Brexit news – live: DUP accused of ‘silly games’ over legal action, as No 10 denies influence of Boris Johnson’s fiancee

Top fashion designer Katharine Hamnett has accused the government of “destroying” her industry by refusing to address Brexit problems.

Telling BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that rules of origin requirements were a “catastrophe” for the industry, she said British businesses were being hampered by “ridiculous restrictions”.

“It’s total chaos … Anybody exporting to the EU is having severe problems. Profitability has been slaughtered,” she said. “The government is not prepared to listen to the industry.”

Asked about the response of government ministers, she said: “These people should be fired.”

MPs will hold a debate in the House of Commons on the Northern Ireland protocol – triggered by a DUP petition pleading for current arrangements to be scrapped.

It follows a legal challenge as the DUP and other unionist parties seek a judicial review. DUP leader Arlene Foster said they were committed to challenging the protocol “in the courts, in parliament, in Stormont and in Brussels”.

She said on the BBC’s Good Morning Ulster programme she believed her party’s five-point plan to get rid of protocol had a “good chance of success”.

The e-petition required 100,000 signatures to merit a parliamentary debate, and has received backing from more than 140,000 people so far.

More now from the Labour leader’s latest ‘Call Keir’ phone-in on LBC. Some people are angry that Starmer refused to call for Matt Hancock’s resignation (after a judicial review found the health secretary had acted unlawfully over publication of Covid contracts).

“What does he think of people saying … he tap dances for the Tories?” asked one caller.

Starmer said he attacked the government “hard” on Covid contracts and said Hancock should apologise.

“My strong feeling is the vast majority of the public would say, ‘For heaven’s sake, Keir – what you should be doing Keir is making sure he’s working really hard to get that vaccine rolled out properly, rather than calling for him to resign.”

On the idea he is a “tap dancer”, he said: “Not at all – not in the slightest.” Asked why he was still behind in the polls, Starmer suggested he had changed the political conversation and got people asking whether Labour could “form the next government”.

Keir Starmer has been accused of not talking enough about Brexit problems since the trade deal came into force. The Labour leader has had to address disruption on LBC.

Caller Mina said it has been a “disaster” for her own online clothing business and told Starmer: “This deal is as bad as no-deal.”

Starmer said a no-deal Brexit would “have been a lot worse” – but said he had feared a lot of disruption from the trade deal.

“[The trade deal] is much narrower than it should have been … We supported the Brexit deal that the prime minister brought back because the option was that deal or no-deal, which would have been a lot worse.

“But that doesn’t mean this is a good deal by any stretch of the imagination … There’s too much red tape.”

Culture secretary Oliver Dowden has requested a meeting with Facebook after the social media giant banned news on its platform in Australia, according to reports.

Facebook began to take down news content from its platform in Australia on Thursday over proposed legislation which they said “fundamentally misunderstands the relationship between our platform and publishers.”

Dowden is set to hold talks with Facebook later in the week over what he has reportedly called a “worrying development”.

On Sunday Matt Hancock said Dowden was looking “very closely” at how the UK government could make the tech giant pay media outlets for content.

Foreign secretary Dominic Raab has offered to visit Beijing in an effort to calm tensions between UK and China after relations soured over the security law in Hong Kong.

“I’ve offered to go to Beijing,” Raab said during a call organised by the Conservative Friends of the Chinese to mark the Lunar New Year.

“For me it’s not more difficult to talk when we have a challenge. That’s the time the foreign secretary must engage in dialogue. We will always have the door of diplomacy open and will always look for the positives.”

It’s a big day for Raab, who is giving a speech to the UN Human Rights Council around 11.30. The foreign secretary is expected to call on them to address abuses in China, Myanmar and Russia.

UK universities are reportedly lobbying Boris Johnson’s government “hard” to remain part of a flagship EU scheme aimed at sharing important research.

The European Universities Initiative (EUI) has involved up to 11 British universities in various partnerships, according to Politico.

But Downing Street’s decision to quit the Erasmus+ scheme – which funds the EUI – means British institutions can no longer bid for funding to take part.

“We want to be involved, completely engaged, ideally as a full partner,” said Anthony Forster, the University of Essex’s vice chancellor. “But if that is not possible legally then as an associate partner, playing as full a part as possible.”

Boris Johnson’s appointment of David Frost to lead future talks with the EU is dashing hopes of a deal with the EU to lift some of the harshest border checks, food industry insiders have said.

One industry source told The Independent that the decision to bring him back showed that “ideology” – rejecting any and all alignment with Brussels – had trumped the desire for improving the agreement in practical ways. “The problem is not technical, but political,” said another.

To the dismay of the food industry, the UK failed to strike an “equivalence” deal to avoid most form-filling and physical inspections on products of animal origin – so-called sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) controls.

It is hoped a veterinary agreement could still move the UK closer to the EU agreement with New Zealand – where only 1 per cent of goods are subject to SPS checks.

But Frost is seen as potentially too hawkish on alignment for a mini-agreement to be forged.

Many Labour supporters and some commentators say that Keir Starmer’s opinion poll ratings are disappointing. What they usually mean is that they dislike Boris Johnson and think that he has handled the coronavirus badly, and as a result believe that Labour ought to be miles ahead in the polls by now, writes John Rentoul.

In fact, the polls suggest that enough people think the government has handled the crisis well to keep the Conservatives afloat, and an overwhelming majority think the government has done well on vaccines.

What has happened in the past few weeks, then, is that the prime minister and the Conservative Party have received a modest boost in the polls thanks to the vaccines, and this has little to do with what people think of the Labour leader.

The culture secretary is reportedly due to meet with Facebook executives to discuss the company’s ban on news outlets in Australia.

Oliver Dowden has sought the meeting because he views Facebook’s deletion of news stories as a “worrying development”. Facebook imposed the ban in retaliation for a proposed new Australian law that would force it to pay for news it links to.

The social media firm’s blanket erasure of Australian news content also impacted community information pages and even overseas media firms.

It not only affects people in Australia accessing news by the country's publishers and broadcasters via Facebook, but also their access to international news content.

Canberra's new proposed law would create an arbitration panel to set a binding price for news in situations where Google, Facebook and media businesses do not reach deals of their own accord.

The Daily Telegraph and The Times reported that a meeting would be held this week.

Read on below for our latest on the situation: