Summary
We’re winding up our live UK politics coverage now.
You can continue to follow coronavirus updates on our Covid live blog here:
And updates from the Cop26 climate conference here:
In UK politics news today:
- Covid restrictions are being stepped up in parliament, with MPs told to wear masks, tours of the building cancelled and some staff told to work from home.
- Jacob Rees-Mogg has questioned the fairness of the Conservative MP Owen Paterson facing a six-week suspension from parliament and possible byelection, after he was found to have committed an “egregious” breach of lobbying rules. MPs will vote on the matter on Wednesday.
- France backed down on its threats to clog up British trade and ban UK fishers from its ports after Jersey offered to speed up approval for “five or six” new fishing vessels in its waters. Ian Gorst, Jersey’s minister for external affairs, said the offer from his administration, which was mirrored by the UK government over an undisclosed number of boats, had proven to be a “good way to move things forward”.
Boris Johnson denies he was snubbed by Macron
Was he snubbed by Emmanuel Macron, who left early and is already back in Paris, after their falling out, and was he offered more generous terms over French fishing boats in order to keep talks alive?
The UK hasn’t changed its position on the fishing issue, Johnson puts it:
We are working very, very closely with our French friends and partners on the things that matter most to the people of the world, and that is tackling climate change and reducing CO2.
By comparison with that hugely important issue, the ones you mentioned are really vanishingly unimportant, but since you ask about whether the UK has changed its position on the fishing issue, the answer is no.
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Johnson denies the Chinese aren’t engaging, saying they didn’t come to Cop because of the pandemic. Same goes for Putin, he adds.
We do want more from China, but we want more from everybody, he says.
We need China to make more commitments as we see further pledges from other countries when they do, he says.
Asked about concerns about rising household costs to achieve a lower carbon economy, Johnson says he thinks people will understand this is a moment for growth and building towards being more green.
And there have been enough referendums, he adds.
Updated
Johnson says developed nations have a moral duty to make cash available to help developing countries move away from carbon.
The prime minister is taking questions from the media now.
He says there had been a sense of working together to bring down CO2 emissions at Paris but it was “floaty” and “there was no roadmap”, so countries had “no idea” how they were going to do it, which is the difference starting to be seen at Cop.
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This is from Boris Johnson
Let's keep 1.5 alive #COP26 pic.twitter.com/QpDjmytpWM
— Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) November 2, 2021
The British prime minister is due to give a press conference shortly, from which I’ll be bringing you live updates.
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Afternoon summary
The prime minister is due to give a press conference very soon. In the meantime, here’s a summary of the latest news:
- The government faced questions from MPs as the Commons closed the budget debate. Opposition MPs told ministers the childcare announcements were inadequate to help reduce costs for parents and boost quality, that it was incredible they had declined to invest in greener transport options and were challenged on a burgeoning cost of living crisis.
- The arrival of an Iranian delegation at Cop26 should be used by UK officials to press for the release of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, Amnesty International said. The organisation said officials at the climate summit in Glasgow should be prepared to “seize the opportunity” presented by the arrival of a delegation from Iran to raise the issue of the country’s detention of UK nationals.
- The prime minister Boris Johnson has been “bluffing all along”, according to a French MP from the president Emmanuel Macron’s party. Bruno Bonnell spoke as tensions between the UK and France continued over post-Brexit fishing rights. Citing plans for further talks between representatives of the two sides this week, Paris stepped back from its plan to begin enforcing tough measures on British vessels last night. The UK government has claimed this morning that the French did so because they “looked more closely at the evidence”.
- David Cameron’s shame after it emerged he acted as a paid lobbyist for Greensill Capital to get it access to the government’s coronavirus loan schemes should act as a “deterrent” to other politicians, the head of a review into the scandal said. Nigel Boardman defended the investigation he led earlier this year, saying he had not been “soft” on ministers by finding Cameron had not broken lobbying rules nor acted unlawfully, and instead praising the current regulations as having “worked well”.
I’m handing over to my colleague Lucy Campbell, who’ll bring you all the news from Boris Johnson’s press conference once it starts.
Amnesty International UK’s chief executive, Sacha Deshmukh, said:
The UK should seize the opportunity of Ali Salajegheh’s attendance at Cop26 next week to once again press for the release of Nazanin, Anoosheh and all other arbitrarily-detained UK nationals in Iran.
Liz Truss has claimed that she and the government are ‘working tirelessly’ on behalf of Nazanin and others – here’s a chance to prove that.
Some of Nazanin’s supporters have been pointing out that if the government can’t resolve the issue of British nationals being picked up in Iran, then it’s unlikely to be able to fix the climate crisis. Let’s hope it can do both.
Richard Ratcliffe has called for Liz Truss and her colleagues to be “brave” over diplomacy on these cases – a firm representation to Ali Salajegheh next week would be a useful start.
The government needs to grant diplomatic protection status to Anoosheh as soon as possible and set out a clearly articulated strategy for bringing Nazanin and other arbitrarily detained British nationals back home from Iran.
Everyone at Amnesty has enormous respect for Richard’s unflagging spirit.
I’m going to spend a little time with him today to reassure him that we stand in full solidarity with him in his brave campaign for Nazanin’s release.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe was taking her daughter Gabriella to see her family when she was arrested and was sentenced to five years in prison shortly afterwards, spending four years in Evin Prison and one under house arrest. According to her family, she was told by Iranian authorities that she was being detained because of the UK’s failure to pay an outstanding £400m debt to Iran.
Boris Johnson has been heavily criticised for his role in the affair while serving as foreign secretary. In 2017, he wrongly told MPs Zaghari-Ratcliffe had been “teaching people journalism” before being detained by Tehran. Her family and her employer both maintained this was untrue but, within days, Johnson’s erroneous statement was cited as proof she was engaged in “propaganda against the regime” during a previously unscheduled court hearing.
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Press Iranian officials to release Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, Amnesty International says
The arrival of an Iranian delegation at Cop26 should be used by UK officials to press for the release of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, Amnesty International has said.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British-Iranian dual national, has been in custody in Iran since 2016 after being accused of plotting to overthrow the government.
Her husband, Richard Ratcliffe, is on day 10 of a hunger strike outside the Foreign Office in London, which he started after his wife lost her latest appeal.
Amnesty International said officials at the climate summit in Glasgow should be prepared to “seize the opportunity” presented by the arrival of a delegation from Iran to raise the issue of the country’s detention of UK nationals such as Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori.
The human rights group said the delegation will arrive next week and will be led by Dr Ali Salajegheh, the vice-president and head of Iran’s environment department.
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McDonnell further claimed that the City of London should start pulling its weight and contribute to the UK’s economy overall.
I was hoping that we would see something at least beyond words of fair taxation. Fair taxation means not cutting the tax on the bankers who caused the crisis of 2008. It also means a fairer taxation on wealth, that’s capital gains and also the wealthiest.
I actually say also, it is time now that the City starts pulling its weight. That’s why the financial transaction tax, now nearly designed over the last month, by the Robin Hood campaigners actually could be a realistic way in which the City contributes better to our economy overall.
I also say this: I expected more in this budget, significantly more, after the Pandora Papers, about tackling tax avoidance in British overseas territories funnelled through the City of London along with the money laundering that is taking place on a criminal scale.
The chancellor said this was a budget for an era of optimism, I warn him: this will create crushing disappointment which will tarnish our whole politics and that crushing disappointment will come out elsewhere on demonstration, occupations, as people’s anger is fed by the disillusionment caused by this budget.
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Labour’s former shadow chancellor John McDonnell has criticised the government’s levelling-up agenda, arguing the current system of distribution is “not good enough”.
Now, in this budget, telling local councils that they can have spending power but not the resources to back up that spending power, we know what is going to happen.
Local councillors of all political hues will be blamed either for the cuts forced upon them or for the council tax increases, and it is predicted now council tax will increase by at least £400 by 2026.
What we need now is what we have been promised for a decade. The reform of local government finance that provides an independent, adequate resource for local authorities, and that does include the reform of business rates.
On capital investment, it is now estimated that it will take £30bn a year investment to level up the regions to the investment levels in London and the south-east. In this budget there is nowhere near the amount to tackle that issue.
McDonnell insisted the system of distribution needs to be fair, adding:
To have a chancellor stand up and list the towns and areas that will be showered with his or her beneficence is not good enough.
What we need is a system which is open, fair and transparent. In the distribution resources across the UK, Scotland and Wales etc, there is Barnett formula.
We should introduce a Barnett formula that’s open and transparent, otherwise there will be accusations of pork barrel politics which will stain all our politics, not just this current government.
Concerns have been expressed from the Tory backbenches that voters will be turned away to Labour by the government’s plans to raise taxes.
