Afternoon summary
- Boris Johnson has rejected claims that he is going back on promises he made in the political declaration last year to agree level playing field rules with the EU. (See 1.49am.)
- The UK is to abandon a crucial tool used to speed up the transfer of criminals across borders with other European countries. As Jamie Grierson reports, acting against the warnings of senior law enforcement officials, the government said it would not be seeking to participate in the European arrest warrant (EAW) as part of the future relationship with the European Union.
- Government figures showing a fall in the number of rough sleepers is hiding the real scale of the crisis, it has been claimed, with charities citing their own data that reveals a significant increase in the sum of vulnerable homeless people seeking help. The statistics were released as Boris Johnson said he wanted to end rough sleeping by the end of this parliament. (See 9.21am.) When first elected London mayor he also promised to end rough sleeping in the capital by 2012 - but failed dismally. (See 10.09am.)
- Liz Truss, the international trade secretary, has held talks with the US trade representative Robert Lighthizer. She said:
Securing an ambitious free trade agreement with the US is one of my top priorities, delivering benefits to towns across the whole of the UK from Edinburgh to Enniskillen.
We want an agreement that benefits both small businesses and entrepreneurs and every industry, from agriculture and manufacturing to professional and business services.
The UK stands ready to negotiate a highly ambitious free trade agreement with our biggest trading partner and will publish our negotiation objectives very soon.
Great to welcome @USTradeRep Robert Lighthizer to London today.
— Liz Truss (@trussliz) February 27, 2020
We are ready to begin negotiating an ambitious 🇬🇧-🇺🇸 free trade agreement and will publish our negotiation objectives very soon.
A deal with the 🇺🇸 would create more opportunities across the 🇬🇧. pic.twitter.com/RxUoH0Fqtf
That’s all from me for today.
Thanks for the comments.
Updated
This is from the politics professor and Brexit specialist Simon Usherwood. It is a good summary of where the EU and UK negotiating mandates match up and don’t match up, with the most difficult areas in red, problematic ones in yellow, and relatively straightforward ones in green.
The Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration has recommended in a report (pdf) nine improvements in the Home Office settlement scheme for EU citizens.
Among them are recommendations that:
• A senior case worker signs off the less-straightforward family cases involving civil partnerships, durable partnerships or marriages between EU and non-EU nationals with marriage interview teams’ involvement in some cases.
• The Home Office should do more to “provide reassurance” that the impact of the scheme has been “fully considered”, particularly with regard to vulnerable and hard-to-reach groups.
• The Home Office should collect and publish data on complaints and proof that caseworkers are applying the evidence “flexibility” consistently.
The report comes just weeks after it emerged that DWP records of elderly applicants were not automatically being found during the process, forcing EU citizens in the country since the 1950s to prove their right to be in the country.
The Home Office said it was accepting eight of the nine recommendations but not its proposal on freephone helplines.
Updated
In the Financial Times’ daily Brexit briefing (paywall), Jim Brunsden explains why Boris Johnson’s new stance on the political declaration is causing so much alarm in Brussels. Here’s an extract.
Phil Hogan, the EU’s trade commissioner, told the FT this week that Britain’s word was at stake in the spat.
“I was always brought up in my years with a strong political perception that the United Kingdom was an entity that, when you signed something in great solemness . . . was the last country that you would expect to act in any dishonourable way in relation to its implementation,” he said ...
The political declaration was originally conceived as a sop to Theresa May after she failed to convince the EU to negotiate on Britain’s divorce and on its future relationship with the union at the same time.
But the text began to matter more to EU leaders once Mr Johnson became prime minister. He made clear to Brussels that he wanted to rework the document by scrapping Mrs May’s plans for a customs union and defining a more distant economic relationship. The language on the “level playing field” was a key battleground.
All this means that Brussels really believed it had won a victory last year with the language it secured on regulatory alignment. It is bewildered that Mr Johnson is simply ignoring that victory – a point underlined by the detailed negotiation stance that the UK published on Thursday.
