Dublin records near-doubling of tax revenue from duties on imports of clothing, food and other goods from Great Britain

Ireland has landed a €700m (£600m) Brexit bonanza with a steep increase in tax revenues flowing from customs duties now applicable to imports of clothing, food and other goods from Great Britain.

Before Brexit, Britain enjoyed customs-free exports to Ireland and the rest of the EU because it was part of the single market and customs union.

Starmer wants to make Tory policy on the economy a central theme of its election campaign … without mentioning Brexit

Now, let me get this straight. We have a fissiparous, Brexit-supporting government, many of whose MPs are stepping down, convinced that their party is heading for its wilderness years. Correspondingly, we have a Labour opposition that is riding high in the polls, led by Keir Starmer, who – unlike his predecessor Jeremy Corbyn – played a noble part in the remain campaign and argued passionately for a second referendum.

Proponents of a second referendum hoped that the country would acknowledge its historic mistake, and return to the European Union it should never have left. I was one of them. We failed.

Sort of: this week will see inspections of some goods. But the hit to businesses and inflation will be inescapable

When Michael Gove announced the first delay to post-Brexit checks on plant and animal products coming into the UK from the EU, he was keen to make one thing clear.

“Although we recognise that many in the border industry and many businesses have been investing time and energy to be ready on time, and indeed we in government were confident of being ready on time,” the then minister for the Cabinet Office said, “we have listened to businesses who have made a strong case that they need more time to prepare.”

Such policies are ‘betrayal’ of values, says French president in speech covering defence and negative effects of Brexit

Emmanuel Macron has criticised migration policies that involve sending people to African countries as “a betrayal of our [European] values”, just days after the UK government passed its Rwanda deportation bill.

The French president made the remarks in a wide-ranging speech on Thursday aimed at warning Europe against overdependence on other countries for security and trade.

Sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) checks were due to start next week but committee raises concerns over delays to plan

MPs have cast doubt over the UK government’s readiness for post-Brexit border control checks, which are due to come in next week, arguing that a scaling back of its plans appeared to represent a sixth delay to their long-awaited introduction.

The environment, food and rural affairs select committee (EFRA) has written to the government demanding clarity over the exact nature of the physical inspections on plant and food products, after it emerged these may be significantly scaled back due to fears of delays at the border.

As David Cameron learned to his cost over Brexit, voters don’t judge politicians on policy, they judge on results

• Henry Hill is deputy editor of ConservativeHome
  

The government’s current position on the Rwanda scheme is unlikely to boost its electoral hopes – and to understand why, we should look to David Cameron and a particular pre-Brexit failure. Cast your mind back to the moment the former Tory prime minister’s renegotiated deal for our EU membership “exploded on the launchpad” ahead of the referendum. He and his team had worked very, very hard. While they hadn’t got what they had set out to gain, the deal they came back with (the “emergency break” on EU migration) felt like a significant achievement. Perhaps it was, amid the constraints imposed on him in Brussels.

But voters don’t grade politicians on effort, they judge by results. And compared with what they wanted – and indeed, what Cameron had promised – the terms he came back with were entirely inadequate. Instead of a definite end to freedom of movement, there was a time-limited and arcane mechanism that might never have been used at all. What was supposed to be the foundation of his referendum campaign turned into a self-inflicted disaster.

A scheme to allow British under-30s to live and work in the EU has been flatly rejected. Why punish them for older voters’ mistakes?

Only those born before 1998 could vote on Brexit, so there is no conceivable way of knowing which way today’s 18- to 30-year-olds would have felt about it. Oh, except there is: 70% of 18- to 24-year-olds think leaving the EU was a bad idea. Of the 25- to 49-year-olds, 66% also think we were wrong to leave. If you can bear to drag your mind back to the immediate aftermath of Brexit, you’ll recall that words like “overwhelming” and “vast” were completely debased by their use in conjunction with majorities that were actually wafer-thin. So let’s just say most young people are remainers.

For a long time, politics has dealt with the young remainer as it does with the rest of us; ignore us for long enough, and we’ll go away. If the Brexit argument had had any foundation – if it had brought trading or other benefits, if it had caused only negligible difficulties and those of the teething variety – then that would probably have worked. Most referendum outcomes get more popular over time.

