The use of eGates by British holidaymakers in the European Union is still not guaranteed, a minister has indicated.
Following six months of talks, Sir Keir Starmer unveiled his post-Brexit trade deal on Monday at the first summit of European Union and UK leaders in London.
The wide-ranging deal will allow more British travellers to use passport e-Gates when going on holiday to Europe, while farmers will get swifter, easier access to trade on the continent as a result of an agreement on animal and plant product standards.
But Sarah Jones, the minister for industry, told Sky News negotiations on e-Gate usage will have to continue with individual countries – despite the deal.
She said: “Of course it will take time with each country, but we will go as fast as we can. And of course, I will come back to you as soon as I can on the timings.”
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6:27
‘Britain is back on the world stage’
This appears to be a departure from the prime minister, who on Monday declared more explicitly that “Brits travelling to Europe will now be able to use e-Gates”.
Ms Jones was asked about the wording of Monday’s agreement, and whether it commits only to “swiftly exploring opportunities for enhanced co-operation” with the European Union.
She disagreed, stressing that the UK will have access to an “enormous fund for defence”.
However, she admitted the deal will need to be negotiated further “going forward”.
“But the principle of this is important. It’s giving us access to a market we didn’t have before,” she said.
Pushed again on whether the post-Brexit deal is a plan rather than an agreement, Ms Jones said: “It was a lot more than a plan.”
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The minister also insisted the cost to taxpayers from Sir Keir’s deal with the EU will be outweighed by the economic benefits.
The UK will pay administration costs, which have yet to be decided, for participation in measures such as the scheme to make it easier to ship animal and plant products to the EU.
Ms Jones told Sky News: “Whatever administrative costs we have to pay, and they will be negotiated and I don’t have an answer for you now on what those costs are, they will be outweighed very significantly by what we estimate will be a £9bn advantage a year by 2040.”
The US Securities and Exchange Commission has seemingly missed its decision deadline for the Canary Litecoin ETF, adding to uncertainty amid a government shutdown and new generic listing standards.
The ECB said it had reached agreements with seven entities not yet involving “any payment” responsible for components of the digital euro, potentially launching in 2029.
Baroness Michelle Mone says she will defy calls for her to step down from the House of Lords after PPE Medpro, a company founded by her husband, was ordered to repay £122m to the government for providing faulty PPE at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The peer has faced calls to stand down from MPsacross the political spectrum, including Chancellor Rachel Reeves, who earlier this week agreed with Baroness Mone’s contention that the government was pursuing a “vendetta” in trying to recover improper Covid funding.
“Too right we are,” she said in comments at the Labour Party conference.
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1:06
Baroness Mone ‘should resign’
In an extraordinary letter to the prime minister, Baroness Mone has accused Ms Reeves of endangering her and her family with her comments, citing the murders of Jo Cox and David Amess as evidence of the risks facing parliamentarians.
She also alleged ministerial interference in the civil and ongoing criminal investigations of PPE Medpro, and has called for an investigation into whether ministers have “improperly influenced” the Crown Prosecution Service and the National Crime Agency.
In the letter, sent from the private office of Baroness Mone OBE and seen by Sky News, she addresses the prime minister directly, writing in a personal capacity “first as a wife, second as a mother, and lastly as a Baroness.”
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2:40
£122m bill that may never be paid
Referring to Ms Reeves’ comments, she writes: “The chancellor’s deliberate use of the term “vendetta”, a word connoting vengeance, feud and blood feud, is incendiary and has directly increased the risks to my personal safety…. My family and I now live with a heightened and genuine fear of appearing in public.”
She goes on to accuse Reeves and health secretary Wes Streeting of “falsehoods” in demanding that she hand back £122m, pointing out that she was never a director of PPE Medpro and “never received a penny from it personally.”
While the company was founded by her husband Doug Barrowman, a High Court judgement this week confirmed that Baroness Mone introduced it to the government’s VIP fast lane for PPE providers, and lobbied on its behalf in negotiations.
She has previously admitted that £29m of profit from the PPE contract was passed to a family trust of which she and her children are beneficiaries.
The peer has also accused the Prime Minister of “a total lie” when “you stated in Parliament that my children had received £29m into their bank accounts.”
Baroness Mone said that following these comments, she had received threatening and abusive communications, and cited the death of TV presenter Caroline Flack, who took her own life, as showing “the fatal consequences of personalised public vilification”.
“Your cabinet members, by repeating this knowingly false claim, are inciting hostility and inflaming public hatred against me.”
Image: Baroness Michelle Mone and her husband Doug Barrowman. Pic: PA
She has also accused the home secretary of influencing the NCA and Director of Public Prosecutions in unspecified meetings to discuss “high-profile cases”.
“That political influence is being brought to bear is, therefore, undeniable,” she said.
On Wednesday, PPE Medpro was ordered to repay £122m paid for 25 million surgical gowns that failed to meet sterility standards in breach of its contract with the Department of Health and Social Care.
PPE Medpro was put into administration the day before the judgment, with assets of just £666,000.
Asked if Baroness Mone would step down from the Lords, a spokesman said: “Those calling for Baroness Mone’s resignation from the House of Lords would be well advised to read the open letter sent this morning to the prime minister, which sets out how this has now become a personal attack and vendetta, politically motivated with loss of all balance and objectivity.”
Sky News has asked Number 10 and the Treasury for a response to the allegations made by Baroness Mone.