EU ‘to scrap 50% of GB-NI customs checks’ – as Cummings says PM ‘didn’t have a scoobydoo’ what Brexit deal meant
The EU is expected to outline its response to UK demands to alter post-Brexit arrangements for Northern Ireland following this summer’s tense “sausage war” between the two sides.
European Commission vice-president Maros Sefcovic is set to hold a news conference on Wednesday afternoon in which he will deliver Brussels’ verdict on UK proposals for the Northern Ireland Protocol.
The senior EU politician will speak a day after UK Brexit minister Lord Frost demanded a “new” Protocol – which was designed to avoid a hard border on the island of Ireland – be thrashed out between London and Brussels as he claimed the current arrangements are “not working”.
In a speech in the Portuguese capital Lisbon on Tuesday, Lord Frost delivered a series of barbs at Brussels as he accused the EU of being an organisation “that doesn’t always look like” it wants the UK to succeed.
The Conservative peer – who has passed a suggested new legal text to the EU – also called for the removal of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) from oversight of the Protocol.
And he reiterated his threat that the UK could suspend post-Brexit arrangements for Northern Ireland – which were designed to prevent a hard border on the island of Ireland – by triggering Article 16 of the Protocol.
Ahead of Mr Sefcovic’s own response to Lord Frost’s demands, another senior European Commission figure expressed his hope that the EU’s own proposals would be met with a positive reception in London.
Frans Timmermans, a fellow European Commission vice-president to Mr Sefcovic, told Sky News: “We just want to find practical solutions for the problems of the people and businesses of Northern Ireland.
“And we’ll be in that mode tomorrow when we discuss it in the College of Commissioners and we will continue to follow that line.
“We know that there are some objective difficulties in Northern Ireland for citizens and businesses and we want to be part of solving those and we will make some practical propositions to solve them.
“Let’s try and find practical solutions to this and let’s not try and politicise it too much.”
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Lord Frost said the Protocol was ‘the biggest source of mistrust’ between the EU and UK.
Asked about the UK’s threat to trigger Article 16 and suspend the Protocol, Mr Timmermans added: “That’s up to them to do, that’s what they could do if they want to, but our focus is on finding solutions.
“How do you help the people in Northern Ireland and the businesses in Northern Ireland by triggering Article 16?
“Why not just try and find practical solutions? We will make some propositions tomorrow and hopefully they will be met with a positive reaction from the British side.”
However, Lord Frost’s demands to remove the ECJ from oversight of the Protocol met resistance elsewhere within the EU.
Irish deputy prime minister Leo Varadkar warned the UK’s requests would be “very hard to accept” in Brussels.
“The role of the European Court of Justice is there to adjudicate the rules of the single market,” he told a news conference in Dublin.
“I don’t think we could ever have a situation where another court could decide what the rules of the single market are.”
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DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, whose party never supported the Protocol due to its imposition of checks between Great Britain and Northern Ireland, has warned both the UK government and EU against “tinkering around the edges with temporary fixes”.
“The Protocol does not have the support of a single elected unionist in Northern Ireland. If it is not replaced, then it will condemn Northern Ireland to further harm and instability,” he said.
“We need a long-term solution which will then allow us all to plan and get back to focusing on fixing our public services rather debating the Protocol.”
The boss of Unite, Labour’s biggest union funder, has threatened to break its link with the party unless it changes direction.
Sharon Graham, general secretary of the union, told Sky News that, on the eve of a crucial party conference for the prime minister, Unite‘s support for Labour was hanging in the balance.
She told Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips: “My members, whether it’s public sector workers all the way through to defence, are asking, ‘What is happening here?’
Sharon Graham has been a long-time critic of Sir Keir Starmer. Pic: PA
“Now when that question cannot be answered, when we’re effectively saying, ‘Look, actually we cannot answer why we’re still affiliated’, then absolutely I think our members will choose to disaffiliate and that time is getting close.”
Asked when that decision might be made, she cited the budget, on 26 November, as “an absolutely critical point of us knowing whether direction is going to change”.
Ms Graham, who became leader in 2021, has been a long-time critic of Sir Keir Starmer‘s agenda, accusing him of lacking vision.
The union has campaigned against his decision to cut winter fuel allowance for pensioners – which was later reversed – and has called for more taxes on the wealthy.
But the firm threat to disaffiliate, and a timetable, highlights the acute trouble Sir Keir faces on multiple fronts, after a rocky few months which have seen his popularity plummet in the polls and his administration hit by resignations and scandals.
There is now open discussion about his leadership, with Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, claiming he’s been urged by MPs to mount a challenge.
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Burnham: Labour leadership ‘not up to me’
Unite has more than a million members, the second-largest union affiliated to Labour. It donates £1.5m a year from its membership fees to the party.
The union did not make an additional donation to Labour at the last election – as it has done previously – but was the biggest donor to its individual MPs and candidates. It has donated millions to the party in the past.
Any decision to disaffiliate would need to be made at a Unite rules conference; of which the next is scheduled for 2027, but there is the option to convene emergency conferences earlier.
Just 15 months into Sir Keir’s premiership, in which he has promised to champion workers’ rights, Ms Graham’s comments are likely to anger the Labour leadership.
Sir Keir Starmer has seen his popularity plummet in the polls in recent months. Pic: AP
Read more: Now is moment of ‘maximum danger’ for Starmer, Harriet Harman warns
Unite, earlier this year, voted to suspend former deputy prime minister Angela Rayner of her union membership because of the government’s handling of a long-running bin strike in Birmingham.
Ms Graham has described the left-wing party being launched by Jeremy Corbyn as a “sideshow” and has brushed off speculation of a leadership challenge by Mr Burnham.
This summer, she said if Unite dropped support from Labour it would “focus on building a strong, independent workers’ union that was the true, authentic voice for workers”.
The annual Labour Party conference kicks off in Liverpool from Sunday.
As a union affiliated with Labour, Unite has seats on the party’s ruling national executive committee and can send delegates to its annual conference.
Watch the full interview with Sharon Graham on Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips from 8.30am on Sky News
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