During the budget debate, a former minister Sir Edward Leigh compared the tax plans and Covid regulation policies to those of the wartime coalition government and called on Treasury minister Simon Clarke to “say no” to other ministers pleading for more cash. He added that the chancellor’s “hymn of praise to a low tax economy” had “brought a tear to the eye of a weary Thatcherite”.
I know that we are facing one of the greatest challenges in our history with the pandemic but the truth is we are now taxing people higher than at any level since the Attlee government. As we pursue levelling up, are we going to bring in ration cards like the Attlee government on eggs and meat?
What the chief secretary has got to do is every time his colleagues come up begging him for more money on this, more money on that, he has got to say no.
Bear in mind what happened in 1945: we presided in the coalition government during the war over the highest-taxing government in history, the most regulating government in history – and we have regulated people’s private lives more than we have ever done in the last 70 years in the pandemic – what was the result? It was a Labour government.
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The government’s childcare announcements in the budget are inadequate to help reduce costs for parents and boost quality, the shadow education secretary, Kate Green, has said. She told the Commons:
Don’t get me wrong, any investment into families with young children and support for new parents is very welcome. But the family hub project is a pale imitation of what the (government) benches inherited in 2010.
Nonsense, says the minister. But let me tell him that when Labour left office there were 3,500 Sure Start centres delivering support to over 2.9 million children in every local authority in the country.
One thousand children’s centres have closed since then and the secretary of state, I think, was promising a moment ago new family hubs only in half of local authorities.
Updated
The chancellor has been criticised for a failure to incentivise greener forms of transport. The SNP MP Richard Thomson insisted that Rishi Sunak could have done something “really clever” if he had “incentivised the use of low-carbon forms of transport”.
How on Earth in the week of Cop26 is this contributing to the government’s net-zero efforts?
Sunak said that in the budget there was a “new ultra-long-haul ban introduced with a higher rate”, which according to an independent forecast “would actually reduce carbon emissions”.
That comes alongside significant investment to incentive sustainable aviation fuel, £180m and billions more for electric transportation for consumers as well.
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Turning to energy costs, Reeves asked the chancellor:
So who should the public blame for VAT on heating bills not being cut; the prime minister for not keeping his word or the chancellor for choosing to cut taxes for bankers instead?
The typical family shop is likely to go up by £180 more next year and it’s not just food prices that are rising; gas and electricity bills already up by £139 and only going to go up more.
The chancellor had the opportunity in the budget to help people with their gas and electricity bills, by reducing VAT to 0% through the winter months, it’s something that Labour has called for and that the prime minister backed when he was campaigning to leave the European Union.
On a VAT cut on fuel, Sunak reeled off a list of “comments from independent commentators about what that would do”.
Instead, we’ve provided half-a-billion pounds targeted at those who need our help ... the household support fund will be able to provide £150 to two to three million of the most vulnerable families in our country.
Sunak pointed to the rise in the national living wage – the successor of the minimum wage, which campaigners say is still well below the level needed to meet the real cost of living in the UK – as evidence of government action.
And he cited the newly announced universal vredit taper, though the policy only reduces the amount of benefit a worker loses for every pound they earn above their worker allowance to 55p in the pound from 63p currently. And people on universal credit who are not working will not benefit at all.
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Sunak challenged over burgeoning cost of living crisis
The shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves, has challenged Rishi Sunak to answer how much the average weekly family shop was expected to rise over the next year. Speaking in the Commons, she said:
According to the Office for Budget Responsibility, the government’s supply chain chaos, woefully inadequate post-Brexit planning and a lack of HGV drivers have contributed to higher inflation.
The cost of the weekly shop is already going up and up, as the chancellor would have heard from shoppers in Bury last week. So does the chancellor have any idea of how much the average weekly supermarket shop is expected to increase in the course of the next year for a typical family?
Sunak replied:
We are cognisant and aware that there is price inflation and last week’s budget addressed that and explained to the British people some of the global factors that are behind the rise in prices which are not unique to this country.
But, as I said then, where this government can act, we will. So, whether it’s ... interventions for HGV drivers or indeed the half billion-pound household support fund or indeed freezing fuel duty, this government is doing what it can to help with the cost of living.
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Whately was similarly evasive when asked for a specific target against which the government’s performance on its so-called levelling-up agenda would be measured. The Wirral South MP, Labour’s Alison McGovern, said:
[Whately] said that levelling up is the defining mission of this government, yet – if you look at the spending review priority outcomes and metrics – you will see that across the Department for Business, the Department for Levelling Up and the Treasury, there is just one metric to judge the government on: The economic performance of all functional economic areas relative to their trend growth rates.
