Boris Johnson has warned the EU that triggering a trade war over the UK's plans to make unilateral changes to the Northern Ireland Protocol would be a "gross, gross overreaction".
The Government will today publish its Northern Ireland Protocol Bill which will give ministers the power to tear up post-Brexit border rules without having to seek the agreement of Brussels.
The EU has warned the approach could breach international law and prompt a trade dispute between the bloc and Britain.
Mr Johnson defended the UK's plans this morning and insisted the Bill will comply with international law. He argued that the UK's "higher and prior legal commitment as a country is to the Belfast Good Friday Agreement".
He also said it would be "perverse" and "preposterous" to enter into a trade war over what he described as making a "relatively trivial set of adjustments" to the existing border arrangements.
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Sir Ed Davey, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, has criticised Boris Johnson for failing to back immediate tax cuts (see the post below at 09.51).
He said: "All we got from Boris Johnson this morning was more bluff and bluster and no actual plan to help people through this cost of living emergency.
“He could cut taxes now, helping households and the economy but instead he just sits on his hands. Instead of cutting taxes - in the middle of this crisis chooses to raises them, something struggling families and pensioners will never forgive him for.”
The Northern Ireland Protocol Bill is due to be presented to Parliament in the House of Commons this afternoon.
If there are no urgent questions then it should take place just after 3.30pm. The Government is then expected to publish the draft legislation.
Downing Street has also promised a summary of the Government's legal advice relating to the Bill.
Boris Johnson has defended the Government's plan to send migrants on a one-way trip to Rwanda despite reported criticism from the Prince of Wales.
The Prime Minister insisted the plan is aimed at breaking the business model of people-trafficking gangs.
Asked if Prince Charles is wrong, Mr Johnson told LBC Radio: “What I don’t think we should support is continued activity by criminal gangs.”
He added: “I do think that it’s the job of Government to stop people breaking the law and to support people who are doing the right thing; that’s what we are doing.”
Boris Johnson has hinted that inflation will need to be falling before the Government can act to cut taxes.
He told LBC Radio: "Yes of course I understand that we need to bear down on taxation and we certainly will.
"But we’ve got an inflationary spike that we’ve got to get through right now, looking after people as we go through that. And that is what we’re going to do.”
It had been thought that Liz Truss, the Foreign Secretary, would deliver a statement in the House of Commons this afternoon to take questions on the Government's Northern Ireland Protocol Bill.
But while the Bill will be presented to Parliament, likely at 3.30pm, Ms Truss is now not expected to make a statement. She is expected to do a brief TV clip.
MPs are unlikely to be happy with that arrangement and may well push for an urgent question to be granted on the subject.
Liz Truss has also spoken to Maros Sefcovic, the vice president of the European Commission, about the UK's Northern Ireland Protocol plans.
Mr Sefcovic said action to "unilaterally disapply" parts of the protocol will damage trust between the two sides.
The Irish Government has warned the UK's Northern Ireland Protocol Bill will be "deeply damaging" to the relationship between Britain and the EU.
Dublin has published a readout of a 12-minute phone call between Simon Coveney, the Irish Foreign Affairs Minister, and Liz Truss which took place this morning.
An Irish Government spokesman said: "Minister Coveney said publishing legislation that would breach the UK’s commitments under international law, the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement and Northern Ireland Protocol is deeply damaging to relationships on these islands and between the UK and EU.
"Minister Coveney said it marks a particular low point in the UK’s approach to Brexit, especially as Secretary Truss has not engaged with negotiations with the EU in any meaningful way since February."
They added: "Far from fixing problems, this legislation will create a whole new set of uncertainties and damage relationships."
Boris Johnson has joined farm workers to pick courgettes on a vegetable farm in Cornwall to mark the launch of the Government's new food strategy.
The Prime Minister was shown how to look under the leaves, select the ready courgettes, twist and turn the vegetables and place them in crates at the back of a tractor moving slowly across the field.
“Beautiful shiny courgettes,” Mr Johnson said. “They’re very prolific, aren’t they?”
Boris Johnson has warned the EU against triggering a trade war over the UK's Northern Ireland Protocol plans as he said such a move would be a "gross, gross overreaction".
Told that there have been warnings of a potential trade war, Mr Johnson told LBC Radio: “I think that that would be a gross, gross overreaction. All we are trying to do is simplify things to actually to remove barriers to trade between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
“How perverse, how preposterous at this time when we want to see greater facilities… to be introducing further restrictions on trade when all we are trying to do is have some bureaucratic simplifications between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.”
Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, has rejected claims that the Government's Northern Ireland plans could breach international law.
He told LBC Radio: “Well, I disagree with that and I will tell you why, because I think our higher and prior legal commitment as a country is to the Belfast Good Friday Agreement.”
Boris Johnson was told during an interview on LBC Radio that his Northern Ireland Protocol plans appear to be "dead in the water" and will struggle to take off because of a mounting backlash.
Mr Johnson replied: “No, absolutely not… it is a sea plane this thing, it is going to take off from the water because it is the right way forward.
“What we have to respect, this is the crucial thing, is the balance and the symmetry of the Belfast Good Friday Agreement and we have to understand there are two traditions in Northern Ireland… two ways of looking at the border issues and one community at the moment feels very, very estranged from the way things are operating and very alienated and we just have got to fix that and it is relatively simple to do it.
“It is a bureaucratic change that needs to be made. Frankly it is a relatively trivial set of adjustments, in the grand scheme of things.”
Henry Dimbleby, the Government's food tsar, said the food strategy due to be published by ministers today represents "progress" but more needs to be done (see the post below at 08.19).
Mr Dimbleby made a series of recommendations in an independent review published last year after he was commissioned to look at the issue - but the Government is not taking all of them forward.