Zoe Williams is a Guardian columnist

Our shabby domestic reality is a far cry from the imperial grandeur of the Foreign Office. Politicians must recognise this

Deciding on what the UK’s place in the world should be has been like watching politicians spin a wheel. Then spinning it again when the option they landed on doesn’t work out. First, it was the imperial power projections of Brexit, the reassertion of Britain’s place in the world unshackled by the limitations of equal partnership with Europe. You don’t hear so much about this any more (funny that). Instead, we now find ourselves in an era chastened by the embarrassing bombast of the past few years, but still trying to work out where we “fit”, what our role is, in a world where the country’s status has taken a beating.

Earlier this month, former diplomats proposed that the Foreign Office be abolished altogether and be replaced by a new Department for International Affairs. As it stands, the Foreign Office works like “a giant private office for the foreign secretary” and should be replaced by a new independent institution, one “less rooted in the past”. The new body they propose would be a more modern place. The colonial art would go, and with it, other outdated ways of working and thinking about foreign policy.

Ideas of exceptionalism and ‘laissez-faire’ policies are still driving economic myths that should be stone dead

There were fateful choices in the autumn of 1931 and the months that followed whose consequences affect us today. The beliefs still current in British exceptionalism – attachment to laissez-faire economics and pursuit of the chimera of global Britain – have their roots in the choices made then, which became embedded in our culture, especially on the right.

Challenging what should be stone-dead myths and reinventing a conception of what Britain can and should be demands understanding our past, the better to escape it.

The foreign secretary’s actions are always ‘the right thing to do’. How marvellous!

Trotters up, or down? Even if you once admired Danny Dyer’s immortal summary of post-Brexit David Cameron – “He’s in Europe, in Nice, with his trotters up” – there’s a strong case for wishing he’d stayed that way.

When Cameron’s trotters were up, we were at least spared the surely more distressing spectacle of his trotters blithely ascending the moral high ground. When he was in Nice he wasn’t travelling the world and, with all the authority of a man who used to press the services of Lex Greensill on his former colleagues, educating it on his old speciality, “the right thing to do”.

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a letter of up to 250 words to be considered for publication, email it to us at observer.letters@observer.co.uk

Labour also turns down European Commission’s proposal, which would have allowed young Britons to live, study and work in EU

Rishi Sunak has rejected an EU offer to strike a post-Brexit deal to allow young Britons to live, study or work in the bloc for up to four years.

The prime minister declined the European Commission’s surprise proposal of a youth mobility scheme for people aged between 18 and 30 on Friday, after Labour knocked back the suggestion on Thursday night, while noting that it would “seek to improve the UK’s working relationship with the EU within our red lines”.

Trade bodies say ongoing confusion about when checks will come in is ‘incredibly challenging’

• UK to delay start of health and safety checks on EU imports

Businesses have described Britain’s Brexit border plans as being in “complete disarray” after it emerged the introduction of some checks on EU imports will be delayed.

Post-Brexit border rules, due to come into force on 30 April, will require many meat, dairy and plant products from the EU to be physically checked at government border control posts (BCPs).

New post-Brexit border checks ‘set to zero’ to avoid what Defra calls risk of serious disruption

The UK government has reportedly told port health authorities it will not “turn on” health and safety checks for EU imports as new post-Brexit border controls begin this month.

A presentation prepared by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) highlighted the risk of “significant disruption” if the new measures were implemented, according to the Financial Times. It made clear that the systems would not be fully ready on time.

Commission to seek approval from leaders to start talks with UK on visa-free exchanges for 18- to 30-year-olds

The European Commission has proposed opening negotiations with the UK to allow mobility enjoyed before Brexit to millions of 18- to 30-year-olds in a major concession.

It said it would now seek approval from individual EU leaders to start the talks, which could partly eliminate one of the most controversial elements of Brexit, a block on the right to live in one another’s countries, albeit for a limited period and with conditions.

Some shortages are so serious they are imperilling the health and even lives of patients with serious illnesses, pharmacy bosses say

Drug shortages are a “new normal” in the UK and are being exacerbated by Brexit, a report by the Nuffield Trust health thinktank has warned. A dramatic recent spike in the number of drugs that are unavailable has created serious problems for doctors, pharmacists, the NHS and patients, it found.

The number of warnings drug companies have issued about impending supply problems for certain products has more than doubled from 648 in 2020 to 1,634 last year.

The opposition is right to recognise that a dangerous international climate demands closer security partnership with the EU

For most of the period since the decision was taken to leave the EU, British politicians have overestimated how much thought the continent gives to Brexit. Once shock at the referendum result receded, relations with the UK came to be seen as a technical problem to be solved by hard-headed negotiation.

