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No 10 claims UK ‘seeing the benefits’ of Brexit as it clarifies PM’s comments on NI and single market
At the Downing Street lobby briefing the PM’s spokesperson said Rishi Sunak’s comments this morning about Northern Ireland benefiting from being in the EU single market (see 9.07am and 11.11am) did not mean he thought the whole of the UK should be in it. The spokesperson said:
The British people made a decision in 2016 and we are seeing the benefits of that decision, whether that’s in the ability to change our environment laws, some of the tax elements the prime minister talked about just today, in fact.
With regards to Northern Ireland, it is simply a fact that because of our respect for the Good Friday agreement and the central importance; Northern Ireland’s unique position means it needs to have access to both markets, not least to avoid a border on the island of Ireland, which nobody wants to see.
That puts it in a unique position and what the framework does is finally cement those capabilities.
Key events
Sunak’s single market comments show how Scotland is losing out, says SNP
The SNP has said Rishi Sunak’s comments today about Northern Ireland getting the advantage of unfettered access to the UK market and the EU single market (see 9.07am and 11.11am) shows that Scotland is losing out. In a response, Alyn Smith MP, the SNP’s Europe and EU accession spokesperson, said:
Rishi Sunak is moonlighting as a remainer as he perfectly outlines how Scotland will be at a competitive disadvantage under Westminster control and outside the European Union.
Northern Ireland voted to stay within the European Union and it is getting its wishes. However Scotland voted overwhelmingly to reject Brexit but we are living with the economic consequences every single day.
Throughout the Brexit process the SNP Scottish government made sensible suggestions so Scotland’s choice could be respected by remaining inside the single market and customs union. Those proposals were thrown in the bin and Scotland was taken along for the ride as we were dragged out of Europe against our will.
Gove suggests government should consider removing child benefit from parents if children regularly miss school
Pippa Crerar
At an Onward event to debate the future of the Conservative party in central London, Michael Gove suggested that parents who fail to ensure their children attend school regularly could have their child benefit payments stopped.
The levelling up secretary suggested the idea, which was originally considered by the coalition government under David Cameron but blocked by the Liberal Democrats, could now be re-considered to help restore “an ethic of responsibility”.
He told the audience:
We need to, particularly after Covid, get back to an absolute rigorous focus on school attendance, on supporting children to be in school. It is often the case that it is truanting or persistent absenteeism that leads to involvement in anti-social behaviour.
So one of the ideas that we floated in the coalition years, which the Liberal Democrats rejected, is the idea that if children are persistently absent then child benefit should be stopped. I think what we do need to do is to think radically about restoring an ethic of responsibility.
How Sunak credits university roommate with teaching him about complexities of Northern Ireland
Apart from what he had to say about the single market (see 10.27am and 11.11am), what was most interesting about what Rishi Sunak said at his Q&A this morning was probably what he said about learning about Northern Ireland.
Most English politicians know very little about Northern Ireland, and Sunak never had much experience of the place as a minister before becoming PM. But he told his audience that having a roommate who was from Omagh when he was at university had a big influence. He said:
I went to university in 1998, so the time of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement, that’s when I became an adult, my room-mate at university was from Omagh, and I came from Southampton, I didn’t know anyone very well from Northern Ireland, he, as it turned out, didn’t really know any Indian people, so we spent a lot of time getting to know each other and learning about each other’s backgrounds.
It was eye-opening to me how he had grown up, what he had grown up having to deal with, and live with. I’m passionately committed to making sure that the Good Friday agreement works because it brought peace and stability to Northern Ireland, and that is so precious, and we are reminded of how precious just in the past week.
Sunak also claimed that half his office staff at No 10 were from Northern Ireland.
Sir Bill Cash, the veteran Tory Eurosceptic and European Research Group members, was one of the Conservative MPs who sounded most sceptical of Rishi Sunak’s protocol deal during the Commons statement last night. Cash said he wanted the government to clarify a range of points, covering “the making of EU laws and the European court, the joint committee and its procedures, and the Stormont brake, not to mention the whole context of sovereignty in this entire process under section 38 of the European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Act 2020”.
Theresa May, the former PM, offered a demonstration in the Commons earlier to show how enthusiastic his colleagues are to hear Cash’s interventions. She was responding when the mentioned the Maastricht treaty during the tributes to Betty Boothroyd. James Heale from the Spectator has the clip.
King Charles hosting Ursula von der Leyen ‘not unusual’, insists Cleverly
James Cleverly, the foreign secretary, has rejected claims the king was drawn into political matters when meeting the European Commission president after a new Brexit deal was agreed, my colleague Aletha Adu reports.
TUV leader Jim Allister says there will still be border in Irish Sea under Sunak’s protocol deal
Yesterday Jim Allister, leader of the Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV), a small, hardline unionist party in Northern Ireland, gave an initial response to Rishi Sunak’s protocol deal, saying that he was still looking at the detail but that he was concerned that it did not mean the current protocol being removed.
In an interview with Stephen Nolan on Radio Ulster, Allister sounded like he was coming down more firmly against the deal. He said it would leave a border in the Irish Sea. He told the programme:
This is a deal which does not address the fundamental constitution affront of the protocol because it still leaves Northern Ireland the only part of the United Kingdom in a foreign single market for goods, and therefore subject of all the plethora of EU laws that govern that, and the European court of justice overseeing that. It still leaves us in a foreign customs code, and that’s why there will still be, despite what the prime minister has said, an Irish Sea border.
