Brexit: Bryson issues warning against protocol implementation
A spokesman for Poland’s conservative nationalist governing party, Law and Justice insisted the country has no plans to leave the EU.But he warned it would ‘have to search for drastic solutions’ to its dispute – before then pointing to Britain’s departure from the bloc.Ryszard Terlecki said his party wants to have a cooperative relationship with the EU but the bloc “should be acceptable to us”.
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DUP leader threatens nuclear response to destroy hated Brexit deal He commented during a discussion at an economic forum in Poland: “If things go the way they are likely to go, we will have to search for drastic solutions.
“The British showed that the dictatorship of the Brussels bureaucracy did not suit them and turned around and left.”
Earlier this week the European Commission confirmed it has asked the EU’s Court of Justice to impose daily fines on Poland over its rule of law, as well as on a chamber of the Polish Supreme Court that disciplines judges and prosecutors.
The EU’s Justice Commissioner also hinted Brussels could withhold the member state’s Covid recovery funds until it introduces judicial law and removes the chamber in question.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen (Image: GETTY) But Polish opposition parties have hit back at the comments from Mr Terlecki, warning the governing party of putting Poland’s membership in the EU in danger.
Former European Council President Donald Tusk, who now heads up the Civic Platform party in Poland, warned of the “constant undermining” of the country’s membership in the EU.
When asked whether he was confident of Poland’s continued membership of the EU, he said: ‘No, I don’t have such peace of mind and no-one should have.
‘Disasters such as, for example Brexit, or Poland’s potential exit from the EU, very often happen not because someone has planned them, but because someone has been unable to plan a wise alternative to such a potential drama.’
Government spokesman Piotr Mueller denied Poland was planning its own Brexit, and said “We will not follow the way of Great Britain.”
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5.15am update: Nigel Farage warns things will ‘get worse not better’ for ‘utterly discredited’ Joe Biden
Nigel Farage has warned things will “get worse not better” for US President Joe Biden.
The GB News presenter said Mr Biden is “utterly discredited” following the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Mr Farage added that his presidency will not recover from the fiasco, which has seen him widely criticised in the US and by allies as the Taliban have returned to power.
The former Brexit Party leader claimed support from Mr Biden’s Democratic Party is “cracking at the seams”.
Mr Farage also took aim at US vice-president Kamala Harris, who he said has been “notable by her complete absence”.
5am update: Eight European nations just said NO WAY to Brussels as EU tries to impose new rules
The European Union is facing a huge backlash after eight nations rejected the bloc’s plans to impose new rules.
Austria, Denmark, Latvia, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Finland, the Netherlands and Sweden have crushed the EU’s dreams of loosening the bloc’s deficit rules.
Ahead of an informal gathering of their peers in Slovenia this Saturday, the countries issued a document to the bloc.
A one-page document signed by their finance ministers read: “Reducing excessive debt ratios has to remain a common goal.
4am update: New post-Brexit visas unveiled: Priti Patel announces latest points based immigration plan
Priti Patel has unveiled visa routes as part of thew UK’s bid to attract “the world’s greatest minds” to Brexit Britain.
Simplified rules for international talent were unveiled by the Home Secretary today as the latest addition to the Government’s points-based immigration system.
A new fast-track International Sportsperson route will be introduced from next month in order to ensure professional athletes can work in the UK.
The visa will help to guarantee sporting events such as the football Premier League continue to be British exporting successes.
Dominic Cummings says he’s ‘looking into’ starting an OnlyFans account (Image: Getty) 3.10am update: Enough! Sefcovic ignores Biden Brexit warning with ‘disruptive’ demands – MP hits out
EU Commissioner Maros Sefvocic is glossing over the threat to peace in Northern Ireland, and ignoring recent warnings issued to US President Joe Biden, with his latest remarks, a leading Brexiteer has said.
