Key points from Frost/Gove session with the Lords, as the UK threatens to walk from Brexit talks next week... 1/ bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
Frost talked tough on the Oct 15 deadline, but hinted talks could go on beyond then even if there's no free-trade deal to be signed. `Our door would never be closed. There are a lot of practical matters that we would need to cover' 2/
Frost said they're `some way from a deal' (🚨) on state aid, one of the key sticking points in the talks. It all comes down to how much constraint the UK is willing to tolerate on its subsidy policies - Johnson will have to make a call here 3/
Gove confirmed again the plans for the Smart Freight System and need for a permit to enter Kent post-Brexit. Reminder of all that here 4/ bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
Alarm bells continue to ring on business readiness. Gove says 1/3 of firms think transition will be extended, and he worries that companies will think a free-trade deal = no need to prepare for any changes 5/
Financial services equivalence - still no sign of an EU decision. Frost says `it's a pity', should've been sorted by June. All the while the banks keep making their moves 6/ bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
Data adequacy - Frost says there's been `slow progress', not going as fast as they'd like. Another big cloud over the U.K.'s services industry 7/ bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
And we're going to do it all again at 4:30pm when Frost/Gove appear before the Commons. For what it's worth, very high quality questioning from the Lords - well-informed, specific, followed up when answers weren't given ends/
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Scoop: Michael Gove has written to the U.K. border industry warning of 7,000-truck-long queues in a reasonable worst-case Brexit scenario 1/ bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
The letter has further stark warnings:
- Flow of freight down 60%-80% between Dover-Calais
- Up to 70% of trucks not ready for EU border checks
Worrying stuff for the end of the transition period 2/
Interesting Brexit narrative now coming from government about potential chaos when transition period ends.
Warning that disruptions will be due to `failure of EU to plan' 1/
Quote from DEFRA secretary George Eustice: ``We can do all the work in the world to make sure our borders are ready ... But if when they arrive at the other side it's all a bit slipshod and disorganised and there's therefore chaos because of failure of the EU to plan...' 2/
``That's something that's beyond our control. That would be our biggest concern''
So the gov setting its stall out early -- any Brexit problems at the border will be blamed on the EU 3/
Exclusive: government says it expects to be fixing bugs in key Brexit border IT system for weeks after it goes live 1/ bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
In official documents seen by Bloomberg, the IT system to check whether trucks have the right paperwork to enter the EU will still be getting `essential updates' through to March. Bugs will be getting `resolved' into January 2/
The government stresses that the service will be fully operational on Jan 1 - but the country's biggest logistics group has said it's a `crushing disappointment' it won't be fully tested and stable until April 3/ bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
Breaking: the key IT system to avoid border chaos will still be in testing mode on Brexit day 1/ bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
Trade group Logistics UK says government officials told them the Smart Freight System won’t be fully tested and stable until April 2021 - too late for end of Brexit transition 2/
The government plan is to start beta-testing it in December, when it says it will be ‘fully operational’. Here’s what gov.uk says Beta means 3/
Fact check: the UK signed up to a customs border in the Irish Sea in the divorce treaty, so talk now of threats to `integrity' of UK is a little odd 1/
Evidence for the customs border: GB firms will need to file new paperwork when sending goods to NI, and trucks will need approval from a yet-to-be-built government IT system to cross the Irish Sea. This all happens even under an FTA 2/ bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
The government is spending 355 million pounds to help companies comply with this new red tape. It's all real and it all happens even if Johnson gets a free-trade deal with the EU 3/ bloomberg.com/news/articles/…