Brexit
Express
LORD FROST will today outline his plans to save the Brexit deal after months of friction with the EU over the implementation of the Northern Ireland Protocol.
The Brexit minister will make an announcement on the House of Lords at the same time Brandon Lewis informs MPs of the Government’s plans in the Commons. Lord Frost had pledged to present his proposals to fix the problems caused by the Protocol before Parliament broke up for the summer on Thursday.
Officials have described the Protocol in its current form as “unworkable”.
Ministers have said they are willing to trigger Article 16 – the legal mechanism to suspend the Protocol – if the EU does not show more pragmatism on the implementation of the mechanism.
Last night No10 was remaining tight-lipped as to the contents of Lord Frost’s proposals.
However, it is not expected the Brexit minister will announce plans to end the Protocol.
A similar story can be read in BBC News
Social care
Mail
Boris Johnson has been forced to put off announcing his social care reforms until the autumn after he failed to reach agreement with leading ministers.
He was understood be considering a 1p-in-the-pound increase in National Insurance (NI) contributions to fund his long-awaited plans.
But critics said such a plan would hit the low-paid and would spare even well-off pensioners – including those still working – from having to contribute anything to the cost of the new care system.
The plans are understood to include measures to integrate the NHS better with the local-authority-run social care system, to ensure elderly people are properly cared for. There will also be reforms to ensure better training.
It had been hoped that Mr Johnson would be able to bring forward his proposals – first promised almost two years ago – this week, before Parliament rises for its summer recess.
A similar story can be read in the Times.
Labour Party
Telegraph
The Labour Party plans to cut up to a quarter of its staff after finding itself in a dire financial situation brought on by a mass exodus of members and a slew of anti-Semitism cases.
David Evans, Labour’s general secretary, met with its ruling National Executive Committee (NEC) on Tuesday to present the outcome of his major structural review of the party, including a recommendation that up to 90 people are made redundant.
Labour has apologised to its staff but says that the cuts are required to keep the party afloat and able to fight the next general election, which many believe could come next year.
Staff have been offered voluntary redundancy with a severance package of three weeks’ pay for each year they have worked there.
The website LabourList reported that Mr Evans told the NEC: “We don’t have any money”.
The party’s finances have deteriorated since Sir Keir Starmer took office as Labour leader, with members leaving in droves and officials fighting a string of costly legal battles and running investigations into members who have been accused of anti-Semitism.
Similar stories can be read in the Morning Star, Order-order
‘Pingdemic’
Mail
Mounting public anger at the ‘pingdemic’ has led to a mass revolt against the NHS Covid app and self-isolation rules, a poll reveals today.
Nearly one in four people has deleted or switched off the app – and millions more say they will refuse to isolate if ‘pinged’.
The backlash has been fuelled by the row over Boris Johnson‘s initial attempt to avoid going into self-isolation after he was in contact with Health Secretary Sajid Javid, who contracted the virus.
A total of 72 per cent of people say the Government’s Covid stance has been a ‘shambles’ in the past few days.
But despite worries that Mr Johnson may be relaxing the rules too quickly, the poll for the Daily Mail shows clear backing for his ‘if not now, when?’ approach to controlling the virus.
If Covid deaths remain low and most of those who need hospital treatment have not been vaccinated, voters are opposed to renewed curbs – unless there is a full-scale NHS crisis.
Similar stories can be read in the Telegraph, Sun
Vaccination passports
Guardian
Conservative MPs believe Boris Johnson faces a major rebellion over Covid vaccine passports but could be supported by Labour, who were on Tuesday night wavering over whether to back them.
Tory MPs opposed to the plan for Covid passes to enter nightclubs and other crowded indoor venues said more than 40 Conservatives were prepared to defy the prime minister over civil liberties concerns, particularly as No 10 has refused to rule out extending the passes to pubs and other sectors.
The scale of the rebellion could put any vote on a knife-edge if opposition parties also oppose the idea, which was proposed by Johnson on Monday in an extraordinary U-turn hours after clubs were allowed to open in England for the first time in 16 months.
At least 42 Tory MPs have signed a cross-party Big Brother Watch declaration against “Covid status certification to deny individuals access to general services, businesses or jobs” in recent months. More MPs privately told the Guardian they were unlikely to back such a move, especially if it remained a vaccine-only pass that did not recognise a negative test result or evidence of antibodies.
The issue is likely to be raised on Wednesday at a meeting of the new 1922 Committee of backbenchers, which is now led by three sceptics of Covid passports. Nusrat Ghani and William Wragg were elected as new vice-chairs on Tuesday, joining the longtime chairman, Sir Graham Brady. On Tuesday some Tory MPs threatened to boycott the Conservative party conference in October over fears Covid passports would be required.