David Jones MP, deputy chairman of the European Research Group (ERG) was speaking after European Commissioner Mr Sefcovic , the bloc’s point man when it comes to the Northern Ireland Protocol, claimed any attempt to renegotiate the post- Brexit agreement between the EU and the UK Government would cause “instability, uncertainty and unpredictability”.The Protocol is a mechanism agreed between the two parties which the intention of preventing a hard border on the island of Ireland.However, critics claim it has instead resulted in a border down the Irish Sea.
2.05am update: Dominic Cummings says he’s ‘looking into’ starting an OnlyFans account
The former chief adviser to the Prime Minister told subscribers of his Substack website he is “looking into” setting up an OnlyFans account.
Dominic Cummings, 49, told subscribers of his online blog he was “looking into” setting up an OnlyFans account, the Mirror has found.
The mastermind behind the Vote Leave campaign indicated an interest in making an account after a subscriber suggested the site for producing a video version of Mr Cummings’ “ask me anything” sessions.
Boris Johnson’s ex-adviser in Number 10 asked his subscribers for an alternative website to produce video content.
1.40am update: Boris’s threat from the right – the Reform Party which could smash Tory Government
Boris Johnson’s Government has dropped below Labour in a recent poll following the announcement of his plan to hike National Insurance taxes for Britain’s workers.But the threat could actually be coming from the newly rebranded Reform UK.
Boris Johnson’s new National Insurance policy has been met with anger from politicians and the public alike, as the tax grab will see many workers hundreds of pounds worse off a year.
But it’s not just Labour that has benefitted from the policy when it comes to the electorate – the populist right-wing Reform Party are also cashing in on Mr Johnson’s choices.
The tax has been raised to pay for the NHS backlog caused by the pandemic, as well as longstanding issues with the social care system.
‘Damaged reputation’ Sammy Wilson MP urges Boris to restore trust with Unionists in Ulster (Image: Getty) 12.50am update: SNP on independence warpath as Blackford blasts Brexit destruction and demands referendum
The SNP’s Westminster leader Ian Blackford will launch a scathing assault on the UK Government today as he makes his case for an independent Scotland.
The MP will tell the party’s annual conference its “Scotland’s turn to choose” after having years of policies imposed on it.
He will say it is the SNP’s duty to carry out an independence referendum as soon as possible in order to keep its word to the electorate.
Mr Blackford will tell the virtual conference the country is now “faced with a choice of two futures” as he seeks to make the case for going it alone.
11.50pm update: ‘Damaged reputation’ Sammy Wilson MP urges Boris to restore trust with Unionists in Ulster
Boris Johnson must restore trust with Unionists in Northern Ireland after the Prime Minister broke his promise not to have a border down the Irish Sea, a DUP MP has said.
Sammy Wilson, the Democratic Unionist Party’s MP for East Antrim said Boris Johnson’s Government has “broken its promises” over maintaining unfettered trading access between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
Mr Wilson, 68, told Express.co.uk , the Prime Minister “has damaged his own reputation” by agreeing to the controversial Northern Ireland Protocol in his Brexit deal.
The Eurosceptic MP said: “When I hear people accusing him of being untrustworthy in the House of Commons, one of the things they mention is the way in which he broke his promises to the people of Northern Ireland.”
10.40pm update: Brexit has ‘strengthened UK laws!’ Remoaners shut down over tax avoidance claim
Claims that the UK’s departure from the European Union was partly motivated by Brexiteers wanting to swerve tax avoidance laws have been torn apart on social media.
One Twitter user derided claims that Brexit had impacted tax avoidance laws.
In the tweet, they said: “The EU were bringing in no new legislation the UK didn’t, in every material sense, already have.
“The UK’s tax avoidance legislation is stronger than anything required by EU law, current or proposed, at the tune of Brexit.
Jack Walters is taking over from Paul Withers
Priti Patel Vote Leave (Image: Getty) 9pm update: No country in world would accept this! Fury as EU risks tearing UK apart in Brexit revenge
BRITONS have shown their anger after it was revealed that DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson plans to collapse the Northern Ireland Assembly in an attempt to end Brexit checks in the Irish Sea.
