It is Johnson’s final proposal, a bilateral returns agreement with France plus talks to establish a UK-EU returns agreement, that seems to have sparked the fiercest reaction. Since Britain left the EU, it is no longer able to use the bloc’s Dublin system for returning migrants to the first member state they entered. It has not so far negotiated any bilateral deals. Macron has repeatedly stated the French view that France is merely a transit country for the very small percentage – roughly 3% – of migrants who enter the EU with the UK as their preferred final destination, and that the only long-term solution is greater Europe-wide cooperation to tackle a European – indeed, global – issue.
Frost says gap between UK and EU over NI protocol 'still significant' after latest talks
Only rather limited progress has been made in the latest talks with the EU over the Northern Ireland protocol, Lord Frost, the Brexit minister, has indicated. Following a meeting with his EU counterpart, Maroš Šefčovič, Frost said:
[Šefčovič] and I met today in London to take stock of discussions on the Northern Ireland protocol. We discussed the full range of issues causing difficulties in Northern Ireland.
We would still like to find a negotiated solution. But the gap between our positions is still significant and we are ready to use article 16 to protect the Belfast (Good Friday) agreement if other solutions cannot be found.
Technical discussions will continue next week and we will meet again next Friday.
Government sources said that the two sides made “some further progress” on medicines, and that there were “constructive” discussions on the trade in goods between Britain and Northern Ireland. But trade, governance and subsidy control are still areas where the two sides are in dispute.
And this is what Šefčovič tweeted after the meeting.
Met @DavidGHFrost in London to discuss the EU's proposed solutions to facilitate the implementation of the Protocol on IE/NI + boost opportunities on the ground.
Emphasis on the supply of medicines. A decisive push is needed to ensure predictability.
Sadiq Khan on the Wandsworth Food Bus at South Thames College in south-west London. The bus, which has just been launched and is described as the first of its kind, will sell nutritious, affordable food in areas of south London underserved by shops.
Owen Paterson U-turn shows PM could also cave in to pressure over independence referendum, SNP deputy leader claims
Keith Brown, the Scottish National party’s deputy leader (or depute leader - the party uses the Scots word), has claimed that Boris Johnson’s U-turn over Owen Paterson shows he is liable to cave in under pressure. Brown made the argument in the context of Scottish independence, where Johnson insists he will not grant permission for a second referendum on Scottish independence, despite the SNP government demanding one.
Brown told the SNP’s online conference:
Coupled with the cast-iron mandate delivered in May – and another thumping triumph in the council elections this coming May – we will continue to pile the pressure on the UK government over our legitimate demand for a referendum.
The Johnsons and the Goves of Westminster know they can’t stand in the way of the democratic will of Scotland.
And what we know is that Boris Johnson always bows to pressure – just look at the scandalous Owen Paterson affair.
The prime minister’s actions speak far louder than words.
When the prime minister had to choose between protecting the integrity of elected office or protecting his friend, he chose to change the rules to protect a colleague.
And when the pressure came on, he caved in and U-turned again.
Mujtaba Rahman, the Brexit specialist at the Eurasia consultancy, has posted an interesting thread on Twitter on the Johnson/Macron row over the Channel crossings. He thinks neither side emerges with much credit.
What a sorry sight to see two great countries, or at least their leaders, fighting like school-kids only two days after the calamity in the Channel in which at least 27 refugees died. Both Johnson & Macron merit some of the blame. But this is mostly down to Johnson 1/
I also believe that May’s election confirmed Wales’ status as an indy-curious nation.
A curiosity that will give birth - sooner than many think - to an independent Wales.
The cross-party constitutional commission [one of the 46 agreed policies in the cooperation agreement document] will take our national constitutional journey to the next stage.
It is significant that, as its co-chair Prof Laura McAllister put it, the commission will look at the fullest range of potential constitutional futures for Wales ... It will be the first time that an official body established by the Welsh government will undertake substantive research on Welsh independence.
Price also claims the cooperation agreement is an important constitutional innovation.