Breitbart
A leading member of a group of anti-lockdown Tory MPs has warned that the UK is “effectively moving to compulsory vaccination”, after Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that a vaccine passport will be the condition of entry for large venues like nightclubs.
On Monday, the day touted as ‘Freedom Day’, Prime Minister Johnson announced: “By the end of September, when all over-18s will have had their chance to be doubled-jabbed, we’re planning to make full vaccination the condition for entry to nightclubs and other venues where large crowds gather. Proof of a negative test will no longer be enough.”
Faced with the prospect of Britain going down the route of introducing its first domestic vaccine passports, Mark Harper MP, the chairman of the Conservative lockdown-sceptic Covid Recovery Group (CRG), said: “I have to say I don’t welcome the minister’s statement, particularly vaccine passports for crowded venues, which is effectively moving to compulsory vaccination.”
Mr Harper also suggested in comments reported by The Guardian that the government could fail to win support when the measures are voted on in parliament, saying: “I do however look forward to the debate and the vote in parliament when he will bring forward the evidence because I don’t think that is supported by the pilots that have taken place.”
The Liberal Democrats, who have been consistent in their opposition to vaccine passports, condemned the measures, with the party’s Home Affairs Spokesman Alistair Carmichael saying: “Vaccine passports are Covid ID cards: unworkable, expensive and divisive.”
Asylum seekers
Express
PRITI PATEL’s plan to radically reshape Brexit Britain’s “broken” asylum system has been backed by MPs in the Commons.
MPs voted by 366 to 265 to adopt the Nationality and Borders Bill at its second reading. The Home Secretary believes the new legislation will help put a stop to migrants making the dangerous crossing across the English Channel from France on a daily basis.
Yesterday at least 430 people, including women and young children, made the journey, a new record for a single day.
More than 8,000 migrants are thought to have succeeded in crossing the Channel so far in 2021.
Migrants crossing the Channel this year has already nearly surpassed the total for the whole of 2020.
The Nationality and Borders Bill aims to make it fairer and easier for genuine asylum seekers to make applications abroad, crack down on criminal human trafficking networks and remove those from the UK with no right to be here.
Describing the system as “broken” as she opened the debate on the Bill in the Commons yesterday, Ms Patel said: “The British people have had enough of open borders and uncontrolled migration.
Similar stories can be read in the Mirror, Times, ITV News
Mail
Priti Patel last night agreed to give France another £54million to stop the growing number of migrants crossing the Channel.
The Home Secretary signed the pledge after chaotic scenes emerged of a French navy vessel apparently ushering an overcrowded dinghy into British waters early yesterday.
It came as the number of people to have made the perilous journey this year hit 8,452 – surpassing the figure for the whole of 2020.
A record daily total of 430 landed in the UK after setting off from France in small boats on Monday – and 287 more arrived yesterday.
Miss Patel’s controversial agreement with French interior minister Gerald Darmanin will see policing numbers along the French coast more than double to 200 to cover a wider area.
There will also be an increased use of aerial surveillance, including drones. The two countries agreed to draw up a long-term plan for a ‘smart border’ using technology to identify where crossings are being attempted.
But the deal failed to impress critics, who accuse the French authorities of not doing enough to stop small boats leaving their territorial waters.
Similar stories can be read in the Telegraph, Independent, Guardian, BBC News
Breitbart
The number of illegal migrants entering European Union member states has increased by 59 per cent in the first six months of this year, as a new route has opened along the border with Belarus.
A report from the EU border agency Frontex has stated that in the first six months of 2021, there were 61,000 illegal crossings into the bloc, noting that much of the increase can be explained by countries easing Wuhan coronavirus travel restrictions.
The largest increase in illegal migration was seen in the Western Balkan route, where 18,600 migrants entered the EU illegally, a 92 per cent increase on the year before, Austrian newspaper Kronen Zeitung reports.
Frontex also estimates that the rise in migrant arrivals in Malta and Italy can be explained by the increase in people smuggling activity in the central Mediterranean.
Over the last few months, Italy has seen a surge in illegal migrant arrivals, both from independent migrant boats landing and migrant taxi NGOs vessels dropping off hundreds of migrants at a time.
Last week, the French-based NGO SOS Mediterranee demanded to drop off nearly 600 migrants in Sicily after arguing that their food supplies were running glow. Just days later, the Italian government allowed the ship to do so.
Defence
Telegraph
The Royal Air Force is to reinstate a Cold War training exercise amid the threat from Russian cruise missiles, the service’s chief has said.
