A State aid issue arose during @michaelgove’s appearance before @CommonsFREU yesterday.
At around 29”, @SallyAnn1066 asked whether the UK could have given the Covid 19 support it has done to UK businesses under EU State aid rules.
Two points needed to answer that question fully and accurately (neither given by @michaelgove, who skirted the question).
1. The UK is still bound by EU State aid rules in transition, and has given the support it has (including 3 cleared UK notifications to the Commission): so “yes” would have been a pretty complete and accurate answer.
2. A really full answer (for full marks) would have added that after the end of transition the UK will still in perpetuity be substantially bound by EU State aid rules under Art 10 of the NI Protocol, which would certainly apply to all the UK’s Covid 19 subsidy measures to date.
So @SallyAnn1066 should have been told that here, because of the NI protocol, little will change after transition on the State aid front in relation to Covid 19 subsidies, unless the Govt can negotiate a change to the NI protocol, as recommended by @LordsEUCom. 