The TUV has only one seat in the assembly, and it is not considered a main party in Northern Ireland politics. But it is influential because it has been taking votes from the DUP, just as Ukip started taking votes from the Conservative party around 10 years ago (which alarmed David Cameron, and helped to persuade him to call a referendum).
Michel Barnier, who was the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator during the Brexit process, has used a message on Twitter to say that Rishi Sunak’s protocol deal shows what can be achieved by “trust in European relations”. When Boris Johnson was prime minister and the terms of Brexit were being agreed, trust was not a strong feature of the London/Brussels relationship.
Michelle O’Neill, the Sinn Féin leader in Northern Ireland and first minister designate, spoke to Rishi Sunak by phone today. Afterwards she issued a statement saying she urged him to keep pushing for the restoration of power sharing. She said:
The deal is done. People are now clearly focused on getting an executive up and running and want all parties around the table working together to deliver for workers, families and local businesses …
It’s time the DUP ended its blockade of the executive and worked with the rest of us to fix the health service, tackle waiting lists and help businesses, workers and families who are struggling with rising costs.
Boris Johnson was not in the Commons chamber yesterday for the statement on the Northern Ireland protocol deal. But he was there today for energy questions, my colleague John Crace reports.
This is from the i’s Paul Waugh.
No 10 claims UK ‘seeing the benefits’ of Brexit as it clarifies PM’s comments on NI and single market
At the Downing Street lobby briefing the PM’s spokesperson said Rishi Sunak’s comments this morning about Northern Ireland benefiting from being in the EU single market (see 9.07am and 11.11am) did not mean he thought the whole of the UK should be in it. The spokesperson said:
The British people made a decision in 2016 and we are seeing the benefits of that decision, whether that’s in the ability to change our environment laws, some of the tax elements the prime minister talked about just today, in fact.
With regards to Northern Ireland, it is simply a fact that because of our respect for the Good Friday agreement and the central importance; Northern Ireland’s unique position means it needs to have access to both markets, not least to avoid a border on the island of Ireland, which nobody wants to see.
That puts it in a unique position and what the framework does is finally cement those capabilities.
PCS says more civil servants joining strike over pay on 15 March
The Public and Commercial Services union has announced that a further 33,000 civil servants will be joining a strike planned for 15 March over pay.
PCS members working for dozens of government bodies were already planning to strike on 15 March, after voting for industrial action last year.
Last year strike ballots affecting nine groups of workers did not reach the 50% turnout threshold required by law for a strike vote to be valid. But the union reballoted those members, and it said today they will be joining the strikes.
The government bodies affected are: the Care Quality Commission, Companies House, HMRC, the Information Commissioner’s Office, the National Museum of Wales, the Office of Rail and Road, UK Export Finance, the Valuation Office Agency and the Welsh government.
The PCS said:
These votes in favour of action represent a significant escalation of the dispute as these members are also now able to join targeted strike action when called, which has had a big impact over the past few month and demonstrated to the government that it needs to take our demands seriously. We are determined to keep the pressure on until the government improves its offer to members.
PCS members working for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the Forestry Commission, the Marine Maritime Organisation and the Rural Payments Agency have also voted to take industrial action short of going on strike.
The PCS wants a pay rise of at least 10% for its members.
Sunak says he wants talks with parties to codify when London would veto EU law under Stormont brake
In an interview for broadcasters in Northern Ireland, Rishi Sunak played down concerns that the NI assembly would not really have a veto over new EU single market legislation under the “Stormont brake” procedure.
Under the details of the plan, Stormont would be able to propose blocking a new EU law. But the UK government would the final say.
Asked to explain in what circumstances London would exercise this veto, Sunak stressed the value of the brake – but would not say in what circumstances the UK government would apply it. He said he wanted further talks with the Northern Ireland parties to codify this.
He replied:
The Stormont brake is an incredibly powerful new cross-community safeguard. What it means is that the people and institutions of Northern Ireland are in control of their destiny.
If there is a significant new EU law that comes along that will have lasting and significant impact on everyday lives of people here in Northern Ireland, then the assembly will be allowed to pull the emergency brake.
Once that is done it is crystal clear the UK government then does have an unequivocal veto. The UK government wants to sit down with the parties in Northern Ireland to codify how the UK government would use that veto to make sure everyone has reassurance that it will work properly.
Jeffrey Donaldson denies DUP split over protocol deal, but refuses to say how long agreeing joint response will take
The DUP MPs Sammy Wilson and Ian Paisley have consistenly been more intransigent in their comments on Brexit, and the Northern Ireland protocol, than colleagues, and that was apparent again yesterday. While Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, the party leader, said “significant progress” had been made, Paisley said the deal “does not cut the mustard”, while Wilson asked Rishi Sunak in the Commons: “Can he understand why … we still fear that our position within the United Kingdom will not be restored by this agreement?
But in an interview with Radio Ulster this morning Donaldson said the party was “absolutely not” split on the issue. He said:
Let me be clear, our party officers, our assembly members, our members of parliament, and ultimately, our party executive, will determine the party’s approach on this issue.
We will consult and we will take our time. We will talk to people. We will listen to what people are saying, they will articulate their views. Of course, there will be a diversity and a range of views.
People will react in different ways. But the DUP will come to a collective decision on this agreement.
When asked how long it would take for the party to reach a conclusion on what had been agreed, he said “it will take as long as it takes”.
The Times’s Steven Swinford says the European Research Group, which represents the most pro-Brexit Tory MPs, is likely to reserve judgment on the Northern Ireland protocol deal until its “star chamber” of pro-Brexit lawyers has analysed the deal. But ERG members have concerns, he says.
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