Deal or no deal? Brexit looms large again as PM threatens to collapse trade talks

Brexit looms large again. After a general election being told about an ‘oven-ready’ deal, Boris Johnson is well on his way to collapsing that deal and the ongoing trade talks between Westminster and Brussels, according to the Financial Times this morning. The Prime Minister is set to give a statement today, in which he’ll say that there needs to be an agreement by the time of the European Council on October 15th – otherwise the UK will be prepared to “move on” without a deal. This comes alongside reports that the internal market bill to be published on Wednesday will override two key parts of the withdrawal agreement, signed just ten months ago, on state aid and Northern Ireland customs. The backlash has seen the PM condemned by MPs across the board for reneging on the international agreement. Shadow Northern Ireland Secretary Louise Haigh said it would be an “act of immense bad faith” and one that would be “viewed dimly by future trading partners”.

After a bit of a sluggish restart to parliament last week, this one is set to be much busier. Labour has said it will try to amend the government’s fire safety bill today, after it emerged that over 80% of private and nearly 50% of social housing with Grenfell-style flammable cladding has not had the dangerous material removed. The party’s proposals would force the government to implement the recommendations of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry’s phase one report, published in October 2019. The opposition has also declared it will bring a motion to require the publication of all official documents relating to the exam results chaos over the summer, following reports that the Prime Minister and Education Secretary were warned about the problems with the algorithm weeks or months in advance.

And it’s time for the Health Secretary to face the music in parliament today after almost 3,000 people in the UK tested positive for Covid-19 on Sunday, the highest total since May and a 50% increase in a single day. The government is hanging on to the fact that most of the new cases seem to be in younger people, but there is widespread concern that the government has simply “lost control of the virus“. Shadow Health Secretary Jonathan Ashworth said: “This increase, combined with the ongoing testing fiasco where ill people are told to drive for miles for tests, and the poor performance of the contact tracing system, needs an explanation from ministers.”  We can look forward to that later.

Extinction Rebellion had a busy weekend after a relatively quiet period. More than 100 demonstrators blockaded two printing presses on Friday, disrupting the distribution of papers owned by Rupert Murdoch. Labour’s reaction to the direct action has been mixed. Backbencher Dawn Butler initially tweeted “bravo… excellent work” before deleting the post two hours later. Former Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott defended the protests, saying the action was legal and describing reports that the group might be reclassified as a criminal organisation as “ridiculous”. However, Labour leader Keir Starmer has taken a different view, condemning the attack on the “free press” and arguing that “denying people the chance to read what they choose is wrong and does nothing to tackle climate change”.

Don’t miss out on our live event at 7pm today – LabourList editor Sienna Rodgers will be in conversation with Shadow Transport Secretary Jim McMahon. You can watch along here and please email us with questions for the frontbencher about his brief.