Mr Donaldson had used a keynote speech on Thursday to launch a fresh attack towards the Northern Ireland Protocol, a hated part of the Brexit deal by unionists.
But rumours about the intention of the DUP leader now shows that the intention is to completely abandon the power-sharing arrangements which are currently in place, by leaving Stormont.
The move by Mr Donaldson is said to show “significant hardening of the DUP position and will place the onus on London and Brussels or run the risk of dragging Northern Ireland backwards, all the progress made from 2007 will be lost”.
Unionists have notoriously been against the Protocol however the need to respond to the Protocol now has emphasised that the “stakes could not be higher”, according to Mr Donaldson.
These new rumoured plans from the DUP to abandon the power-sharing agreements have caused many Britons to feel angered by this expected decision.
7.30pm update: SNP President says Brexit is ‘slow-motion car crash’ – lashes out at Boris deal
The SNP President and political director of the independence unit Mike Russell in his address at the party’s conference: “When great dislocations happen in societies, people reassess their lives, their beliefs and yes, their governance.
“None of us could have guessed when we met in Aberdeen just two years ago, that within two months we would faced with the greatest pandemic for a century.
“And although in these islands we were already at this time witnessing the slow-motion car crash that was Brexit, and making clear what we thought would inevitably happen, and we were right.
“In fact we underestimated how bad the deal Johnson and the Tories negotiated actually was and how, when it began to bite, we would be left with empty shelves, shortage of key labour, a catastrophic decline in exports and rising prices.”
6pm update: ‘It MUST change!’ Boris stands up to EU bullies after Sefcovic demands UK cave on Brexit
Boris Johnson stood firm on his demands for an overhaul of the Northern Ireland Protocol this afternoon in the face of EU stubbornness.
This morning European Commission vice-president Maros Sefcovic rejected proposals submitted by the UK which aimed to ease Brexit frictions in Northern Ireland.
He claimed any attempt to renegotiate the Northern Ireland Protocol would cause “instability, uncertainty and unpredictability”.
Delivering a keynote speech at Queen’s University in Belfast, Mr Sefcovic said the agreement must be “properly implemented”.
This afternoon Downing Street reiterated its claims that the deal is unsustainable in its current form and said “significant changes” were required.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “We’ve spoken before about the Northern Ireland Protocol and the challenges that it continues to cause in Northern Ireland.
“That’s why we published our command paper earlier this year, and it’s why we remain committed to significant changes to make it durable for the future.”
Brexit LIVE: Downing Street are becoming increasingly frustrated with the EU over the Protocol (Image: GETTY) 4.20pm update: Sefcovic hints at acceleration of negotiations to resolve Protocol issue
During a press conference in Belfast, the Euroepan Commission vice president was asked whether a threat from the DUP to pull down powersharing at Stormont could change the timeline for talks between the UK and EU.
He replied: “For us in the EU we wanted to have this problem solved already before the first of January of this year.
“So can we do this faster? Let’s go for it.
“I mean, we are ready for engagement, we will be working as we’ve been until now, constructively with our UK partners.
“Let’s see how far and how fast we can progress.”
4.10pm update: Sefcovic admits issues with Protocol but no reason to ditch it all
European Commission vice president Maros Sefcovic said: “We recognise, and that’s my purpose of the visit here, that some things have been proven more difficult than others.
“But I think that because of that we just shouldn’t, you know, scrap the whole thing, because I know how difficult it was to get here.
“Therefore I’m ready to go the extra mile to save the progress, to build on the achievements, which took us five years to build, and to really kind of move to the next stage where we will talk to you more about opportunities, about all the investors from Canada, from the US, from Europe who want to come to actually benefit from this unique place that Northern Ireland has on both the internal market of the UK and single market of the EU.”
Brexit LIVE: Maros Sefcovic hinted at an acceleration in negotiations (Image: PA) 4pm update: DUP leader accuses Sefcovic of dismissing concerns of unionist over Protocol
Sir Jeffrey Donaldson was reacting after Maros Sefcovic gave a speech in which he said any attempt o renegotiate the protocol would create instability in Northern Ireland, adding the agreement needs to be fully implemented.
