THE UK has scored a MASSIVE win for its fishing industry but there are fears the country could be 'overwhelmed' by Brexit and coronavirus.
Michel Barnier said new scientific criteria could see UK quotas double – but a final decision on the exact numbers won't be made before a trade deal is struck.
A UK Government spokesman said: “Our position on fisheries has been clear from the start… We will only make progress if the EU accepts the UK will have the right to control access to its waters at the end of this year.”
Despite an optimistic tone from both sides, if the talks fail an estimated £700 billion of annual bilateral trade in goods and services would be damaged from January 1 by tariffs and quotas.
This comes as a report titled Brexit: How Ready is the UK? said: “The pandemic will make these plans harder. For example, critical staff may fall ill or need to isolate and resources may well be redirected to the pandemic response.
“And although central government has managed to shift resources back to Brexit preparations after they were redeployed to help with the pandemic earlier this year, there is less capacity among the devolved governments and local authorities to handle both."
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- Hana Carter
30 MILLION CUSTOMS DECLARATIONS A YEAR AT NEW GB-NI BORDER
The new Irish Sea border will involve as many as 30 million customs declarations annually on trade between Great Britain and Northern Ireland, it's been said.
The comments were made in a briefing to businesses in NI by government adviser Frank Dunsmuir.
Northern Ireland will leave the EU's customs union at the end of the Brexit transition in January.
However, it will enforce EU customs rules at its ports, meaning goods coming from Great Britain will need declarations.
- Hana Carter
BIDEN VICTORY WOULDN'T STOP US-UK TRADE DEAL, SAYS AMBASSADOR
US Ambassador Robert “Woody” Johnson has claimed that a transatlantic trade deal would happen regardless of who is voted into office.
“President Trump prioritised a free trade agreement with the UK because it is the fastest way to increase prosperity for both our countries,”he told The Daily Express.
“Post-Covid, this will be even more critical.Restoring economic growth will have to be the number one priority after we control the virus. If ever there was a time to remove barriers for businesses, it is now.
“We still have a few things to iron out, as is always the case with major agreements like this one, but I’m confident our countries can get this done no matter what happens today.”
- Hana Carter
BREXIT WILL AFFECT PRIME VIDEO IN DIFFERENT WAYS, SAYS PRIME'S HEAD OF CONTENT
Asked how Brexit will affect their business, Prime's head of content Chris Bird told MPs: “Brexit will affect Prime Video in a couple of different ways.
“Prime Video's European HQ is located in London and we intend to keep that HQ in London post-Brexit regardless (of if there is a deal or no-deal).”
He added: “We will continue our investment in the UK and grow our investment in the UK and the EU. Brexit will introduce some regulatory complexity, for example in the event of audio visual not being included in any trade deal, we imagine Ofcom will no longer be able to regulate us pan-EU, so we will need to find a new EU territory of origin and our EU businesses will need to be regulated by the regulator in that country.
“We also think there is an important issue around UK content being affected by loss of EU work status. If UK content could no longer be considered EU in terms of quotas then our business in Europe will need to change their content catalogue to add more European content as a result, that is not necessarily a big challenge for us but we are concerned this could be a challenge for smaller independent UK content producers because it would mean the diminishment in the value of their content in the EU.”
- Hana Carter
'FREXIT' CAMPAIGNER SAYS FRANCE WILL LEAVE EU TOO
Generation Frexit director Charles-Henri Gallois has claimed France will also attempt to leave the EU.
Speaking to the Express, Mr Gallois insisted the EU has been giving the UK a hard time to scare other nations, and punish the UK government.
He said: “To get Frexit you have to do the opposite of what Theresa May did with Brexit.
“You have to play tough directly, a bit like how Boris Johnson has done.
“You won't get a deal with the EU, what you need to understand is the EU will not negotiate in good faith.
“They will try it, and it was the case for the UK as they don't act rationally.”
- Hana Carter
NO BREAKTHROUGH AS EU, UK LOCKED IN CRUNCH TALKS
EU and British negotiators are holding face-to-face talks in locked-down Brussels to try to find a last-minute accord on post-Brexit ties, officials said Tuesday, with no sign yet of a breakthrough.
A European Commission spokesman dismissed some British newspaper reports that the two sides had resolved the thorny issue of an EU demand to keep fishing in UK waters.
“We have not yet found a solution on fisheries,” spokesman Daniel Ferrie told journalists.
He said that the EU's chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, and his British counterpart, David Frost, were meeting in Brussels with their teams.Their physical presence highlighted the critical juncture of the talks.
- Hana Carter
GOVE APOLOGISES FOR GETTING SPORTS RULES WRONG
Michael Gove has apologised for getting lockdown rules wrong by suggesting that sports could be allowed with one other person.
“You'll probably be able to play single tennis,” he wrote on Facebook.
“If people are properly socially-distanced, they can take exercise with one other person.
“We are looking at allowing people to play on golf courses with one other appropriately distanced. The same would apply to tennis, if you are playing tennis out of doors.”
The Cabinet Minister later issued a correction saying: “My apologies, I got this wrong.”
- Hana Carter
JOHNSON FACES LEGAL ACTION FROM EU
Boris Johnson is facing further legal action from the EU after he missed a deadline to explain why he is planning to break international law over Northern Ireland.
Today, the European Commission confirmed that the deadline to respond has now come and gone without a response from Mr Johnson.
This means the court will move to the next phase.
- Hana Carter
BRITISH FISHING WIN
Britain netted a fishing win as Brussels agreed post-Brexit rules that massively increased our catch.
Michel Barnier conceded it would be based on new scientific criteria that could see UK quotas double.
But in a compromise, a final decision on the exact numbers both sides can land will not be thrashed out until long after the trade deal is struck.
The move is to ensure the row over access to waters does not derail those talks.
- Hana Carter
NIGEL FARAGE 66-1 TO BE NEXT PRIME MINISTER
Nigel Farage is 66-1 with bookmaker Coral to be the next UK Prime Minister after he revealed plans to change the name of his party to Reform UK.
The new branded party, Reform UK, are 100-1 to win the most seats at the next
general election.
“It looks like Nigel Farage is back into the spotlight in UK politics, and we have even taken bets on the Brexit Party leader becoming the next Prime Minister,” said Coral’s John Hill.
“With plans in place for Farage’s party to be rebranded as Reform UK, they remain big outsiders to win the most seats at the next general election,” added Hill.
- Hana Carter
BARNIER SET TO REPORT LACK OF BREAKTHROUGHS TOMORROW
On Wednesday, Michel Barnier will report that two weeks of intensified Brexit talks have resulted in no breakthroughs on the main areas.
The EU's chief negotiator will brief national ambassadors and European parliamentarians tomorrow after 13 days of meetings.
A European Commission spokesperson said there was “a lot of work still to be done” and that “negotiations are continuing on all the different topics.”
- Hana Carter
UK WON'T BE ABLE TO DEAL WITH BREXIT AND COVID, SAYS THINK TANK
The Institute of Government has said that Britain will be overwhelmed with dealing with Brexit and the coronavirus pandemic – and officials will struggle.
Local councils, trading standards officers and port health authorities are all part of the Brexit operation but may find themselves stretched because of the resurgence of the virus, according to the think tank.
“The pandemic will make these plans harder. For example, critical staff may fall ill or need to isolate and resources may well be redirected to the pandemic response.
“And although central government has managed to shift resources back to Brexit preparations after they were redeployed to help with the pandemic earlier this year, there is less capacity among the devolved governments and local authorities to handle both,” says report titled Brexit: How Ready is the UK?
- Niamh Cavanagh
RECAP – LE DEAL IS ‘HOPEFUL’
France is optimistic the EU will strike a trade deal with Britain. Officials are dropping their sabre-rattling as talks come to le crunch.
French Europe minister Clement Beaune struck a peacemaking tone on fishing — the sticking point for his president Emmanuel Macron.
Mr Beaune told the BBC’s Andrew Marr: “We know if there’s no deal, there would be no access legally to British waters for our fishermen. It’s also why we’d like a deal.”
He added: “I think an agreement is possible. We have a few more days to find a solution.
“I hope we can reach it in the coming days or two weeks.”
- Niamh Cavanagh
CONTINUED
Tooting MP Dr Allin-Khan, appearing in the chamber via Zoom, said: “I accept this was the third time I have been found to have breached the rules despite having previously reassured the commissioner that I now understood rules in relation to stationery.
“Of course I fully accept their ruling and I myself volunteered to pay back the cost of the stationery and have already done so.
“I apologise to the House and to you for my breach of the rules, and the committee further requested that I meet with the chair and other members to agree steps on how to ensure no lapse from the highest possible standards occurs and this should be periodically reviewed.
“I really, really look forward to working with the chair and other members to this end.”
- Niamh Cavanagh
MP APOLOGISES TO COMMONS FOR THIRD RULE BREACH IN THREE YEARS
A Labour frontbencher has apologised to the Commons after an inquiry found she breached the rules of the House for a third time in three years.
Shadow health minister Dr Rosena Allin-Khan sent out 1,624 copies of her “Brexit Update” letter on House of Commons headed notepaper in prepaid Commons envelopes in the run-up to last year's general election, according to the Commons Standards Committee.
The cost of the mailshot was £1,142.52, with Dr Allin-Khan explaining she has now repaid this.
Under the Commons rules, MPs can only use House stationery for their work as a Member of Parliament and are banned from using it for campaign material.
Her previous rule breaches included an occasion when she sent out party political literature on stationery with the royal badge of the crowned portcullis.
- Niamh Cavanagh
GB BUSINESSES 'CONSIDERING PULLING OUT OF NI DUE TO PROTOCOL'
Businesses in Great Britain are considering pulling out of Northern Ireland because of the Brexit protocol, the agriculture minister warned.
Tens of thousands of pounds could be added to the cost of a lorry load of supermarket goods due to the measure designed to keep the country in line with EU rules, Edwin Poots added.
He said the cost of export health certificates could be very damaging as he appealed to the EU to remedy problems in the proposed system.
“We need the EU to work with the people of Northern Ireland in ensuring that Northern Ireland PLC is not damaged, that jobs are not damaged and consumers are not damaged.”
- Niamh Cavanagh
NO BREAKTHROUGH AS EU, UK LOCKED IN CRUNCH TALKS
EU and British negotiators are holding face-to-face talks in locked-down Brussels to try to find a last-minute accord on post-Brexit ties, officials said Tuesday, with no sign yet of a breakthrough.
A European Commission spokesman dismissed some British newspaper reports that the two sides had resolved the thorny issue of an EU demand to keep fishing in UK waters.
“We have not yet found a solution on fisheries,” spokesman Daniel Ferrie told journalists.
He said that the EU's chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, and his British counterpart, David Frost, were meeting in Brussels with their teams.Their physical presence highlighted the critical juncture of the talks.
- Niamh Cavanagh
GOVERNMENT SPOKESMAN ACKNOWLEDGES UK MISSING EU LEGAL DEADLINE
Boris Johnson's spokesman said the UK Government had missed the European Union's deadline for replying to its formal letter of notice about the controversial Internal Market Bill.
The Prime Minister's spokesman said: “I've seen comments from the European Commission this morning.
“From our point of view, I would say we are committed to working through the Joint Committee process to find a satisfactory outcome for both sides – that is our overriding priority.”
Pressed on whether the Government had missed the reply deadline, he said: “I'm obviously not disputing what the spokesman said.”
Asked whether that answer signalled there had not been a reply sent, the official added: “Indeed.”
- Niamh Cavanagh
THE EU TO CONSIDER ESCALATING LEGAL DISPUTE WITH BRITAIN OVER DIVORCE TREAT
The European Commission will consider escalating its legal dispute with Britain over the violation of the Brexit withdrawal treaty because Britain did not answer the EU's initial actions within the allotted one-month deadline, the EU executive said.
The EU sent a formal letter of notice to London at the start of October over its internal market bill that breaches agreements in the treaty ending Britain's membership of the European Union.
A European Commission spokesman said on Tuesday that Britain had failed to reply and that the Commission would therefore now consider the next step in the legal dispute which is a reasoned opinion.
- Niamh Cavanagh
BREXIT TALKS FAIL TO AGREE ON FISHERIES, TWO OTHER ISSUES SAYS SOURCES
EU-UK trade negotiations have so far failed to make a breakthrough on their three most persistent disagreements – the so-called level playing field, fisheries and settling disputes – sources from both sides said today.
That comes after nearly two weeks of intensified talks to salvage free trade between the 27-nation European Union and Britain from 2021.
The negotiations now are in a final stretch aimed at sealing a new trade agreement by Nov. 15.
One of the sources, an EU diplomat following Brexit, said disagreements persisted over the divvying up of fish stocks, including Britain's demand for annual quota negotiations.
- Claudia Aoraha
30 MILLION CUSTOMS DECLARATIONS A YEAR AT NEW GB-NI BORDER
The new Irish Sea border will involve as many as 30 million customs declarations annually on trade between Great Britain and Northern Ireland, it's been said.
The comments were made in a briefing to businesses in NI by government adviser Frank Dunsmuir.
Northern Ireland will leave the EU's customs union at the end of the Brexit transition in January.
However, it will enforce EU customs rules at its ports, meaning goods coming from Great Britain will need declarations.
- Claudia Aoraha
UK WON'T BE ABLE TO DEAL WITH BREXIT AND COVID, SAYS THINK TANK
The Institute of Government has said that Britain will be overwhelmed with dealing with Brexit and the coronavirus pandemic – and officials will struggle.
Local councils, trading standards officers and port health authorities are all part of the Brexit operation but may find themselves stretched because of the resurgence of the virus, according to the think tank.
“The pandemic will make these plans harder. For example, critical staff may fall ill or need to isolate and resources may well be redirected to the pandemic response.
“And although central government has managed to shift resources back to Brexit preparations after they were redeployed to help with the pandemic earlier this year, there is less capacity among the devolved governments and local authorities to handle both,” says report titled Brexit: How Ready is the UK?
- Claudia Aoraha
BORIS 'HID FROM IAIN DUNCAN SMITH'TO AVOID BREXIT
Boris Johnson hid in a bedroom just days before he became PM to avoid having to talk to Sir Iain Duncan Smith about Brexit, an explosive new book claims.
It says the soon-to-be Premier and his aides pretended not to be home while Sir Iain – who was meant to be chairing Mr Johnson's leadership campaign – banged on the front door unaware they had concealed themselves upstairs.
- Niamh Cavanagh
BREXIT WILL AFFECT PRIME VIDEO IN DIFFERENT WAYS, SAYS PRIME'S HEAD OF CONTENT
Asked how Brexit will affect their business, Prime's head of content Chris Bird told MPs: “Brexit will affect Prime Video in a couple of different ways.
“Prime Video's European HQ is located in London and we intend to keep that HQ in London post-Brexit regardless (of if there is a deal or no-deal).”
He added: “We will continue our investment in the UK and grow our investment in the UK and the EU. Brexit will introduce some regulatory complexity, for example in the event of audio visual not being included in any trade deal, we imagine Ofcom will no longer be able to regulate us pan-EU, so we will need to find a new EU territory of origin and our EU businesses will need to be regulated by the regulator in that country.
“We also think there is an important issue around UK content being affected by loss of EU work status. If UK content could no longer be considered EU in terms of quotas then our business in Europe will need to change their content catalogue to add more European content as a result, that is not necessarily a big challenge for us but we are concerned this could be a challenge for smaller independent UK content producers because it would mean the diminishment in the value of their content in the EU.”
- Niamh Cavanagh
UK FAILED TO REPLY TO EU LEGAL LETTER SAYS EU SOURCES
The UK has not yet responded to the European Commission's legal letter over the Internal Market Bill which breaches parts of the existing withdrawal agreement.
The deadline was yesterday however the UK did not reply, EU sources told RTE's Tony Connelly.
- Niamh Cavanagh
NIGEL FARAGE 66-1 TO BE NEXT PRIME MINISTER
Nigel Farage is 66-1 with bookmaker Coral to be the next UK Prime Minister after he revealed plans to change the name of his party to Reform UK.
The new branded party, Reform UK, are 100-1 to win the most seats at the next general election.
“It looks like Nigel Farage is back into the spotlight in UK politics, and we have even taken bets on the Brexit Party leader becoming the next Prime Minister,” said Coral’s John Hill.
“With plans in place for Farage’s party to be rebranded as Reform UK, they remain big outsiders to win the most seats at the next general election,” added Hill.
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