Inside Politics: Channel row escalates and Labour takes poll lead over Tories

France accuses UK of financial blackmail and support for Tories slumps to lowest level since election, writes Matt Mathers

(PA)

She did it. Tennis sensation Emma Raducanu has made history by becoming the first qualifier to reach a Grand Slam final, with victory over Maria Sakkari in the semi-final of the US Open at Flushing Meadows. It was a relatively comfortable straight-sets win for the British teen, whose heroics in New York have earned her the nickname Emma Radu-cando. Back at Westminster, one politician who can’t seem to do anything right at the moment is Gavin Williamson. Yesterday he called for an end to online lectures...via Zoom because he apparently couldn’t be bothered to show up to a Universities UK conference. Elsewhere, France and Britain are embroiled in a row over Channel crossings and Labour has overtaken the Tories in a new poll.

Inside the bubble

A series of private members bills are being debated in the Commons and Lords this morning from 9.30am

Coming up:

-Culture secretary Oliver Dowden on LBC radio at 7.50am

-First minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon on ITV Good Morning Britain at 8.30am

Daily Briefing

CHANTAGE: Britain and France’s war of diplomatic words over Channel crossings escalated yesterday. Priti Patel, the home secretary, is said to be pressing ahead with plans to rewrite the UK’s maritime law to allow Border Force (BF) to use “pushback” tactics to send boats back into French waters. Responding to the news Nicolas Pillerel, diplomatic adviser to the French interior minister, said: “Intercepting boats in the sea when they don’t want to be escorted is extremely dangerous. And this can lead to tragedies.” Leading lawyers, a senior Tory MP, a former chief of the naval staff and the union representing BF officials all agreed that the policy was likely to be unworkable without French cooperation. Gerald Darmanin, Patel’s counterpart, also said the French will not accept any request to break the law “nor any financial blackmail” after the home secretary threatened to withhold £54 million offered to France to double its patrol efforts.

POLL LEVY: Labour has taken the lead over the Conservatives just days after Boris Johnson got his health and social levy through the Commons. Labour is on 35 per cent compared to the Tories 33 per cent – the party’s lowest showing since the last election, according to the YouGov poll for The Times. Anthony Wells, political research director at YouGov, said: “We should be cautious of leaping to too many conclusions from a single poll but . . . it looks as if the government may have sacrificed their reputation for low taxes amongst Tory voters without actually getting much credit for helping the NHS.”

FOOD FOR THOUGHT: The UK will delay checks on some EU imports while it seeks a solution on trade of foodstuffs with Northern Ireland, according to officials and a new piece of legislation. The official government line is that businesses should still prepare for an October deadline, but the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs confirmed on Thursday that there will be a further delay to checks on chilled meats. Other officials familiar with the matter said they expected the 1 October deadline to be stalled for products like eggs, dairy products, and others.

FUNDING GAP: Johnson’s plan to boost health spending will not be enough for the NHS to deal with its coronavirus demands past 2024, a leading economic think tank has warned. The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said the new funding announced by the prime minister this week would only cover the health service in dealing with pandemic-related pressures for two years. The economists said another £5bn – not included in the government’s plan for health and social care – would be needed in 2024-25 to allow the NHS to cope with the enormous extra demands caused by the Covid crisis.“Based on our best estimates the funding announced by the prime minister this week should be enough to meet these pressures for the next two years,” said Max Warner, research economist at the IFS.

‘CLUELESS’: Johnson’s care minister has said she “doesn’t know” if under-pressure education secretary Gavin Williamson is racist or incompetent. Williamson has apologised for a “genuine mistake” after mixing up England footballer Marcus Rashford with England rugby star Maro Itoje in an interview. The error has sparked criticism from MPs who have accused the education secretary of being “clueless” and “ignorant”. Asked on LBC if Mr Williamson was either racist or incompetent, care minister Helen Whately said: “Honestly, I don’t know.”

On the record

“If our ministers cannot, in the end, prevent these checks taking place and if the protocol issues remain then I have to be clear, the position in office of DUP ministers would become untenable. If the choice is ultimately between remaining in office or implementing the protocol in its present form then the only option, the only option for any unionist minister would be to cease to hold such office.”

DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson threatens to bring down Stormont over protocol issues.

From the Twitterati

“He’s becoming performance art now.”

HuffPost executive politics editor Paul Waugh on Williamson.

Essential reading

• Cathy Newman, The Independent: We’ve got a cabinet of dunces in charge of the country – a reshuffle is long overdue
• John Rentoul, The Independent: ‘Blue Labour’ Boris Johnson has Keir Starmer trapped
• Timothy McLaughlin: The Atlantic: Inside the pro-Beijing media ecosystem
• Fraser Nelson, The Spectator: Assetocracy – the inversion of the welfare state

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