At critical moments, when deadlines neared, Brexit leapt up the agenda. After the treaties were signed, they dropped right down, overtaken by the other issues facing a large bloc with many borders and problems. That represents a perverse kind of victory for Boris Johnson and his chief negotiator, David Frost. The deal they signed was so skewed against British interests that Brussels has little incentive to reopen the settlement.

Party hopes to attend meetings of EU foreign affairs council should it win UK election

• David Lammy: Labour’s foreign policy will be realistic about us as a nation, not nostalgic about what we used to be

Labour wants to draw closer to Europe on key foreign and security issues by frequently attending meetings of the monthly EU foreign affairs council.

The move, which is likely to trigger Conservative claims that Labour is prepared to abandon an independent foreign policy, builds on a pledge by Keir Starmer’s party to try to negotiate a new security pact with the EU after the 2024 UK election.

British growers and sellers fear government measures starting on 30 April could result in delays and plants being damaged

Garden centres and nurseries are stockpiling plants before Brexit checks are introduced later this month, amid concerns over whether new border posts will be ready to deal with the volume of deliveries.

The Horticultural Trade Association (HTA), which represents garden retailers and growers, said many of its members had been increasing orders of plants in recent weeks, to increase stocks before the checks start on 30 April.

When I met the Dutch politician Geert Wilders years ago, he was set on ‘Nexit’. Now he too would rather stay in the EU

Exports are performing badly, pace the fantasy world of the Daily Express; supply lines for imports once regarded as routine are disrupted or discontinued altogether; staff shortages owing to new restrictions on travel and employment of our fellow Europeans are hurting the hospitality trade in what we used to boast about as our “service economy”. The UK’s economy is “5% worse off than it would be in the EU” according to a recent well-researched report by Goldman Sachs. Welcome to Brexit Britain!

In the early days of the Brexit disaster, I met Michel Barnier, the EU’s impressive negotiator, at a high-powered conference on Lake Como organised by the Ambrosetti Institute. We agreed what a disaster was in store if the UK did not come to its senses.

UK hospitality industry hit by crisis as thousands of young Italians are forced out by latest round of rules and cost-of-living crisis

Emanuela Reccia has lived in London for almost a decade. She was a teenager when she left her home city of Naples to become a waitress in the UK, bringing her expertise and love of Italian cuisine to the capital.

But the 27-year-old, like thousands of other Italians working in the UK hospitality industry, now feels she has no option but to leave and return to Europe after the latest round of post-Brexit rules.

Belated progress is being made towards a formal trade and border deal for the British overseas territory, in which 96% voted remain

These are difficult, despairing days on the Conservative backbenches. Almost certainly a dreadful set of local election results looms in May. Nationally, fears of a Labour landslide on the scale of 1997 grow. But last month, briefly, it was quite like old times as Brexit veterans Sir Bill Cash and Mark Francois indulged in an opportunity to play some favourite old tunes.

Rumours of an imminent deal with the European Union over the post-Brexit status of Gibraltar have permitted some satisfyingly retro talk of red lines crossed and sovereignty compromised. Following the successful negotiation of the Windsor framework for Northern Ireland, opportunities for this kind of stuff are now few and far between. In a House of Commons debate in March, Brexit chainmail clanking, Sir Bill took his chance, warning that aligning with EU rules, and allowing Schengen border checks on Gibraltar, would amount to caving in to a “foreign power”. A dangerous precedent would be set for other British overseas territories. “Here we go again,” lamented Mr Francois sympathetically.

As the chancellor prepares next week’s budget, Labour says it is staring at a dire inheritance. The voters look likely to agree

• The Conservatives’ economic record since 2010 in 10 charts

The past 14 years have been a white-knuckle ride for the British economy. Record low interest rates, money creation from the Bank of England on an industrial scale, Brexit, millions of workers furloughed during the pandemic, the biggest fall in output in at least a century – all that, and a record number of people inactive through long-term ill health. Boring it hasn’t been.

At the end of it all, there is a sense of deja vu as Jeremy Hunt puts the finishing touches to next week’s budget. When Liam Byrne departed the Treasury in 2010 he left a note – meant as a joke – for his successor as chief secretary, which said: “I’m afraid there is no money.” After almost a decade and a half of economic underperformance, Byrne’s words have come back to haunt the Tories.

Economists say George Osborne blundered when he imposed severe austerity measures on a still-fragile economy

Trade rules aim to alleviate DUP opposition to the Irish Sea border and restore power sharing

The government has established new rules to smooth post-Brexit trade between Great Britain and Northern Ireland. This is to assuage Democratic Unionist party concerns that the Irish Sea border has undermined the region’s position in the UK. In return for these concessions the DUP has agreed to restore power sharing after a two-year boycott that has paralysed the Stormont assembly and executive.

