Brexit

Times
Britain will diverge from EU rules on trade and immigration after Brexit, the home secretary has said despite a warning from Brussels that this could rule out a free-trade deal. Priti Patel said: “There is no disagreement in government at all, we are clear — we are leaving. We will be taking back control of our laws, our money, our borders. In terms of divergence, we are not having alignment. We will be diverging. We want to take control of our laws, money and our borders.”

Express
EMPTY threats from the EU will not stop the government from “returning power to the people”, Steve Baker has said. The Chairman of the European Research Group (ERG) said the UK is willing to move forward with Brexit “with or without them”. He wrote in the Sunday Telegraph: “We are told trade won’t be possible unless we stay within the regulatory and legal order of the EU. Four times the British people have voted recently not to do that.” Mr Baker, who was previously given the moniker “rebel commander”, added he hopes sense will prevail in the negotiations but “sense hasn’t prevailed in the past and looks at risk today”.

Morning Star
DIVERGENCE from European Union rules, as announced by the Tory government today, could be welcome but is unlikely to benefit working people unless a left-led government is elected, communists said today. Communist Party of Britain general secretary Robert Griffiths warned that Prime Minister Boris Johnson will not have the interests of the people in mind when making key decisions after the country leaves the EU on Friday. Home Secretary Priti Patel and Brexit Secretary Steve Barclay both said in TV interviews that Britain would “take back control” of laws, money and borders and will diverge from the bloc’s rules as a “fundamental feature of leaving the EU” in order to carve out free-trade agreements.

ITV News
Travel firms are insisting that “everything will remain the same” for holidaymakers after Brexit. Warnings were issued last year about potential restrictions for foreign travel in the event of the UK withdrawing from the EU without an agreement. These included passports needing to be valid for six months after the end of trips and passengers not being allowed to use border queues designated for EU passport holders. But Mark Tanzer, chief executive of travel trade organisation Abta, said that the transition period means there will be no changes when Brexit happens at 11pm on Friday.

EU

Independent
The EU has warned Boris Johnson he will fail if he tries to use the leverage of a US trade deal to strike better terms with Brussels, as it revealed plans for “10 negotiating tables” for the huge task ahead. In a hard-hitting interview, chief negotiator Michel Barnier also made clear that border checks on goods will “become the norm” after Brexit – even if the UK achieves the no-tariff, no-quota agreement it seeks. Mr Barnier highlighted that a no-deal Brexit remained a “risk” at the end of 2020, as EU determination to protect the single market clashes with the UK’s desire to make its own rules. And he suggested the UK could never secure the same “respect” from the United States and China as it had as a member of the EU with “500 million consumers and 22 million businesses”.

BBC News
The Irish Prime Minister has told BBC News he believes the EU will have the upper hand in the upcoming trade talks with the UK. Leo Varadkar compared the two sides to football teams, suggesting the EU would have the “stronger team” due to its larger population and market. He also suggested that Britain misjudged the first phase of Brexit. It comes as the Taoiseach is due to meet the EU’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, in Dublin.

EUObserver
Many on the EU side had long hoped the UK would change its mind and call off Brexit after a second referendum. Their hopes were crushed, however, when Boris Johnson secured an overwhelming election victory last month. Yet a repeal of Article 50 was never in the EU’s best interest. Europe’s leaders may not have realised it, but it was always also in the EU’s interest to ‘get Brexit done’. Three-and-a-half years after the EU referendum, the UK will finally leave the EU on the 31st of January. For a long time, it seemed like Brexit might not actually happen.

Immigration

Times
Boris Johnson is moving today to prove that Britain is open to the world’s best scientists, researchers and mathematicians after Brexit. Top-level visas for those of exceptional talent are being overhauled to widen eligibility and to remove the cap on numbers. The move comes before a clampdown on less-skilled migrants that will put Mr Johnson in sharp conflict with business as Britain prepares to leave the European Union at 11pm on Friday.

Guardian
The government has announced it will launch a “global talent visa” on 20 February to encourage scientists, researchers and mathematicians to come to the UK, with no limit on how many people can be accepted. In addition, Boris Johnson said he was making available a £300m package for research into advanced mathematics. It will double funding for new PhDs and boost the number of maths fellowships and research projects. With Brexit day approaching on 31 January, the prime minister said: “As we leave the EU I want to send a message that the UK is open to the most talented minds in the world, and stand ready to support them to turn their ideas into reality.”

Express
BORIS JOHNSON today sets the country on its path to a bright Brexit future with new visa rules to attract the world’s top talent. The Prime Minister declared Britain is open to gifted scientists and mathematicians and is committed to leading the way in groundbreaking research. It comes as Home Secretary Priti Patel told businesses they have been too reliant on low-skilled cheap labour from the EU and must now start to invest in training British workers. A fast-track “global talent” visa will launch on February 20 that will speed up and simplify entry to the UK for skilled researchers.