[The agreement] entails Plaid Cymru transforming itself from a traditional opposition party in the Westminster sense to something new and refreshingly different, a co-opposition party, co-operating where possible, while continuing to oppose, and to scutinise and criticise where necessary.
There is no precedent for what we are about to embark upon in the politics of these islands. It is a unique Welsh departure from the British constitution – a downpayment if you like on independence - though similar arrangements have happened elsewhere – notably in Scandinavian countries such as Sweden, Denmark, and Norway; and in Commonwealth countries such as New Zealand. Small nations all breaking the mould of politics-as-usual.
What we have crafted in this agreement is an approach entirely new in the political culture we have grown up with and are used to ...
But however you describe it, and whatever you call it, it is not oppositionism for opposition’s sake.
There are some attractions to oppositionism, but the deeper question in politics is not “Who or what we are against”, but “What are we really for”?
At the heart of our politics, in this party above all else, lies the idea of a Welsh Demos, a Welsh political nationhood, which transcends party, which embodies values more enduring, and more important, than anything that divides us.
For Wales to be free, we must first be united.
And, that is what this co-operation agreement sets out to achieve. It launches us on a pathway to a united Wales, one that, sooner than we perhaps think, will find it both comfortable and natural, indeed essential, to join the world community of normal, independent nations.
Adam Price. Photograph: Chris Fairweather/Huw Evans/REX/Shutterstock
Nick Thomas-Symonds, the shadow home secretary, has described the French decision to exclude Priti Patel, the home secretary, from a meeting about the Channel crisis is humiliating for Boris Johnson. He said:
This is a humiliation for a prime minister and home secretary who have completely lost control of the situation in the Channel.
At the very moment when the prime minister needed to be a statesman, what we have seen is a grave error of judgement in putting this sensitive letter on Twitter - causing our government to be excluded from these vital talks. The French and British governments must show leadership, sit down together and urgently find solutions. This continued blame game is not getting us anywhere.
Nick Thomas-Symonds. Photograph: UK Parliament/Jessica Taylor/PA
Labour should 'emphatically reject wokeism of small minority', says Blair
Tony Blair, the former prime minister, has said Labour should “emphatically reject the ‘wokeism’ of a small though vocal minority”. He made the argument today in the foreword to a report published by his thinktank exploring voters’ attitudes to the party, and what it could do to win the next election.
Blair argues that Labour’s plight is relatively straightforward.
After the 2019 defeat and a decade or more moving in the direction of the traditional left, Labour has a cultural problem with many working-class voters, a credibility problem with the middle ground, and is seen as being for everyone other than the hard-working families who feel their taxes aren’t spent on their priorities.
To win, Blair argues that Labour needs to abandon caution and adopt four stratagies: marginalise the far left, develop future-oriented policies, select “the best and the brightest from the younger generation” as candidates, and reject “wokeism”. He says:
We should openly embrace liberal, tolerant but common-sense positions on the “culture” issues, and emphatically reject the “wokeism” of a small though vocal minority.
The main report, written by the pollster Peter Kellner and featuring specially commissioner polling, says Labour faces a massive challenge because, to win a majority, it needs a larger swing than the party achieved in 1997. However Kellner identifies reasons for hope for the party.
On the face of it, Labour’s problem seems almost impossible to solve. The old coalition, between manual workers and metropolitan liberals, appears to have disintegrated. There does not seem to be a way to appeal to one without further alienating the other. Yet our research suggests a more optimistic conclusion. There is much common ground across all social and political groups that suggests the priorities for the government – any government – should be pensioners, the poor and “ordinary working people”.
Kellner says even cultural issues like Brexit and immigration could work in favour of Labour, not the right. He explains:
As long as they are framed as cultural battles, the Conservatives will have more powerful weapons. But if Labour can reframe these issues as economic and social challenges, in which current government policies damage people’s everyday lives, then Labour has the opportunity to develop policies that are both progressive and popular.
