Brexit latest news LIVE – Outrage as EU forces lorry drivers to fill in 71 pages of paperwork for every load of fish
BRITISH lorry drivers now have to fill in a staggering 71 pages of paperwork for every single load of fish they transport to the EU.
During the Brexit transition period hauliers just needed a delivery note and one or two additional forms for each load.
But they are now caught up in red tape hell, being forced to produce catch certificates, health certificates and licences even before they get to the endless customs paperwork, the BBC reported.
The news comes as Irish PM Micheal Martin called for all parties to "dial down the rhetoric" over the Northern Ireland Protocol and the tensions and "sinister" threats against border staff over the past week.
Items such as food and online shopping transported into Northern Ireland are being delayed by extra border checks required post-Brexit because, unlike the rest of the UK, the region remains in the EU single market.
Follow our live blog below for the very latest on Brexit and the EU…
- Claudia Aoraha
LONDON'S HUB NEEDS TO COMPETE WITH NYC AND SINGAPORE, NOT THE EU
London's post-Brexit financial services industry must compete more with New York and Singapore rather than with leading EU centres, the head of British bank Barclays said Friday.
"I think what London needs to be focused on is not Frankfurt or Paris; (it) needs to be focused on New York and Singapore," Barclays chief executive Jes Staley told the BBC.
The UK's powerhouse financial sector, which represents around seven percent of the nation's economy, should emerge stronger from Brexit, according to Staley.
"Brexit gives the UK the opportunity to define its own agenda," he said, adding that he does not feel there was any need for deregulation to achieve this end.
- Claudia Aoraha
EU FOREIGN POLICY CHIEF HAIL'S RUSSIAN JAB
The European Union's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on Friday hailed the success of Russia's Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine, and said he hoped it could be certified for use in the bloc.
Borrell was in Moscow for talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on what was the first visit of a senior EU envoy to Russia since 2017.
"It's good news for the whole of mankind because it means we will have more tools to fight the pandemic," Borrell told journalists after the talks.
He said he hoped the European Medicines Agency would certify the vaccine for use in EU member states.
Borrell added that another source of supplies would be welcome as the EU is "facing a shortage of vaccines".
- Imogen Braddick
COLLAPSE IN CHANNEL TUNNEL TRADE AMID BREXIT CHAOS
Figures from Getlink – the Channel Tunnel operator – published today show Brexit chaos has led to a huge drop in trade going to and from Europe.
Le Shuttle Freight transported 82,484 trucks in January 2021, a decrease of 37 per cent compared to January 2020.
The company has blamed new post-Brexit border requirements and Covid travel restrictions for the collapse in trade.
- Imogen Braddick
STURGEON VAX OUTRAGE
Nicola Sturgeon was ridiculed last night after insisting Brexit had nothing to do with the UK’s soaring vaccine rollout.
Despite bungling by Brussels meaning the EU27 are struggling to jab their citizens, the SNP boss – who wants to re-join the bloc – said it was "too simplistic" to suggest leaving the EU has made the UK more nimble.
Questioned on Good Morning Britain about whether Brexit had helped the UK, she said: "Of course you can make that argument, but sometimes I think it’s a slightly over-simplistic argument, but we should all be pleased that the vaccination programme is going so well."
She added: "The issues around Brexit are much wider and more fundamental but even on this narrow point I think if you were to apply really detailed scrutiny it wouldn’t be quite that simple."
Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross said: "The First Minister’s laughable attempt today at spinning the UK’s success as ‘too simplistic’ is just another example of how petty the SNP have been at acknowledging the benefits of being in the UK, not the EU scheme."
- Imogen Braddick
FINANCIAL REFORMS
Company directors could become personally liable for the accuracy of their financial statements under landmark proposals, sources familiar with the plans told Reuters today.
Long-awaited reforms to improve corporate behaviour are expected to be published next week after a string of collapses and accounting scandals at companies such as BHS, Carillion and Patisserie Valerie.
Legislation is needed to implement some of the key recommendations – but parliamentary time has been clogged by Brexit for the last few years.
