Shadow foreign secretary Lisa Nandy has accused Boris Johnson of being “missing in action” on the issue of border controls in Northern Ireland.
The Labour minister told Sky News the government must sort out the border in the Irish Sea which is “causing absolute havoc” and warned ministers they have a responsibility to ensure any kind of checks or disruption are minimised.
Her comments came as the UK’s Brexit minister warned Brussels that time is “starting to run out” to fix the problems facing Northern Ireland after Brexit.
Image: Lisa Nandy also urged Mr Johnson to do more to resolve the issue as quickly as possible
On Sunday, Lord Frost said the UK government had “underestimated” the impact that the Northern Ireland protocol – part of the treaty which enabled the UK to leave the EU – would have.
In an article for the Financial Times before his upcoming meeting with European Commission vice-president Maros Sefcovic in London, Lord Frost – who was the PM’s chief negotiator during the negotiations with the EU, admitted ensuring the protocol worked had led to “political turbulence”.
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“We underestimated the effect of the protocol on goods movements to Northern Ireland, with some suppliers in Great Britain simply not sending their products because of the time-consuming paperwork required,” Lord Frost said.
He added: “The EU needs a new playbook for dealing with neighbours, one that involves pragmatic solutions between friends, not the imposition of one side’s rules on the other and legal purism.
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“But time is starting to run out. We need to see progress soon. I hope we can this week.”
Speaking to Sky News on Monday, Solicitor General Lucy Frazer also acknowledged the trade complexities surrounding Brexit and Northern Ireland are “more difficult than we anticipated”.
Image: Brexit minister Lord Frost said the UK Government had ‘underestimated’ the impact that the Northern Ireland protocol would have
“It is very difficult on the ground in terms of trade. It is really important that we sort it and Lord Frost is doing just that.
“As it has panned out, on the ground it is more difficult than we anticipated and we do need to sort out that trade arrangement,” she said.
But over the weekend, new Democratic Unionist Party leader Edwin Poots said: “The Northern Ireland Protocol is bad for business in Northern Ireland and it is bad for every one of our citizens.”
He urged those “who want to make Northern Ireland work” to “speak with one voice against the absurd barriers placed on trade”.
Labour’s Ms Nandy also urged Mr Johnson to do more to resolve the issue as quickly as possible.
She told Sky News: “The prime minister made promises to the people of Northern Ireland that haven’t been kept.
Image: Edwin Poots said Northern Ireland can only ‘work’ if ‘absurd barriers placed on trade’ are removed
“I think the best way to resolve this is through decent relationships, investing in those relationships and through pragmatism.
“We need to make sure we minimise any kind of border checks or disruption, and we can do that with good will on both sides.
“But there’s a feeling at the moment that the government is missing in action on this, particularly the prime minister.
“Boris Johnson has created this problem and yet he’s nowhere to be seen, I think there’s a real feeling of dismay about that, but he could turn that around.”
Meanwhile, former Brexit secretary David Davis said difficulties with the implementation of the Northern Ireland Protocol were inevitable after former prime minister Theresa May “conceded the so-called full-alignment wording”.
Image: Former Brexit secretary David Davis said he predicted at Chequers that the Northern Ireland protocol would be problematic
He told Sky News: “It was one of the things I resigned over you may remember.
“I did predict that the prime minister at the time, when she conceded the so-called full-alignment wording, that this was problematic, not what we were promised, and would lead to difficulties in the future – and that is exactly what we are seeing.”
Conservative Mr Davis added: “Once you’ve got to the point of agreeing the alignment of Northern Irish regulations with the south Irish regulations you are creating a border.
“Of one sort or another, you are creating a border which would end up falling in the Irish Sea.”
Mr Davis added that the issues “will be resolved” but that it is “an unnecessary difficulty” which “will add a couple of years of negotiation to the overall outcome”.
The UK economy unexpectedly shrank in May, even after the worst of Donald Trump’s tariffs were paused, official figures showed.
A standard measure of economic growth, gross domestic product (GDP), contracted 0.1% in May, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
Rather than a fall being anticipated, growth of 0.1% was forecast by economists polled by Reuters as big falls in production and construction were seen.
It followed a 0.3% contraction in April, when Mr Trump announced his country-specific tariffs and sparked a global trade war.
A 90-day pause on these import taxes, which has been extended, allowed more normality to resume.
This was borne out by other figures released by the ONS on Friday.
Exports to the United States rose £300m but “remained relatively low” following a “substantial decrease” in April, the data said.
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Overall, there was a “large rise in goods imports and a fall in goods exports”.
A ‘disappointing’ but mixed picture
It’s “disappointing” news, Chancellor Rachel Reeves said. She and the government as a whole have repeatedly said growing the economy was their number one priority.
“I am determined to kickstart economic growth and deliver on that promise”, she added.
But the picture was not all bad.
Growth recorded in March was revised upwards, further indicating that companies invested to prepare for tariffs. Rather than GDP of 0.2%, the ONS said on Friday the figure was actually 0.4%.
