1. As I arrived back at St Pancras International this evening having travelled under the Channel, I was greeted by a sign informing anyone who has been trafficked to tell someone so they can get help. 2. But the Government is now telling us that someone who has been trafficked who makes that exact same journey in a small boat will be denied help, detained and deported to Rwanda.

1. The agreement on the Northern Ireland Protocol that we expect to see unveiled today will rightly be pored over to understand the details. It matters a great deal for four reasons. 2. First, because the long stand-off has brought power sharing in Northern Ireland to a halt and has damaged the UK’s relationship with the EU. This is a bad place for us to find ourselves in.

1. So, on the third anniversary of leaving the EU, how is Brexit going? A thread. 2. It was hard at first to disentangle the impact on the economy of Covid as opposed to Brexit. But now things are much clearer. Leaving the EU has been bad for the economy and bad for trade. British businesses exporting to the EU now face new costs, paperwork and red tape.

1. A few thoughts on the Northern Ireland Protocol. 2. It was always clear that the UK leaving the EU would create a problem in Ireland, but the one thing that everyone agreed on was that there could be no return to a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic.

1. After the Brexit deal was signed, Boris Johnson infamously claimed that there would be "no non-tariff barriers" on trade with the EU. It wasn’t true. 2. In recent weeks we have seen more and more evidence of the adverse impact that the UK’s new trading relationship with the EU is having on British businesses and exports.

1.Not only has the Prime Minister broken his word that HS2 East and Northern Powerhouse Rail would be built in full, but the more I read of the Integrated Rail Plan, the less integrated it appears. 2. Ministers say “the full HS2 and Northern Powerhouse Rail schemes as originally proposed would not enter service until the early to mid-2040s” as if this was somehow a justification for scrapping them. This was meant to be an investment for 100 years or more.

1. The EU proposals on the NI protocol look like a significant step forward. The EU has moved from saying in effect “the rules are the rules are the rules” to recognising that applying them fully in Northern Ireland would create unacceptable problems for NI and GB businesses. 2. The real test is how Northern Ireland businesses react. What they say will be important because they understand better than anyone else what those problems are and what they would be in future if there were no changes.

1. On the 23 Jan 2020, I asked the Health Secretary what the advice to the public was about wearing face masks. He replied that it “is not deemed clinically necessary now. Of course, we keep that under review, and we will be guided by the science.” 2. That advice then changed and it became a legal requirement, in certain circumstances, to wear a mask indoors. We now appear to be going full circle as the Prime Minister thinks it is no longer necessary to require people to do so.

@OwenJones84 @BenPBradshaw @angelaeagle 1/5 There were two votes here Owen - about a year apart - not just one. The difficulties – delays, paperwork, costs and bureaucracy – which British businesses now face in trading with the EU are the result of the Withdrawal Agreement (WA). @OwenJones84 @BenPBradshaw @angelaeagle 2/5 This meant that we left the single market and the customs union on the expiry of the transition period on the 31st December 2020. For the record, Labour voted against the Withdrawal Agreement on 20 December 2019.

1. We are currently staring over the precipice of no deal. Everyone, including many of those who argued for Brexit, understand the damage it would do, especially at the same time as the Covid economic crisis and the end of the transition period. We are facing a perfect storm. 2. It’s pretty clear now that the level playing field is the cause of the deadlock. It seems that the UK and the EU have already agreed a non-regression clause – ie that both sides won’t reduce existing standards on things like environmental protection and workers rights.

1. The time for dither, delay and denial has gone. The Prime Minister must now decide whether he actually wants a deal with the European Union or not. 2. Either way, because any deal is likely to be thin (although avoiding tariffs is crucial) all those promises - one of the easiest trade deals in human history, we hold all the cards, there will be no downside to Brexit only a considerable upside....

1/6 The future relationship negotiations with the EU appear to be in difficulty. It’s all very well the two sides trading warnings with each other, but that isn’t going to get us a deal. 2/6 One of the sticking points is that the EU wants to know what kind of state aid and competition policy rules the UK intends to follow in the future. To date, however, the UK Government has not set these out.

1. Some thoughts on where we are with the coronavirus crisis. 2. Getting communications right is crucial to public confidence. We need a daily news conference led by the Chief Medical Officer and/or his deputy so that announcements can be made and questions answered about the rationale behind the policies to fight the virus.

1. A thread not about why leaving the EU is a bad idea. We’ve made that argument and we haven’t changed our minds, but we lost. It’s happening. So instead, a few reflections on this moment for those who will be mourning and celebrating in almost equal measure tonight. 2. Britain was always a pragmatic rather than an ideological EU member state. We joined late and left early, but we will still be Europeans.

1/4 Watching Boris Johnson on the Marr programme as he tries to make us forget that the Tories have been in power for nearly 10 years. The only thing is, we haven’t forgotten. We haven’t forgotten the closed libraries and SureStart centres and the growth in food banks. 2/4 We haven’t forgotten the worst performance against waiting times targets since the targets were set, the shortage of 43,000 nurses and 15,000 fewer hospital beds in our precious NHS.

1. While all the attention has been on the Northern Ireland Protocol, the really important document in this Brexit deal is the political declaration because that’s where the Government has set out what kind of future relationship it wants with the EU. It’s bad news. 2. The free trade agreement that the Prime Minister wants will end frictionless trade and result in additional cost and bureaucracy for British businesses, and any divergence from a level playing field will adversely affect our access to EU markets.

My question to the Prime Minister earlier on his Brexit proposals for Northern Ireland which run the risk of a return to a hard border. The PM shakes his head at one point when I mention customs checks in Northern Ireland. This is what he told the BBC two days ago “there will have to be a system for customs checks away from the border.”

1. The Prime Minister’s Brexit proposals are worse than Theresa May’s. He has abandoned the all-party commitment to an open border in Northern Ireland by announcing that customs checks will be required. 2. And by giving the Northern Ireland Assembly a veto over the new arrangements, he is undermining the very idea of an insurance policy that all parties can rely on. It can’t be an insurance policy if one side can pull the plug on it.

1. The Safeguard Act (the EU Withdrawal No. 2 Act) does not prevent the PM from agreeing a deal with the EU. What it does is to protect us from the damaging consequences of a No Deal Brexit for which there is no mandate. 2. There is no doubt that No Deal would be the most damaging outcome for the economy. Have a look at the most recent @CommonsEUexit evidence sessions here parliament.uk/business/commi…

1/8 The European Union (Withdrawal) (No. 6) Bill 2019 2/8 The purpose of the Bill is to ensure that the UK does not leave the European Union on the 31 October without an agreement, unless Parliaments consents.

1. Amid all the argument, the Brexit Select Committee took evidence recently from representatives of the UK’s most important industries and services. We asked them what No Deal would mean to them, listened to what they had to say and concluded the following in our report: 2. “The Government’s own economic assessment shows that a “no deal” exit from the EU would be the most economically damaging outcome for the UK, with the effect most pronounced in the North East and the West Midlands....”