Brexit news: PM accused of ‘dereliction of duty’ on NI as trade from Ireland to GB slumps 50%
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Your support makes all the difference.Boris Johnson was accused of not doing enough to address Irish Sea trade disruption amid the continued fallout from the European Union’s botched move to invoke a mechanism to suspend elements of the new trading arrangements.
Arlene Foster, Northern Ireland’s first minister, said it was "patronising and offensive" to describe the problems encountered by Northern Ireland businesses and consumers in the wake of Brexit as "teething problems" and she called on the prime minister to act immediately to deploy Article 16.
It comes after the EU tried to unilaterally suspend part of the Northern Ireland Protocol to prevent the region being used as backdoor to move vaccines from the bloc into the UK.
Earlier, the prime minister said he was “very confident” in the security of the UK’s coronavirus vaccine supplies regardless of what happens in the European Union.
"You will have seen all this stuff in the papers about our friends across the Channel and disputes with them," the prime minister said.
"All I would say is whatever the toings and froings there, we're very confident in our security of supply.
"We will continue to take steps to protect the UK's security of supply and also to ensure that we ramp up our own manufacturing."
The prime minister’s first public comments since Brussels briefly overrode part of the Brexit deal on Northern Ireland to impose export controls on jabs came after ministers agreed to a “reset” in relations with the EU.
Meanwhile, the Irish government revealed that trade between the Republic and Great Britain has fallen by 50 per cent on this time last year, with the government saying some businesses were experiencing “severe difficulty” adapting to the new controls since the UK left the EU’s single market and customs union at the end of the transition period.
‘Stay at home’ message reiterated for South African variant areas, no new rules
Asked why futher measures were not being introduced in areas where the South African variant had been found, the health secretary said: "We already have this very strong set of rules, indeed laws, in place against people travelling unecessarily.
"People should stay at home unless they absolutely have to leave. Anybody thinking about stretching the rules in those areas must not."
"If you’re in one of the areas where the new variant has been found, stay at home and let’s get this new variant totally under control."
All English care homes offered Covid vaccination, after weekend of more than 900,000 jabs, says Hancock
Our Political Editor Andrew Woodcock has rounded up the key points from Matt Hancock’s press conference just now:
All English care homes offered Covid vaccination, says Matt Hancock
Health secretary announces order of 40m more doses of Valneva vaccine
Tory MP in plea bring forward clock change
Tobias Ellwood, the Conservative MP for Bournemouth East, has requested that the clock change be brought forward by one month in order to allow people to spend more time outdoors in daylight.
Drawing a comparison with the Second World War, Mr Ellwood argued the clocks should go forward on 28 February, a full month ahead of schedule.
"Sunshine brightens our day, it lifts morale, it raises our spirits and encourages outdoor activity," the former defence minister said in a video posted to Twitter.
“Yet as we advance towards spring, even more of us are getting up after sunrise, but are staying up long after sunset, effectively wasting this free commodity.”
Lost police records will take weeks to recover, says top mandarin
The Home Office's most senior civil servant has said the thousands of records wiped from the Police National Computer are “recoverable” but will take “some weeks” to retrieve.
Matthew Rycroft, the Home Office permanent secretary, told MPs this was the risk to public safety was "minimal".
“All of those deletions refer to what's called 'no further action' cases," he told the Public Accounts Committee.
“We are confident that the data is all recoverable and we are in the process of recovering that data.
Tory MP calls government ‘incompetent’ over Grenfell cladding crisis response
A Conservative MP has accused the government of incompetence in its handling of the cladding crisis in the wake of the Grenfell Tower disaster.
Stephen McPartland used an opposition day debate on cladding to call on the government to protect leaseholders from having to pay large amounts to fix building defects, including the removal of flammable cladding.
He told the Commons: “I also believe that the government has been incompetent, the department, throughout this saga,"
“They've created a whole host of these problems especially with the consolidated advice note they published in January 2020.
“That effectively made sure that buildings which were over six storeys, over 18 metres, were involved in this crisis. But the consolidated advice note then made sure that any building of any height, so that took it from around 1,700 buildings to well over 100,000 buildings.
“On top of that, cladding on buildings under 18 metres right now can still be built with combustible cladding.”
Cladding debate: Barry Gardiner says constituents in unsafe housing were ‘victims of fraud’
Labour’s Barry Gardiner said his constituents were “victims of fraud” relating to fire safety defects in a housing development.
The former shadow minister told the Commons he had been sent documents that show that many of the fire safety defects that exist in the estate block “were not mistakes” and were known to developers.
Mr Gardiner said “it is clear that life was at risk”, adding: “I believe that this therefore constituted a criminal offence. I also believe that withholding that information to those leaseholders who purchased these apartments in good faith was fraud by false representation.
“There was a duty to disclose this information, no such disclosure was made. In my view, that means by constituents were victims of fraud.”
Tory MPs abstain in flammable cladding vote
Conservative MPs have abstained in a parliamentary vote calling on the government to take action to remove flammable cladding from buildings more quickly.
Labour, which tabled the motion, says up to 11 million people may still be living in homes with unsafe cladding similar to that blamed for the 2017 Grenfell Tower tragedy.
The motion, which passed by 263 votes to zero, called for new measures to resolve the situation, including an independent taskforce to get the cladding removed.
Our Policy Correspondent Jon Stone has the full story:
Tory MPs abstain in flammable cladding vote
Conservative MPs speak out during debate but fail to vote against government
Joanna Cherry calls police over ‘vicious threat’ after being dropped from SNP frontbench
SNP MP Joanna Cherry has contacted police over a “vicious threat” to her personal safety after announcing she had been sacked from her party's front bench team at Westminster, as a reshuffle was announced.
Ms Cherry had been the SNP justice and home affairs spokesperson in Westminster but was also seen by many as being close to former leader Alex Salmond, as well as having come in for criticism from some for her stance on transgender issues.
The reshuffle revealed that Anne McLaughlin has now been appointed as the party's Westminster spokesperson on justice and immigration.
Ms Cherry was sprung to the forefront of UK politics in 2019 when she successfully challenged Boris Johnson's plans for the prorogation of Parliament.
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