Joe Biden does not "fully appreciate" the complexities of the Northern Ireland protocol and is “wrong” about his assumptions, a senior minister has said.

       Last night the US President issued a further warning to Boris Johnson not to rip up the post-Brexit deal, saying: "On the protocols, I feel very strongly on this."

       But George Eustice, the Environment Secretary, suggested the leader of the free world was "probably at the moment just reading the headlines, reading what the EU is saying, reading what Ireland might be saying, which is that they would like the Northern Ireland Protocol to work in the way the EU envisage".

       He added: "We think he is wrong because the truth is that unless we have a sustainable solution that enables trade to continue between GB and Northern Ireland then we are going to have issues, and that itself would become a challenge to the Belfast Agreement."

       Noting that the current implementation was “tantamount to saying that potatoes grown in one part of the United States can't be sold in another part of the United States”, Mr Eustice added: "It's very complicated... I'm not sure he does fully appreciate all of that."

       ？？Follow the latest updates below.

       With Boris Johnson still in the US, today's PMQs will have a different look and feel, with Dominic Raab making a return to the hot seat for the first time since the Prime Minister's brush with Covid.

       Here is what else to expect today:

       10:30am: Kwasi Kwarteng, the Business Secretary, faces questioning from MPs on the UK gas market

       11:30am: Women and equalities questions - Liz Truss, who retained the brief alongside her promotion to Foreign Secretary, is also away so these will be taken by the rest of the team including Kemi Badenoch and Mike Freer.

       12pm: Prime Minister's Questions - Raab will take on Angela Rayner in the weekly clash

       12:40pm Urgent questions/statements - details TBC

       2pm: Professor Chris Whitty to be questioned by MPs on vaccinating children

       2:15pm: Google, Facebook and Amazon give evidence to the Commons Treasury Committee on economic crime.

       In the US, Boris Johnson will meet US politicians at Capitol Hill, including senators Chuck Schumer and Mitch McConnell, US Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and House minority leader Kevin McCarthy.

       He will then travel to Arlington Cemetery to lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, before returning to New York, where he will give his climate change speech to the UN General Assembly in the early hours of the morning UK time.

       One of the climate change campaigners from the group that has targeted the M25 repeatedly this month has admitted he has not had his own home insulated.

       Insulate Britain is campaigning to have the Government introduce a national home insulation scheme.

       A court injunction pre-emptively banning further M25 protests will be "effective later today", Grant Shapps has revealed.

       In the tweet below, the Transport Secretary also confirms that climate change activists "will face contempt of court with possible imprisonment if they flout" the ruling.

       The UK has agreed to swap more than a million doses of the Pfizer Covid vaccine with South Korea, in a bid to bolster the global efforts to end the pandemic.

       The first batch is expected to be sent from London to Seoul in the coming weeks, as the South Korean government aims to administer a second dose to 70 per cent of its population by the end of October.

       The same volume of doses will be returned to the UK by the end of the year. It follows a similar "vaccine swap" agreed with Australia earlier this month.

       Sajid Javid, the Health Secretary, said: "By working closely with our friends in South Korea, this vaccine swap will maximise their rollout speed without having an impact on the UK’s vaccine programme."

       Climate change protesters disrupting the M25 could be jailed if they breached the injunction the Government is seeking, George Eustice has suggested.

       "It will be a decision for the court, we hope that the court will support our application for an injunction," the Environment Secretary told ITV's Good Morning Britain.

       "If people then breach that injunction then they are in contempt of court, then it is for a court to decide what the appropriate remedy to that is."

       That "can include custodial sentences in some circumstances", Mr Eustice said.

       Sir Keir Starmer hopes of building bridges with the unions at the Labour party conference have been dealt a blow, after the new leader of Unite said she would not be attending.

       Sharon Graham is the first general secretary - Labour's biggest trade union funder - to skip the annual event.

       She told the BBC: "We shouldn't always do what we have always done just because we have always done it... What I need to do is be with those workers in dispute and personally take leadership."

       She denied she was snubbing Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, adding: "We are in a crisis - workers are going to have a really rough ride. I am showing I am with them, and the Labour Party needs to do the same, and show it is with workers and communities too".

       "It's definitely not a snub - I have made a priority decision."

       The chances of the UK joining the US-Mexico-Canada are "pretty unlikely", a trade expert has said.

       Government officials are assessing this as an option, after hopes of signing a bilateral agreement receded, leaving some to suggest the UK is now "at the back of the queue" for signing new deals.

       But David Henig, director at the European Centre for International Political Economy, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "There is no queue, whether it's for a US trade deal bilaterally or the US-Mexico-Canada agreement.

       "That latter looks pretty unlikely, it's really just signalling to say 'we really are keen on this bilateral agreement , when there is a queue please put us back to the front of it'," he added. The USMCA was "very much designed as a North America-specific deal", which was not intended for new members to join," Mr Henig added.

       "There is no sign this US administration is particularly interested in trade deals- they think they have cost jobs in the Mid-West, and that is the key point for him."

       The 11th hour deal to subsidise CF Industries has prevented "big disruption" to the UK's food supply chain and an animal welfare "challenge", the Environment Secretary has said.

       George Eustice told Sky news: "The truth is if we did not act then, by this weekend, or certainly by the early part of next week, some of the poultry processing plants would need to close and then we would have animal welfare issues.

       "You would have lots of chickens on farms that couldn't be slaughtered on time and would have to be euthanised on farms, we would have a similar situation with pigs," he added.

