All we got from Boris Johnson this morning was more bluff and bluster and no actual plan to help people through this cost of living emergency. He could cut taxes now, helping households and the economy but instead he just sits on his hands. Instead of cutting taxes – in the middle of this crisis chooses to raises them, something struggling families and pensioners will never forgive him for. In particular the Lib Dems are calling for VAT to be cut. Ed Davey (right) campaigning in the Tiverton and Honiton byelection last week. Photograph: Ben Birchall/PABoris Johnson with vegetable pickers harvesting courgettes during a visit to Southern England Farms Ltd in Hayle in Cornwall this morning. Photograph: Justin Tallis/AFP/Getty Images Peter Foster from the Financial Times has a good thread on Twitter explaining quite how far-reaching the Northern Ireland protocol bill will be. It starts here. Foster also argues that the bill is bound to fail. The craziest part is that even if this legislation passes (and it’s expected to take 18 months to get on the statute book if it does) delivering maximalist, unilateral ‘fixes’ to the issues won’t work. /18 — Peter Foster (@pmdfoster) June 12, 2022 Because whatever your views on the Protocol, objectively its clear that Brussels, Washington, Dublin won’t wear these solutions — not to mention Sinn Fein. This is all just the same Frostian ‘we wont build a border’ fantasy rehashed. /19 — Peter Foster (@pmdfoster) June 12, 2022 The solution has to be in a middle ground of ‘dedramatising’ the issues and reaching technical fixes. FWIW @AntonSpisak – who helped write the Protocol — has a good run of practical ideas here. Until tomorrow…ENDShttps://t.co/4LQnzhFeQE — Peter Foster (@pmdfoster) June 12, 2022
Johnson claims bill to let UK abandon most of Northern Ireland protocol ‘relatively trivial set of adjustments’
Here is a summary and analysis of the main points from Boris Johnson’s LBC interview.
Johnson claimed that the Northern Ireland protocol bill being published today proposed “a relatively trivial set of adjustments in the grand scheme of things”. Opposition parties, and some Tories, argue that the plan to allow the UK to unilaterally ignore most of the protocol – an agreement with the EU – would be in breach of international law. Johnson was asked about a note circulating among Tory MPs saying the bill breaks international law.
Asked to accept the bill was doomed to fail because of the extent of opposition to it, Johnson refused to accept that. He went on: What we have to respect, and this is the crucial thing, is the balance and the symmetry of the Belfast/Good Friday agreement. We have to understand there are two traditions in Northern Ireland, broadly two ways of looking at the border issues, and one community at the moment feels very, very estranged from the way things are operating and very alienated. And we have just got to fix that. And it is relatively simple to do it. It’s a bureaucratic change that needs to be made. Frankly, it’s a relatively trivial set of adjustments in the grand scheme of things.
Johnson refused to accept that the bill broke international law. Asked if he agreed that it did, he replied:
I disagree with that, and I tell you why. I think our higher and prior legal as commitment as a country is to the Belfast/Good Friday agreement, to the balance and stability of that agreement, and that means respecting [the concerns of unionists]. This is an argument that Johnson has used before. But if the Good Friday agreement takes precedence over the Northern Ireland protocol, because it came first, perhaps it should take precedence over Brexit too, which also came later and which has also been hard to square with the 1998 agreement that has formed the basis of peace in Northern Ireland?
Johnson said that, if the EU responded to the UK unilaterally abandoning large parts of the NI protocol by starting a trade war, that would be a “gross, gross over-reaction”. Asked about the prospect of a trade war happening, he replied:
I think that would be a gross, gross over-reaction. All we’re trying to do is simplify things, to actually to remove barriers to trade between Great Britain and Northern Ireland. How perverse, how preposterous … to be introducing further restrictions on trade when all we’re trying to do is have some bureaucratic simplifications between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
Johnson brushed aside claims from Prince Charles deporting asylum seekers to Rwanda is “appalling”. At the weekend it emerged that Charles has said this about the policy in private. Clarence House has not denied that this is what he thinks, but it has said that he is politically neutral, and that it won’t comment on private conversations. Asked about Charles’s views, Johnson replied:
I think that most people can see that the criminal gangs …. they need to be stopped. That model needs to be frustrated. Asked again if Charles was wrong, Johnson replied: Let me put it this way, what I don’t think we should support is continued activity by criminal gangs.