Updated
Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, has now published a written ministerial statement giving the government’s full response to the court of appeal’s decision on the Heathrow third runway. Here is the key section.
The court of appeal ruled today that when designating the airports national policy statement, which was backed by parliament, the previous government did not take account of the Paris agreement, non-CO2 emissions and emissions post 2050.
We have always been clear that Heathrow expansion is a private sector project which must meet strict criteria on air quality, noise and climate change, as well as being privately financed, affordable, and delivered in the best interest of consumers. The government has taken the decision not to appeal this judgment. The promoters of the scheme will be able to seek permission from the supreme court to appeal if they wish.
As part of its judgment, the court has declared that the airports national policy statement is of no legal effect unless and until the government carries out a review under the Planning Act 2008. The court’s judgment is complex and requires careful consideration. We will set out our next steps in due course.
Updated
Yvette Cooper, the Labour MP who chairs the Commons home affairs committee, says the public will be less safe under the plans for criminal justice cooperation with the EU published by the government this morning. In a statement she said:
The government’s new proposals for security cooperation with the EU are extremely worrying.
The announcement today made it plain that the UK is no longer seeking the kind of access to vital EU databases and security tools that would replicate our existing relationship, despite its own analysis stating repeatedly that failing to participate in existing tools would mean a serious loss of capability with damaging consequences for public safety.
The government’s new red lines make it exceedingly difficult for anything more than the standard third-country relationship with the EU on security cooperation to be negotiated. That is not good enough and marks a huge scaling back in ambition. The government only have nine months before our existing security arrangements run out but the committee was told that it could take up to 18 months to ratify a new security treaty and possibly much longer for new extradition arrangements to replace the European arrest warrant.
It is completely astounding that the government says that these new plans will make the country safer when we have been told time and time again by senior police officers and security experts that the opposite is true.
Sajid Javid resigned as chancellor earlier this month because he was not prepared to accept No 10 picking his special advisers. As Sky’s Mark Kleinman reports, the whole process by which ministerial special advisers (or “spads”, as they are called) are appointed is being changed. In the past ministers chose their own advisers, subject to approval from Downing Street. Now candidates will be chosen centrally.
Exclusive: Downing Street has ordered a shake-up of the way ministerial aides are recruited in an attempt to lure more expertise from the private sector amid controversy over the treatment of SpAds by Dominic Cummings. https://t.co/cUKNgUVcJO
— Mark Kleinman (@MarkKleinmanSky) February 27, 2020
Updated
In Northern Ireland the SDLP Stormont assembly member and former Downing Street adviser Matthew O’Toole has said the government’s Future Relationship with the EU document shows Boris Johnson’s contempt for Northern Ireland. O’Toole said:
If any more evidence were needed of Boris Johnson’s contempt for Northern Ireland, this document provides it. The UK government has yet again opted to put Northern Ireland’s economy at risk for the sake of indulging the fixations of English nationalists and libertarian fantasists.
And the Northern Ireland Retail Consortium said the paper still gave no detail on how Johnson could deliver his promise of “unfettered” trade with Great Britain. Its director, Aodhán Connolly, said:
The mandate sets out a vision for a trade deal with the EU that provides the maximum of UK asks but with minimal obligations.
Northern Ireland seem to have the maximum of cost and paperwork burden with few benefits under the Northern Ireland protocol.
Even when pressed, [Michael] Gove could not give details on how we in the business community and Northern Ireland households can be protected from these trade barriers and costs.
Johnson denies going back on level playing field terms he agreed with EU last year
Boris Johnson has rejected claims that he is going back on promises he made in the political declaration last year to agree level playing field rules with the EU. (See 10am.) When this suggestion was put to him in an interview this morning, he replied:
This is monstrous. I mean, honestly. People may dimly recall that I left the government, whenever it was, a couple of years ago, because I couldn’t accept the idea that we were going to be locked into the EU’s legal and regulatory orbit for ever under the so-called Chequers deal, which people have now forgotten. The whole objective of doing what we’re doing is so the UK can do things differently and better.
