2/7 On the Protocol, we indeed negotiated a careful balance in order to preserve peace and the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement.
It is precisely to ensure this balance can be preserved in all circumstances that the Govt needs powers in reserve to avoid it being disrupted.
3/7 On 3rd country listings: the EU knows perfectly well all the details of our food standards rules because we are operating EU rules. The situation on 1.1.21 is accordingly perfectly clear. We have discussed this frequently with the EU including last week.
4/7 Any changes in future would be notified to the WTO and EU in the usual way with plenty of lead time. The EU lists dozens of countries globally on precisely this basis, without any sort of commitment about the future.
5/7 Yet it has been made clear to us in the current talks that there is no guarantee of listing us. I am afraid it has also been said to us explicitly in these talks that if we are not listed we will not be able to move food to Northern Ireland.
6/7 The EU's position is that listing is needed for Great Britain only, not Northern Ireland. So if GB were not listed, it would be automatically illegal for NI to import food products from GB.
7/7 I hope the EU will yet think better of this. It obviously makes it no easier to negotiate a good free trade agreement and the solid future relationship which we all want.
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... explains why we need a 5-10 year action plan to rebuild Britain, & sets out ten policies that should be part of it: 👇telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/06/2…
1. Get tax and spending back down to Blair-era levels over the next 10 years. Tax, spend, and government regulation are at their highest since the Second World War, and are choking economic activity. The Blair era is hardly ancient history: we can get back there.
2. Open Britain to trade. The Pacific trade deal, the CPTPP, is great, but go further. Abolish most tariffs, including on food imports, over three years, and deregulate the vast apparatus that constrains British food production.
1. It's not clear why Scottish Govt Ministers need make anything other than occasional overseas visits, any more than local Council leaders do. They run a local administration & international policy is specifically reserved.
If they do, for example for trade or investment promotion, powers unwisely partly devolved in the past, then they should not get HMG support unless they stick to their subjects.
1. If we want to control movement into the UK - which we do, as a key element in the Brexit vote - then we must expect the EU to control movement into the EU. We can't have it both ways & we should be honest about that.
However...
...
2. We were never in Schengen, and never would have been if we had stayed in the EU. UK passports were always checked at Dover by French officials.
3. Since Brexit the processes have got a bit more laborious because the EU treats us as a third country. This will sometimes cause delays. It's true the EU doesn't *have* to do this, and we don't treat EU citizens like that, but it's their right to.
1. Starmer & @UKLabour are going to shuffle closer to the EU come what may, if they win - that's obvious, whatever they say now. The route may differ depending on the precise situation at the time but the goal is clear.
2. Their route in the circumstances now created will be to say "we obviously can't reopen the Protocol - the only safe thing to do is remain as closely aligned as possible to EU arrangements so it continues to 'work'."
I have not heard anything authoritative about the possible deal on the NI Protocol from anyone in the Government.
Anyone who does may find it useful to have the following questions / tests in mind as they assess what they are told. 🧵
The technicalities that follow are important. We have learned we can't rely on EU commitments that aren't tied down or rest on good faith or the EU's acting reasonably. They need to be legally clear and enforceable. If they aren't, we will be back here again before too long.
1. First, on goods movements from GB to NI. We are told (by some) that EU law has been "disapplied". That is a very sweeping and on the face of it surprising statement.
As expected, all those who opposed our exit from the EU are out in force this morning trying to tell us it was a bad decision. Let's look at why they are wrong. 🧵 1/11
They seem to have forgotten how things were before 2016 - not just the obvious disagreement about the EU's goals, but the endless arguments, the constant need to block rules against our interests, the huge diversion of diplomatic effort.
They also forget that our slowest growth for decades, and our worst productivity, came in this final period when we were most closely integrated with the single market and had the highest sustained immigration ever.
Why would returning to those things make anything better?