Brexit deal ‘won’t see children sent up chimneys’, promises Boris Johnson – follow live

Boris Johnson’s post-Brexit trade deal with the EU leaves workers’ rights and environmental protections at risk of erosion and will slow the economic recovery, a think tank has warned.

An analysis from the IPPR says protections are “surprisingly weak” and claims that the bar for proof of breaches of the “level playing field” to safeguard the issues is so high that it will be rarely enforced.

Marley Morris, an IPPR director focusing on trade and EU relations, said: “This thin deal is better than no deal at all, but still creates major trade barriers with our closest neighbour which will inhibit growth and slow the economic recovery.

“The protections it offers on labour and environmental standards are also surprisingly weak and appear to leave considerable scope for a UK government to weaken EU-derived protections. This leaves protections for workers, climate and the environment at serious risk of being eroded.”

Chancellor Rishi Sunak has claimed the Brexit trade deal can be an “enormously unifying moment for our country”.

He said on Sunday morning that the agreement with EU “gives us a strong platform to look forward optimistically, put divisions of the past behind us, embrace our future with confidence and optimism”.

Sunak also told Sky News that there would be changes for the UK’s financial sector because of the deal, saying it was the chance “do things a bit differently”.

The chancellor added: “We will remain in close dialogue with our European partners when it comes to things like equivalence decisions.”

The trade deal does not give much detail on the changes, however – with future rules “still to be established”, a government source has admitted.

Top EU officials are said to have watched Pulp Fiction on an iPhone after Boris Johnson made a reference to the film at a crucial stage of the negotiations.

With the talks deadlocked in early December, Johnson reportedly told EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen: “We need to revive this process like that scene in Pulp Fiction, where they stick the adrenaline straight into Uma Thurman’s heart.”

Von der Leyen told the PM “I haven’t seen that film” – sparking a dash to find the scene on an iPhone and watch so she and her team knew what he was talking about.

The unusual viewing is among the details in Tim Shipman’s latest story for The Sunday Times. One unnamed British official gleefully claimed No 10 “trolled” EU negotiator Michel Barnier from government social media accounts.

Anneliese Dodds has urged the chancellor not to cut universal credit, warning that any reduction in the £20-a-week uplift would be compounded by increases in council bills and wage freezes and would “hammer” Britain’s lowest earners.

In an interview with The Independent, the shadow chancellor also warned Rishi Sunak against hiking taxes in next year’s Budget as the country faces the deepest recession for 300 years and the prospect of a third national lockdown.

Her comments come as Citizens Advice reveals its advisors gave one-to-one advice to 1.1m people during 2020 – 12 people every minute. Three quarters of people seeking support with benefits or employment problems this year had never contacted the charity before.

Leading MEP Guy Verhofstadt has praised the Irish government’s decision to keep the Erasmus for students in Northern Ireland.

Irish foreign minister Simon Coveney said: “We promised we would do this and we will. Northern Ireland students will have access to Erasmus if they want it, post-Brexit.”

A replacement for the cherished Erasmus study exchange scheme will begin next September, Boris Johnson’s government says, amid an outcry over the “short-sighted and mean-spirited” decision to pull out of it as part of the Brexit deal.

In a hastily-made announcement on Boxing Day, ministers have pledged “over £100m” to a new “Turing scheme”, named after the World War II codebreaker.

Boris Johnson is feeling optimistic about a big reset now that the Brexit wars are coming to an end. But could he start next year with a defeat? Plans to slash £4bn a year from overseas will be blocked until 2022, opponents believe – raising their hopes that PM will be forced to drop the policy.

The controversial cut is almost certain to be defeated in the House of Lords – with numerous high-profile Tory peers telling The Independent they will fight it – even if it passes in the Commons.

One leading rebel told The Independent: “The strength of feeling is even stronger in the Lords. Whether legislation is presented in the Commons or the Lords, the government is staring at a defeat on this.”

How much will the ERG and other Tory backbenchers care about fishing quotas? The head of the National Federation of Fishermen’s Organisation (NFFO), accused Mr Johnson of having “bottled it” on quotas, securing only “a fraction of what the UK has a right to under international law”.

“Lacking legal, moral or political negotiating leverage on fish, the EU made the whole trade deal contingent on a UK surrender on fisheries,” Barrie Deas said on Sunday.

The share of fish in British waters that the UK can catch will rise from about half now to less than two-thirds by the end of a five-and-a-half-year transition.

A senior member of the UK negotiating team defended the fishing compromise as a transition to a point of “full control over our waters” – but acknowledged that No 10 wanted the process to happen “faster”.

Scotland’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon accused the Conservatives of having “sold out Scottish fishing all over again”, adding: “Promises they knew couldn’t be delivered, duly broken.”

Many key aspects of the UK’s future relationship with the EU are still up in the air, experts have warned – leaving numerous questions unanswered about professional qualifications, asylum rights, financial services and other issues, they said.

The text contains no fewer than 244 references to “arbitration tribunals” and a further 170 to a “partnership council” – the bodies that will decide the details and settle future disputes, suggesting further negotiations in 2021.

Some 19 specialised committees and four working groups would hold at least 21 meetings each year – excluding aspects affecting Northern Ireland.

“I’m astonished how thin the deal is,” said Brexit expert Anton Spisak, adding: “This falls even below the standard of some recent EU FTAs [free trade agreements].”

Georgina Wright, associate at the Institute for Government, said: “There is still a lot of information that’s a little bit vague. The text is so legally dense and businesses want to know practical measures.”

Boris Johnson said chancellor Rishi Sunak is “doing a big exercise” on changes to business taxes and regulation contained in the 1,246-page Brexit trade deal.

The PM claimed the deal would give the government “legislative and regulatory freedoms to deliver for people who felt left behind”.

Sunak, meanwhile, said next year would begin a “new era” for the nation as he pledged to invest in the nation to “build opportunity for everyone” in investing in infrastructure and “rewarding risk-takers and entrepreneurs”.

“I want next year to be the start of something much more meaningful for all of us. A moment to look afresh at the world and the opportunities it presents, and to consider how to take advantage of them,” the chancellor wrote in the Mail on Sunday.

Boris Johnson has touted post-Brexit changes to business taxes and regulation next year as Conservative Eurosceptics pored over the details of his trade agreement with the EU.

The PM said that, although he accepts that “the devil is in the detail” of the deal, he believes that it will stand up to inspection from the European Research Group (ERG) of Brexiteers – after the 1,246-page document was officially published on Boxing Day.

In an interview with the Sunday Telegraph, the PM listed animal welfare regulations, data and chemicals alongside existing plans to establish low tax freeports. The deal also contains commitments not to regress on standards for workers’ rights and environmental standards.

However, Johnson said: “All that’s really saying is the UK won’t immediately send children up chimneys or pour raw sewage all over its beaches. We’re not going to regress, and you’d expect that.”

The PM also claimed the deal would offer legislative and regulatory freedoms to “deliver for people who felt left behind”.