Today is first stage in a series of changes likely to raise costs for businesses and consumers

Today will bring the first stage in new, wide-ranging Brexit border controls on the import of plants, animals and food to the UK from the European Union.

The changes, the most significant for importers since the UK left the single market three years ago, are poised to have huge ramifications for businesses that rely on imports from the continent.

DUP approves post-Brexit legislation, meaning devolved government could soon be functioning again

• UK politics live – latest updates

Power-sharing in Northern Ireland is on the verge of being restored after a night of drama in Belfast. It would end an almost two-year power vacuum in the region after the Democratic Unionist party collapsed the Stormont government to protest against post-Brexit trading arrangements.

After talks with Canada hit a halt alongside those with US and India, the UK has limited Pacific agreements to show for Brexit

• UK suspends trade talks with Canada

Negotiations over a trade deal between the UK and Canada have been halted after disagreements on beef and cheese tariffs.

The ability for the UK to secure its own global free trade deals was sold as one major benefit from the UK’s decision to leave the EU but progress has been mixed. Here we look at what agreements have been struck so far and with whom, and which other important economies are still at the negotiating table and why.

The scale of the law changes means environmental legislation in the UK is facing death by a thousand cuts

• Brexit divergence from EU destroying UK’s environmental protections
• Northern Ireland ‘dirty corner of Europe due to lack of governance’

Although the UK’s regression from EU environmental standards, revealed by the Guardian, seems very technical, the scale of the law changes means environmental legislation in Britain is facing death by a thousand cuts.

In practice, changes by the EU that the UK is not following and planned divergences from EU law will mean toxic chemicals banned in the EU will be allowed to be used in the UK, the UK will reduce greenhouse gas emissions more slowly, its waters will be dirtier, and consumer products will be more likely to contribute to global deforestation.

Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer have clashed over the Rwanda asylum deal during PMQs. The Labour leader referred to the plan as a 'gimmick' while the prime minister declared Starmer was 'once again on the side of the people smugglers'. The pair also used Margaret Thatcher and Brexit to mock one another with Starmer questioning how the Conservative party went from 'up yours to laws to take our money Kagame'. Sunak said Starmer could role play Thatcher all he wanted but when it came to Europe his answer was the same, 'yes, yes, yes'

Trade has been hit by Brexit, while the number in poverty has risen sharply in a country ill-prepared for the future

• British workers missing out on £10,700 a year as living standards fall

For years the British government from the prime minister down has lacked a coherent economic strategy, according to a thinktank’s health check of UK prospects.

“We are not on course towards setting any such strategy – indeed, we are not serious about the task,” says the report, titled “Ending Stagnation – a new economic strategy for Britain”.

Kemi Badenoch, the business and trade secretary, has said that the problem raised by car manufacturers worried about exports to the EU facing tariffs from next year 'isn’t to do with Brexit'.

She made the comment during business questions in the Commons, where Jonathan Reynolds, the shadow business secretary, criticised her record since she has been in post.

The 'rules of origin' requirements raised by car manufacturers were part of the TCA and related to Brexit, but all European car manufacturers were having problems because there was not enough battery supply in Europe, she said

• UK politics: latest updates

The Labour leader, Keir Starmer, has said it 'feels wrong' that EU citizens who have lived in the UK for years and pay taxes here do not have the right to vote. Speaking to LBC on Monday, Starmer said: 'The thinking behind it is: if someone’s been here say 10, 20, 30 years, contributing to this economy, contributing to the community, they ought to be able to vote'

• Keir Starmer says it ‘feels wrong’ EU citizens living in UK can’t vote

• UK politics – live updates

The speaker of the House of Commons, Sir Lindsey Hoyle, lost his temper with Kemi Badenoch when the secretary of state failed to inform the house of the government's U-turn on repealing retained EU laws.

The government has decided to go ahead with plans to allow thousands of EU-inherited laws to expire by the end of the year, news that Badenoch released in a statement and to the Telegraph newpaper before making a statement in the House of Commons.

The business and trade secretary said she was sorry that the sequencing was not to the speaker's satisfaction, infuriating Hoyle further

• UK politics: latest updates

The US president said making sure the Good Friday agreement and the Windsor framework stay in place were the top priority of his trip to Northern Ireland. Speaking to reporters before boarding Air Force One, Joe Biden said 'making sure the Irish accords and the Windsor agreements stay in place, keep the peace, that's the main thing'.