Mail
Top scientists are to be offered fast-track visas for Britain, as ministers finalise plans to slash low-skilled migration from the European Union. Boris Johnson will today unveil plans for a ‘Global Talent’ visa scheme for leading scientists and mathematicians in a bid to show that the UK remains open to the ‘brightest and best’. The Prime Minister will say that ‘as we leave the EU I want to send a message that the UK is open to the most talented minds in the world’.

Independent
Boris Johnson has been accused of using the immigration system as a marketing gimmick after creating a new, uncapped visa for top scientists, researchers and mathematicians. The global talent visa will allow an unlimited number of specialists to enter the country without job offers, while also offering an accelerated path to citizenship – advantages not currently afforded to lower-skilled migrants in sectors such as health and social care. However, critics have said the new policy remains the same as the Tier 1 ‘exceptional talent’ visa it replaces with the main difference being the removal of a cap, currently set at 2,000 people per year, that has not been reached since the policy was first implemented.

HS2

Sky News
Two HS2 whistle-blowers have told Sky News they feel there should be a public inquiry into the spiralling cost of HS2 and that the taxpayer has been deceived. A third executive has suggested the project goes back to parliament before progressing. It comes after the National Audit Office found on Friday that HS2 did not allow for uncertainties when estimating initial costs. A leaked draft of a government review also suggests the costs could almost double from £58bn to well over £100bn. Doug Thornton and Andrew Bruce worked on costing land and property that the company needed to buy in order to build the track.

Virus

Telegraph
Suspected carriers of a lethal new virus may have been wrongly told that they only need to be tested for the disease if they have “the sniffles”, the Telegraph has learned. Public health bosses were on Sunday night accused of leaving the door open to coronavirus after official advice given to potential carriers in the UK was thrown into doubt. One potential British ‘super-spreader’ revealed that he had not been offered screening despite visiting a fish market at the centre of the epidemic nearly every day.

Times
Plans to evacuate hundreds of Britons trapped in China during the deadly coronavirus outbreak are being hampered by Beijing. The Foreign Office was still waiting last night for permission to extract citizens from the city of Wuhan, which is under lockdown to contain the spread of the virus. Officials insisted that Beijing’s approval was only one of several obstacles to an evacuation, citing the risk of spreading the virus as a factor.

Star
As many as 100,000 people could be infected by the killer coronavirus sweeping across the globe, an expert warned. Professor Neil Ferguson, from Imperial College London, also cautioned that it is only a matter of time before there is a case in the UK. The academic said that large numbers of tourists travelling across Europe meant the sars-like virus will likely take hold on the continent in the coming days and weeks. He also questioned the Chinese government’s ability to deal with the spread of the illness.

Sun
HUNDREDS of Brits are stranded at the centre of the coronavirus outbreak after China blocked attempts to airlift them home. Officials have told all countries its lockdown will not be lifted for repatriation flights, a Foreign Office source revealed. And yesterday worried Brits in the city of Wuhan — the source of the deadly illness — said they had been left without any information. The Foreign Office has been criticised for its response to the crisis as it emerged the British embassy in Wuhan was closed over the weekend.

Mail
Britons stranded in China have called on the government to come and get them as the coronavirus crisis deepens. Footage released today shows the usually bustling streets of Wuhan deserted and supermarkets running low on fresh produce.   The Hubai province is currently on lockdown as the country struggles to contain the virus which has killed 80 people as of Sunday.  Home Secretary Priti Patel said the Government was ‘looking at all options’ to help Britons leave Wuhan following reports that officials have been asked to examine the logistics for an airlift from the city.

Trade

Telegraph
Trade groups have been invited to hold their first consultations on the future EU-UK trade deal, The Telegraph has learned, amid rising fears among industry that ideology will trump practical considerations in the coming talks. With less than five weeks to go before formal negotiations open in Brussels in early March, interviews with eight major business lobby groups by The Telegraph have revealed widely shared concerns about the Government’s grasp of critical details of the negotiation. Since the election, all the major UK trade groups said there had been no consultations on the imminent UK-EU negotiations.

Express
US CHICKEN which has been chlorine-washed should not be banned from the UK after Brexit as Britain already uses the same cleaning process for salads, Donald Trump’s London envoy believes. According to the Mail Online US ambassador Woody Johnson is insisting that chlorinated chicken must be included in trade between the two countries. He said that the UK had “already approved antimicrobial washes to stop food poisoning in prewashed salads” – and therefore, similar chicken cleaning process used in the States does not make a huge difference.

BBC News
The government is aiming to secure a “zero tariff, zero quota” free trade deal with the EU, Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay has said. He told the BBC’s Andrew Marr the UK would not diverge from current EU trade regulations “for the sake of it”. Mr Barclay added the government’s objectives for the trade talks would be published after Brexit on 31 January. Prime Minister Boris Johnson will make a speech next month setting out more details, he said. Mr Barclay’s comments come after the US treasury secretary said his country wants to agree to a post-Brexit trade deal with the UK this year. After Brexit happens at 23:00 GMT on Friday, the UK will be free to negotiate and sign new trade deals with countries with no existing EU deals – like the US.