Johnson is correct about this; his desire for the UK to be able to diverge from EU regulations after Brexit has always been clear. But that does not explain why he signed the political declaration (pdf) last year saying that in a future UK-EU relationship there should be “robust commitments to ensure a level playing field”.
Updated
The Liberal Democrats have accused the government of watering down the UK’s membership of the Erasmus+ student exchange scheme, after the Brexit negotiating strategy bluntly described UK participation as “time limited”.
The strategy document has a single reference to the scheme, stating: “The UK will consider options for participation in elements of Erasmus+ on a time-limited basis, provided the terms are in the UK’s interests.”
The Lib Dems say the wording suggests the UK will seek looser membership of Erasmus after 2021, with lower funding for British universities and colleges, which would need to rely on partners in EU member states to manage student and staff exchanges on their behalf. Layla Moran, the Lib Dem education spokesperson, said:
This will be a disaster for young people. Boris Johnson told us that there is ‘no threat to the Erasmus scheme’ but now he’s revealed that the UK has one foot out of the door.
These proposals show that Brexit means going it alone. Instead, the UK will presumably waste millions on a replacement scheme that won’t match Erasmus’s reputation or size.
Updated
The number of people moving to the UK long-term from non-EU countries is at its highest level on record, according to the latest estimates. As the Press Association reports, in the year to September immigration from non-EU countries hit 379,000 – the highest it has been since records began in 1975 when it was 93,000.
Net migration from outside the EU – the balance between the number of people entering and leaving the UK – is at its highest level (250,000) since 2004 when it peaked at 265,000, according to Office for National Statistics (ONS) data.
Meanwhile, EU net migration stood at 64,000, slightly higher but broadly similar to the 57,000 recorded a year earlier, PA reports.
Explaining the figures, Jay Lindop, the director of the centre for international migration at the ONS, said:
While long-term net migration, immigration and emigration have remained broadly stable since the end of 2016, different trends have emerged. EU net migration has fallen, while non-EU net migration has gradually increased since 2013 and is now at the highest level since 2004.
Since 2016, immigration for work has decreased because of fewer EU citizens arriving for a job. Meanwhile, immigration for study has gone up and is now the main reason for migration. This is driven by more non-EU students arriving, specifically Chinese and Indian.
Updated
Responding to the government’s announcement that it may abandon trade talks with the EU if there is not enough progress by June, the European commission spokeswoman Dana Spinant told reporters at a briefing:
In relation to any timeline that was referred to by the UK side today, there is a mid-year rendezvous in June to assess where we are with the negotiations.
So this is probably a very fair timeline to take by the UK prime minister for a rendezvous in which we take stock of the future and chances for a deal, what type of deal.
Asked whether the EU was preparing for the talks to fail, she said it would be “premature to speculate” about the result of the negotiations.
Updated
Mujtaba Rahman, the Brexit specialist for the Eurasia Group consultancy, has posted a revealing Twitter thread on the state of UK-EU relations. It starts here.
After spending the week in Bxl, I can report that the mood among senior EU officials regarding Monday's start of UK trade talks is extremely gloomy. Expectations have adjusted that EU might end up trading with UK like US or China, on WTO terms. A thread on how I see things 1/
— Mujtaba Rahman (@Mij_Europe) February 27, 2020
Here is my colleague Lisa O’Carroll’s analysis of what the government is proposing in its “Future Relationship with the EU” document, which sets out its negotiating stance in trade talks with the union.
Updated
Michael Gove's Commons statement about UK's approach to EU trade talks - Summary
Here are the main points from Michael Gove’s statement to MPs about the UK’s position in the forthcoming trade talks with the EU.