This is especially true for the “red-wall” seats, which independent economists say will suffer most from Brexit.
Alan Travis, who for many years was the Guardian’s home affairs editor, has welcomed the French proposal for British officials to consider asylum claims on French soil, before people try crossing the Channel. (See 2.15pm.)
Interesting proposal for a new safe, legal route, from the French govt for British border force officers to go to France to examine claims for asylum in Britain.... Far more realistic than Boris's demand that all Channel migrants be sent straight back to France... pic.twitter.com/SsGAlnAB0Q
Down syndrome bill passes second reading in Commons unopposed
Liam Fox’s Down syndrome private member’s bill (see 10.38am) was given an unopposed second reading in the Commons. Gillian Keegan, the health minister, who has a nephew with the condition, told the Commons:
People with Down’s syndrome should have the opportunity to enjoy all aspects of our society and to have access to the services and support that will enable them throughout their lifetime. I wholeheartedly support the Down syndrome bill.
I know that today people with Down’s syndrome are struggling to access the services they need and I’ve seen this with my own family. It is not right, it must change and we will change it.
Here is a briefing paper (pdf) from the Commons library on what the bill will do. And this is what Fox said summing up the aims of the bill.
My aim is to deal with three main areas. The first is to de-stigmatise Down syndrome and to re-educate both the public and professionals about the advances, including in life expectancy, that have occurred in recent decades. The second is to ensure that current provision of services is improved, whether provided by health, education or local services, by ensuring that providers give due consideration to those with Down syndrome when designing service provision. The third is to look ahead and deal with future issues, such as long-term care, in an era where, for the first time, many of those with Down syndrome will outlive their parents. By giving due thought to the issues today we can prevent avoidable human tragedies in the future.
Bruno Bonnell, an MP representing President Macron’s En Marche! political party in France, said Boris Johnson’s decision to publish his letter to about proposals for addressing the Channel crisis was “irritating”.
The politician, who denied that Paris had overreacted to Mr Johnson’s tweet, told Radio 4’s World At One programme:
When you want to open a negotiation, you don’t start by putting in writing publicly.
A negotiation needs to be discreet, to be respectful on both sides and finally to reach conclusions that you publish together. So that’s why it is irritating.
The French authorities were really keen to find ways, and once more Mr Johnson has been trying to take advantage of this dramatic situation to make his point ...
We need to sit down quietly, in good faith, in full trust, and not show signs of ... [using it] for your own public opinion, where you try to say, ‘Look, as they don’t know what to do, we’re going to teach the French what to do’, which is not acceptable.
The French embassy in the UK has tweeted out more quotes from President Macron.
“The real answer lies in serious cooperation, to prevent these movements, dismantle these trafficking networks and prevent these women and men from arriving on our soil, because it’s already too late when they are there.” says Pdt Macron. https://t.co/y8SKm0SUHA
“For these women and men leaving the misery or distress in their country and attempting to reach British territory, France is what is called a place of transit.”
And here is an extract from the story, with more from the French government’s briefing.
The French government’s official spokesperson, Gabriel Attal, added to criticism of Johnson’s letter on French television, calling it “mediocre in terms of the content, and wholly inappropriate as regards the form”.
Attal told BFM TV the letter was “mediocre because it does not respect all the work that has been done by our coastguards, police, gendarmes and lifeboat crews … It basically proposes a ‘relocation’ agreement, which is clearly not what’s needed to solve this problem.
“We’re sick and tired of this double talk and outsourcing of problems.”
Attal continued: “What we need is for the British to send immigration officers to France to examine here, on French territory, demands for asylum in Britain.”
He added that the tone of the letter “did not in the least reflect the exchanges Emmanuel Macron had with Boris Johnson … It’s as if Boris Johnson was regretting leaving Europe, because as soon as he has a problem he considers that it is Europe’s responsibility to solve it. It doesn’t work like that – it works through cooperation.”
Gabriel Attal Photograph: Thomas Coex/AFP/Getty Images
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