Brexit. Why do Brits want Out of the EU?

Spain and Gibraltar are planning a last-minute bilateral Brexit deal aimed at making Brexit less damaging for their citizens when the transition period ends on 31 Decemb

The proposed agreement, which would not directly address the vexed question of sovereignty, would aim to preserve free movement across the Gibraltan border, the Financial Times reports.

Arancha González, Spain’s foreign minister, told the newspaper that an agreement could make the coming changes "simpler" and "less costly".

Gibraltar and neighbouring areas of Spain are set to face serious disruption to their current settlement when the UK and its territories leave the single market and customs union at end of the year.

Brexit negotiations have hit their most difficult stage, with Brussels still unsure whether a deal with Boris Johnson is possible within the next two crucial weeks, the European council president, Charles Michel, has said.

The former prime minister of Belgium, who leads the summit of EU leaders, said in an interview with the Guardian that the result still was still hanging in the balance with what he suggested was a further fortnight of talks to come.

The EU’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, is expected to stay with his team in Westminster until Thursday, after which the troubled negotiations are due to resume in the Belgian capital.

Both sides are seeking to keep outside commentary on the negotiation to a minimum in a sign that the talks have effectively entered a so-called “tunnel” or “submarine” phase, where the negotiators seek to hash out the final details away from the glare of the media and domestic political stakeholders.

But Michel said Barnier was still maintaining a flow of intelligence to the member states, in preparation for a deal being struck and ratified. He conceded that it was as yet too early to say whether there would be a successful outcome from the final decisive phase.

“In my opinion it’s very clear that it is necessary to work seriously, [which is] what we are trying to do, with full trust for Michel Barnier and his team, and we will assess in the next days or in the next weeks, when we consider it is time to assess, what is the result of the talks that are ongoing.” Michel said.

“We all know that in all negotiations, the last and final decisions are the most difficult. Will we get a deal? I don’t know, it will depend on what will be on the table. But we are working in order to make sure all member states are well informed, are involved in the process in order to make sure there is confidence – which is key in order to able to decide.”

The outstanding issues in the trade and security talks remain the level of access to British waters provided to foreign fishing fleets, fair competition rules for business, including rules on domestic subsidies, and mechanisms in the final treaty for resolving future disputes.

“It is not a surprise. You know what are the most difficult topics, and we are working to try to find solutions on the most difficult topics,” Michel said. “It’s not possible for me to assess what will happen in the next days or in the next two weeks.”

EU sources have suggested that mid-November is now the absolute deadline for a deal in order for there to be time for parliamentary ratification on both sides of the Channel.

Michel was speaking to a group of European newspapers before a videoconference meeting of EU leaders on Thursday where the 27 heads of state and government will seek to further coordinate their efforts in tackling the coronavirus pandemic.

Michel said there needed to be a unified approach to both the use of rapid testing kits and the rollout of a vaccine. He said he expected at least one of the vaccines currently under trial to be available by the end of the year, albeit there could be no certainty.

“We need to speak the truth,” Michel said. “The current situation in Europe is serious and bad. That’s why we need to act and it is urgent … I remember that before the summer we thought there was a risk, without certainty, that we would face the second wave after the summer. And now, no doubt, there is a second wave, [a] strong second wave.”

Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove said the UK won’t back down on its demands over fisheries – the main stumbling block to a Brexit trade deal. He told the Welsh Brexit minister that Britain could “no longer be bound by the Common Fisheries Policy”.

Elsewhere, Spain and Gibraltar are seeking to reach a last-minute side deal to avoid having a hard border after Brexit – but have stumbled on “a lack of political will” in London, a Spanish diplomatic source has said.

It comes as Ireland’s foreign minister Simon Coveney claimed that a trade deal is now “likely” in the next two weeks, but also warned that major trade disruption would be the “new reality” from 1 January, even if a UK-EU deal is struck.

Robert “Woody” Johnson, the US ambassador to the UK, has claimed that a post-Brexit, transatlantic deal will happen regardless of whether Donald Trump or Joe Biden wins the presidency. “I’m confident our countries can get this done no matter what happens today.”

It comes as Germany’s central bank claims the country is the most popular destination for banks quitting London because of Brexit. Bundesbank said they expected the UK’s exit would mean institutions moving £610bn in assets and create 2,500 jobs in Germany.

Elsewhere, Brexit trade negotiators Michel Barnier and David Frost have reportedly failed to reach agreements on three big issues – fisheries, level playing field issues and a mechanism for settling disputes. EU sources said the two sides remain “stuck” over fishing quotas.
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An update now on the passing of EU Commission’s deadline for Boris Johnson to explain why he is planning to break international law with his Internal Market Bill.

Asked why UK hadn’t responded to the EU’s formal letter, a government spokesperson said: “We are committed to working through the Joint Committee process to find a satisfactory outcome for both sides.

