EU WHAT? Major Brussels row explodes after claims Britain is planning to break Brexit promises: thesun.co.uk/news/politics/…
EU threatens to pull stumps over backsliding claims... but No10 hit back saying totally wedded to Withdrawal Agreement. Official: "The government is completely committed, as it always has been, to implementing the Northern Ireland Protocol in good faith.” thesun.co.uk/news/politics/…
Official: “If we don't take these steps we face the prospect of legal confusion at the end of the year and potentially extremely damaging defaults, including tariffs on goods moving from GB to Northern Ireland."
"We are making minor clarifications in extremely specific areas to ensure that, as we implement the protocol, we are doing so in a way that allows ministers to always uphold and protect the Good Friday peace agreement.”
PMOS: "We are taking limited and reasonable steps to clarify specific elements of the Northern Ireland Protocol in domestic law to remove any ambiguity and to ensure the government is always able to deliver on its commitments to the people of Northern Ireland."
EXCLUSIVE: Sir Keir Starmer met Taylor Swift and her mother backstage at Wembley just days after No10 'pressured' cops into giving the superstar VIP security....
£2,800 freebie on 20 August came amid growing conflict of interest row...
Starmer introduced his family to Swift and her mother for 10 minute chat on final night of the Eras tour in London.
Tickets were provided by Swift's music label after Sir Keir's then chief of staff Sue Gray had personally got involved in security row with the singer and cops
Ministerial code states politicians should avoid not just a conflict of interest but even perception of one...
Hard to see how taking freebie tickets and meeting the superstar AFTER No10 got involved in policing - with direct chats with the star's mother - does not breach that
EXC: Effort to get Germany to unlock sale of 48 Typhoons to Saudi “going nowhere” with ministers warned UK production faces closure — French now line for multibillion deal instead
UK facing lost decade of fighter jet assembly with 6k direct jobs on line
Berlin blocking multi-billion deal to sell 48 more Typhoons to Saudis - with ministers warned BAE production lines “will close” immediately if the order is blocked.
Sources say diplomatic battle to “unstick” led by National Security Adviser Sir Tim Barrow “is going nowhere.”
UK will phase out more than 100 Typhoons from 2025, to be replaced by US-made 47 F-35B Lightnings.
Brit 4th generation GCAP fighter being built with Japan and Italy will not “theoretically” be ready until at least mid 2030s, according to warning circulated a top of Whitehall.
Rishi the candidate: “China is the biggest-long term threat to Britain and the world’s economic and national security." (24 July 2022)
Rishi the PM: "It means standing up to our competitors, not with grand rhetoric but with robust pragmatism.” (28 Nov 2022)
Rishi in July: “Enough is enough. For too long, politicians in Britain and across the West have rolled out the red carpet and turned a blind eye to China’s nefarious activity and ambitions..
...I will change this on Day 1 as PM. I will stop China taking over our universities, and get British companies and public institutions the cyber-security they need. And I will work with Biden and other world leaders to transform the West’s resilience to the threat China poses.”
Furious Tory MPs pointing finger at Jeremy Hunt for pushing the move toward the new closer relationship that would mean a return to EU judges, contributions to the EU budget and closer alignment on rules.
💥 IDS hit out at attempts to “reopen a settled debate” adds: “The Chancellor needs to himself slap this story down, this should never have got going and if he meant it or not, he needs to make it clear this is not what the government is about.”