Move appears designed to woo Labour leave voters
Boris Johnson has announced plans to extend the use of job-projecting state aid and to implement a ‘buy British’ policy for government procurement when the UK leaves the EU. He announced both policies, which seemed intended to appeal in particular to Labour-leaning leave voters, in a rare press conference where he appeared alongside his colleagues from the Vote Leave campaign, Michael Gove and Gisela Stuart. In the past it has mostly been Labour Brexiters who have complained about EU state aid rules limiting the ability of the government to use subsidies to help struggling companies, while the Conservatives have been wary of policies that meddle with market economics. But at the news conference Johnson claimed that change was necessary because “the ramifications of EU state aid rules are felt everywhere”. The Institute of Directors, a free-market business organisation, and the Institute of Economic Affairs, a libertarian thinktank, both strongly criticised the new Tory approach, with the IoD describing this as “like a bad solution in search of the wrong problem”. But the small print of the Conservative announcement suggests that Johnson is planning relatively modest changes to the current regime, rather than a wholesale shift towards 1970s socialism, and it has also been pointed out that any attempt to diverge very far from current EU-style rules would make negotiating a UK-EU free trade deal much harder. At his press conference Johnson also insisted that the Conservatives were the change option at the election, because no other party would take advantages of the opportunities for reform offered by Brexit. There is a full summary of the press conference here.
Johnson has praised the police and members of the public who intervened to tackle a terrorist suspect on London Bridge. The man was shot dead by police. Follow the latest developments on a separate live blog.
Johnson has refused to disclose how many children he has or whether he is involved in their lives. He was speaking on an LBC phone-in during which he was strongly criticised over past comments about single mothers.
Johnson has claimed that the government has several trade deals “oven-ready” for when the UK leaves the EU. On the LBC phone-in, he was asked how many trade deals with other countries were in place. The UK is not allowed to formally start trade talks with other countries until after it has left the EU, but it wants to have them ready for when the post-Brexit transition period ends, at the end of 2020 according to current plans. Asked how many trade deals had actually been agreed, Johnson replied:
There are a number that are oven-ready ... There are a number that are virtually ready to go.
Johnson also repeated his claim that the UK would be able to agree a trade deal with the EU by the end of next year. Sir Ivan Rogers, the former UK ambassador to the EU, is one of many experts who have said Johnson is not being honest about the difficulties he will face.
Meanwhile
Former Labour MP and chair of the Vote Leave campaign Gisela Stuart has urged longtime Labour voters to “set party allegiance aside to get Brexit done” and support Boris Johnson on 12 December.
The BBC has refused to allow Boris Johnson to appear on the Andrew Marr Show this weekend unless he agrees to take part in a one-on-one interview with Andrew Neil, amid ongoing tension between the Conservatives and broadcasters.
The BBC is being “played” by Boris Johnson and should be angry about his foot-dragging on whether he will agree to an interview with Andrew Neil, Labour’s John McDonnell has said.
School leaders and teaching unions have reacted with dismay to the Conservative party’s plans for longer and more disruptive Ofsted inspections, with one warning the changes would “do more harm than good” if implemented.
Stanley Johnson, the prime minister’s father, has been criticised for suggesting most people are not literate enough to spell Pinocchio. He made the comment in a BBC interview where he was defending his son over accusations of lying.
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