Air Chief Marshal Sir Mike Wigston said he wants the RAF to re-learn skills not practised for 30 years, and that a series of ‘no-notice’ scatter drills called Exercise Agile Stance will be carried out.
The drills will see fighter jets given the order to disperse, meaning they leave their bases to land at civilian airfields or even on motorways. If the jets are spread out, the target for enemies is “harder”, said ACM Wigston.
Speaking to the Telegraph in Hawaii where he was visiting Pearl Harbor with the head of the US Pacific Fleet, ACM Wigston said fixed RAF bases would be as vulnerable to a surprise attack in any future conflict as US forces had been when the Japanese struck in December 1941.
“We’ll be re-learning how to disperse,” he said, adding if “the arsenal [of advanced cruise missiles] Putin has been bragging about” was moved to the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad “we’d be in range”.
Gibraltar
Express
BRITAIN has vowed to fight for Gibraltar’s sovereignty after Brussels today demanded Spanish boots on the ground as the price for a post-Brexit trade deal.
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab accused eurocrats of failing to respect an 11th-hour deal struck between the UK and Spain on New Year’s Eve over the region’s future. In a 26-page document, EU leaders called for a string of conditions on the British Overseas Territory. The European Commission – backed by Madrid – is demanding that EU border guards should be stationed at Gibraltar’s port, airport and waters to enforce the bloc’s rules.
Brussels is calling for Gibraltar to remain inside its single market, the Schengen free-travel area, as well as follow tax rates set by Madrid.
Under the plans, Spanish police would also be able to enter the British outpost unchallenged if they are in “hot pursuit” of a criminal.
The EU’s draft mandate states: “Surveillance would take place at Gibraltar port, airport and waters carried out by Spain applying the relevant EU rules.
Similar stories can be read in the Mail, Telegraph, Independent, Times.
Boris MUST Go. As far as I’m concerned it is the domestic vaccine pass that is the last straw. I now want the C.R.G. and 1922 committee to topple him on that issue.
While his pronouncements were aimed at saying how wonderful we were to get the vaccines first and roll them out so fast, that was understandable.
Now he has come right out and said, bluntly, ‘You must have two jabs or you will be barred access to – – -‘.
Chinese Communist Party Dictatorship here we come.
Even if it is down to idiocy on his part and Sage et all steering him, it still means he is not fit to be P.M..
It seems to me that the whole emphasis on everything in British politics is aimed at re-joining the EU at the earliest possible moment!
No I don’t see it that way Frederica. Not amongst the politicians anyway. Civil Service yes.
Brexit;
The only sensible proposal is the bin the whole agreement including the never discussed compliance with the EAW and military cooperation. We are not yet free of the EU and never will be if Boris and his cronies continue to get their way. Likewise with Gibraltar; tell the Spanish to keep out of our business and reinforce the military presence there.
I think we are rapidly approaching the territory whereby Boris Johnson needs to be forced out of office and replaced with someone with a bit of common sense, decisiveness and backbone and who has a bit of political conviction, all the qualities of which he obviously lacks. The English Channel migrant crisis gets worse by the day and rather confront the problem with positivity and deploy the Royal Navy to protect our shores and prevent the French from escorting migrant boats into our waters. What is the Royal Navy there for, if it is not to protect our own blasted shores. A small island like Britain which is already overcrowded just cannot sustain this level of migration. I can see little point deploying the Royal Navy to the Indo China ocean or the Mediterranean to keep a check on Chinese/Russian threats if we cannot defend our own shores from an invasion of foreign unknowns. The only solution he has to offer is to give the French government another 54 million pounds on top of the 140 million pounds we have already given them. When will our imbecilic prime minister and his incompetent ministers realise that money doesn’t grow on trees, and that the responsibility of defending our islands rests with this country and not with a foreign power. Quite simply Johnson is not up to the job and needs to be retired off so that he can spend more time with his wife and to play with his child and dog. How much more evidence does the Conservative Party need to realise that Johnson is not cutting the mustard in any way shape or form. Running a country like Britain is a bridge too far for Johnson and is making an total pigs ear of it. Problems are mounting for Johnson with the possibility of him being bounced into re-introducing Covid restrictions again by SAGE, and the farce surrounding the Northern Ireland protocol. We need a replacement prime minister sooner rather than later in my opinion…….
But Colin, I do think that the party would replace Johnson with anyone else who would be any different. They are all in ‘dead man’s shoes’ mode. So you would get the likes of Gove or Javid or Sunak taking over ie more of the same! No one in the party who has any nous would be allowed anywhere near the levers of power for fear of upsetting their ‘cosy club’ and their noses in the trough.