- Gove, the Cabinet Office minister, said the UK would “not link access to our waters [for fishing] to access to EU markets”. In his opening statement he went on:
Our fishing waters are our sovereign resource and we will determine other countries’ access to our resources on our terms.
And when asked by the Conservative MP Steve Double to confirm that fishing would not be used as a “bargaining chip” in the negotiations, Gove replied:
Memories of what happened in the 1970s certainly run deep and for very good reason and that is why I sought to stress in my remarks that we as an independent sovereign state regard control of our own resources as something which we cannot barter away.
Of course we want to cooperate in the management of stocks with our neighbours but the approach that we will take will be similar to that of other sovereign states, or sovereign regimes like Norway, Iceland and the Faroes.
And as an independent coastal state we will regulate access to our own waters on our terms.
- He confirmed that the UK would “not accept nor agree to any obligations where our laws are aligned with the EU or the EU’s institutions, including the court of justice”. (See 11.16am.)
- He claimed that the British people would be “even safer” after Brexit because the UK would be able to take full control of its borders. He said the government did want an agreement with the EU on law enforcement and judicial cooperation. But he also said: “We will not allow our own legal order to be compromised.”
- He insisted that the UK was just asking for trade terms of the kind offered by the EU to other nations.
- He said the UK wanted a free trade deal that protected standards without obliging the UK to follow EU rules. He said:
We do not need the EU’s permission to be a liberal nation leading the world in the fight against climate change and for social progress.
That is why the government seeks an FTA [free trade agreement] with robust protections for ‘the environment’ and ‘labour standards’. But we do not see why the test of suitability in these areas should be adherence to EU law and submission to EU models of governance. The EU does not apply those principles to free trade agreements with other sovereign nations and they should not apply to a sovereign United Kingdom.
- He rejected the EU argument that it needed to impose tougher trade terms on the UK than it does on a country like Canada because of the UK’s proximity to the EU. He said:
The EU has also argued the UK is a unique case owing to its geographical location.
But proximity is not a determining factor in any other FTA between other neighbouring states with large economies. It’s not a reason for us to accept EU rules and regulations ... Geography is no reason to undermine democracy.
Gove was referring to the EU argument famously embodied in this chart (pdf).
- Gove said the government was committed to “respecting and enacting” the Northern Ireland protocol, the part of the withdrawal agreement setting new customs rules for Northern Ireland. Later, when asked by the Alliance MP Stephen Farry if the government would actually implement the protocol, Gove said the government would ensure it was “appropriately implemented”.
- He insisted that it would be possible to recruit 50,000 new customs officers before the end of the year to operate the new border controls that will come into force from 2021. He was responding to a question from Labour’s Christian Matheson, who said 50,000 officials would be needed.
- Gove claimed the UK would be better placed to succeed economically by being independent of the EU. In response to a question from Labour’s Pat McFadden, who said the government had chosen “to prioritise sovereignty over any economic argument or consequence either for goods or for services”, Gove said:
The experience of history tells us that those countries which have the maximum amount of control over their own destiny are the best equipped to succeed economically and indeed to ensure a greater degree of equity for all their citizens.
Updated
Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, has issued a rather non-committal tweet responding to the publication of the government’s Future Relationship with the EU (pdf) document. The reference to “prior commitments” in the political declaration refers above all to what the UK and the EU said last year about how “the future relationship must ensure open and fair competition, encompassing robust commitments to ensure a level playing field”. (See 10am.)
We take note of the #UK’s mandate published today and will discuss our respective positions on Monday.
— Michel Barnier (@MichelBarnier) February 27, 2020
We will stick to all our prior commitments in the Political Declaration.
We want an ambitious & fair partnership with the UK in the future 🇪🇺🇬🇧
UK not seeking to remain part of European arrest warrant scheme, government says
This is from my colleague Jamie Grierson, the Guardian’s home affairs correspondent.
The UK is not seeking to participate in the European Arrest Warrant as part of the future relationship with the EU, document setting out the UK’s approach to the negotiations says.
