Inside Politics: Boris Johnson warned of meat industry’s Brexit pain

Another sector tells No 10 new customs systems are so ‘badly implemented’ they are beginning to hurt, writes Adam Forrest

(REUTERS)

One British poultry farmer is giving away thousands of eggs to local food banks after a big slump in sales. The farmer says 180,000 hens “cannot be furloughed”. Angry seafood bosses don’t have the option of handing rotten produce to food banks. They may have stopped short of dumping their stinking stock at Downing Street during protests (as threatened) – but industry chiefs remain livid at Boris Johnson’s perceived “betrayal”. UK meat exporters are also now warning the PM they too are being crippled by Brexit red tape.

Inside the bubble

Chief political commentator John Rentoul on what to look out for today:

Cabinet meeting in the morning, followed by Foreign Office questions in the Commons, when Dominic Raab will no doubt be asked to comment on the remarkably speedy “trial” of Alexei Navalny in Moscow. Meanwhile, SNP MP Pete Wishart has been granted an urgent question to culture secretary Oliver Dowden about EU visas for touring musicians.

Daily briefing

ROTTEN IN ROTTERDAM: Britain’s meat exporters have joined fishermen in raising alarm over sales lost because of new customs red tape. The British Meat Processors Association complained the new systems were both “convoluted” and “badly implemented”. One exporter has five containers’ worth of pork going rotten in Rotterdam due to an incorrect veterinary certificate. Police fined 15 Scottish seafood workers who took part in Monday’s protest in Westminster – as trucks with slogans like “Brexit Carnage” parked around Downing Street. Boris Johnson said there would be a £23m compensation fund to help fishermen who had lost buyers for their fish. So is No 10 accepting blame for their woes? No way, said Johnson. He suggested seafood exporters were partly to blame for their own post-Brexit crash in sales, claiming they were “not filling in the right forms”. The PM also blamed the pandemic for causing a dip in demand.

MAP TO THE BARS: Matt Hancock believes Covid is now coming “under control” – but warned the public not to “blow it” just as lockdown measures were finally succeeding. “We’re on the route out.” A clear route out of lockdown is exactly what angsty Tory backbenchers are looking for. “We are looking for that road map,” one Tory backbencher told The Mail after another dip in daily cases. Boris Johnson begged them to be patient – insisting it wouldn’t be possible to set out a plan for the easing of restrictions until mid-February. Hancock also revealed that jabs would be diverted to areas falling behind on vaccinating the over-80s, amid ongoing worries about regional disparities in the roll-out. Meanwhile, it emerged the UK now has the highest Covid death rate in the world. Figures compiled by University of Oxford-based research platform Our World in Data show no other country matches the UK’s per capita rate of deaths.

STUNT AFFRONT: Keir Starmer thinks Boris Johnson has been “pathetic” over the soon-to-be-scrapped £20-a-week uplift in universal credit. Six Tory MPs – including influential education committee chair Robert Halfon – defied party orders last night and voted with Labour on the symbolic opposition day motion, adding to the pressure on the PM to finally extend the £1,000-a-year increase. “I actually think in their heart of hearts quite a lot of Tory MPs know that cutting this money to people who desperately need it in the middle of a pandemic is the wrong thing to do,” said Starmer. No 10 accused Labour of a “political stunt”. But the PM’s press secretary Allegra Stratton admitted the cut could still go ahead in April, saying: “We haven’t made a decision.” What about Johnson’s bizarre claim Labour was encouraging Trump-style hatred? Stratton said the PM had simply meant we must “remember to be civil and kind to each other”.

GOING GETS TOUGH, TOUGH GO MISSING: Labour also went on the attack over Priti Patel’s decision not to turn up to parliament to answer questions on a major loss in police records. “The home secretary likes to talk tough, but when the going gets tough, she’s nowhere to be seen,” said shadow home secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds. An internal review has now been launched by the Home office after a “coding error” caused the loss of at least 150,000 records – possibly over 400,000 – on the Police National Computer database. Policing minister Kit Malthouse claimed Patel is “200 per cent” committed to the job. Which was a bit silly of him. Meanwhile, the largest political group in the European parliament has said the EU should come up a “master plan” to move crucial financial services out of London after Brexit. The European People’s Party (EPP) doesn’t want Brussels dependent on the UK in any way.

DO YOU FEEL LUCKY? What about Britain’s dependence on America? The UK’s former ambassador to the US said it would be a “stretch” for No 10 to agree a trade deal with the Biden administration during the new president’s first term. Kim Darroch said Johnson may just “strike it lucky”, but he has doubts it’ll happen by 2024 because Biden has made clear trade deals will not be a priority. The ex-civil service head Mark Sedwill has also weighed in on the changing of the guard in Washington. He said Johnson would be “relieved” to see the back of Donald Trump. Perhaps Wednesday’s focus on the inauguration will give the PM the chance to take one of his naps. No 10 aides told Times Radio it’s not unusual for the boss to take a 30-minute snooze – described as “a power executive nap to get him ready for the rest of the day”. They also revealed Johnson is usually 10 minutes late for his first morning meeting.

IT’S MY PARTY AND I’LL DEFY IF I WANT TO: Donald Trump is not slinking off quietly. He is reportedly planning to host a big, defiant farewell ceremony for himself at a military base in Maryland early on Wednesday morning, before jetting out to his Mar-a-Lago resort to dodge Joe Biden’s inauguration. Trump is also tipped to issue around 100 pardons for his cronies – the ones he hasn’t fallen out with. Washington remains on edge. A rehearsal for the inauguration had to be called off due to an “external security threat” on Monday – as smoke was seen rising from a building behind the US Capitol. It turned out to be a fire caused a homeless woman using propane in her tent. Meanwhile, Biden’s spokeswoman has made clear that the US will maintain Covid travel bans on the UK, most of the EU and Brazil – despite an order from Trump to lift them on 26 January.

On the record

“Unfortunately, the demand in restaurants on the continent for UK fish has not been what it was before the pandemic.”

Boris Johnson blames Brexit woes on dip in demand.

From the Twitterati

“The UK now has the highest Covid death rate in the world. A horrifying, heart-breaking, appalling fact that shames our country and our govt.”

Piers Morgan is shocked…

“World-beating. In the most wretched, grim and unforgivable way imaginable. I’m incandescent.”

…and Dr Rachel Clarke is angry.

Essential reading

George Soros, The Independent: This economic crisis is way worse than 2008 – but there’s one way out

Tom Peck, The Independent: So Boris Johnson believes we must be civil and kind to another other, does he?

Rachel Sylvester, The Times: Global Britain must decide ethical price of trade deals

Jonathan Chait, New York Magazine: Trump wanted to erase Obama’s legacy. He failed

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