That is all we are being measured on. So will the minister be specific: by how much does she expect to close the economic gap by the end of this parliament?
Whately said:
I thank her for interest in our objective to level up across the whole of the United Kingdom, as she indeed repeated, the defining mission of this government. As she can see, the golden thread running through the spending review and the budget: steps taken, investment made across government to support levelling up across all our constituencies.
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A Treasury minister has declined to offer a guarantee that no Christmas presents will be stuck at ports rather than under trees this year because of a lack of HGV drivers this year. Helen Whately insisted action is being taken to boost driver numbers after being challenged by Labour.
Speaking in the Commons, the shadow Treasury minister Bridget Phillipson said:
The run-up to the festive period is a busy and crucial time for many businesses. They simply cannot afford delays in getting goods to warehouses from our ports.
Yet that is exactly what the logistics industry is warning that the shortage of HGV drivers is causing. Can the minister guarantee that no presents will be missing from under the tree this Christmas because of her government’s complete failure to plan ahead?
Whately replied:
We are indeed taking steps to support the haulage sector where there is a long-running situation with vacancies for HGV drivers.
The action we’ve taken includes making available 5,000 temporary visas for the short-term, increasing the number of tests available so there’s a greater capacity for new drivers to take tests, changing cabotage restrictions, funding improved facilities for drivers, and also we need to see in the longer-term both better pay and conditions for lorry drivers.
The government has confirmed it is looking at the amount of money second home owners pay in council tax after warnings from the Liberal Democrats that rural areas are becoming “riddled with ghost towns” due to the high number of holiday homes. In the Commons, the former Lib Dem leader Tim Farron has said:
The colossal economic inequality facing rural communities is something that I hope this government will take seriously. I wonder if the minister is aware of the collapse of local housing into the second housing and second home holiday let market in communities like mine and indeed the chancellor’s next door?
Would he look at following the Welsh assembly government’s example of doubling council tax on second home properties so that communities like mine don’t become riddled with ghost towns losing their local population?
The Treasury minister John Glen replied:
The government is indeed looking at the tightening up of the rules around second homes and council tax and this is a matter that we would be very happy to engage with him on.
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We reported earlier that Westminster has stepped up measures to limit the spread of Covid, including cancelling non-parliamentary business activity such as tours, and banqueting activity at the Palace of Westminster (see 11.38).
Now, the Commons speaker has warned has warned yet tougher restrictions could be imposed if cases continue to rise during a “very crucial two weeks”.
Sir Lindsay Hoyle said cases have increased among MPs and staff, adding there is a “greater worry than we’ve had before” as transmission of the virus has been on the parliamentary estate. He urged MPs to follow the new measures, telling the Commons:
If we can get through these two weeks, I believe we’re then through to next year. But it’s about this crucial two weeks, as numbers have been rising on both sides of the House and within staff. And, unusually, the transmission has been on the estate and that’s why it’s a greater worry than we’ve had before.
I will always put the health and safety of this House first so please help me keep this House open by trying to get through a very crucial two weeks.
After that, I think we’ll be in a much safer place. I think we’ll be in the right place and the measures have not been stringent, they could have been even more stringent and some we might have to [make more stringent]. So, please, let us just pull and work together because, in the end, I don’t want to have another Christmas like we’ve had previously.
Cameron’s shame following lobbying scandal a ‘deterrent’ to others
David Cameron’s shame after it emerged he acted as a paid lobbyist for Greensill Capital to get it access to the government’s coronavirus loan schemes should act as a “deterrent” to other politicians, the head of a review into the scandal has said.
Nigel Boardman defended the investigation he led earlier this year, saying he had not been “soft” on ministers by finding Cameron had not broken lobbying rules nor acted unlawfully, and instead praising the current regulations as having “worked well”.
Speaking to MPs on the public administration and constitutional affairs select committee on Tuesday, Boardman said there were constraints on what sanctions could be imposed on ministers who break lobbying rules or act unethically after they leave their post.
Tory backbencher Jackie Doyle-Price challenged him, saying “once they’ve left, there isn’t really any sanction”. She said:
We can all look at what David Cameron did in terms of his lobbying for Greensill. We all will have our own views about that. I don’t think it’s the behaviour I expect of a former prime minister, if I’m being brutally frank. But his answer to that would be well, it was well within the rules.