— Jamie Grierson (@JamieGrierson) February 27, 2020
This will alarm law enforcement authorities who have long warned that the EAW is a valuable tool.
He is referring to this paragraph in the government’s Future Relationship with the EU (pdf) document.
The UK is not seeking to participate in the European arrest warrant as part of the future relationship. The agreement should instead provide for fast-track extradition arrangements, based on the EU’s surrender agreement with Norway and Iceland which came into force in 2019, but with appropriate further safeguards for individuals beyond those in the European arrest warrant.
This is from Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, on the court of appeal’s heathrow decision.
Airport expansion is core to boosting global connectivity. We also take seriously our commitment to the environment. This Govt won't appeal today's judgement given our manifesto makes clear any #Heathrow expansion will be industry led.
— Rt Hon Grant Shapps MP (@grantshapps) February 27, 2020
Gove has now finished his statement. I will post a summary soon.
Back in the Commons, asked if the government is implementing the Northern Ireland protocol (which will require new border rules at the border between Britain and Northern Ireland), Gove says the government will “appropriately” implement it.
This is unlikely to assuage EU concerns that the UK is seeking to water down the commitments it made (or the commitments that the EU assumed the UK had made) in the protocol.
Updated
TUC says government's Brexit negotiating policy is putting jobs at risk
Frances O’Grady, the TUC general secretary, says the government’s Brexit negotiating strategy is putting jobs at risk. In a statement she says:
The government is recklessly endangering working people’s jobs and rights.
By abandoning the level playing field, ministers are deliberately undermining important protections, like the right to paid holidays and safe limits on working hours. And by making it harder to trade with the EU, they’re putting jobs and living standards on the line.
A good deal with the EU should be this government’s priority. But instead Boris Johnson is gambling with people’s livelihoods by again threatening a disastrous no deal.
The SNP’s Martin Docherty-Hughes asks why the document does not mention defence.
Gove says the UK’s defence is guaranteed by its membership of Nato.
Labour’s Stephen Doughty asks if the government would be happy to lose access to the European arrest warrant. That is the implication of saying the UK will not allow the European court of justice to have any jurisdiction in the UK, he implies.
Gove says this will be a matter for the EU. The EU will have to decide what is in the interests of its citizens, he says.
Labour’s Kate Green asks how the government will be able to protect the UK if it fails to strike a deal with the EU, with the result that the UK does not have access to EU crime and justice databases.
Gove says the EU benefits just as much, if not more, from the UK’s participation in these databases.
These are from Newsnight’s Lewis Goodall.
I have to say, listening to the Gove statement, what the govt is saying, the tweeting and the rest, it’s hard not to conclude that there’s a very strong chance we’re leaving without a trade deal in December.
— Lewis Goodall (@lewis_goodall) February 27, 2020
The Conservative Party has been on quite the journey in 4 years.
— Lewis Goodall (@lewis_goodall) February 27, 2020
-EU membership ⬇️
-same benefits of single market ⬇️
-unique economic partnership (chequers)⬇️
-Canada+++⬇️
-Canada⬇️
-Nothing.
Government says it will not agree 'to any obligations for laws to be aligned with EU's' or for ECJ 'to have any jurisdiction in UK'
And here is what the government document says about alignment with EU rules. It says:
It is a vision of a relationship based on friendly cooperation between sovereign equals, with both parties respecting one another’s legal autonomy and right to manage their own resources as they see fit. Whatever happens, the government will not negotiate any arrangement in which the UK does not have control of its own laws and political life. That means that we will not agree to any obligations for our laws to be aligned with the EU’s, or for the EU’s institutions, including the court of justice, to have any jurisdiction in the UK.
Updated
Here is the Green MP Caroline Lucas on Michael Gove’s statement.
