Inside Politics: Boris Johnson offers to pay visit to Paris and Berlin

The PM has challenged leaders in France and Germany to step in – but a no-deal Brexit looks increasingly likely, writes Adam Forrest

Boris Johnson (AFP via Getty Images)

Boris Johnson once said the chances of a no-deal Brexit were “vanishingly unlikely”. Boris Johnson once claimed the chances of a no-deal Brexit were a “a million to one against”. Boris Johnson once told us a no-deal Brexit would be a “failure of statecraft”. I’m afraid the vanishingly unlikely, million-to-one, epic failure of statecraft looks set to happen in just three weeks’ time. Boris Johnson has said he’s now willing to go to Paris or Berlin in search of a breakthrough. I certainly wouldn’t bet on that happening.

 

Inside the bubble

 

Our policy correspondent Jon Stone on what to look out for today:

Today is the last day of the EU leaders’ summit in Brussels. When things are wrapped up sometime in the afternoon, expect a press conference from Ursula von der Leyen, Charles Michel, and Angela Merkel. While the summit isn’t about Brexit, there’s a good chance they’ll have to field questions about it. That might move things on, a bit, with just 48 hours to go until Boris Johnson’s Sunday deadline.

 

Daily briefing

 

TWIN SPEAKS: Boris Johnson has said there is now a “strong possibility” the UK will fail to strike a post-Brexit trade agreement with the EU – telling us “now is the time” to prepare for no-deal. Opposing ideas on level playing field rules appear now to be irreconcilable. Johnson mocked the idea that EU and the UK should be held to the same rules – “a bit like twins” getting the same haircut. The PM challenged to Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel to step in, saying he was prepared to travel to Paris or Berlin for talks if necessary – but there is no sign the challenge will be taken up. Ireland pleaded for sanity. Premier Micheal Martin said neither side should walk away when “97 per cent of a deal had been agreed”. Meanwhile, Brussels has published no deal contingency plan – essentially a set of proposals for emergency arrangements on aviation, freight and fishing if trade talks finally break down altogether on Sunday. No 10 said the UK will “look closely” at the mini-deals.

 

NO GO ZONE: As if things weren’t tense and terrible enough, the European Commission has confirmed Britons could be barred from entering the EU from 1 January. New travel rules will kick in, which means the bloc’s current coronavirus restrictions will block entry. In theory, individual member states could decide to create their own travel corridor with the UK. The Independent’s travel expert Simon Calder said countries dependent on tourism could make exemptions “but there’s no obligation to at the moment”. Meanwhile, importers have said customers who ordered Christmas presents such as baking products, electronics and DIY tools might not see their goods until next year after more container ships were delayed. Meanwhile, the Department for Transport has announced a temporary relaxing of the rules which limit the number of hours lorry drivers’ can work, so long as they’re carrying food and medical supplies. 

 

RULE THE SCHOOL: Mass testing will soon begin for secondary school pupils in parts of London, Essex and Kent worst hit by Covid, Matt Hancock has announced. The health secretary said regular tests were now necessary as part of the rules because “by far” the fastest rise in infection rates was among 11 to 18-year-olds. “We need to do everything to stop the spread in school-age children now,” he said. In Wales, all secondary schools and colleges will move teaching online from the start of next week. Education minister Kirsty Williams said it followed advice from Wales’ chief medical officer on the “deteriorating” Covid situation there. Hancock, meanwhile, admitted London was seeing a “worrying rise” in cases – but wouldn’t give away any clues on whether the capital is heading for tier 3 at next week’s tier review. In other Covid news, England and Wales’s contact-tracing app is finally adding a way to apply for a £500 grant if it tells you to self-isolate.

 

TAX AND MEND: Covid contracts worth £470m have been handed out to companies linked to tax havens, says Labour. Among them is Ayanda Capital, which came under fire over a £253m deal for 50 million masks that couldn’t be used. It emerged that Andrew Mills – an adviser to the new Board of Trade – was a senior adviser to the company. “This government cannot continue to brush worrying patterns like this off,” said Rachel Reeves. Meanwhile, a civil servants’ union has raised new and “grave” concerns over claims of bullying in the Cabinet Office. Mark Serwotka, leader of the Pubic and Commercial Services Union (PCS), wrote a letter to the department saying some staff have “contemplated suicide” as a result of their treatment. It comes as lawyers acting for the FDA senior civil servants’ union have issued a pre-action notice to Downing Street over the PM’s decision to clear Priti Patel of bullying staff.

 

ORIGINAL PRG: Prepare yourself for a shock. Tory backbenchers have set up yet another acronymic research group. They sure do love those acronymic research groups. A group of 29 MPs is today launching the Property Research Group (PRG) to fight for reform of stamp duty and other pesky property taxes. They want No 10 to look again at council tax and inheritance tax – as well as reducing the burden of stamp duty because it “hinders aspiration”. Elsewhere today, Plaid Cymru leader Adam Price will this morning announce that a vote for his party is a vote for an independence referendum in Wales. Keen to piggyback on some of the momentum the SNP has in Scotland, he’ll tell an online audience: “Wales is in real danger of being be left behind as part of a rump UK, in a new England-and-Wales formation – which would be the ultimate worst of all worlds.”

 

FIRE AND FURIES: The next president Joe Biden and the next VP Kamala Harris have been chosen as Time magazine’s Person of the Year for 2020. The publication said the duo had showed “the forces of empathy are greater than the furies of division”. Speaking of furies of division, officials in several states have offered ferocious condemnations of the Texas lawsuit filed in the Supreme Court that seeks to overturn election results in the four key battleground states. The state of Pennsylvania’s official response describes the move by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton – supported by Donald Trump of course – as using a “cacophony of bogus claims” in support of a “seditious abuse of the judicial process”, resting on “a surreal alternate reality”. Don’t hold back now, Pennsylvania.

 

On the record

 

“I do think it’s vital that everybody now gets ready for that Australian option.”

Boris Johnson tells us to get ready for a no-deal Brexit – but doesn’t think we’re quite ready to hear the term ‘no-deal Brexit’.

 

From the Twitterati

 

“I’m told that there was/is precious little energy for a deal on either side … as one senior EU diplomat observes wearily, there is ‘a lack of trust, a lack of energy and a lack of commitment to reach a deal’.”

The FT’s Peter Foster is downbeat…

 

“My guess: It will be some time (3-6 months?) before Her Majesty’s Government & EU Commission get back around the table. Some allies of PM suggest 2022! It really would be better for everyone concerned, citizens, businesses … to do the deal now.”

…while analyst Mujtaba Rahman is looking ahead.

 

Essential reading

 

Jess Phillips, The Independent: How can Boris Johnson claim to love the country? He has put it in danger

 

Tom Peck, The Independent: It looks like the Brexiteers have got what they always wanted

 

Stephen Bush, i newspaper: Matt Hancock deserves a better reputation than Rishi Sunak

 

Chris Cillizza, CNN: Why this Texas ‘election fraud’ lawsuit is a complete joke

 

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