Johnson stressed that there were legal options for people wanting to come to the UK. Explaining the need to break the business model of the people smugglers putting migrants on small boats to cross the Channel, he said those boats were very dangerous, and the people were breaking the law. He went on:
What it does is it undermines everybody who’s coming here legally, and it undermines people who support immigration, who want people to come here legally and to be integrated properly. Johnson said that the workers he met on a farm in Cornwall this morning (see 8.40am) had come from all over the world. “But they come here legally,” he said. “They do it properly. They’re not they’re not controlled by criminal gangs. And that is what we want to see.” Since Johnson was fined for breaking lockdown rules in No 10, he has not been in the best position to complain about others breaking the law. But a more substantial objection to this argument is that the seasonal agricultural workers scheme used by the farm workers Johnson met this morning would be no use to the women and children crossing the Channel because they are seeking asylum in the UK, not a summer labouring job.
Johnson said the government had always expected “very active lawyers” to challenge the Rwanda policy. But he also claimed he had “utmost respect for the legal profession”. This meant that, by Johnson’s standards, this was a relatively benign reference to immigration lawyers. In the past he has accused them of being politically motivated.
Johnson implied that he was opposed to implementing further tax cuts now. Asked about the claim by Gerard Lyons, the economist who advised Johnson when he was London mayor, that Johnson should be cutting income tax instead of listening to the Treasury (which is opposed to this now), Johnson replied:
[Lyons] will understand that we’re bringing in tax cuts as fast as we can. But what we’ve also got to do is look after people in a tough time … I understand that we need to bear down on taxation, and we certainly will. But we’ve got an inflationary spike that we’ve got to get through right now, looking after people as we go through that. And that is what we’re going to do. Johnson seemed to be arguing that he could not implement further tax cuts now because the government needed to fund the measures announced to help people with the cost of living. He may also have been implying that cutting income tax now would be inflationary. Boris Johnson visiting Southern England Farms Ltd in Hayle in Cornwall this morning. Photograph: Justin Tallis/AFP/Getty Images Updated at 10.17 BST From my colleague Peter Walker New media ruse from Downing Street: offer Boris Johnson up for an interview, but do it for five minutes on such a terrible mobile phone line from a Cornish field that you can only hear about one word in three. Much less chance for difficult headlines. — Peter Walker (@peterwalker99) June 13, 2022 I’m not sure that was really worth the early start. The main takeaway from the interview is that the government still has a lot more to do to improve mobile phone coverage in Cornwall. At times the prime minister was barely audible. If it had been an interview with anyone else, Nick Ferrari would have given up and told him to call back on a landline. I’ll post a summary soon. Q: When will you cut taxes? Johnson says the effective national insurance cut next month (because the threshold is rising). He says 8 million of the most vulnerable households are getting £1,200. He understands the need to bear down on taxation. But they have an inflationary spike they need to get through now. And that’s it. The interview is over. Updated at 09.12 BST
Johnson says it would be ‘gross over-reaction’ if EU responded to UK abandoning NI protocol by starting trade war
Q: Your Northern Ireland protocol plan is holed below the water line because it has so much opposition in your party, isn’t it? Johnson says the government needs to resolve the problems with the protocol. Q: But it is against international law. Johnson says he does not accept that. Q: The CBI says it could trigger a trade war with the EU. Johnson says that would be a “gross over-reaction”.
Johnson dismisses claim from Prince Charles that his Rwanda deportation plan for asylum seekers is ‘appalling’
Q: If only one person is on the flight to Rwanda tomorrow, would that justify the flight? Johnson says it is important the the people traffickers realise their business model is no longer…