The Govt is doing everything to avoid an EU trade deal @MichaelGove’s silver tongue can’t hide fact that Brexit zealots are firmly in control
— Caroline Lucas (@CarolineLucas) February 27, 2020
We are heading for a No Deal Brexit with catastrophic results for business, rights & UK’s global influencehttps://t.co/nXam8xsJ2M
Government threatens to opt for WTO Brexit if talks with EU aren't making enough progress by June
Here is paragraph 9 from the document in full.
In this passage, the government is threatening to walk away from the talks in June if at that point the “broad outline” of a deal is not apparent.
Instead the government would revert to preparing for what used to be called a “no deal” scenario – trading with the EU on WTO terms – although ministers are now banned from calling that “no deal” (on the grounds that this would not be the same as leaving the EU with no deal of any sort, because the withdrawal agreement was signed).
The government will not extend the transition period provided for in the withdrawal agreement. This leaves a limited, but sufficient, time for the UK and the EU to reach agreement. The UK is committed to working in a speedy and determined fashion to do so, with an appropriate number of negotiating rounds between now and the June high-level meeting foreseen in the political declaration. The government would hope that, by that point, the broad outline of an agreement would be clear and be capable of being rapidly finalised by September. If that does not seem to be the case at the June meeting, the government will need to decide whether the UK’s attention should move away from negotiations and focus solely on continuing domestic preparations to exit the transition period in an orderly fashion. In so doing, it will be necessary to take into account in particular whether good progress has been possible on the least controversial areas of the negotiations, and whether the various autonomous processes on both sides are proceeding on a technical basis according to agreed deadlines.
Updated
Gove tells MPs he wants to get a free trade agreement so that EU nations can benefit from “the dynamism of the UK economy”.
You can read the government’s document setting out its approach to the trade talks with the EU here.
The SNP’s Pete Wishart accuses Gove of “unicornism”. He says the UK will not get a better deal than the one it has now.
Ian Duncan Smith, the Tory Brexiter, asks Gove to confirm that the UK will not leave itself under the control of the European court of justice when it comes to enforcing state aid rules.
Gove says that is correct.
From the Sun’s Tom Newton Dunn
Another controversial aspect of the UK mandate - the Government will consult on an economic impact assessment of any trade deal, but no promise publish one by the end of this year. Technically known as long-grassing. pic.twitter.com/IlzbQkwlKR
— Tom Newton Dunn (@tnewtondunn) February 27, 2020
Gove is responding to Blomfield.
He says the government is “wholly committed” to implementing the withdrawal agreement, including the Northern Ireland protocol, and to giving effect to the political declaration.
But he says the government does not accept that it has to align to EU law to protect environmental standards.
He says the UK is just seeking a relationship for which there is already a precedent with the EU. So it should be possible to conclude the negotiations in time, he says.
He says there will be no border down the Irish Sea. There will be “unfettered access” for Northern Ireland business to the rest of the UK, he says.
In the Commons Michael Gove has finished his opening statement. I will post a full summary once I’ve seen the text.
Paul Blomfield, a shadow Brexit secretary, is responding for Labour. He says that, although Gove claims the government has got Brexit done, that is not the case.
From Sky’s Beth Rigby
NEW: A new deadline in 4 months. Govt says it will quit trade talks by June and focus on no trade deal prep if progress is not being made on the easier elements of a trade deal. pic.twitter.com/xXYLz9O9FP
— Beth Rigby (@BethRigby) February 27, 2020
UK says it will consider walking away from Brexit talks in June
Boris Johnson is asking the EU for a Canada-style trade deal but will consider whether to walk away from talks in June and prepare for an “orderly” exit from the transition period, my colleague Rowena Mason reports.
The government’s document setting out its approach to the UK-EU trade talks has now been published. It runs to 30 pages and it’s here (pdf).
Michael Gove's Commons statement on UK's negotiating mandate for trade talks with EU
Michael Gove, the Cabinet Office minister, is now making a Commons statement about the government’s negotiating mandate for the post-Brexit trade talks with the EU.
