James Forsyth is former political editor of The Spectator.
From our UK edition
11 min listen
Boris Johnson is today visiting Brussels to meet EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen for dinner, in the hope that the two can agree a path through the stalling Brexit talks. Katy Balls speaks to James Forsyth and Denis Staunton, London editor of the Irish Times, about whether it could give negotiations the lift they desperately need.
From our UK edition
Keir Starmer normally avoids the subject of Brexit. But with Boris Johnson flying to Brussels tonight for dinner with Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, he could not avoid it at PMQs. But Boris Johnson, who was in the chamber in contrast to Starmer who is self-isolating, attempted to turn the tables. Johnson asked whether Starmer would vote for a deal. This was a bit premature given that there is no certainty that there will be a deal. But Starmer’s answer was interesting. He said Labour’s vote would be based on the national interest, not the party interest.
From our UK edition
14 min listen
The world's first doses of an authorised Covid vaccine were administered today, with ninety-year-old Briton Margaret Keenan first in line for the Pfizer jab. Health secretary Matt Hancock said it 'makes me proud to be British', after confirming that restrictions could begin to be lifted once the most vulnerable were protected. Has his approach been vindicated? Isabel Hardman talks to Katy Balls and James Forsyth.
From our UK edition
Today brings some surprising Brexit news. The UK and the EU have announced that they have come to an agreement in principle on all the outstanding issues in the Northern Ireland protocol. As a result, the clauses of the Internal Market Bill, which breached the UK’s international law obligations in a ‘specific and limited way’, will be dropped. The reason why this is surprising is that the assumption had long been that some of these differences would only be resolved once a trade deal was done. (A tariff-free trade agreement between the UK and the EU would make it much easier to fix various of these issues). The details of the agreement will not be out until tomorrow. So, we will have to wait until then to see precisely how this has been done.
From our UK edition
Brexit deadline after deadline has slid to the right. There is, however, one deadline that is set in law: that the transition period finishes at the end of this year. Comments from the UK government and the European Commission today suggest that this now is, really, the only deadline. The European Commission has said that ‘hopefully’ the talks will continue after the Boris Johnson-Ursula von der Leyen meeting in Brussels this week. This is to be expected given that the gaps are too big to be bridged in one meeting. The Commission’s spokesman also suggested that the talks could carry on even in the event of a no deal on 1 January – which rather underestimates how acrimonious things would become in these circumstances.
From our UK edition
The upshot of Boris Johnson and Ursula von der Leyen’s conversation this evening is that the pair will meet in Brussels in the ‘coming days’ to see if they can resolve the remaining ‘significant differences’ on the level playing field, governance and fish. Presumably this meeting will take place before the European Council on Thursday. Johnson and von der Leyen are being left with a lot to resolve in their summit. This isn’t going to be simply about finding a compromise on fish but on sorting the three issues that have bedevilled the negotiations from the start.
From our UK edition
12 min listen
It looks like Brexit talks could finally be coming to a head. After Boris Johnson and Ursula Von Der Leyen decided that efforts to reach an agreement should continue, negotiators spent the weekend bartering over fishing rights and the level playing field. The pair are set to have another call later today, but can it break the impasse? Katy Balls speaks to James Forsyth.
From our UK edition
The Brexit negotiations are continuing in Brussels this morning. But Michel Barnier’s briefing to EU member states suggests that little progress was made yesterday. Boris Johnson and the Commission President Ursula von der Leyen are due to speak this evening. It seems highly unlikely that there’ll be a deal for them to bless in that call. Rather, it will again come down to whether their conversation can lead to a breakthrough in the negotiations, which is surely going to have to come from some creativity rather than just the two sides going over the same well-trodden ground again. I had thought that today really was the deadline on Brexit because of the return of the Internal Market Bill to the Commons.
From our UK edition
24 min listen
After promising news about the coronavirus vaccines, Katy Balls talks to James Forsyth and Jamie Njoku-Goodwin, a former adviser to Matt Hancock, about what this will mean for experiencing life as we knew it.
From our UK edition
It was always going to be the case that a Brexit deal would require an intervention from Boris Johnson and the Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. But today’s conversation between the pair is going to have to do more work than either side would have liked. Rather than nudging a deal over the line, this phone call is going to have to give the talks a proper shove. Von der Leyen has the more difficult task today. Johnson is speaking on his own behalf, von der Leyen is speaking for 27 governments, including one – France – that is publicly threatening to veto any deal it doesn’t like. But if she sticks rigidly to the current EU position, the talks will fail and there’ll be no deal; an outcome that von der Leyen does not want.
