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Priti Patel accused of 'troubling' refusal to accept border policy failed, despite spread of Delta variant
Business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng appears to have conceded that ministers did not know the full extent of what the Northern Ireland Protocol would, or could, mean for the island of Ireland until after Britain had already left the EU.
“With the NI Protocol, obviously nobody had any idea the actual effects of it until we left the EU,” he told Sky News this morning.
But presenter Kay Burley quickly stepped in, refuting this point: “When you said ‘nobody knew’, am I not right in saying that at least three previous prime ministers warned that this would happen?”
Mr Kwarteng, quickly correcting himself, said he meant to say “nobody could guarantee it would happen”. The Cabinet minister went on to blame the European bloc for “being a bit inflexible”.
Meanwhile, ministers will today announce a consultation into what slashing red tape inherited during Britain’s time as an EU member will look like. Brexit minister David Frost, who negotiated the Withdrawal Agreement, said the proposals marked the “first time in a generation” that British politicians were “free to implement rules that put the UK first”.
Recommended Northern Ireland protocol clash risks ‘inevitable’ UK-EU trade war, officials fear Nurses consider action over ‘appalling’ 3% NHS pay rise EU rejects UK’s demand to rip up Brexit deal for Northern Ireland after less than three hours Starmer brands Tories ‘party of crime and disorder’, as Labour research finds ￡1.6bn hole in police budgets
Key points Nobody could have predicted effects of NI Protocol – minister Ministers look to slash EU-inherited regulation in new consultation Nurses consider action over ‘appalling’ 3% NHS pay rise Closer look: NHS staff ‘lost thousands in pay during past decade’ PM criticised for ‘flunking’ levelling up speech – again
Show latest update 1626941328 Nobody could have predicted effects of NI Protocol – Kwarteng
A Cabinet minister has said “nobody” at No 10 could have predicted the fallout of the Northern Ireland Protocol until after “we had already left the EU”.
Speaking to Sky News earlier, business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng criticised the EU for being “inflexible”, adding “nobody thought the protocol would define the role of Northern Ireland within the UK”.
Sam Hancock 22 July 2021 09:08
1626940737 Closer look: NHS staff ‘lost thousands in pay during past decade’
NHS workers in England have lost up to ￡9,000 a year during a decade of pay cuts, new analysis by the GMB union suggests.
Cleaners have lost more than ￡1,000 every year, 999 call handlers ￡3,500, nurses more than ￡6,000, and midwives more than ￡7,500, it found.
The figures were released amid continuing anger over the 3 per cent pay rise awarded to NHS workers. The GMB is now consulting members on the pay offer and will be recommending they reject the “paltry” response from the government.
“After 10 years of pay cuts, a pandemic that saw NHS staff put all their lives at risk and now a pay offer from the Government that amounts to taking yet more cash from their pockets, it’s no wonder moral among NHS workers is rock bottom,” GMB national officer Rehana Azam said.
“It can’t be right that our health workers have had their pay slashed by thousands and it can’t be right that their reward for their pandemic efforts is yet more cuts to their pay.”
He added sternly: “GMB will be recommending members turn down this paltry pay offer. Ministers need to think again.”
Sam Hancock 22 July 2021 08:58
1626940138 NHS chief questions government’s handling of staff pay rise
An NHS boss has signalled the service supports its staff, saying it has an “enormous amount of sympathy” for them, over the way their pay rise “has been handled this year by the government”.
Danny Mortimer, chief executive of NHS Employers, told the BBC this morning leaders were “relieved it’s 3 per cent, not 1 per cent” but added: “The key question is, is the government going to fund this pay award properly?”
“What we can’t have is a situation where the assumption is that the NHS will make efficiencies, will cut the number of staff or reduce the services it provides to pay for this pay award, what we can’t have is a situation where some parts of the NHS, particularly the services that provide specialist public health services, don’t receive the pay award in the same way that my members who run services in hospitals do so,” he told BBC R4’s Today programme.
“We’re also worried about the longer-term, what does this mean in terms of the attitude of staff and unions in future years around pay awards?” he said.
Sam Hancock 22 July 2021 08:48
1626939068 PM criticised for ‘flunking’ levelling up speech – again
Boris Johnson “flunked” his opportunity to define his government’s flagship levelling up agenda which risks becoming an “everything and nothing policy”, MPs have said.
Levelling up was a term coined when Mr Johnson entered No 10 and was heavily pushed during the 2019 election as a way of closing regional inequalities and “improving everyday life and life chances”. But it has since been used in relation to tackling a number of issues including addressing racial inequalities, disability rights, and tackling antisemitism.