The government will not appeal against the court of appeal decision ruling against a Heathrow third runway, the FT’s Jim Pickard reports.
MORE BREAKING:
— Jim Pickard (@PickardJE) February 27, 2020
"The government has not sought permission to appeal...." https://t.co/r6xw8demHk
According to the official rough sleeping figures for England published by the housing ministry this morning homelessness fell in 2019 for the second year in a row. It says.
There were 4,266 people estimated to be sleeping rough on a single night in autumn 2019. This is down by 411 people or 9% from last year and down 10% from the peak in 2017 but is up by 2,498 people or 141% since 2010.
As mentioned earlier, Labour has asked the UK Statistics Authority to conduct an investigation into this data because BBC research shows that other measures of homelessness suggest that the real level of rough sleeping is five times higher than the ministry is saying.
Updated
Heathrow third runway ruled illegal over climate change
Plans for a third runway at Heathrow airport have been ruled illegal by the court of appeal because ministers did not adequately take into account the government’s climate change commitments, my colleague Damian Carrington reports.
Turning back to homelessness, a reader has been in touch to point out that, soon after he became mayor of London in 2008, Boris Johnson also promised “to end rough sleeping in the capital by 2012”. Obviously he failed dismally.
When Boris Johnson signed the Brexit withdrawal agreement with the EU, he endorsed the non-binding political declaration on the future relationship that was published alongside the withdrawal agreement. That document (pdf) said “the future relationship must ensure open and fair competition, encompassing robust commitments to ensure a level playing field”. But Downing Street has recently made it clear that it does not view these commitments as absolute, and this is reflected in some of the briefing ahead of this morning’s announcement.
Here is an extract from Gordon Rayner’s preview story in the Telegraph (paywall).
A senior Conservative source said: “The prime minister’s mandate was derived from the manifesto, which was published after the agreement of the political declaration and is very clear about the Government’s intention, which is to get a Canada-style trade agreement and take back control of our borders, laws and money.”
Earlier this month, Mr Johnson said “early progress” on agreements over financial services and personal data protection would be “a test of the constructive nature of the negotiating process”.
But pledges in the political declaration to reach an agreement on financial services by June 2020, and on data by the end of December, were dropped by Brussels when the EU’s negotiating mandate was published.
Government sources said that meant Mr Johnson was fully entitled to ignore elements of the political declaration. Britain will refuse to sign up to EU rules on state aid, and will not build any infrastructure to deal with customs declarations on goods crossing from the mainland to Northern Ireland despite EU demands that they must exist.
David Allen Green, the Financial Times’ legal commentator, has posted a Twitter thread on whether it matters if the government disregards the non-binding political declaration. It starts here.
Some thoughts on the Political Declaration
— Law and Policy commentary (@davidallengreen) February 27, 2020
1.
And here is one of his conclusions.
This means the daft posturing of the UK about casually breaking the the PD matter
— Law and Policy commentary (@davidallengreen) February 27, 2020
Matter as much, if not more, than if the PD was "binding"
In effect: the UK is sending a signal of "don't trust us, insist on strict legal obligations"
8.
Peter Foster, the Telegraph’s Europe editor, has also posted a Twitter thread on this issue. It starts here.
So @BorisJohnson intends to "rip up" part of the #Brexit deal now he has new electoral mandate - as my colleague @gordonrayner reports here. What's going on? Does EU care? Does it matter? 1/Threadhttps://t.co/8VPU4OMrzk
— Peter Foster (@pmdfoster) February 27, 2020
There will be four statements in the Commons today.
There will be FOUR statements today from 10:30:
— Labour Whips (@labourwhips) February 27, 2020
1. The Future Relationship with the EU - @michaelgove
2. Business Statement - @CommonsLeader
3. Rough Sleeping - Jenrick
4. HMICFRS National Child Protection Inspections 2019 thematic reports - @ukhomeoffice
I will be focusing on the Brexit one.
