Threat of Brexit ‘sausage war’ draws closer – follow live

Consultants were inexplicably paid millions of pounds to help award Covid funds to charities, MPs have found.

In a damning report, the Commons Public Accounts Committee questioned why consultants were used to assess funding bids “when established processes were already in place to do this”.

It also noted “opaqueness over some aspects” of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS)’s decision-making.

Our Whitehall editor Kate Devlin reports:

A former government adviser has said it is “inconceivable” that the prime minister signed up to the Northern Ireland protocol without realising what it entailed.

Gavin Barwell, who served as Theresa May’s chief of staff, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that Boris Johnson and chief Brexit negotiator David Frost are “intelligent people”, who knew the consequences of the protocol.

He said: “I find it inconceivable that they didn’t understand what they were signing up too. They would have been advised very clearly by the civil service about that.”

The former adviser added: “I think it’s also important to consider the political context at the time when Boris took over. He initially tried to prorogue parliament and leave without a deal and wasn’t able to do that, so he then decided that he wanted to call an election and strengthen his position, and it was clearly easier to fight that election with an oven-ready Brexit deal. 

“So I think the calculation was sign up to whatever was on offer and see if we can deal with anything we don’t like down the line.”

Mr Barwell believes the EU has reached the same conclusion.

Michael O’Leary, the boss of Ryanair, has lambasted the government over its coronavirus travel policies.

He told Sky News that its “stop, go, stop, go” approach is “bonkers”, accusing ministers of “just making this stuff up as they go along”.

The airline boss added: “There is no green list.

“What we keep calling for in the travel industry is, now that we have 80 per cent of the adult population of Britain vaccinated, why can’t those people go on holidays to Portugal and Spain without restrictions? They’re already vaccinated.”

Labour has accused the government of being “complicit with criminals” over the enormous backlog of serious court cases.

Keir Starmer’s party wants ministers to create more “Nightingale Courts” to deal with the 57,000 outstanding Crown Court cases, which it puts down to “a decade of Conservative cuts and court closures”.

“Inaction is complicity,” shadow justice secretary David Lammy said.

Jon Stone has more details:

Ahead of this week’s G7 summit, Boris Johnson and other world leaders have been urged to back an intellectual property waiver on coronavirus vaccines.

In his daily politics round-up, Adam Forrest looks at this as well as the latest UK-EU row.

Communities secretary Robert Jenrick has reiterated the government’s view that the EU should show “common sense” over the Northern Ireland protocol.

Speaking to Sky News, the minister said: “I don’t think either side when we signed up to the protocol envisaged that the EU would interpret it in such a rigid and unpragmatic way.

“We’re asking them to show some common sense and enable something as simple as some chilled meats like a sausage to travel from GB to Northern Ireland.”

He added that “there are also things even more important than sausages at stake here, for example medicines”.

The government is not doing enough to help children and young people, a teaching union has said.

The union NAHT pointed to analysis by a think tank which showed that catch-up money for schools over the next academic year is “only slightly more” than the amount spent on one month of last year’s Eat Out to Help Out scheme.

The Education Policy Institute (EPI) found a total of £984m has been committed to catch-up for the next academic year, while £840m was spent last summer on promoting the hospitality sector.

Paul Whiteman, NAHT’s general secretary, said: “Of course, support for business is important, but it shows how far down the government’s list of priorities children and young people seem to place.”

Representatives from the UK and the EU will meet in London on Wednesday morning to discuss the post-Brexit trade situation in Northern Ireland.

This comes amid rising tensions between the two sides over the implementation of the Northern Ireland protocol.

Reports suggest that London wishes to delay checks on chilled meat products being transported from Great Britain to Northern Ireland. The EU has said it will “not be shy” to respond “swiftly, firmly and resolutely” to such a moving, suggesting the possibility of trade tariffs against the UK.

Ahead of the meeting, Brexit minister David Frost said such threats did not help Northern Ireland.

He added: “Further threats of legal action and trade retaliation from the EU won’t make life any easier for the shopper in Strabane who can’t buy their favourite product.

“What is needed is pragmatism and common sense solutions to resolve the issues as they are before us. This work is important. And it is ever more urgent.”