Releasing a report on the policy on Thursday, Labour MP Darren Jones, chairman of the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) Committee, said: “Levelling up was a major part of the government’s offer to the British people at the last election, but it appears every possible funding stream from government - be it about bus stops or football pitches - is labelled as for levelling up.”
The BEIS committee said it was their view that levelling up meant “the spreading of economic and social opportunities more evenly across the country”. But the panel added it was unclear who was responsible for delivering on it.
It comes after the PM’s heavily criticised speech at the UK Battery Industrialisation Centre in Coventry last week - which was billed as a major bid to define his vision for the UK - panned for providing little to no new detail on levelling up.
Mr Jones will deliver a statement on behalf of the BEIS Committee in the Commons just after 1.30pm today.
Sam Hancock 22 July 2021 08:31
1626937878 Parliamentary schedule for Thursday
Here’s a look at what’s going on inside Westminster today:
House of Commons
9.30am Environment, food and rural affairs questions
10.10am Church Commissioners, House of Commons Commission, Parliamentary Works Sponsor Body, Public Accounts Commission and Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission questions
10.30am A statement on Covid-19
11.30am Business questions
12.30pm A statement from schools minister Nick Gibb on awarding qualifications in 2021 and 2022
1.30pm Select committee statements
Matters to be raised before the forthcoming adjournment
A short debate on the review of the Gambling Act 2005
Westminster Hall
1.30pm Priorities for the Cop26 conference
3.15pm Support for unpaid carers and carers week 2021
House of Lords
12pm Oral questions
1pm A statement on changes to international travel rules
A statement on the reported Chinese state-sponsored cyber attack on Microsoft exchange servers
A statement on the NHS
A debate on the Public Services Committee report, A critical juncture for public services: lessons from Covid-19
A debate on the European Union Committee report, The future UK-EU relationship on professional and business services
Draft Calorie Labelling (Out of Home Sector) (England) Regulations 2021 - motions to approve and regret
A statement on tackling violence against women and girls
Sam Hancock 22 July 2021 08:11
1626937392 Ministers look to slash EU-inherited regulation in new consultation
Reforms - including proposals to streamline regulations - designed to slash red tape inherited during Britain’s decades as an EU member will be put to consultation, ministers have announced.
It marks an initial response to the report by the independent Taskforce on Innovation, Growth and Regulatory Reform (TIGRR), which was commissioned by Boris Johnson and chaired by former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith.
Suggestions made by Sir Iain’s taskforce included calling on the government to enable companies to trial innovative ideas safely by lifting certain regulations to allow new products to be tested in a real-world setting under the supervision of a regulator - a style of experimentation dubbed the “sandbox”.
Other proposals to be consulted on include bringing in tougher scrutiny of proposed regulations to ensure poor measures do not become law and reviewing new additions every two years, rather than every five.
“Now is the time to think boldly about how we regulate, as we seize our new opportunities as an independent nation,” Lord Frost, who negotiated the Withdrawal Agreement, said. “For the first time in a generation, we are free to implement rules that put the UK first.”
He added: “Reforming the way we regulate will be a big part of delivering that for people.”
Sam Hancock 22 July 2021 08:03
1626937157 Nurses consider action over ‘appalling’ 3% NHS pay rise
The main nursing union is to consult members on possible action, after the government announced a 3 per cent NHS pay rise which the Royal College of Nursing said amounts to a cut after inflation is taken into account.
The Department of Health said the rise will be worth an additional ￡1,000 a year to the average nurse in England, while many porters and cleaners will receive around ￡540.
It amounts to a significant improvement on the government’s initial offer of just 1 per cent for NHS staff after a year in which they have been under intense pressure because of the coronavirus pandemic. But while it is higher than the current rate of inflation, the RCN – which had demanded 12.5 per cent – said it would soon fall behind the expected increase in prices over the coming months, leaving nurses worse-off overall.
Our political editor Andrew Woodcock reports:
Nurses consider action over ‘appalling’ 3% NHS pay rise Hike worth ￡1,000 a year to the average nurse, says Department of Health, after increasing initial below-inflation 1% offer
Sam Hancock 22 July 2021 07:59
1626936489
Good morning, and welcome to The Independent’s rolling coverage of Brexit and all things UK politics. It’s set to be a busy day as NHS nurses consider striking over the government’s offer of a 3 per cent pay rise, so stay tuned.
Sam Hancock 22 July 2021 07:48