From our UK edition
15 min listen
In the last days of the negotiations, the pressure is ramping up as reports began to surface on Thursday evening that the talks were not going as well as hoped. This morning, allies of Emmanuel Macron have warned that France could unilaterally veto a Brexit deal. What will the next days bring and could Macron really pull the plug? Cindy Yu talks to James Forsyth and Katy Balls.
From our UK edition
After the past few years, it is hard to take Brexit deadlines seriously; they have a tendency to always slide to the right. But Sunday night/Monday morning really is the final deadline, as I say in the Times this morning. There are two reasons for this. First, the Internal Market Bill and the Finance Bill are in the Commons on Monday and Tuesday respectively. Both of these bills override parts of the withdrawal agreement, and in particular the Northern Ireland protocol. The EU would fiercely object, complaining the UK was breaking its obligations under international law and pointing to how the government had itself admitted it was a 'specific and limited' breach. It would argue it couldn’t negotiate with a partner that behaved like this.
From our UK edition
10 min listen
The promising sign of late night negotiation pizza has caused some optimism in Westminster that a Brexit deal may be just around the corner. On the podcast, James Forsyth and Katy Balls discuss what to look out for in the coming days.
From our UK edition
The beginning of the end for Theresa May was when she tried to see if she could pass her Brexit deal with Labour votes. So Boris Johnson will have shifted uncomfortably in his seat on Tuesday night when it became clear that the House of Commons had approved his tier system only because the opposition had abstained, I say in the magazine this week. The worry for Johnson is that the Tory rebellions against his Covid measures keep getting bigger. The original coronavirus act back in March passed without a vote. In September, seven Tories voted against the renewal of those emergency powers; 42 opposed the 10 p.m. curfew in October; and 53 were against the tier system this week.
From our UK edition
The beginning of the end for Theresa May was when she tried to see if she could pass her Brexit deal with Labour votes. So Boris Johnson will have shifted uncomfortably in his seat on Tuesday night when it became clear that the House of Commons had approved his tier system only because the opposition had abstained. If they had opposed the measure then it would have failed, such was the size of the Conservative revolt — 53 Tories voted against it, the biggest rebellion of his premiership by far. The worry for the Prime Minister is that this is not the last time he will need to rely on Keir Starmer’s passivity to get his regulations through.
From our UK edition
14 min listen
The UK is the first western country in the world to approve a coronavirus vaccine, it was announced today. The first doses of Pfizer's jab will be distributed from next week, and the news has renewed hopes that restrictions could soon be lifted. But after last night's vote saw 55 Tory MPs reject the new tiered system, can the good news heal the party? Katy Balls speaks to James Forsyth and Isabel Hardman.
From our UK edition
11 min listen
The government looks set to win today's Commons vote on the return of the tiers system for England, but tens of Tory backbenchers are unhappy. For them, the Prime Minister's reassurances have lost credibility, so on today's podcast, Isabel Hardman discusses with Katy Balls and James Forsyth whether or not Boris's optimism has backfired.
From our UK edition
Mark Harper has an unusual quality for a rebel leader, he’s a former government chief whip. So, it is fair to assume that he wouldn’t have declared this evening that the ‘wheels are coming off the government’s arguments’ and that ‘even with so little time, the government’s analysis seems to be collapsing under the glare of scrutiny’ if he didn’t think that the bulk of the Covid Recovery Group, which is 70-odd strong, agreed with him. Certainly, some of those MPs I would have expected to back the government tomorrow night after making their concerns clear, now appear intent on voting against the government.
From our UK edition
20 min listen
Brexit negotiations are continuing this week, with fisheries and the level playing field remaining key sticking points. But with the deadline for an agreement edging closer, is no-deal more likely than anticipated? Katy Balls speaks to Fraser Nelson and James Forsyth.
From our UK edition
Both Boris Johnson and Robert Jenrick have used their media appearances today to try and calm Tory MPs after yesterday’s announcement of the new Covid tiers. But the problem, as I say in the Times today, is that Tory MPs know these restrictions are unlikely to be eased anytime soon. Downing Street has been driven by a dread that the NHS may be overwhelmed It would be surprising if the government decided to loosen things up before it has seen the effect Christmas relaxations will have on the case rate. We know that government advisers think that for every day of Christmas easing there will need to be five days of tighter restrictions. We can’t be sure yet if this analysis is correct. But it would be a surprise if places were moving down the tiers in January.