- Imogen Braddick
'POLITICS STEEPED IN DIVISION'
The Prime Minister's senior adviser on ethnic minorities considered resigning due to "unbearable" tension within Downing Street, the BBC reports.
In a letter to Boris Johnson, Samuel Kasumu accused the Conservative Party of pursuing "a politics steeped in division".
"I fear for what may become of the party in the future by choosing to pursue a politics steeped in division," he said.
He claimed black and Asian voters were now less likely to choose the Conservatives than they had been under David Cameron.
- John Hall
'FORGET THE EU AND FOCUS ON ASIA'
In case you missed it…
The UK's vast financial services industry should focus on maintaining its leading position by winning business in the United States and Asia rather than in the European Union, Barclays boss Jes Staley said.
"I think what London needs to be focused on is not Frankfurt or Paris, needs to be focused on New York and Singapore," Staley, a former banker at JPMorgan, told the BBC.
Staley said "Brexit is more than likely on the positive side than on the negative side".
- John Hall
'MORE PEOPLE HOLIDAYING IN THE UK'
Former Greene King boss Rooney Anand is to swoop back into the UK's pub sector after securing £200 million from one of the world's largest investment firms to launch a new venture.
Anand, who led the pub group as chief executive officer until 2019, has secured the mammoth cash injection from Los Angeles-based Oaktree.
The RedCat Pub Company will partner with licensees, publicans and entrepreneurs to help "support the recovery of the sector", he said.
The company said it believes there will be more "pent-up demand and more people holidaying in the UK because of Brexit" when current virus curbs ease.
RedCat is to start with a focus on buying pub sites in the East, South East and South of the UK.
- John Hall
CADBURY TO MOVE PRODUCTION BACK TO UK IN POST-BREXIT BOOST
In case you missed it… Cadbury has announced it is moving almost all production of Dairy Milk bars BACK to the UK after a £15million investment in a huge boost to post-Brexit Britain.
The cash injection to improve the site will allow a further 12,000 tons — 125 million bars — currently made each year in Germany and other European plants to be produced in Birmingham from 2022.
The move by parent firm Mondelez International, which bought Cadbury for £11.5billion in 2010, will also secure 40 full-time, seasonal jobs.
Louise Stigant, UK MD for Mondelez, said: "At a time when UK manufacturing is facing significant challenges, it’s never been more vital to secure the long-term competitiveness and sustainability of our business."
Trade Unions have welcomed moving chocolate production back to Birmingham, saying it represented a "vote of confidence in the UK workforce".
- John Hall
GHANA-UK TRADE PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENT
The UK and Ghana have finalised negotiations on a new trade partnership agreement, the government announced today.
The agreement will provide for duty free and quota free access for Ghana to the UK market and preferential tariff reductions for UK exporters to the Ghanaian market, the Department for International Trade said a statement.
- John Hall
SIMMERING TENSIONS
Simon Byrne, chief constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland, has warned of a "febrile" atmosphere.
Inspections on animal-based produce arriving from Great Britain, which are required under Brexit's contentious Northern Ireland Protocol, are currently suspended amid fears for the safety of staff.
Police have blamed menacing graffiti on disgruntled individuals and small groups and have made clear there is no evidence of wider paramilitary involvement in threats.
Byrne warned of the potential for the simmering tensions within the loyalist community to escalate.
"It is now time for wise words and calm heads," Byrne told members of the NI Policing Board. "We need to work together to look at a route map to normality because that seems to be the opportunity before us, to step back from the brink in terms of community tension."
- John Hall
'STEADY DIET OF BREXIT UNCERTAINTY'
The next Scottish government is being urged to pause plans including the "tourist tax" on hotel rooms and the regulation of short-term holiday lets.
CBI Scotland claims policies such as the transient visitor levy could have a "damaging impact on Scotland's economic recovery" – especially after Brexit.
Tracy Black, CBI Scotland director, said: "After a steady diet of Brexit uncertainty, Covid-19 and decades of weak productivity growth, the Scottish economy is in desperate need of a recipe for success.
"Neither government nor business can deliver that alone – it must be done together."
CBI Scotland wants ministers to focus on boosting skills, and also on making the 2020s "a decade of delivery towards net-zero emissions".
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