Boardman suggested that, when ministers are appointed, they could sign a “deed of undertaking” which could have some contractual sanctions about their behaviour build in – like losing part of their pension, or an honour. Though he admitted that there are currently few such options available, and added:
I would guess that seeing what has happened in relation to Cameron would be a deterrent to other people following down that same path.
John McDonnell, the former shadow chancellor, also told Boardman:
You don’t seem to have gone far enough on addressing that point about restoring confidence, not just in the operation of the bureaucracy, the civil service, but actually that issue about culpability at ministerial level, as well as after ministers have resigned as well.
Fishers along France’s northern coast have described being granted access to British waters as a “matter of life and death” as talks to settle the row over fishing licences continue.
Paris has accused UK authorities of failing to honour a post-Brexit deal to grant licences to French boats, though Paris held off threats to impose punitive action against British vessels that could have been implemented on Tuesday.
Jeremy Lhomel, a fisher based in the coastal town of Boulogne-sur-Mer, has told the PA Media news agency the inability to access British waters was catastrophic for those earning a living from fishing in the Channel.
This situation with the licences, we think there’s a lot of bad faith because we are small family boats, we have three, four people on board, we don’t empty the sea, we deal with very few fish, and for us the situation is catastrophic because we can no longer access these waters.
For us, it’s vital to get these licences so that we can fish; it’s a matter of life or death.
Lhomel said fishers working from the port of Boulogne who have not received licences have lost access to half of the Strait of Dover – the narrowest part of the Channel. “We can no longer fish properly.”
Updated
Jersey’s minister for external relations called on France to remove all threats of retaliation. Senator Ian Gorst has told the PA Media news agency:
Well, we’re pleased that the threats of retaliation that would have been imposed from midnight last night have been stayed, as it were, but we continue to believe that those threats are not compliant and those measures would not be compliant with the terms of the trade deal.
But we agree that we should sit down and continue to look at the evidence but it would be far better, and we call upon the French, to remove those threats altogether and so that they wouldn’t implementing counter measures.
Asked about Jersey’s fishermen, who have voiced worries about the threats to close their access to French ports, Gorst added:
They of course are right to be concerned, which is why we welcome French administration’s stay of threatening to take unilateral measures and to close the ports.
So, we sit here now on Tuesday morning we could without that engagement and those ongoing conversations have seen those ports close – they remain open.
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No 10 has also had to row back after an apparent gaffe by Eustice; the minister sent out to bat for the government this morning. He claimed the impounded Cornelis Gert Jan, which is at the centre of the diplomatic row, has now been released.
I understand that vessel has now been released and I think there’s going to need to be some further discussions, clearly there was an administrative error at some point. We haven’t quite got to the bottom of that but that vessel I understand has been released.
But the situation does not look quite so clear, with Downing Street now saying:
The vessel concerned remains in port having been detained by the French authorities but given it’s an ongoing legal process I am restricted in anything I can say further.
Downing Street has said it wants to find a consensus with France over the fishing licence row. The prime minister’s official spokesperson has told reporters:
We welcome the fact that France has stepped back from threats they’ve made and we welcome France’s acknowledgement that in-depth discussions are needed to resolve a range of difficulties between the UK and EU relationship.
We want to find consensual solutions together if we can and Lord Frost has accepted Clément Beaune’s invitation and looks forward to discussions in Paris on Thursday. They will be discussing issues including fisheries and the Northern Ireland protocol.
Earlier, the environment secretary, George Eustice, had welcomed Paris’ decision not to impose restrictions last night, pending those talks this week. He told Sky News:
We welcome the fact France has stepped back from the threats it was making last Wednesday.
We’ve always said we want to de-escalate this and always said we have an ever-open door to discuss any further evidence France or the EU might have on any additional vessels they’d like to have licensed.
France has clearly taken a decision not to implement some of the decisions they threatened last Wednesday, we very much welcome that but I think there’s going to be a very important meeting on Thursday between Lord frost and his opposite number, not just on fisheries but a wider range of issues as well.
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The chancellor has denied there are plans for a “£1.7bn stealth tax” on the self-employed through the budget. For Labour, the shadow Treasury minister Pat McFadden has told the Commons:
As well as all the tax rises on income and business that the chancellor has announced in the past six months, buried in the budget red book is a plan for a stealth tax on the self-employed of £1.7bn over the next few years.