Biden also addressed a question on the arrest of Evan Gershkovich by Russian authorities, calling his detention 'totally illegal'.

• Biden says keeping Good Friday and Windsor agreements in place are main priority as he flies to Belfast – UK politics live

Suella Braverman has denied Brexit is responsible for delays at the port of Dover after some passengers said they had been queueing for up to 14 hours to have their passports checked. Extra sailings were being put in place overnight with hopes of clearing the backlog by lunchtime on Sunday, after a critical incident was declared at the port on Friday. Speaking on Sky News’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday, the home secretary said operations at the French border had been 'very good' since Brexit

• Braverman denies Brexit to blame for Dover queues

UK foreign secretary James Cleverly met with Maroš Šefčovič, the European Commission vice-president, to agree to work 'intensively and faithfully' to implement the Windsor framework after formally adopting it. On behalf of the UK and EU, both counterparts agreed to accept the revised version of the Northern Ireland protocol. Prime minister Rishi Sunak's deal with the 27-nation bloc has rewritten the post-Brexit rules on Northern Ireland trade. Cleverly said that, after long negotiations, the two had finally found a way 'to move forward'

• Brexit: UK and EU formally agree Windsor framework for Northern Ireland – live

Rishi Sunak has won parliamentary backing for his revised post-Brexit trade arrangements in Northern Ireland despite hardline Conservative Brexiters voting against it. Among those who did not support the prime minister’s proposals were his two immediate predecessors, Liz Truss and Boris Johnson, members of the European Research Group as well as Democratic Unionist party MPs

• More Partygate evidence published as Boris Johnson prepares to face inquiry – UK politics live 
• Boris Johnson and Liz Truss to vote against Northern Ireland Brexit plan
• Northern Ireland voters back Windsor framework – poll

Conservative MP Mark Francois, who chairs the European Research Group, makes a statement to the press detailing its study of Rishi Sunak's Northern Ireland Brexit plan. Summarising the ERG's stance, Francois said  it had concluded the Stormont 'brake' was not effective and that the check-free 'green lane' for the bulk of goods moved between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK would not work as billed

• Hardline Tory MPs reject Sunak’s Northern Ireland Brexit plan

Speaking at the Global Soft Power summit in London, the ex-prime minister Boris Johnson said the Northern Ireland Brexit deal agreed by Sunak was 'not about the UK taking back control'. Johnson admitted he was at fault that the checks on the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland had become too 'onerous' but reiterated his call for the UK to be allowed to diverge with EU regulations and laws. He said: 'This is nothing if it is not a Brexit government, and Brexit is nothing if we in this country don’t do things differently' 

• UK politics live - latest updates

When the history of Brexit is written, the Lib Dems’ decision to let Johnson hold this election will be seen as a key strategic error.

The post Why we lost – and where we go from here appeared first on InFacts.

We can kick Johnson out. So brave the elements and vote for the candidates with the best chance of beating the Tories.

The post 7 reasons to vote Johnson out appeared first on InFacts.

Relying on the WTO for our trade was always a terrible idea. Now that the US president has ripped a hole in it, it’s economic suicide.

The post Trump sabotages Brexiters’ last-ditch safety net appeared first on InFacts.

Good news from YouGov poll is Tory lead is shrinking. Bad news is they are still ahead because too many pro-European votes are being wasted.

The post With a final tactical voting push, we can beat Johnson appeared first on InFacts.

A Tory victory means more chaos. The only way to end the arguments over Brexit and fix our real problems is to vote them out.

The post Johnson won’t stop the chaos – that’s just propaganda appeared first on InFacts.

Johnson yesterday hinted he would axe the licence fee. This had two purposes: cover up his NHS blunder and pummel the BBC into submission.

The post Tories bully BBC because it’s easily cowed appeared first on InFacts.

PM rips off Love Actually in his video but misses out the punch line: “Just because it’s Christmas and at Christmas you tell the truth.”

The post At Christmas you tell the truth, but not if you’re Johnson appeared first on InFacts.

Right-wing press has branded Corbyn unelectable. They are right - he is. Not for the reasons they suggest, but because of simple maths.

The post Don’t worry about voting tactically for Corbyn. He won’t win appeared first on InFacts.

To cover up Johnson’s NHS disaster, Tories fabricate story about Labour activist punching Hancock aide.

The post Tory “punch” propaganda backfires appeared first on InFacts.

Not only is Johnson lying about surrendering to the EU demand for an internal UK border, he isn’t ready to deliver a deal by December 2020.

The post Johnson’s dishonesty and disorganisation on Irish Sea border appeared first on InFacts.