Sadiq Khan, the Labour mayor of London, has said the government is “all talk and very little action” when dealing with rough sleeping. In a statement responding to Boris Johnson’s announcement (see 9.21am), Khan said:
In London we have been helping record numbers of rough sleepers by doubling our budget since I became Mayor. Although we have been successful in ensuring more than 90% of those we help don’t return to the streets there is an ever increasing pipeline of new rough sleepers. We need to deal with the causes and stop people becoming rough sleepers in the first place.
We already have a rough sleeping plan of action for London which sets out how to end rough sleeping and the investment required. We sent this to the government last year - yet they have failed to respond. Instead of wasting time and money with an unnecessary review, the government should look much closer at the impact that a decade of austerity has had, not just here in London but around the country.
If Ministers were serious about ending the blight of rough sleeping, they would reverse their punishing austerity and benefit cuts and invest in more genuinely affordable homes - which would reduce the number of people being forced out on to our streets.
Boris Johnson says he wants to 'end rough sleeping' for good as he unveils homelessness plan
Good morning. We have got two major news announcements coming this morning - the court of appeal decision on the Heathrow third runway, which could kill off the scheme given that Boris Johnson has reportedly decided not to appeal to the supreme court if the proposal is ruled illegal, and the UK’s negotiating mandate for the post-Brexit trade talks with the EU - but first we are getting rough sleeping figures for England being published.
As my colleague Robert Booth reports, the credibility of the official figures is being questioned following BBC research showing that the true level of rough sleeping seems to be five times higher than the government statistics imply.
The publication of the new figures coincides with Boris Johnson announcing a major initiative in this area. Johnson, who is visting a homelessness charity this morning, has said that he wants to end rough sleeping within this parliament (ie, by the end of 2024). In a statement issued overnight he said:
It is simply unacceptable that we still have so many people sleeping on the streets, and I am absolutely determined to end rough sleeping once and for all.
Today I’ve announced extra funding to help thousands more people get off the streets, and I have appointed Dame Louise Casey as an adviser to undertake an urgent review into the causes of rough sleeping and provide expert advice on vital next steps.
We must tackle the scourge of rough sleeping urgently, and I will not stop until the thousands of people in this situation are helped off the streets and their lives have been rebuilt.
A press release with more details says the government is allocating an extra £236m to address the problem. As well as appointing Casey, who “will provide the government with advice on additional action required to end rough sleeping within this parliament”, the government says the extra money will go “towards offering Housing First style ‘move on’ accommodation for up to 6,000 rough sleepers and those at immediate risk of rough sleeping”. Housing First is a strategy for tackling rough sleeping pioneered in Finland which is rated by the experts in this area.
Here is the agenda for the day.
9.30am: Annual rough sleeping figures for England are published.
9.30am: Quarterly migration figures are published.
9.30am: Michael Gove, the Cabinet Office minister, takes questions in the Commons.
10am: The court of appeal will rule on legal challenge against the plan for a third runway at Heathrow.
After 11.15am: Gove is expected to make a statement to MPs about the government’s negotiating mandate for the post-Brexit trade talks with the EU.
At some point today Liz Truss, the international trade secretary, is meeting the US trade representative Robert Lighthizer.
As usual, I will be covering breaking political news as it happens, as well as bringing you the best reaction, comment and analysis from the web. I plan to post a summary when I wrap up.
You can read all the latest Guardian politics articles here. Here is the Politico Europe roundup of this morning’s political news. And here is the PoliticsHome list of today’s top 10 must-reads.
If you want to follow me or contact me on Twitter, I’m on @AndrewSparrow.
I try to monitor the comments below the line (BTL) but it is impossible to read them all. If you have a direct question, do include “Andrew” in it somewhere and I’m more likely to find it. I do try to answer questions, and if they are of general interest, I will post the question and reply above the line (ATL), although I can’t promise to do this for everyone.
If you want to attract my attention quickly, it is probably better to use Twitter.
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