The DUP leader said: “The EU vice-president is of course entitled to his view and we understand that any solution that we need to find on addressing the enormous difficulties created by the protocol has to find a way of protecting the integrity of the EU single market.
“But I think it’s unfortunate that Mr Sefcovic would be so dismissive of the real and genuine concerns that there are out there and I think that the meeting that we had yesterday with him was much more constructive and what I had to say yesterday reflects the concerns of many people in Northern Ireland.
“It is not mere rhetoric, it is articulating the views and concerns of unionists.
“In the end, the agreement that we have, the political institutions that we have can only work if both unionists and nationalists support them so the EU needs to move, and quickly, to address the concerns of unionists.”
Brexit LIVE: Sir Jeffrey Donaldson hit back at the comments from Maros Sefcovic (Image: PA) Paul Withers taking over live reporting from Bill McLoughlin.
2.25pm update: Sefcovic reiterates desire for Northern Ireland Protocol to be kept
The vice-President of the Commission said today following his trip to Northern Ireland: “The Protocol on IE/NI = a real opportunity for Northern Ireland.
“My exchanges here have strengthened my conviction that enormous benefit can come from its unparalleled access to 2 major markets.
“As put by a business leader: jam on both sides of the bread.”
Brexit: EU rules ‘out of the question’ for UK says Menon
1.19pm update: EU member state admits huge benefits from Brexit
Due to the UK’s exit from the EU and strained relations with some member states, British IT professionals have set up shop in Estonia.
Under the country’s e-Residency programme, UK entrepreneurs have chosen the state to start their companies.
In an interview with City AM, Kaja Kallas, Estonia’s prime minister claimed around 4,000 UK companies had chosen the state ahead of other European competitors.
She said: “When the United Kingdom decided to leave the European Union, many British friends took up our e-residency services,” she said.
“It clearly increased after Brexit, even before actually, even when the vote happened, we saw a spike.
“We have seen more than 4,000 British companies coming to Estonia.”
This has led to a huge rise in income tax receipts for the state.
12.16pm update: DUP reiterates threat over Brexit
Speaking on the BBC’s Nolan Show, Sir Jeffrey Donaldson reiterated his desire to amend the Northern Ireland protocol.
He said: “I have been reasonable, I have given people time to take the action that I feel is necessary to remove this Irish Sea border.
“I have worked with the Government, I have engaged with the EU, I have put forward proposals and suggestions in terms of how we can address these issues.
“There reaches a point where, with the decision taken to extend the grace periods indefinitely, that it appears to me that this will be dragged out for months, if not years, and we simply can’t afford that.
“The harm that is being done to our economy every day is not sustainable.”
Brexit news: Sir Jeffrey Donaldson hit out at the protocol (Image: GETTY) 11.25am update: ‘You’ll destroy your country!’ Top economist damning warning against joining EU and euro
Top economist Bill Mitchell warned non-EU countries against ever joining the Brussels bloc unless they wanted to be “destroyed” by Neo-liberal impositions.
Speaking at an event before the completion of Brexit negotiations, the professor of economics at the University of Newcastle, New South Wales, in Australia, warned joining the EU and the eurozone would “destroy” a country.
At the time, Mr Mitchell was warning off Scottish Remainers who hoped an independent Scotland could soon rejoin the EU.
He said: “You’ll destroy your country if you join the EU.
And you’ll destroy it slightly quicker if you tie the euro.
“And I know this debate within progressives on ‘the euro isn’t the EU’ – no, it’s not.
“But the euro is the most advanced form of a Neo-liberalism that is entrenched in the basic legal structure of the EU.”
Brexit news: A timeline of events leading to the UK’s exit (Image: Express) 10.31am update: Play by OUR rules! Lord Frost ordered to back down and bow to EU demands on Brexit row
Lord Frost has been ordered to stop wasting time and join the European Union in a compromise to end the row over Brexit trade rules in Northern Ireland.
