted the pandemic had been a “time of national trauma”, as she said mental health would continue to be an “absolute priority” for ministers.

She said: “The mental health impacts of the pandemic have brought new and significant challenges across Scotland. We have been through several stages of lockdown, restrictions and recovery, and each of these phases has had widespread impacts on the mental health and wellbeing of people across the country.

“The experience has been draining psychologically for many of us. The importance of mental wellbeing has been all too clear.”

PA

Kate Ng17 February 2021 18:21

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