       "There would have been a real animal welfare challenge here and a big disruption to the food supply chain, so we felt we needed to act."

       Rising wages will help "offset the cost" of rising fuel bills, the Environment Secretary has said.

       George Eustice told BBC Radio 4's Today programme he felt comfortable with plans to press ahead with the cut to Universal Credit despite surging fuel and food prices.

       He said: "We are seeing prices rise, that is putting some pressure on household incomes, but more importantly we are also seeing wages rise, particularly for the lowest paid. It is a very tight labour market at the moment.

       "There are over a million job vacancies at the moment, so those who want to work are finding it easy to find work."

       As a result of that companies are "increasing their pay, and that is going to help offset those increase costs that people will have on things like fuel bills," he added.

       The "significant increase" in the cost of carbon dioxide will not have a "major impact on food prices", the Environment Secretary has said.

       The price of CO2 is expected to rise sharply as a result of the surging gas price, which will push up the cost of processing meat such as poultry and pork.

       But George Eustice told BBC Radio 4's Today programme it was "a tiny proportion of overall costs" that would have little bearing on consumer prices.

       "We live in a market economy and gas prices have increased so, yes, the CO2 price is also going to have to increase... but I don't think it will have a significant impact on food prices.

       "They are going up, principally due to global commodity prices - oil prices and other factors such as labour shortages," he added.

       George Eustice has defended the move to hand a foreign business "many millions" to restart two fertiliser plants, saying it is critical to our food supplies.

       US-owned CF Industries recently shut two sites that produce 60 per cent of the UK's commercial carbon dioxide supplies. The plant in Billingham will need up to three days to start producing new CO2.

       Asked if it was appropriate to invest such sums of taxpayer money "helping an American company remain profitable", he said: "It will go towards ensuring that two critical plants that produce carbon dioxide, which is critical to our food supply chain, continue to operate and therefore the poultry sector, pigs, meat processors, can get access to the carbon dioxide they need.

       "The reason sometimes it's justified for the Government to intervene in this way - a very short-term targeted way - if we didn't there would be risk to our food supply chain.

       "That is a risk the Government wasn't willing to take."

       The deal to safeguard CO2 supplies would help ensure "Christmas is safe", the Environment Secretary has said.

       Poultry industry figures had warned that supplies of turkeys could be hit by a shortage of CO2 is production was not restarted imminently.

       But George Eustice told LBC Radio: "Christmas is safe, of course. But there are challenges in the food supply chain, I'm not denying that.

       "The lack of labour availability, pressures on logistics - all of these are causing some stresses," he explained. "It does mean that in some areas the degree of choice in some supermarkets is down slightly on what it would normally be.

       "But we are working with the industry to make sure that we get all the food that we need on the shelf for those all-important weeks running up to Christmas."

       The Government is seeking a court injunction to allow police to pre-emptively stop protesters before they begin to disrupt traffic on the M25, a minister has confirmed.

       “We are seeking legal action, supporting Highways England, seeking an injunction to give powers to police to act preemptively should that be necessary," George Eustice told Sky News.

       The Environment Secretary declined to go into specifics but said the police would have “strengthened powers to deal with this”, defending the work of forces so far.

       He added: "The right to protest is very important but when that protest is posing a threat to others we also have a duty to act."

       An 11th hour deal to get a fertiliser plant back up and running and avert a so-called farmageddon will cost the country "tens of millions" for just a few weeks, George Eustice has confirmed.

       "We have intervened to support this company with some of their fixed costs, on a short term basis, just for a few weeks," the Environment Secretary told Sky News. "It will give the market time to adjust and other suppliers come on stream.”

       Details were still being finalised, but it will cost “many millions, possibly tens of millions, to underpin fixed costs”, he added.

       Mr Eustice also raised a warning about long-term increases to food prices, saying: “The food industry know there is going to be a sharp increase in costs of carbon dioxide… from ￡200 a tonne to closer to a thousand - a big sharp rise.”

       The Northern Ireland protocol is "not a bargaining chip" for a US trade deal, the Environment Secretary has said.

       George Eustice told Sky News it was down to the UK and the EU - including Ireland - to "make the protocol work on a sustainable basis".

       He added: "It’s for us to work out how to make the Northern Ireland protocol work... It’s not a bargaining chip in a trade agreement."

       Although joining the US-Canada-Mexico deal has been floated as a possible alternative, Mr Eustice stressed “our preference is a bilateral agreement with the US”.

       He rejected suggestions the UK was being snubbed, saying: “We have never put a timescale on it - it’s just not a priority for the US administration. President Biden has always been clear - he was as clear during his election campaign - that trade deals were not a priority.”

       Joe Biden issued a warning to Boris Johnson on Tuesday night over the Northern Ireland Protocol as hopes faded of a UK-US trade deal.

       During face-to-face talks in the Oval Office, the US president said he believed “very strongly” in protections for peace in Northern Ireland.

       The comment appeared to be a warning to the UK against ripping up the Northern Ireland Protocol, which imposes custom checks on goods travelling from Great Britain to Northern Ireland.

       Boris Johnson's hopes of jump-starting a US-UK trade deal during his trip Stateside have fallen away, with the Government now thought to be eyeing entrance to the US-Mexico-Canada trade deal (USMCA), which would see scores of tariffs dropped if the UK joined.

       After being all smiles for the cameras, the Prime Minister and the President held private talks during Mr Johnson’s first visit to the White House since entering No 10 two years ago.

       Here is today's front page.

       Need help?

       Visit our adblocking instructions page.