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he year from hell is almost over. 2020 began with a mind-numbing argument about whether under-repair Big Ben would bong for Brexit. It ends with Big Ben finally restored and bonging again. The clock will chime at 11pm tonight, as the UK leaves the single market and customs union – not as a statement of triumph, but as a test for the timepiece tolling at midnight. It will be a sombre moment for many, not least because it also marks another 20 million people moving into the toughest Covid tier.
Inside the bubble
Deputy political editor Rob Merrick on what to look out for today:
Parliament will be back in recess and all will be quiet as the New Year approaches. In fact, after all the Brexit drama, the government has tabled a motion extending the recess until 11 January. Businesses will be enjoying their last-ever day of frictionless trade with the EU, before a blizzard of expensive paperwork and bumper-to-bumper queues in Kent becomes the new reality.
Daily briefing
LET THEM EAT CAKE: It’s almost over. Four and a half years after the referendum, Brexit finally becomes real at 11pm tonight. Boris Johnson may have to keep his celebrations muted this evening, but he is clearly feeling triumphant. Asked if his deal was a case of having your cake and eating it, the PM told the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg: “You said it … this is a cake-ist treaty.” Johnson also claimed it was “wonderful” for British exporters – despite the new customs declarations they’ll be filling out from tomorrow. “They’ll now have the advantage that they’ll only have one set of forms they have to fill out for export to around the whole world … I think it’s a wonderful thing.” The deal was signed into law after MPs backed it by 521 to 73 votes. Keir Starmer made sure to criticise the “thin” agreement – warning of the “avalanche of checks, bureaucracy and red tape” – but 37 of his MPs still rebelled. And three of the rebels – Helen Hayes, Florence Eshalomi and Tonia Antoniazzi – all quit their junior frontbench positions.
TIERS BEFORE BEDTIME: Hogmanay moves many a step closer to lockdown. Another 20 million people will go into tier 4 from midnight tonight, leaving 78 per cent of England under the highest restrictions. Johnson hailed the good news about the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine approval and said the government was “shifting heaven and Earth” to roll it asap. But the PM warned that we should not “in any way think that this is over”, since the virus is “really surging”. The Independent can reveal that critically-ill patients are being “evacuated” from the south of England to hospitals hundreds of miles away, as NHS bosses in London said the capital is set to run out of critical care beds within a week. NHS England will announce plans today to reopen the Nightingale Hospital in east London on 4 January. Matt Hancock told MPs two million people a week could soon be vaccinated, promising to work with AstraZeneca “make that happen”.
ANOTHER FINE MESS: Another extremely predictable U-turn on schools, as education secretary Gavin Williamson said he was “determined to act to preserve lives”. Secondary schools across most of England will remain closed for another two weeks, although exam-year pupils will go back on 11 January. In a few pockets with the very highest infection rates, primaries would remain closed temporarily. The National Association of Head Teachers said it was yet another “last-minute mess”. Union leader Paul Whiteman said: “If we’d had the freedom to take action before the holidays, we might have been in a position to have more schools open … School leaders will be baffled, frustrated and justifiably angry.” Elsewhere, the Home Office has produced a gleeful end-of-year report card, telling The Telegraph more than 1,100 foreign criminals were deported this year. A Home Office official boasted that protests by Labour and “do-gooding” celebrities had failed. So there.
NOT TOGETHER IN ELECTRIC DREAMS: Brexiteers aren’t in the mood to do so, but experts have spent the festive period picking apart the deal and have found some interesting stuff in there. It’s emerged that the EU secured the ability to shut off gas and electricity supplies if the UK tries to seize control of disputed fish stocks in future. The little-noticed clause allows Brussels to kick the UK out of its electricity and gas markets in June 2026, unless a fresh deal is agreed for fishing rights. “This is just another reason why the UK will likely struggle to take back control of any more of its waters in the years to come,” the Institute for Government told The Independent. Meanwhile, Labour’s Yvette Cooper said the loss of the Schengen Information System II database meant our security response was going to get “weaker” from Friday. She called for the police to be given more resources to adjust to the new normal.
WHERE DID IT ALL GO GONG: Great news for the former attorney general Geoffrey Cox QC. The Tory MP received a knighthood for in the new year honours – despite his prominent role in last year’s shutdown of parliament. Remember when Cox branded parliament a “disgrace” during the prorogation debacle? He is knighted for his “parliamentary” service. The irony. Meanwhile, veteran Labour MP Angela Eagle will get to raise a glass after getting a damehood. What about our politicians’ new year celebrations tonight? No 10 is keeping quiet about Johnson’s plans, and the Brexit Party won’t get to hold a shindig in Parliament Square as they hoped. But Brexit backers are determined to have a good time at home, nevertheless. Former Brexit Party MEP Lance Forman told The Independent he would pour himself two glasses of fizz – one French champagne and the other English sparkling. “First I shall drink the French to say goodbye and then the English, to say hello,” he said.
I HAVE A CUNNING PLAN: Donald Trump’s New Year’s Eve plans? The outgoing president is cutting short his Florida holiday to return to Washington a day earlier than expected, for reasons officials did not explain – so he won’t be partying at his private Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach after all. Could it be he is scheming up one last big stunt next week? Republican senator Josh Hawley has revealed he would raise objections when Congress meets to affirm president-elect Joe Biden’s on 6 January. A group of Republicans in the Democratic-controlled House have also said they would object on Trump’s behalf during the count of electoral votes. Meanwhile, the Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell shut the door on Trump’s push for $2,000 Covid relief checks – declaring Congress has provided enough pandemic aid. He said it would be “another fire hose of borrowed money”.
On the record
“Sovereignty does not mean isolationism, it does not mean we never accept somebody else’s rules – it does not mean exceptionalism.”
Theresa May offers the PM a warning on partnerships with the EU.
From the Twitterati
“Whilst Margaret didn’t live long enough to see this day, I am sure that she is rejoicing in heaven. At last we ‘got Brexit done’!”
Tory MP Sir David Amess is triumphant – celebrating with a cardboard cut-out of Thatcher…
“The liars, the xenophobes, the tax dodgers (and the voters who more genuinely believed in it) have their Brexit … But, we, the internationalists, the believers in cooperation and truth WILL be back.”
…while the Lib Dems’ Jonathan Banks is defiant.
Essential reading
John Rentoul, The Independent: Johnson hopes and Starmer fears that Brexit will go on forever
Sandra Khadhouri, The Independent: We can reduce Brexit sorrow by building new connections with Europe
Anand Menon, The Guardian: Brexit is far from done – the deal is no game, set and match
John Cassidy, The New Yorker: How to Trump-proof the presidency
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