Frederica, I agree with some of what you say, but we are within two and half years of a general election, and as it stands with Johnson at the helm with all the negative things that have gone on, I don’t think there is a cat in hells chance of the Conservative winning as many seats as it did in 2019, and if they do win it will be a minority government with all the problems that that will entail. Johnson has utterly wasted the goodwill that was given him in 2019 when millions of people including me who had either never voted Conservative before or hadn’t done so for many years lent him our vote to get us out of the European Union and sort the Immigration problem out once and for all. It has been an utter shambles and I feel totally let down by this man, and will not vote for his inept party again unless they see the light and pull the rug from under his useless feet and ditch him. Johnson is now a vote loser in my opinion, but replacing him with the appalling Michael Gove is definitely not the answer, as it will be more of the same. I can’t believe that discussions are not taking place behind the scenes to get rid of Boris Johnson as prime minister. There must surely be someone on their back benches who would make an infinitely better job of being prime minister than the present incumbent. My preference would be someone like Sir Desmond Swayne who is not afraid to say how it is. For me personally I am on the cusp of returning to the UKIP fold as I just cannot see any other party on the horizon that is patriotic and actually believes in Britain. Reform UK are an utter dead loss with a rudderless leadership, and has failed us all on this side of the argument….
Colin. Return to the Ukip fold – DO. Get a hold on them and steer them right please.
I agree Colin that there are some very able back benchers but …the party set-up as it is now will never allow the able ones to rise to the top of the pile. ‘‘Twas ever thus!
Colin Would you vote Tory if you thought Labour was going to win the next election?
Jake…..you keep on asking the same question. Change the record please. The answer is no I wouldn’t vote Conservative ever again. That happened once in 2019 to get Brexit done. Before I voted UKIP and stood as an election candidate under the UKIP banner on four occasions, so I would hardly have stood as an election candidate for UKIP and voted Conservative, would I? Tell me Jake, what have you actually done yourself other criticising others for the way they might have voted. Have you ever put yourself up for election as a UKIP candidate, delivered those leaflets and canvassed at the doorstep and helped other UKIP election candidates like Nigel Farage, Paul Nuttall and Mark Reckless along the way. I would be interested to know the answer.
Colin. I was so proud to have been one of the first women selected for officer training at Britannia Royal Naval College in Dartmouth. In those days the RN roles were to ensure territorial integrity and thus political independence and economic viability. Now it can barely muster a fleet to fly the flag. Billy Bunter and his junta are appalling. His covid passport for night entertainment may be the equivalent of Thatcher ‘s poll tax. ( What a wonderful PM she was. No one could have given more support to the Armed forces). Penny Mordaunt, an RN reserves officer, could be one to watch as PM material. Heaven help us but there are very few with OLQs, pronounced ‘oily Qs’, officer like qualities, in the Cabinet.
Ceri. I ‘m glad you see Boris’ covid passport as a possible reason he will be toppled.
Ceri, and why oh why are we still maintaining the Royal Naval Nuclear Submarine base at Rosyth, as the Scottish government after all don’t really want us there. Dopey Johnson’s idea is to keep the base at Rosyth to placate the Scottish Nationalists. This should be brought back south of the border, perhaps somewhere in northern England or Portsmouth or Devonport if that is still an RN base. And then I read somewhere today that the Royal Navy is planning to deploy two Naval vessels at a Japanese port to promote good relations with that country. Not proper warships like Destroyers, but shore protection vessels, the type of which we need in the English Channel right now to repel the migrants from landing on our beaches. I am sure the Chinese or the North Korean’s are quaking in their boots at the thought of such small vessels on their doorstep. Johnson’s buffoonery know no bounds, and he alone is making this country a total laughing stock by giving the French more of our money to do diddly squat. I wouldn’t trust him to run a bath, let alone a country. Someone in government get rid of this clown please………
Colin. The subs would need a deep water base. I would think Milford Haven would be suitable…except Drakeford wants Welsh independence…Theresa May ‘s treacherous fardling around after our vote for independence has given the EU the opportunity to break up the UK. Billy Bunter has continued the destruction. He is a human wrecking ball.
We need to make plans sooner rather than later to bring the RN Nuclear Submarine south of the border. In fact Barrow in Furness has a deep water harbour and is probably under used now, so would make an ideal base. The Scottish I feel will vote for independence in the not too distant, and we have to be prepared for that eventuality. However, Boris Johnson and the Conservative Party as a whole and common sense don’t go hand in hand together do they.
Indeed Colin; we should encourage all industry to move south; give the Scots a taste of how independence would affect them if they vote for Sturgeon’s policies.
Larry would undoubtedly agree with you Colin. Let Boris play with wife child and dog somewhere else and leave him to run No 10!
Colin’s comment at 9.52 am.