Inside Politics: ‘Getting it all done is going to be a stretch’

Boris Johnson is touching down in America for a bit of climate diplomacy – but he isn’t optimistic, writes Jon Stone

The Prime Minister has said ‘we’ll have to do everything we can’ to prevent energy companies going under as wholesale gas prices surge (Stefan Rousseau/PA) (PA Wire)

Boris Johnson is in America, and his word of the day is ‘Amazon’: he’ll meet with the boss of the online retailer and tell him to pay his taxes; he’s also meet with the Brazilian president and tell him to stop cutting down the world’s largest rainforest.

Inside the Bubble

Back in Westminster the House of Commons kicks off from 2.30pm today, with defence questions and a debate on social security uprating, including pensions. Boris Johnson last night landed in the US for a United Nations general assembly meeting where he will hold talks with climate sceptics such as Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, in a bid to prepare the ground for COP26.

Coming up:

– Foreign Office minister James Cleverly on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme at 8.30am

– Defence committee Chairman Tobias Ellwood on Sky News Breakfast at 9.30am

Daily Briefing

FINAL DICE ROLL As he arrived in New York on Sunday evening for a round of climate diplomacy Boris Johnson was downbeat on his chances of success. The prime minister told reporters he had no more than a six in 10 chance of getting the breakthrough agreement needed at the Glasgow Cop26 climate emergency summit to avoid catastrophic rises in global temperatures. The prime minister said some major economies “need to do more” ahead of his last-ditch effort to get the process back on track with just six weeks to go to the UK-hosted gathering.

GOING NUCLEAR Britain’s new foreign secretary Liz Truss is also launching a diplomatic push of her own today: she will meet with the Iranian foreign minister today to discuss UK nationals imprisoned in the Islamic Republic. Truss will demand the immediate release of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and any other Brits when she speaks to Hossein Amir-Abdollahian at the United Nations General Assembly in New York. She will also push Iran on rejoining the nuclear deal trashed by Donald Trump warning there is “less space for diplomacy” every day the JCPOA does not resume.

RETURN OF THE MAC Next week’s Labour conference could be Keir Starmer’s last chance to unify his party and set out a compelling vision to avoid a repeat of the 2019 election, leading left winger John McDonnell has warned. Speaking to The Independent the former shadow chancellor said Sir Keir should overturn “frustration” with his leadership by restoring the whip to Jeremy Corbyn and setting out radical policies on issues like ending child poverty, scrapping university tuition fees and delivering a “green new deal” on the climate emergency including public ownership of key industries.

IF IT’S BROKE A commission of business leaders and MPs has urged Boris Johnson to fix the “broken” Brexit trade deal amid mounting evidence of problems. A report by the cross-party UK Trade and Business Commission says export checks must be streamlined, the cost and complexity of obtaining visas eased and a new body set up to protect food standards. The Commission also said there was “no appetite for widespread deregulation or divergence from EU rules” among businesses – a policy long hailed as the key benefit of EU withdrawal by the prime minister and David Frost, his Brexit minister.

WASTE NOT WANT NOT An “unconscionable” 100 million stockpiled Covid vaccines will expire in rich countries by Christmas while poorer nations are starved of supplies, a new analysis says. The research also suggests a further 1 million more deaths from the pandemic by next summer, amid a lack of ventilators and oxygen, the data group Airfinity found. The study has been endorsed by Gordon Brown, who has sent it to Joe Biden ahead of the US president leading a UN jabs summit on Wednesday – to spur him to avoid “a vaccine waste disaster” as “use by” dates pass. The former prime minister has been appointed an ambassador by the World Health Organisation (WHO) to drive forward better global action on public health.

On the record

“I think getting it all done this week is going to be a stretch.”

Boris Johnson on getting world leaders to agree to climate funding for developing countries in time for his COP26 summit

From the Twitterati

“This seems like a good way to go on Brexit for Labour – promoting policies everyone supports but not positioning it as anti-Brexit.”

Professor Patrick Sturgis on Labour’s push to restore EU free movement for touring musical acts

Essential reading

• Borzou Daragahi, The Independent: It’s wishful thinking to believe in a more moderate Taliban – its renewed crackdown on women proves it
• Denis Macshane, The Independent: The left is sweeping to power across Europe – seems like yesterday they were saying that about nationalists
• John Harris, The Guardian: Want to ‘level up’ the UK? Just give places the power and money they need
• Paul Goodman, ConservativeHome: Meet the Gove-rnment. Five takeaways from the reshuffle.