The co-founder of the Leon restaurant chain who has seen the final version of the food strategy, told BBC Breakfast: “Is it the big, bold, unified strategy I think we need? No. Do I think we’re going in the right direction? Yes.”
He said his recommendation of introducing an effective salt and sugar tax would be responded to by the Health Secretary Sajid Javid at a later date.
He said: “I’m hoping that the Health Secretary will be bold and brave in a difficult political context and act to break that junk food cycle and we get away from this narrative of personal responsibility and education which is important, but it isn’t going to get us out of the hole we’re in.”
The Government continues to face legal challenges over its Rwanda asylum seekers policy.
George Eustice, the Environment Secretary, said he expects legal firms to continue to make "noise" about the "offshoring" plans but he insisted the approach is the "right thing to do".
He told Sky News: “Lawyers will continue to make these sorts of noises but of course we put in place an agreement with Rwanda.
“I think it was a very big step forward when the Home Secretary Priti Patel secured that agreement it’s something actually that the governments and oppositions have talked about as a potential solution for a very long time going back some 20 years and it is we think the right thing to do in order to address this problem of people putting their lives at risk and putting their lives in the hands of terrible people smugglers.”
Rachel Reeves, Labour's shadow chancellor, said the latest GDP figures (see the post below at 08.23) will "add to the worry families are still feeling about their own finances and the long term health of our economy".
She said: “They will also add to growing concern about abysmal growth and plummeting living standards under the Conservatives.
“Instead of properly addressing the structural weaknesses and insecurity they've created, all the Conservatives use are sticking plasters.
“Labour will create a stronger, more secure economy by boosting our energy security, supply chain security and business security.”
The Liberal Democrats have accused the Government of being in "disarray" after the UK economy contracted for two months in a row (see the post below at 08.23).
Christine Jardine, the party's Treasury spokeswoman, said: "The Government’s barrage of tax hikes and lack of cost-of-living support are leaving people to suffer, and now that’s translating into worrying economic figures.
“The UK has the best universities, the best services sector and the best workforce – yet this Government is in such disarray that we’re headed for the lowest growth in the G7. Their incompetence is nothing short of dangerous.
“Instead of giving speeches full of empty promises, Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak need to start listening to people and give them real help with the cost of living.”
Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor, has responded to today's GDP figures which were published by the Office for National Statistics at 7am (see the post below at 08.23).
Mr Sunak said: "Countries around the world are seeing slowing growth, and the UK is not immune from these challenges.
“I want to reassure people, we’re fully focused on growing the economy to address the cost of living in the longer term, while supporting families and businesses with the immediate pressures they’re facing.
“We have a plan to turbocharge productivity through investment in capital, people and ideas, so everyone across the country can benefit from a strong, healthy economy.”
George Eustice, the Environment Secretary, has conceded there are “some real challenges ahead” after the UK economy contracted in March and April (see the post below at 08.23).
He told Sky News: "We’ve known for some time this was going to be a challenge.
“We’ve got unemployment that’s at record lows, the lowest it’s been since 1974, but of course there are some real challenges ahead and these GDP figures are a reminder of those challenges.”
The UK economy contracted by 0.3 per cent in April this year following a decline of 0.1 per cent in March as fears of a recession continue to grow.
The decline was driven by the end of free Covid testing in April, which removed a major support for the economy, although there were contractions in all major sectors.
It also came as the energy price cap jumped 54 per cent and National Insurance payments increased, piling more pressure on household budgets as the cost-of-living crisis deepens.
You can follow the latest on the economy live here.
Henry Dimbleby, the co-founder of the Leon restaurant chain, was commissioned by the Government to conduct a review of the nation's food system and he published a series of recommendations last year.
The Government is today unveiling its new food strategy but it has faced criticism after leaked versions of the document suggested ministers had failed to adopt many of Mr Dimbleby's key asks.
George Eustice, the Environment Secretary, defended the Government's approach, telling Sky News the "vast majority" of the recommendations have been taken forward.
He said: "I have spoken directly to Henry Dimbleby about this. We take forward the vast majority of his recommendations and so on health and obesity, for instance, he recommended a data partnership, that was his flagship recommendation, we are taking that up because business has access to far better consumer data than government ever can. And of course we have already introduced many things in this space.”
George Eustice, the Environment Secretary, said the Northern Ireland Protocol is a "serious threat" to peace in Northern Ireland and must be changed.
He also argued the UK has been forced to act unilaterally to make changes to post-Brexit border rules because the EU has refused to give ground during negotiations.
He told Sky News: “Obviously when the Bill is introduced we will set out the legal basis for that and the Attorney General has been involved closely with this and has given her advice on it.
“But the crucial thing is we have to make this Northern Ireland Protocol work properly because at the moment it is a serious threat to the Belfast Good Friday Agreement and we don’t have the inter-ministerial committees meeting which is supposed to bring together politicians on both sides of the Irish border, Stormont is not sitting and trade from GB to Northern Ireland is being severely affected.
“So we have to get a durable solution to this. We have been trying very hard with the European Union to get them to discuss, they are refusing to even change their mandate and so we have to basically give clarity about what the protocol means, how it should be interpreted. Only the UK can do that.”
Good morning and welcome to today's politics live blog.
The Government will publish its Northern Ireland Protocol Bill this afternoon - the legislation which will give ministers the power to unilaterally tear up post-Brexit border rules in Northern Ireland.
The publication of the draft laws will spark a political firestorm, with the EU having warned the UK's approach could breach international law.
Ministers will also publish the Government's new Food Strategy amid claims it does not go far enough to change the nation's approach to healthy eating.
I will guide you through all of the key developments.
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