Inside Politics: Boris Johnson pops his Brexit deal in the oven

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Friday 20 December 2019 09:00 GMT

Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn awkwardly walk to the House of Lords for the Queen's speech

It looks like we need a period of reflection followed by a full, independent inquiry to figure out what went wrong with Cats – a movie so head-spinningly, stomach-churningly terrible it appears to have traumatised the film critics. The reviews are also in for the Queen’s Speech. And they’re not so hot either. Boris Johnson’s legislative agenda has been savaged as a series of nauseatingly authoritarian moves to change the constitution, judiciary and voting system in his favour. The PM moves onto his Brexit deal today. “A sinister, all-time disaster from which no-one emerges unscathed.” That’s a Cats review. But it applies equally well to Brexit. Hell, it applies pretty well to the whole of 2019. I’m Adam Forrest, and welcome to The Independent’s daily Inside Politics briefing.

Inside the bubble

Our political editor Andrew Woodcock on what to look out for today:

As part of his election pledge to have Brexit “decided” by Christmas, Boris Johnson will put forward the re-drafted EU (Withdrawal Agreement) Bill for its second reading in the House of Commons today. Labour will raise objections to protections for workers’ rights and child refugees being dropped, but they do not have numbers to halt its progress. If passed by MPs (the vote is expected around 2.30pm), the Brexit bill will return for its final stages in the Commons on 7, 8 and 9 January. Which should leave plenty of time for it to achieve Royal Assent in time for the 31 January deadline.

Daily briefing

AUTOCRAT IN OVERDRIVE: Well, we’re right back to where we were in July, with Boris Johnson promising a “golden age”. Only this time he has the power to do some real damage. The Brexit bill is said to have been “Gina Miller-proofed” to prevent any more court action or extension to the transition period next year, with a clause on strengthening workers’ rights stripped out. The Queen’s Speech also revealed radical plans to overhaul the justice system and constitutional settlement aimed at stopping the courts being too “political”. Labour’s Shami Chakrabarti denounced it as “vindicate revenge” for the prorogation debacle – a move straight out of “the Book of Trump”. The government also wants to scrap the Fixed Term Parliament Act, re-draw constituency boundaries and introduce photo ID at polling stations – condemned by the Electoral Reform Society as voter “suppression”. At this rate it’ll be the dark ages before Johnson is through.

DExEU EX MACHINA: If Johnson has his way you’ll never hear the B-word again. The PM has reportedly told officials to stop using the term “Brexit” after we quit the EU on 31 January – even though our relationship with the bloc isn’t even close to be settled. According to The Huffington Post, Johnson is said to be desperate to convince us it’s “done” that No 10 won’t refer to the idea of a trade agreement with Brussels as a “deal” in 2020 – lest it confuse us simpletons about the exit “deal” forged this year. In another symbolic move, the government is shutting down the Brexit (DExEU) department. Former Tory chancellor Norman Lamont managed to crystalise the mood of smug complacency. “The war is over … Grass should now be allowed to grow over the battlefield.” Let’s see about that. Something tells me things will be muddy for a long while.

CONTINUITY CLIVE: Clive Lewis has become the second Labour figure to throw his hat in the ring for the leadership. Although he criticised Corbyn for a “lack of leadership”, it seems the Norwich South MP intends to keep throwing punches on behalf of Corbynism, blaming Labour’s election defeat on “the legacy of the 2000s” (that terrible period in history when Labour ruled the country). Lewis said the job now was to persuade voters they understand the “disappointment in how the Labour Party has conducted itself since the 1990s” (is it possible Clive’s genuinely forgotten the time Labour won three elections in row?) Laura Parker, the national co-ordinator for the Corbynista Momentum group, is quitting – but there’s no sign of Corbyn aides Seamus Milne and Karie Murphy doing the same.

WONDERFUL THING ABOUT TIGGERS: With everyone closing stuff down and pronouncing the end of things, Anna Soubry obviously thought it was time to shut up shop on the Independent Group for Change. The rag-tag bunch of former Tory and Labour MPs set out in March full of hope and energy. The ended the year chastened and deflated, with all 11 “originals” losing their seats. “Honesty and realism are at the core of our values,” read the final statement. It was honestly and realistically a bit of a waste of time. Let’s turn our attention from the UK’s least organised political party to its most brutally efficient one. SNP boss Nicola Sturgeon set out the case, again, for her Holyrood administration to be given the power to stage indyref2. She had her civil servants produce a 39-page document essentially saying one thing: “Gonnae gie us another referendum?”

ZAC BACKED: The PM is promising a golden age, and he wants it to include the boy born with the silver spoon in his mouth. There are some people for whom it’s simply impossible not to succeed. Zac Goldsmith is now the poster boy for the phenomenon. The scion of a super-rich financier has lost his seat twice, lost the London mayor race – but will soon fail all the way up to the House of Lords. The government has confirmed he will be given a peerage and a place in the cabinet as an environment minister. Labour railed against “government-appointed jobs for mates”. But it was the Electoral Reform Society that had the best attack, arguing the ennoblement of losers “makes an absolute joke of democratic accountability. Our second chamber should not be some absurd insurance policy for trounced MPs.”

On the record

“Old [Jacob] Marley sits on the frontbench opposite wounded and regretful – and that’s just about Arsenal’s latest performance.”

Tory MP Tracey Crouch uses A Christmas Carol to mock Jeremy Corbyn in the Commons.

From the Twitterati

“We were told last night that Brexit would not be mentioned by No10 come the new year: “People don’t want to have to listen to complicated trade deals.””

Newsnight’s Emily Maitlis on the banning of the B-word...

“When I predicted on Friday that they’d pretend Brexit had been ‘done’ after getting the Withdrawal Agreement through Parliament, I was actually joking.”

...leaving James O’Brien amazing his gags are becoming reality.

Predictions for 2020

Our political commentators and correspondents on what to look out for next year:

JOHN RENTOUL: All the energy of the Remainer movement may have to go somewhere, but I don’t think it will go into a campaign to Rejoin the EU, so it might lead to a revival of Extinction Rebellion or similar climate activism. With a bit of luck it might focus on the hard stuff such as international diplomacy, rather than plastic straws.

JON STONE: It took MPs in Westminster a couple of years to get their heads around Brexit’s Northern Ireland border problem and the possible solutions to it. Some still don’t really get it. There’ll be a similar issue in trade talks – the Brits will want to have their cake and eat it on something, probably alignment with EU standards. Talks will continue well past 2020 even if something interim is signed before the end of the year.

ANDREW GRICE: I think Boris Johnson repeatedly threatens “no trade deal” the end of the transitional period in December 2020, but UK-EU negotiations run out of time. On 31 December, Johnson signs an outline agreement that allows talks to continue, but insists this is an “implementation phase” – not an extension to the transition.