In a speech at a Belfast university, European Commission vice-president Maros Sefcovic insisted the Brexit minister should drop his demands to renegotiate the hated protocol to avoid a hard border.
The top eurocrat suggested his British counterpart should spend less time trying to scrap the European Court of Justice’s role in the region and look instead at ending the disruption caused by the measures.
Mr Sefcovic appealed to Lord Frost to meet him in the middle ground to finally broker a solution that brings an end to the concerns surrounding the Northern Ireland Protocol.
The Slovak diplomat said: “I believe that our focus should be on those issues that matter the most to the people of Northern Ireland, and not on requests, such as removing the role of the European Court of Justice.”
Michel Barnier ‘did his utmost to stop Brexit’ says Farage
9.25am update: Brexit anger as IKEA blames EU exit for supply problems in UK but not the Netherlands
Furniture giant IKEA blamed Brexit for shortages in UK stores, despite admitting missing products in its Dutch shops are due to “major logistical problems worldwide”.
The Swedish company has reported supply problems at all 22 of its stores across Britain and Ireland.
These are affecting 10 percent of its stock, which equates to about 1,000 product lines.
A number of retailers have reported supply problems in recent weeks, with a shortage of lorry drivers getting much of the blame.
9am update: Michel Barnier throws EU under bus as he demands new referendum on ‘legal sovereignty’
Michel Barnier shocked people in France and Brussels on Thursday as he called for a referendum on his country’s “legal sovereignty” from the EU’s courts.
The former EU Brexit negotiator said France should “no longer be subject to the rulings of the CJEU or the ECHR” in an unexpected blow to Brussels.
Speaking at a debate with right-wing parties for the party primaries in the city of Nîmes to mark the start of the new parliamentary year, Mr Barnier also called for “rebuilding French influence” in the face of Germany’s “domination” in the EU.
The French Presidential candidate explained that regaining national sovereignty from EU courts would allow France to decide on its own immigration law.
The comments sparked outrage in France and across the bloc.
Emmanuel Macron’s closest ally, Clement Beaune said: “One wonders how a sentence like that can come from such a committed European.”
Brexit Live: The official met with business leaders on Thursday (Image: PA) 8.14am update: ‘Could not make it up!’ Farage savages Barnier’s Eurosceptic bid for French President
Nigel Farage called out Michel Barnier, ex-EU chief negotiator, for standing on a populist and Eurosceptic ticket in the 2022 French Presidential Election.
Nigel Farage, 57, savaged Michel Barnier, 70, during his slot on GB News on Thursday.
The former Brexit Party and UKIP leader claimed Monsieur Barnier’s commitment to restore French sovereignty flew in the face of his attempts to subvert the referendum result as the EU’s chief negotiator.
Barnier, who rose to the political fore after organising the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, shocked his Brussels bloc colleagues by advocating for France to take back control of its laws and borders.
During Mr Farage’s GB News show, the prominent Brexit campaigner spoke frankly about his relationship with Barnier.
“I’ve always said that Michel Barnier was unfailingly polite but very haughty,” he said.
“I had many conversations with him in his office, in the coffee room, debates in the parliamentary chamber.”
Brexit Live: Mr Sefcovic will give a speech this morning (Image: PA) 7.41am update: Maros Sefcovic to speak at Queen’s University
The EU official is set to give a speech at the Belfast University this morning.
His speech comes a period of heightened tensions between the UK and EU.
7.31am update: Lord Frost issues ultimatum as Maros Sefcovic panics
Following Lord Frost’s calls to amend the Northern Ireland protocol, his European counterpart issued a panicked response during a visit to Northern Ireland.
After speaking to political leaders, Maros Sefcovic insisted he had listened to the warnings issued by UK officials.
He said: “We will have the opportunity to discuss this face to face and my message will be ‘let’s work on the concrete problems’.
“Let’s focus on the issues which are the most important for the people of Northern Ireland, let’s be constructive, let’s dial down the political rhetoric, let’s bring calm and focus on what is our task to accomplish.”
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