Farming

Telegraph
Brexit is an opportunity for British farming to become “the envy of the world”, farmers and environmentalists have told the prime minister in a rare joint missive.  The National Farmers Union, Greenpeace and the RSPB, along with 60 other organisations, have written to Boris Johnson calling for food standards to be enshrined in law after we leave the EU, in a letter seen by the Telegraph.  “Brexit can be a catalyst for UK farming not just to be the envy of the world, but to provide gold-standard model for high standard, high quality, sustainable food production,” reads the letter, which was sent over the weekend.

Labour leadership

Mirror
Keir Starmer has vowed a “radical shake-up” of the UK’s constitution to move power out of London. The bookies’ favourite for Labour leader will pledge to “end the monopoly of power in Westminster” – giving regions more control over policies like transport, tax and green industry. The MP will return to the campaign trail tomorrow after spending four days in and out of hospital with his wife’s family. He thanked backers for their “support and kindness” after an accident left his mother-in-law critically ill in intensive care.

Huawei

Telegraph
Britain’s sovereignty is at risk if it allows Huawei to build its 5G network, Donald Trump’s Secretary of State warned last night. In an eleventh hour plea, Mike Pompeo said the National Security Council faces a “momentous decision” on Tuesday, warning: “The truth is that only nations able to protect their data will be sovereign.” It comes ahead of his visit to meet Boris Johnson and Dominic Raab on Wednesday, a day after the NSC is expected to decide whether to allow the Chinese telecoms giant access to 5G. The US and Australia have banned Huawei from their 5G networks amid concerns its relationship with China could expose them to the risk of espionage and sabotage.

Times
The White House heaped more pressure last night on Boris Johnson to ban Huawei from the UK’s new 5G network citing security concerns before a decision tomorrow. Mike Pompeo, the US secretary of state, backed Tory MPs urging Mr Johnson to keep the Chinese firm out of the critical new infrastructure as he prepared to travel to London. “The UK has a momentous decision ahead on 5G,” Mr Pompeo tweeted last night as he endorsed a warning from Tom Tugendhat, Tory chairman of the foreign affairs select committee, that a decision to allow Huawei would undermine the UK’s sovereignty.

Air pollution

Mail
More than one in 19 deaths in British towns and cities is linked to air pollution, a report claimed yesterday. It said urban residents were 25 times more likely to die from long-term exposure to pollution than in a car crash. Higher levels of deadly dust, ash and soot – particulate matter – are also more common in southern areas, according to the charity Centre for Cities. London, Luton and Slough were singled out as pollution blackspots. An estimated one in 16 deaths in these areas was put down to exposure to pollution. Aberdeen is the city with the lowest pollution-related death rate at one in 33, closely followed by Dundee, Glasgow, Blackpool and Edinburgh.

ITV News
More than one in 19 deaths in UK towns and cities is linked to air pollution – and the figures are much worse for people living in the south, according to Centre for Cities charity. People living in UK towns and cities are 25 times more likely to die from long-term exposure to pollution than in a car crash, according to the charity which works with Whitehall to develop urban policies. There is a north-south divide for pollution levels, with higher levels of deadly dust, ash and soot, called Particulate Matter (PM2.5), in southern areas. Inhalation of PM2.5 at any level is likely to cause “adverse effects”, according to the Department for Environment.

Rail travel

Mail
Beleaguered Northern Rail could be renationalised as early as this week after running into severe financial difficulties. The franchise’s operator Arriva, owned by Germany‘s state-backed Deutsche Bahn, is expected to hand back control to the Government this week. Northern Rail, which stretches from Newcastle and Hull in the east to Liverpool, Blackpool and Carlisle in the west, has been dragged down by strikes, delays and the botched introduction of a new timetable. Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said earlier this month that the service offered by the operator, which carries 101million passengers per year, was ‘completely unacceptable’.

Mirror
Troubled Northern Rail will be taken into public ownership this week as the national rail network falls further into chaos. After years of poor performance millions of customers faced a 2.7 per cent increase in fares this month as the firm’s lines plunged into chaos and cancellations. The formal renationalisation will be ordered by Transport Secretary Grant Shapps who described the private ownership’s delivery as “completely unacceptable”. It will become the second of the national networks 16 rail passenger franchises to be nationalised under the Government-owned “operator of last resort” which is owned outright by the taxpayer.

Guardian
Ministers will pledge to reopen closed rail lines in the north this week as the government prepares to renationalise the failed Northern franchise. The promise of hundreds of millions in investment to restore some lines axed in the Beeching closures in the early 1960s will come at about the same time as the expected announcement of the termination of the Northern franchise, operated by Arriva. Blyth Valley, a former Labour stronghold in the north-east that turned Conservative in the election and presaged the collapse of the “red wall”, is likely to be among the first places to benefit from the reopening of passenger services. The decision to renationalise Northern, which the transport secretary, Grant Shapps, is due to deliver by Thursday, is likely to be welcomed in the north, but it represents another embarrassing failure of the privatised rail system.

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