“That is our overriding priority. We will respond to the next stages of this process in due course, as required.”

Meanwhile, a European Commission spokesman said on Tuesday that Britain had failed to reply and that the Commission would therefore now consider the next step in the legal dispute which is a reasoned opinion.
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Police are scrambling to save the vital details of suspected criminals and missing people in case a vital database is “switched off” by a no-deal Brexit.

Thousands of names are being hurriedly “double keyed” into the Interpol system, amid fears the UK will lose all access to the Schengen Information System (SIS II) if there’s no agreement with the EU by the end of 2020.

Richard Martin, the deputy assistant commissioner at the Met in charge of Brexit preparations, warned of the “massive impact” on policing of a no-deal.

And, on SIS II, he revealed: “We are either not in it not in it, for want of a better word –there is no sort of halfway house.”

“We’re putting the most important alerts that we have on SIS also onto the Interpol system, so that – if it is literally switched off at 2300 hours on the 31st – then policing will still have access to those alerts that we consider to be the most important,” he has just told a parliamentary inquiry.

Spending watchdog claims ports and businesses are not ready for 1 January, with Northern Ireland a big concern.

Billions of pounds worth of trade with the European Union will face “significant disruption” on 1 January, regardless of whether a trade deal is agreed, Whitehall’s spending watchdog has concluded.

The National Audit Office (NAO) said crucial IT systems have yet to be tested and transit areas for lorries are not ready as the government attempts to prepare new border controls for the end of the Brexit transition period. The planned controls, which had already been rated “high risk”, have been further hampered by the coronavirus pandemic, according to a report released today.

Officials have still not taken the steps required to ensure there were enough customs agents, auditors said, while civil contingency plans to maintain the supply of medicines and acquire extra freight capacity away from the main Channel crossings have been difficult to enact due to Covid-19.

Meg Hillier, the chair of the public accounts committee, said the government has not given businesses enough time to prepare, particularly when it comes to preparations for Northern Ireland after the end of the transition period.
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Auditors said the government had left itself little time to mobilise its new trader support service, which will help businesses moving goods between Great Britain and Northern Ireland. This meant there was a “high risk” traders would still not be ready when the new arrangements take effect.
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The NAO said while arrangements were being developed to minimise delays, these depended on new technology and would require the engagement of both trades and hauliers. There is little time left for ports to integrate their systems and processes with new government systems, and they may have to fall back on “manual processes”, it said.

Ministers have delayed the imposition of full import controls on goods coming from the EU until July 2021. Auditors said there was still uncertainty over where the infrastructure would be located and whether it would be ready in time.

HMRC still needs to make significant changes to its customs systems to handle the increase in customs declarations, the report said, even though it had known this was likely to be necessary since planning for a no-deal Brexit began in 2017.

Gareth Davies, the head of the NAO, said: “The 1 January deadline is unlike any previous EU exit deadline – significant changes at the border will take place and government must be ready.

“Disruption is likely and government will need to respond quickly to minimise the impact, a situation made all the more challenging by the Covid-19 pandemic.”
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Taxes cut on birds’ eggs, raw hides, fur skins and ultra-strong spirits - but UK does not export them anyway

Liz Truss has been accused of misleading MPs and the public over her new Japan trade deal, because all the tariff “wins” are for goods the UK does not export to the country anyway.

Just 10 of 9,444 products will enjoy lower taxes, experts say, a list of obscure items such as birds’ eggs, raw hides, fur skins, handbags and ultra-strong spirits of at least 90 per cent alcohol.

Crucially, none of the 10 have been sold to Japan for at least three years – which means the gain to British exporters is “zero”, the study has found.

Yet Ms Truss claimed the “historic” Japan deal had achieved “strong tariff reductions on key agricultural products like pork, beef and salmon [that] will benefit farmers and food exporters”.

The reality was that “the UK has been sailing into the wind throughout the negotiations to get back to its starting point,” said Professor Alan Winters, director of the UK Trade Policy Observatory (UKTPO) at the University of Sussex.


Emily Thornberry, Labour’s shadow trade secretary, called on Ms Truss to be “straight with parliament and the British people” about the implications of the agreement for British exporters.

“Liz Truss has repeatedly claimed that her deal with Japan goes “far beyond” the EU's agreement with Tokyo, but – the more we dig into the detail on tariff rates, on projected export growth, or on protected UK brands – the more that claim falls apart,” she said.

“She has a bad habit of over-promising and under-delivering on trade deals, then trying to fill the gap with these misleading claims.”

The undermining of Ms Truss’s boasts about the deal follow the ridicule heaped on the Department for International Trade (DIT) for its false claims about the price of soy sauce.

Prime minister Boris Johnson has cast doubt on the prospect of getting a trade agreement with the US under president-elect Joe Biden, saying a deal will not be “a pushover”.