It showed businesses moved forward activity to be ready for the extra taxes. Businesses were hit with higher employer national insurance contributions in April.
The expansion in March means the economy still grew when the three months are looked at together.
While an interest rate cut in August had already been expected, investors upped their bets of a 0.25 percentage point fall in the Bank of England’s base interest rate.
Such a cut would bring down the rate to 4% and make borrowing cheaper.
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Is Britain going bankrupt?
Analysts from economic research firm Pantheon Macro said the data was not as bad as it looked.
“The size of the manufacturing drop looks erratic to us and should partly unwind… There are signs that GDP growth can rebound in June”, said Pantheon’s chief UK economist, Rob Wood.
Why did the economy shrink?
The drops in manufacturing came mostly due to slowed car-making, less oil and gas extraction and the pharmaceutical industry.
The fall was not larger because the services industry – the largest part of the economy – expanded, with law firms and computer programmers having a good month.
It made up for a “very weak” month for retailers, the ONS said.
Monthly Gross Domestic Product (GDP) figures are volatile and, on their own, don’t tell us much.
However, the picture emerging a year since the election of the Labour government is not hugely comforting.
This is a government that promised to turbocharge economic growth, the key to improving livelihoods and the public finances. Instead, the economy is mainly flatlining.
Output shrank in May by 0.1%. That followed a 0.3% drop in April.
However, the subsequent data has shown us that much of that growth was artificial, with businesses racing to get orders out of the door to beat the possible introduction of tariffs. Property transactions were also brought forward to beat stamp duty changes.
In April, we experienced the hangover as orders and industrial output dropped. Services also struggled as demand for legal and conveyancing services dropped after the stamp duty changes.
Many of those distortions have now been smoothed out, but the manufacturing sector still struggled in May.
Signs of recovery
Manufacturing output fell by 1% in May, but more up-to-date data suggests the sector is recovering.
“We expect both cars and pharma output to improve as the UK-US trade deal comes into force and the volatility unwinds,” economists at Pantheon Macroeconomics said.
Meanwhile, the services sector eked out growth of 0.1%.
A 2.7% month-to-month fall in retail sales suppressed growth in the sector, but that should improve with hot weather likely to boost demand at restaurants and pubs.
Struggles ahead
It is unlikely, however, to massively shift the dial for the economy, the kind of shift the Labour government has promised and needs in order to give it some breathing room against its fiscal rules.
The economy remains fragile, and there are risks and traps lurking around the corner.
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Is Britain going bankrupt?
Concerns that the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, is considering tax hikes could weigh on consumer confidence, at a time when businesses are already scaling back hiring because of national insurance tax hikes.
Inflation is also expected to climb in the second half of the year, further weighing on consumers and businesses.
The government is speeding up its adoption of AI to try and encourage economic growth – with backing from Facebook parent Meta.
It will today announce a $1m (£740,000) scheme to hire up to 10 AI “experts” to help with the adoption of the technology.
Sir Keir Starmer has spoken repeatedly about wanting to use the developing technology as part of his “plan for change” to improve the UK – with claims it could produce tens of billions in savings and efficiencies.
The government is hoping the new hires could help with problems like translating classified documents en masse, speeding up planning applications or help with emergency responses when power or internet outages occur.
The funding for the roles is coming from Meta, through the Alan Turing Institute. Adverts will go live next week, with the new fellowships expected to start at the beginning of 2026.
Technology Secretary Peter Kyle said: “This fellowship is the best of AI in action – open, practical, and built for public good. It’s about delivery, not just ideas – creating real tools that help government work better for people.”
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He added: “The fellowship will help scale that kind of impact across government, and develop sovereign capabilities where the UK must lead, like national security and critical infrastructure.”
The projects will all be based on open source models, meaning there will be a minimal cost for the government when it comes to licensing.
Meta describes its own AI model, Llama, as open source, although there are questions around whether it truly qualifies for that title due to parts of its code base not being published.
The owner of Facebook has also sponsored several studies into the benefits of government adopting more open source AI tools.
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Minister reveals how AI could improve public services
Mr Kyle’s Department for Science and Technology has been working on its mission to increase the uptake of AI within government, including through the artificial intelligence “incubator”, under which these fellowships will fall.
The secretary of state has pointed to the success of Caddy – a tool that helps call centre workers search for answers in official documents faster – and its expanding use across government as an example of an AI success story.
He said the tool, developed with Citizens Advice, shows how AI can “boost productivity, improve decision-making, and support frontline staff”. A trial suggested it could cut waiting times for calls in half.
My Kyle also recently announced a deal with Google to provide tech support to government and assist with modernisation of data.
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Joel Kaplan, the chief global affairs officer from Meta, said: “Open-source AI models are helping researchers and developers make major scientific and medical breakthroughs, and they have the potential to transform the delivery of public services too.
“This partnership with ATI will help the government access some of the brightest minds and the technology they need to solve big challenges – and to do it openly and in the public interest.”
Jean Innes, the head of the Alan Turing Institute, said: “These fellowships will offer an innovative way to match AI experts with the real world challenges our public services are facing.”