Winston Peters says he is 'very frustrated with lack of progress in talks
New Zealand has protested at the lack of progress in talks over a post-Brexit trade deal, insisting the UK is not “match-fit” for negotiations.
The country’s deputy prime minister, Winston Peters, said Britain’s four-decade long membership of the EU meant it was not ready to properly engage in talks once it was able to pursue independent agreements.
In a frank assessment of the state of any UK-New Zealand trading agreement, Mr Peters said he was “very frustrated” over the pace of talks, and claimed Theresa May’s government had allowed “inertia” to set in while focused on Brexit.
It follows a warning that Boris Johnson’s promise of lucrative post-Brexit trading partnerships is on course to fail due to years wasted unable to agree what Britain wants from its negotiations – giving the upper hand to countries the UK is in talks with.
Speaking to Times Radio, Mr Peters said: "We've had to look offshore for a long time and so we are seriously match-fit when it comes to that, in a way that I don't believe that the UK is, because the UK has been locked up in the EU all these years.
"And in terms of their trading skills and finesse and their firepower – without being critical – they've never had an outing lately.
"They've never had a test, so to speak. It's like coming into an Ashes contest when you haven't played for 30 years – it's the same thing in the UK when it comes to this."
He added: “Here we are out here in the South Pacific, ourselves and Australia, and we believe we're totally match-fit and ready to go.”
Ahead of a second round of trade talks with New Zealand in October after initial discussions last month, he also insisted:"We just need the British to realise that you can do more than one deal at a time."
His intervention follows an unlikely flashpoint in the UK-Japan trade talks, with negotiations reported to have hit a stumbling block of Stilton – after international trade secretary Liz Truss insisted on making blue cheese part of the talks.
UK set to lose right to transfer refugees to other EU countries under Dublin regulation
EU negotiators have rejected a British request for a migration pact that would allow the government to return asylum seekers to other European countries.
When the Brexit transition period expires on 31 December, the government will lose the right to transfer refugees and migrants to the EU country in which they arrived, a cornerstone of the European asylum system known as the Dublin regulation.
The government is seeking to replicate the European system outside the bloc, although the Home Office has complained that the EU rules are “rigid, inflexible and abused by migrants and activist lawyers”.
The Guardian has learned that EU member states have ruled out a British plan to recreate the Dublin system outside the EU.
Talks on a post-Brexit deal continue this week amid rising tensions between the UK and France following the death of a Sudanese teenager while attempting to cross the Channel in an inflatable dinghy.
A British plan presented to Brussels would allow the UK to return “all third-country nationals and stateless persons” who enter its territory without the right paperwork to the EU country they had travelled through to reach British shores.
The British government would have a reciprocal obligation to take in undocumented migrants arriving in the EU via the UK, excluding airport arrivals.
At a time when southern Europe has nearly 10 times more refugees and migrants arriving by sea, the UK plan has been described in Brussels as “very unbalanced” and “not good enough”.
More than 4,100 people have crossed the Channel in small boats so far this year, compared with 39,283 who traversed the Mediterranean to Italy, Greece, Spain, Cyprus and Malta. At the height of the migration crisis in 2015, more than a million people arrived on the continent’s southern shores.
“The assessment is that this is very much picking and choosing aspects of the current EU system,” a European diplomat said. An EU official said: “The proposal, from the EU perspective, isn’t very operational and doesn’t bring a lot of added value.”
European diplomats stress that the EU’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, has no power to negotiate a readmission agreement on migrants with the UK. The Frenchman’s negotiating mandate, laid down by 27 governments, makes vague proposals for cooperation and “regular dialogues” on managing the thousands of people fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East and Africa.
While the UK could strike a new bilateral agreement with France, one former EU lawmaker was sceptical about mini-deals with other EU countries. “It’s a non-runner,” said Claude Moraes, a British former MEP who has co-drafted EU asylum law and chaired the parliament’s justice and home affairs committee. “They [the EU] are very sensitive to the UK cherry-picking justice and home affairs policy.”
The Labour politician accused Boris Johnson of making political statements that did not match the reality of what the government is trying to negotiate. “Politically [the prime minister] is saying we are going to have UK legislation to take back control, but privately what they are going to have to do is replicate Dublin or have some sort of agreement with the EU.”
The UK immigration minister, Chris Philp, said after talks with French officials this month that Britain and France were working “at pace” on a new plan to deter people from crossing the Channel in small boats, but he provided few details.
The French interior ministry did not respond to questions on French objectives for any bilateral plans with the UK, or EU-wide policy.
A Home Office spokesperson said: “The Dublin III regulation is inflexible, rigid and is abused by both migrants and activist lawyers to frustrate the returns of those who have no right to be here. Whilst we are bound by Dublin for the duration of the transition period, the UK will be able to negotiate its own bilateral returns arrangements from the end of this year.”
Home Office figures show the UK returns few asylum seekers to other EU countries. In 2018 it transferred 209 people under the Dublin regulation, while accepting 1,215 migrants from the rest of Europe.
While Johnson has complained about the difficulty of returning asylum seekers to the EU, European nations are unsympathetic to a country on the north-western fringes that receives relatively few asylum applications.
In 2019, Germany registered 142,450 applications for asylum, France 119,915 and Greece 74,905, according to the European Asylum Support Office. The UK recorded 44,250 asylum requests.
Contingencies drawn up for 'no deal' Brexit
The Navy may be needed to prevent British fishermen clashing with European boats if a second coronavirus crisis coincides with a no-deal Brexit, according to a leaked government document.
The RAF could also be required to drop food on the Channel Islands, according to a Cabinet Office "reasonable worst-case scenario" paper seen by The Sun newspaper.
Troops may also have to be drafted on to the streets if the economic fallout triggers public unrest, shortages and price rises.
The EU warned last week that Brexit negotiations were going backwards and the UK was running out of time to prevent a ‘no deal’.
Cabinet office minister Michael Gove is said to be working flat out to prepare in case the UK leaves the EU without a future trade agreement.
The classified document, from July, also warns parts of the UK could face power and petrol shortages if a ‘no deal’ Brexit leaves thousands of lorries stranded in Dover.
The same problem could lead to medicine shortages which could cause animal diseases to spread.
The addition of floods and flu as well as another coronavirus wave could see hospitals overwhelmed.
A government spokeswoman said the document "reflects a responsible Government ensuring we are ready for all eventualities".
The government has warned the UK has to be braced for a potential second wave of Covid-19 this winter.
Mr Gove said the UK had to be ready “come what may”.
He said: "We got Brexit done with a great deal in January and we are working flat out to make sure the United Kingdom is ready for the changes and huge opportunities at the end of the year as we regain our political and economic independence for the first time in almost fifty years.
"Part of this work includes routine contingency planning for various scenarios that we do not think will happen, but we must be ready for come what may. Whether we trade with the EU on terms similar to Canada or to Australia, a brighter future awaits as we forge our own path."
The classified document, from July, also warns parts of the UK could face power and petrol shortages if a ‘no deal’ Brexit leaves thousands of lorries stranded in Dover.
The same problem could lead to medicine shortages which could cause animal diseases to spread.
The addition of floods and flu as well as another coronavirus wave could see hospitals overwhelmed.
A government spokeswoman said the document "reflects a responsible Government ensuring we are ready for all eventualities".
The government has warned the UK has to be braced for a potential second wave of Covid-19 this winter.
Mr Gove said the UK had to be ready “come what may”.
He said: "We got Brexit done with a great deal in January and we are working flat out to make sure the United Kingdom is ready for the changes and huge opportunities at the end of the year as we regain our political and economic independence for the first time in almost fifty years.
"Part of this work includes routine contingency planning for various scenarios that we do not think will happen, but we must be ready for come what may. Whether we trade with the EU on terms similar to Canada or to Australia, a brighter future awaits as we forge our own path."
Brussels laments ‘completely wasted’ summer as Berlin takes Brexit off agenda due to lack of ‘tangible progress’
Germany has scrapped plans to discuss Brexit at a high-level diplomatic meeting next week because there has not been “any tangible progress” in talks, the Guardian has learned, as Brussels laments a “completely wasted” summer.
EU officials now believe the UK government is prepared to risk a no-deal exit when the transition period comes to an end on 31 December, and will try to pin the blame on Brussels if talks fail.
The German government, which holds the rotating presidency of the EU council, had intended to discuss Brexit during a meeting of EU ambassadors on 2 September but has now dropped the issue. “Since there hasn’t been any tangible progress in EU-UK negotiations, the Brexit item was taken off the agenda,” an EU diplomat said.
The decision matters because Angela Merkel was billed as a potential dealmaker when talks on the UK-EU future relationship reach a crucial stage this autumn.
The German chancellor last week met Emmanuel Macron at the French president’s official residence on the French Riviera, where they discussed the EU’s post-Brexit future. Following last week’s inconclusive round of negotiations, both governments issued near-identical statements calling for “concrete answers” from the British government.
“Over the recent months Franco-German cooperation has gained new traction,” said the EU diplomat, with the two countries having “realigned” on issues including Brexit. “Given this new reality it would be futile to wait for a white knight from Paris or Berlin to come to the rescue.”
Sandro Gozi, an Italian MEP who sits in Macron’s party in the European parliament and was Italy’s Europe minister during the early phase of Brexit talks, said: “I doubt even Merkel or Macron would be able to transform a stalemate into a positive outcome.
“I have always thought – that is my personal position – that no-deal was a real option especially on London’s side … Every day that passes without concrete progress is a day closer to no-deal Brexit.”
Dropping Brexit from next week’s diplomatic agenda is a sign of deepening pessimism in Brussels. “People underestimate how bleak the mood is in the EU negotiation team,” said an EU official who added that time was running out to negotiate a complex legal treaty expected to exceed 400 pages.
“We have had the whole summer completely wasted, a cabinet that doesn’t understand how the negotiations work, a prime minister who, I think, doesn’t understand how the negotiations work – because he is under the wrong impression that he can pull off negotiating at the 11th hour.”
The EU’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, last week declared he was surprised by the UK “wasting valuable time” as Boris Johnson had told EU leaders in June that he wanted an outline deal by July.
The course said: “If they see it’s not going to work out they are just going to try and make it really acrimonious.”
A UK document leaked to the Sun on Sunday, warning of public disorder, shortages and price hikes in the event of a no-deal Brexit, was perceived in Brussels as a sign of the government’s seriousness about leaving the EU single market and customs union with no agreement.
“More and more people have come to the conclusion that Brexit ideology trumps Brexit pragmatism in the UK government,” the diplomat said. “If the UK really wanted to jump off the Brexit cliff for ideological reasons, there would be no way for the EU to stop this.” If the UK’s negotiating stance became “more pragmatic and realistic”, there was still a chance to save the talks, they added.
For the EU, “pragmatism” means accepting that tariff-free access to the single market necessitates common standards on environment, state aid, worker and consumer protection – a position rejected by the UK.
With talks set to resume on 7 September, EU sources are increasingly frustrated with the UK chief negotiator, David Frost. “The feeling is that David Frost acts more as a UK messenger then a UK negotiator. If he doesn’t get more negotiating space, talks will remain in dire straits,” said the EU diplomat.
British officials hit back, accusing the EU of slowing progress by insisting that all difficult issues had to be resolved in parallel. “The EU’s insistence that nothing can now progress until we have accepted EU positions on fisheries and state aid policy is a recipe for holding up the whole negotiation at a moment when time is short for both sides,” said a UK source close to negotiations.
“We are also faced with the EU’s frustrating insistence on parallelism, meaning that they will not progress areas apart from these ‘difficult’ ones until we have moved towards their position on them. That’s a sure way to hold up the negotiations. For our part we are ready to knuckle down and get into the detailed discussions of legal texts which is what is needed now. We hope the EU will do likewise.”
Johnson is understood to have full confidence in Frost and the UK negotiating team.
Campaign launched for government to give EU citizens physical proof of right of residence
EU citizens have launched a campaign for the government to give them physical proof of their right to remain in Britain after Brexit – amid fears that they could be locked out of homes, jobs and healthcare by technical problems.
The Independent reported this week on how the Brexit settlement scheme's "digital-only" design is already causing problems for EU nationals, some of whom are already being held up in airports and facing delays in moving house.
But campaigners worry that the scheme's flaws could have even more serious consequences, denying EU citizens living in Britain their rights to homes, jobs, and healthcare – all of which require them to prove their right to live in the UK.
Under the scheme, EU nationals are not given an ID card or other document as proof of residence once they are accepted, but have to rely on an online system. They say that if the system were ever to go down or suffer from technical glitches, they would be unable to do simple things such as open a bank account, take a job, or return home after a holiday.
The "Access Denied" campaign, launched by EU citizens' campaign group the3million, is calling for the government to give EU citizens physical documentation to avoid problems. They say provisions could be made for the modified system in the forthcoming immigration bill set to go through parliament later this year.
The government digital service's own assessment of the policy concluded that there was “very strong evidence” that digital-only proof would cause “a lot of issues”, but ministers pressed ahead with the plan for a digital-only approach anyway.
The Home Office now says the government will be eventually shifting all migrants towards digital-only documentation and a spokesperson noted that physical proof can be lost or expire – though campaigners are calling for cards in addition to their digital proof.
Speaking at a virtually rally to launch the campaign on Thursday evening, one EU national, named Paula, told attendees that she had already effectively disappeared from the system after having been granted pre-settled status.
"I logged onto the system and there was nothing there. They had absolutely no record of me every applying, so I had to do the whole process again from the beginning," she said.
"I have settled status now, hopefully it's still online, but you never know... if I'd had to officially prove my status that first time I wouldn't have been able to do that, because there was absolutely no record of me on the system.
"But if I'd had a card, for example, I could have taken it out of my wallet, shown it, and be on my way. Technology breaks, it fails, but a physical proof of identity is always in your wallet. We need to to avoid situations like what I had."
Maike Bohn of the campaign group the3milllion, said a large group of UK residents were "about to become the guinea pigs in a digital-only experiment".
"A lot can go wrong for them: from system outages, lack of digital literacy, and broadband to others’ willingness to engage with this digital check. The new system has many moving parts, if any one of them fails, the whole fails," she said.
"Few of us have experienced the anxiety of not having access to something that proves our fundamental right to have healthcare, work or rent a flat. Millions of people could be in this situation from 2021 if the government doesn’t change course."
Ms Bohn said the government should adapt the regulations to include a physical ID card using its immigration bill, which is set to go through parliament when MPs return from recess.
She added: "Too much is at stake right now for EU citizens. Used as digital guinea pigs at a time when many of them feel worried, insecure and lacking in trust, we need to give those who want it physical proof of their right to live and work in the UK. A safety net when digital fails."
A Home Office spokesperson said: “Physical documents expire, become invalid, or can be lost, stolen or tampered with. A digital status ensures that EU citizens who are granted status in the UK can constantly access and securely share proof of their status. We intend to develop our digital services to mean that all migrants, not just EU citizens, will be provided with digital status only over time.
“We already provide a telephone helpline for landlords and employers to provide guidance on conducting right to work and right to rent checks, and we’re developing an extensive package of communications to ensure individuals, employers, landlords and other third parties are fully aware of the move to digital.
“Our services are highly resilient, and we have ensured customer data is backed up across multiple data centres – therefore if one fails, another will take over so we will always have continuity of service.”
Bloc sources say Britain is trying to water down EU geographical protections
The UK government has renewed its attempt to reopen the chapter of the Brexit divorce treaty protecting specialty food and drink, such as Parma ham, roquefort cheese and champagne, in a move that left the EU chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, “a little bit flabbergasted”.
The British proposal on protected status for food and drink was included in a draft free-trade agreement handed to Barnier by his opposite number, David Frost, last week, according to two EU sources.
But EU officials have ruled out diluting the divorce deal provisions that protect more than 3,000 high-end food and drink products from copycats. “It’s just not going to happen,” said one official.
The withdrawal agreement signed between Boris Johnson and EU leaders last October preserves the status of food and drink protected under the EU’s geographical indications (GI) policy. A top priority for EU trade negotiators, these rules bar English or Spanish vintners from calling their sparkling wine champagne, for example, while only crumbly cheese from Greece can be labelled feta. Under the withdrawal treaty, the protection applies “unless and until” a new deal can be negotiated.
According to EU sources, the UK is attempting to water down protection for EU geographical indications, while keeping the special status for British produce, such as Scotch whisky, Melton Mowbray pork pies and Cornish pasties.
The return of the proposal, floated in the early stages of trade talks last spring, caused astonishment. “The asymmetry was met with open mouths. Why would you even suggest that in a serious negotiation?” said the EU source. Barnier was “a little bit flabbergasted”, the person added.
The government disputes the EU description of its proposal and argues Barnier is making unprecedented demands to tie Britain to European standards – demands, it says, not made on other trade partners such as Canada or Japan.
A UK government official said the British proposal on specialty foods was “in line with the withdrawal agreement” and would provide protection for existing and future GIs for both sides “as is standard” across the EU’s free-trade agreements. “The UK proposal would allow existing EU GIs that meet the requirements of the UK’s new domestic regime to be protected in the UK,” the official said.
British negotiators argue they signed up to the food provisions in the withdrawal treaty in the expectation they would be superseded by a future deal.
Frost, a former chief executive of the Scotch Whisky Association, which campaigns to stop foreign rivals using the name “Scotch”, included the GI proposal in a draft trade agreement he hoped would inject new momentum into the stalled negotiations.
But the British “consolidated text” has gone down badly in Brussels. In trade negotiations, usually both sides work out a consolidated text once they have agreed on general principles. The British text is said to incorporate wording on which both sides agree, but also highlights areas of disagreement.
One EU diplomat, who had not seen the text, said it was “not very useful because it focused mainly on offensive issues for the UK”, meaning issues where the government is seeking an advantage.
The UK has not said if it plans to publish the text sent to Barnier.
Sandro Gozi, an Italian MEP elected on the ticket of the French centrist party La République En Marche, cast doubt on whether the UK intended to unwind the protected food provisions of the withdrawal agreement. “If it was real, from a French or an Italian perspective, we cannot go back on geographical indications. Geographical indications are the priority No 1 of any new trade agreement for the EU.”
Brussels negotiators are warning only a few weeks remain to seal a deal before the EU deadline of late October. “The next negotiation round in September will be crucial,” said a second EU diplomat. “If it ends without any progress as well, the window to close a deal will close quickly. Time would simply be running out.”
The EU has said it needs around two months to legally fine-tune and ratify a treaty before the end of the transition period on 31 December.
Downing Street has played down the prospect of reaching a trade deal with the EU in time for December, saying it will be “very difficult” – and blaming Brussels’ insistence on tackling tough issues upfront.
The UK’s chief negotiator, David Frost, is meeting his EU counterpart Michel Barnier in London, in advance of the next round of formal talks next week.
But with the clock ticking to 31 December, when the status quo transition is due to end, Boris Johnson’s official spokesman conceded that hopes are dwindling of a deal.
“The EU continues to insist that we must agree on difficult areas in the negotiations,, such as EU state aid, before any further work can be done in any other area of the negotiations, including on legal texts, and that makes it very difficult to make progress,” the spokesman said.
“We would instead like to settle the simplest issues first, in order to build momentum in the talks, as time is short for both sides.”
The EU has consistently said it wants to see the contentious issues of fisheries policy and state aid settled up front.
Johnson’s government is reluctant to cede any control over state aide policy, boasting during last year’s election campaign that one benefit of Brexit would be that the government could intervene more readily in struggling UK businesses.
The prime minister’s spokesman underlined that message on Tuesday, saying: “We’ll set out further detail of our domestic regime in due course. After the transition period, the UK will have its own regime of subsidy control, and will not be subject to the EU’s state aid regime. We have been very clear about that throughout.”
He added: “The UK’s future subsidy arrangements are a matter for the British people and parliament, not the European Union.”
Brussels regards state aid constraints as a key aspect of ensuring a level playing field, so that UK businesses cannot unfairly undercut their EU counterparts.
With an EU council expected to be held in October to finalise any free trade agreement, time is running short.
During last year’s fraught negotiations over the EU withdrawal agreement, formalising the UK’s exit terms, Johnson made significant last minute concessions – effectively allowing a border in the Irish sea – to get his “oven-ready” deal done.
But he is under pressure from Brexit-backing Conservative MPs not to make fresh compromises now – and even to repudiate some aspects of the withdrawal agreement.
One potential solution to the negotiating impasse that has previously been mooted is a series of separate deals on different issues – financial services, fisheries and so on.
But a senior UK official close to talks has previously revealed that the EU is not keen on a “Switzerland style suite of agreements,” in reference to the 100-plus bilateral deals the country has with Brussels, as it “would be too complicated to manage for them”.
The EU is also keen to have an over-arching deal on governance and dispute resolution.
France’s EU affairs minister, Clément Beaune, warned that no deal was a risk, but blamed the British government for the impasse. “Things are not advancing because the UK would like to have its cake and eat it: to leave the European Union and have access to the European market.”
Speaking on French r, he said the EU would not compromise on linking market access to respect for its rules on health and the environment. The EU has said the UK can only have tariff-free, quota-free access to the European market if it agrees to respect European standards on environment, workers’ rights and state aid for companies.
EU officials dismissed reports that Barnier was refusing to discuss British proposals on a future fisheries treaty.
“The UK has not presented new legal texts in the area of fisheries,” a spokesman for Barnier said. “We have been engaging constructively and in good faith. Michel Barnier said at the end of the last round of negotiations that we have shown flexibility by taking note of Prime Minister Johnson’s three red lines and working on them. We have not seen, however, a reciprocal effort on the UK’s side regarding European priorities. We are now waiting for the UK to present concrete and constructive proposals.”
The EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, has said he is “worried and disappointed” over the UK’s approach to the talks, fuelling fears that the UK will leave the bloc in January without a deal.
He said there was no breakthrough at a meeting on Tuesday with the UK’s negotiator, David Frost. “We didn’t see any change in the position of the UK, which is why I expressed publicly what I say, that I am worried and I am disappointed because, frankly speaking, we have moved, [and] shown in many issues real openness in the past months,” Barnier told the Institute of International and European Affairs in Dublin.
He said the EU had recognised the UK’s red lines on fair competition, fisheries and governance, including the European court of justice, and was willing to compromise, but the UK was refusing to put proposals on the table on state aid or fisheries. “On all these issues, the UK sides continue to disappoint,” he said.
Talks about 11 subject areas that will determine post-Brexit trade and the UK’s future relationship with the EU have been going on since March. Last week EU insiders described the talks as a “whole summer completely wasted”.
Barnier said he was more a realist than an optimist and was convinced Boris Johnson would not allow the UK to crash out. “I continue to think, despite the current difficulties, that Boris Johnson wants an agreement with the EU,” he said.
But he added more than once that this would not be at any cost. “The EU will not sacrifice its principles for the sole benefit of the UK.”
Attempts to get the UK’s borders ready for trade after Brexit is completed on 1 January are “unmanageable”, according to a leaked government document.
The memo warns of “critical gaps” in new IT systems – and asks hauliers and other industry groups for help to avoid chaos when the Brexit transition period expires in just four months’ time.
Circulated by the Cabinet Office, it lists 13 key risks to be flagged to ministers, according to Bloomberg which obtained it, including a lack of back-up planning and inadequate time to prepare.
The crisis looms regardless of whether the UK avoids crashing out without a trade deal, because even an agreement will end the current free flow of goods with the EU.
Logistics UK, which represents freight groups, accused the government of ignoring its repeated warnings that a new ‘Smart Freight’ system – needed by all exporters to the EU – will not be ready.
Ministers have already admitted to up to 10 months of border disruption, with emergency traffic control measures in Kent to last until “the end of October 2021”.
Now the leaked document, penned by an official in the Border and Protocol Delivery Group, has laid bare the problems ahead when the UK leaves the single market and customs union.
“There are up to 10 new systems that haulage firms and freight forwarders will have to navigate from Jan 1, including at least three being designed now,” the memo says.
“This is completely unnecessary and unmanageable with duplication and overlap.”
Sarah Laouadi, European policy manager at Logistics UK, said: “We are concerned that mass user testing of the software will not be possible until October – or maybe even November.
“This is far too late for the thousands of companies and tens of thousands of people who build our complex supply chains to redesign their own processes and contractual relations before the transition period ends.”
A series of giant lorry parks are being built to house trucks travelling to the EU from the UK which are likely to be held up at ports, lacking key documents, or turned away by EU border staff.
Lorries risk “having their goods seized or destroyed”, the earlier government report admitted, with hauliers lacking a required ‘Kent access permit’ to be fined £300.
As many as 10,000 trucks a day pass through Dover and other ports, delivering goods fresh food, medicines and industrial goods such as automotive parts.
About four-fifths of the food reaching UK supermarkets import comes from the EU, according to the British Retail Consortium.
A government spokesperson did not dispute the existence of the document, but pointed to £705m being spent on “infrastructure and technology at the border”.
“The border operating model sets out in significant detail the approach to UK border controls after the transition period,” the spokesperson said.
“We worked closely with industry in its development and will continue to do so as we move towards the end of the transition period.”
Excessive secrecy about the government’s Brexit negotiating objectives and a failure to get to grips with the scale of the challenge hindered preparations for the UK’s exit from the EU, according to Whitehall’s spending watchdog.
Departments issued non-disclosure agreements when discussing plans that were meant to inform the public and the business community, the National Audit Office said. More than 22,000 workers were deployed across Whitehall departments on the preparations, which cost £4.4bn.
The findings have emerged in a study that drew up lessons to be learned from the government’s attempts to ready the country for Brexit following the 2016 referendum.
The 23-page report said the secrecy maintained by the Department for Exiting the European Union (DExEU), which was disbanded after the UK left the trade bloc on 31 January and entered a transition period, did not aid cross-government working.
“DExEU kept a tight hold on communications, keeping secret anything which might pertain to the UK’s negotiating position,” the report said.
“This instinct for secrecy in government can get in the way of effective coordination, collaboration and a sense of urgency in progressing towards a common goal.”
Both the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and the Department for Transport asked third parties to sign non-disclosure agreements when discussing technical notices that were designed to inform businesses and stakeholders about steps they may need to take in the event of a no-deal scenario.
“The non-disclosure agreements undermined transparency and hampered the spread of information to the business community at large,” the report said.
Staffing proved a particular issue for a political and economic event that impacted almost every strand of government, auditors found.
“Staff turnover in EU exit roles, and particularly in DExEU itself, was higher than for the civil service in general. The problem was particularly acute at more senior grades. In its less than four years in existence, DExEU had three permanent secretaries.
“Other departments most affected by (the) EU exit have also seen changes at permanent secretary level, including Defra and HMRC.”
Traders fear flow of food and vital medicines will be disrupted after January 1 - even as UK may be hit by second spike of Covid infections
Up to a further 29 lorry parks will be built across England to cope with border trading chaos after Brexit, under emergency government powers.
Local residents will have no say over the construction of the sites – needed because of growing fears that truck drivers will face long delays to enter the EU, or be turned away altogether.
Some are in inland areas – Leicestershire, Warwickshire and Solihull – as well as in coastal trading hotspots including Kent, Essex, Yorkshire and Lincolnshire.
The move, quietly revealed after MPs left Westminster on Thursday, comes after a leaked government document described the current border preparation plans as “unmanageable”.
Haulage bosses – including the Road Haulage Association – have demanded an urgent meeting with ministers over a blizzard of new IT systems and a lack of training for promised customs agents.
The crisis looms regardless of whether the UK avoids crashing out without a trade deal, because even an agreement will end the current free-flow of goods with the EU.
Traders fear the flow of food and vital medicines will be disrupted, even as the UK risks a second spike of Covid infections when the Brexit transition period expires on 1 January.
The regulation triggering the order acknowledges that attempts by ports to cope with the vast new red tape have been hit by the coronavirus pandemic.
“The government is aware that the impact of coronavirus may have affected the ability of port operators and businesses to provide the necessary infrastructure by the end of the year,” it reads.
Until now, the only new lorry park identified was a 27-acre site being built in Kent, to handle what has been condemned as “a vast customs bureaucracy, with costs passed on to the consumer”.
Ministers have already admitted to up to 10 months of border disruption, with emergency traffic control measures in Kent to last until “the end of October 2021”.
As many as 10,000 trucks a day pass through Dover and other ports and about four-fifths of the food reaching UK supermarkets import comes from the EU, according to the British Retail Consortium.
David Frost says the country is fully ready for Australia-style agreement with the EU
The UK’s chief negotiator has said the government is not scared of walking away from talks with the European Union without a deal and vowed not to blink in the final phase.
David Frost is due to hold another round of key negotiations in London with his counterpart, Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief negotiator, next week as they look to agree a trade deal before autumn sets in.
In a bullish interview with the Mail on Sunday (MoS), the prime minister’s Europe sherpa said the UK was preparing to leave the transition period “come what may” – even if that meant exiting with no deal, which officials have dubbed an “Australian-style” arrangement.
Informal talks this week between Barnier and Lord Frost failed to find a breakthrough before the eighth round of formal negotiations, which begin on Monday.
[...]
Frost told the newspaper the UK would not agree to being a “client state” to the EU and said Theresa May’s administration had allowed Brussels to believe there could be an 11th-hour concession on a trade deal.
He said: “We came in after a government and negotiating team that had blinked and had its bluff called at critical moments and the EU had learned not to take our word seriously.
“So a lot of what we are trying to do this year is to get them to realise that we mean what we say and they should take our position seriously.”
The former diplomat, who is soon to add national security adviser to his portfolio, continued: “We are not going to be a client state. We are not going to compromise on the fundamentals of having control over our own laws.”
He ruled out accepting level playing field terms that “lock us into the way the EU do things” and argued that wanting control over the country’s money and affairs “should not be controversial”.
“That’s what being an independent country is about, that’s what the British people voted for and that’s what will happen at the end of the year, come what may,” Frost added.
The MoS reported that Downing Street has created a transition hub, with handpicked officials across government departments working to ensure the UK is ready to trade without a deal when the transition period ceases on 1 January 2021.
The unit will work with the Cabinet Office minister, Michael Gove, who has led the government’s work on no-deal preparations since last year.
“Obviously, lots of preparation was done last year, we are ramping up again and have been for some time under Michael Gove’s authority,” Frost said.
“I don’t think that we are scared of this at all. We want to get back the powers to control our borders and that is the most important thing.
“If we can reach an agreement that regulates trade like Canada’s, great. If we can’t, it will be an Australian-like trading agreement and we are fully ready for that.”
His comments came as the EU sought to dismiss a report in the Telegraph that Barnier would be “sidelined” before the talks were over so European leaders could thrash out a deal before the deadline.
But bloc spokesman Sebastian Fischer tweeted on Saturday: “Whoever wants to engage with the EU on Brexit needs to engage with Michel Barnier.
“He is the EU’s Brexit chief negotiator and enjoys the full trust, support and confidence of the EU 27. He has a proven track record of leading successful Brexit negotiations on behalf of the EU.”
A no-deal in Brexit talks could be on its way, driven by emotional and nationalism on the British side, Ireland's foreign minister has warned.
Simon Coveney, a veteran of Brexit talks, said he feared a both sides would fail to reach an agreement, especially given a trade deal with the UK was relatively low priority for the EU side compared to other issues post-Covid.
"Nobody wants to be paying tariffs or having unnecessary disruption to trade between the EU and the UK. But I do think that the way in which the British political system deals with Brexit is incredibly inward-looking," Mr Coveney told the Irish Sunday Independent.
"It's focused on British politics, it's driven by pride, emotion, nationalism, as opposed to the detail of what's required to get a trade deal and the compromises that are required to do that."
The foreign minister said some people in the UK were indulging in a "fantasy" that a trade deal was more important to Europe than the UK, adding that "the idea that actually a trade deal with the UK is going to be No.1 or No.2 or No.3 or No.4 on the priority list for the EU, in my view, is very unlikely".
He said other issues like finalising the EU's own budget, reforming the Common Agricultural Policy, migration, and the coronavirus economic recovery would take precedence.
... ... ...
Britain will walk out of Brexit talks if there is no deal agreed by the middle of October, Boris Johnson has announced — raising the chance that the UK will crash out of the single market with nothing to replace it.
Speaking ahead of yet another round of negotiations in London, the prime minister said there was “no sense in thinking about timelines that go beyond” a planned EU summit on 15 October because any further delay would mean an agreement was not in place by the end of the year.
“If we can’t agree by then, then I do not see that there will be a free trade agreement between us, and we should both accept that and move on,” Mr Johnson said — in his first major Brexit intervention since the start of negotiations in the spring.
[...]
Mr Johnson claimed that a no-deal would be a “good outcome” for the UK and said the government was “preparing, at our borders and at our ports, to be ready for it” — despite a warning from the freight industry that the UK risked border chaos.
But he raised the prospect of so-called "side deals” that could potentially smooth over some of the worst immediate economic consequences of a no-deal.
“We will of course always be ready to talk to our EU friends even in these circumstances,” he said.
“We will be ready to find sensible accommodations on practical issues such as flights, lorry transport, or scientific cooperation, if the EU wants to do that. Our door will never be closed and we will trade as friends and partners — but without a free trade agreement.
“There is still an agreement to be had. We will continue to work hard in September to achieve it. It is one based on our reasonable proposal for a standard free trade agreement like the one the EU has agreed with Canada and so many others.
“Even at this late stage, if the EU are ready to rethink their current positions and agree this I will be delighted. But we cannot and will not compromise on the fundamentals of what it means to be an independent country to get it.”
The government will introduce a new law that could change post-Brexit customs plans with the EU - but No 10 denied it would "tear up" the existing treaty.
The two sides agreed in 2019 on the terms of the UK's exit, including on future trade in Northern Ireland.
Reports suggested a new law could "override" the legal force of that deal - the withdrawal agreement.
But Downing Street said it would only make "minor clarifications in extremely specific areas".
No 10 confirmed the new UK Internal Market Bill will be published on Wednesday.
The EU said the "full implementation" of the withdrawal agreement was a "prerequisite for the negotiations on the future partnership" between the bloc and the UK.
The news comes at the start of another week of negotiations on that future trade deal.
The so-called transition period - which has been in place since the UK left the EU in January - will end on 31 December and the two sides are trying to secure an agreement to take its place.
But Boris Johnson said if a deal was not reached by 15 October, both sides should "move on" - meaning the UK would go on to trade with the bloc on international trading terms.
Labour's shadow Northern Ireland secretary, Louise Haigh, said if the moves were a negotiating tactics, they were not "very effective", adding: "It undermines all the progress that's been made over the last several months and completely jeopardises a future trading relationship".