Mr Johnson instead talked up the chances of close co-operation with the Biden administration on climate change, as Britain prepares to host the crucial COP26 international summit in 2021.

While outgoing president Donald Trump was an enthusiast for a post-Brexit trade deal with the UK, Mr Biden has been more circumspect, signalling that it will be off the table if the process of Britain leaving the EU puts peace in Northern Ireland at risk.
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The prime minister has previously hailed an agreement with the US as one of the biggest supposed prizes from Brexit, and in early 2017 said that Britain was “first in line to do a great free trade deal” with the Trump administration.

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Biden has previously called Johnson the “physical and emotional clone of Donald Trump” and allies of the new Democratic administration have been scathing about the UK prime minister.

Tommy Vietor, the former national security spokesman for Barack Obama, commenting on the prime minister’s congratulatory message to Biden, tweeted that Johnson was a “shapeshifting creep” and added: “We will never forget your racist comments about Obama and slavish devotion to Trump.”
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The Brexit customs software system being developed by HMRC is “not ready”, is “not reliable” and “has not been tested”, the House of Lords has heard.

Steve Bartless, chair of the Association of Freight Software Suppliers, told the EU goods sub committee that they will not get sight of the functionality of the customs declaration service until late November or December.

With just 52 days to go before Brexit is implemented, that was “unacceptable” he said.

The delays in rolling out the system, which is due to replace HMRC’s existing customs system, were “catastrophic”, peers were told by Des Hiscock, director general of the UK Association for International Trade. He said that no realistic contingencies were in place and he called on HMRC to stop its “cloak and dagger” approach, admit its failures and work urgently on alternatives.

The committee also heard that, in the event of no deal, the customs declarations problem would be “irrelevant” as 80% of truckers would not be able to export because the UK had only been allocated 2,088 driver permits out of the 11,500 needed.

Liz Truss’s Department for International Trade (DIT) is scrambling to meet a Wednesday deadline for tabling £80bn of trade agreements before parliament, in time for them to come into force in January under standard procedures.

Truss’s department has signed a string of “continuity agreements” to ensure the UK can go on trading with non-EU countries on similar terms, when the Brexit transition period comes to an end on 31 December.

Under the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act (Crag) passed in 2010, international treaties have to be laid before parliament for 21 sitting days before they can be ratified.

With parliament due to rise for Christmas on 17 December, as of this Thursday only 21 sitting days remain before the new year.
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The DIT said: “We are considering all possible options to maintain continuity of existing trade terms and will look to sign further agreements in the coming weeks.

“We are working with our partners to ensure that signed continuity agreements with all 52 partner countries are able to enter into force after the end of the transition period.”

Its spokesperson added: “It is misleading to say there’s a hard deadline on this,” claiming Truss had not promised to share deals with the committee 10 days in advance of laying them before parliament.

Truss told the House of Commons last month: “We will always endeavour to make sure the committees have at least 10 sitting days to read through these on a confidential basis, as we are doing for this deal.”

Work on inspection posts for animal products crossing Irish Sea ‘has not yet started and will take up to six months to complete’

A “haulier handbook” to prevent Brexit border meltdown on 1 January has been delayed and will not be ready for another month, it has been revealed.

The guide to the mountain of new red tape required to transport goods was promised in early September – but will now not be available in full until 7 December, little more than three weeks before it is needed.

Logistics UK, which represents freights group, warned time is running out to prevent “lorry queues at Dover and empty shelves in Northern Ireland”, when the transition period ends in just 50 days’ time.

“With the economy still reeling from handling the impact of Covid-19, the last thing UK PLC needs is another major shock of our own making,” said Elizabeth de Jong, its director of policy.

Construction of border inspection posts for checks on animal products crossing the Irish Sea “has not yet started and will take up to six months to complete”, she said.

And, on the handbook, Ms de Jong warned: “It is intended to give clear, vital guidance to drivers of all relevant nationalities and hence minimise the length of queues at ports.

MPs were told it had had to be reworked – and a full version, containing documents, maps and a checklist would not be published until 24 days before Brexit is completed.

“It couldn’t answer that fundamental question in sufficient clarity – what documentation and checks?” Ms de Jong told the Commons Brexit committee.

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A summit of EU leaders on 19 November is now viewed in Brussels as the final deadline for a draft Brexit deal, with negotiations on Britain’s future trade and security relationship with the bloc set to go to the wire.

Negotiators working in London had hoped to be able to pass on a deal to MEPs for scrutiny by 18 November to allow time for parliamentary ratification but the talks remain difficult, according to sources on both sides.

Next Thursday’s video conference summit of the 27 heads of state and government, arranged to discuss the latest developments in the coronavirus pandemic, is being seen as a key moment in the Brexit saga.

“If there isn’t good news by then, then you really have to say that time is up – it just isn’t possible,” said one senior EU diplomat. “The leaders will need to see that it is there.”
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