After the past 18 months, when many self-employed people have had no help at all and when they’re already being hit with other tax rises he’s announced, why are the self-employed now being hit with this extra tax rise, which the chancellor didn’t even mention in his budget speech last week?
Appearing for treasury questions, Rishi Sunak replied:
There were no extra taxes for the self-employed in last week’s budget. (McFadden) may be referring to a timing difference that was reflected in the budget scorecard of previously announced policies.
Sunak said the government had provided “almost £30bn of support to millions of self-employed” people during the pandemic.
Westminster has stepped up measures to limit the spread of Covid as many MPs continue to shun masks in the Commons chamber.
The UK Health Security Agency has determined the risk of transmission on the parliamentary estate has increased.
New measures include the cancellation of non-parliamentary business activity such as tours, and banqueting activity at the Palace of Westminster.
Face coverings are already compulsory for staff, contractors and journalists – though not MPs – and chairs of meetings will be urged to take a stronger role in ensuring compliance with the rule. A parliamentary spokesman has said:
The House’s priority is to ensure that those on the estate are safe while business is facilitated.
There have been recent increases in Covid-19 across the country and these are also being reflected in Parliament. The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has determined that the risk of transmission on the parliamentary estate is now greater.
As a consequence, some further action is being taken to ensure that case numbers do not continue to rise. The measures will be reviewed in two weeks’ time.
Last night, the French EU affairs minister Clément Beaune offered some more detail on how Paris sees the way forward on both the fisheries row and the broader question of how to manage the UK’s approach to Brexit.
#Brexit |❗️Des discussions sur l’octroi des licences de pêche ont continué aujourd’hui entre la Commission européenne, la France et le Royaume-Uni ⤵️⤵️⤵️@AnnickGirardin @EmmanuelMacron
— Clement Beaune (@CBeaune) November 1, 2021
1/ Nous avons reçu de premiers signaux de la part des autorités britanniques pour accélérer les échanges ; une réponse aux dernières propositions des autorités françaises est attendue d’ici mercredi.
— Clement Beaune (@CBeaune) November 1, 2021
2/ J’ai également échangé avec David Frost, ministre britannique chargé des relations avec l’Union européenne @DavidGHFrost
— Clement Beaune (@CBeaune) November 1, 2021
3/❗️J’ai a invité Lord Frost à Paris jeudi pour une discussion approfondie sur les difficultés dans l’application des accords liant l’Union européenne et le Royaume-Uni @DavidGHFrost
— Clement Beaune (@CBeaune) November 1, 2021
4/ Afin de laisser le dialogue ainsi ouvert se poursuivre, les mesures annoncées et préparées par la France ne seront pas appliquées avant cette réunion et l’examen des nouvelles réponses britanniques relatives aux licences de pêche. @AnnickGirardin
— Clement Beaune (@CBeaune) November 1, 2021
Translated into English:
The talks on the granting of fishing licenses have continued today (Monday) between the European Commission, France and the UK.
We have seen the first signs from the British authorities of speeding up the discussions and a response to the latest French proposals is expected by Wednesday.
I have also conversed with David Frost, the UK minister responsible for relations with the EU. I have invited him to Paris on Thursday for an in-depth discussion about the problems in implementing the EU-UK agreements.
In order to facilitate open discussions, the measures announced and prepared by France will not be put in place before this meeting and before the British responses on the issue of fishing licenses have been considered.
PM accused of 'bluffing' in row with Paris over fisheries
The prime minister Boris Johnson has been “bluffing all along”, according to a French MP from the president Emmanuel Macron’s party. Bruno Bonnell spoke as tensions between the UK and France continued over post-Brexit fishing rights.
Citing plans for further talks between representatives of the two sides this week, Paris stepped back from its plan to begin enforcing tough measures on British vessels last night. The UK government has claimed this morning that the French did so because they “looked more closely at the evidence”.
Asked on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme if he thinks Johnson is “bluffing” over the whole affair, Bonnell said: “Of course he is, as usual, he’s been bluffing all along.” He said Johnson has been “continuously pretending that Brexit will have no impact, no effect, on the UK lifestyle”.
Macron and Johnson are at the Cop26 summit in Glasgow and the former has said talks will need to continue today. “We’ll see where we are ... at the end of the day, to see if things have really changed,” he told reporters on the margins of the conference.
If you’d like to follow our live coverage of the climate summit with my colleague Bibi van der Zee, you can do so here:
