Boris Johnson says he wants to force through controversial Brexit legislation by the end of the year and insists questions about his leadership are “settled”.
As MP vote today on a law that would unilaterally override parts of the Brexit deal, the prime minister said world leaders were not challenging him over the issue.
“The interesting thing is how little this conversation is being had,” he claimed at the G7 summit in Bavaria.
The government’s Northern Ireland protocol bill has its second reading in the Commons this afternoon, with ministers saying it will fix problems that are damaging trade with the rest of the UK.
Johnson argues that the proposals — which would set different rules for goods due to remain in the UK, while checks continue on goods destined for the EU — will solve the problem “without in any way endangering the EU single market”.
He said that Britain was trying to “fix something that I think is very important to our country, which is the balance of the Belfast, Good Friday agreement and you’ve got one tradition, one community that feels that things really aren’t working in a way that they like or understand”.
Despite fears of a trade war with the EU if the bill passes, Johnson said “we can do it fairly rapidly”. Asked if that meant this year, he said: “Yes we could do it very fast.” He stressed it would be “even better” if the EU changed its position in negotiation, insisting “we remain optimistic” about the potential for a revised deal.
With questions swirling about his leadership and MPs openly urging the cabinet to revolt against him, Johnson dismissed efforts by his own party to unseat him. Referring to a confidence vote in which four in ten Conservative MPs opposed him, he said: “We settled that a couple of weeks ago.”
Aside from the political discussions at the G7 summit, the wives of some of the leaders, including Carrie Johnson, watched a demonstration of summer training techniques for cross-country skiing.
The EU Council president's partner, Amelie Derbaudrenghien; Britta Ernst, the wife of Olaf Scholz; Carrie Johnson; and Emmanuel Macron’s wife, Brigitte, at Elmauer Alm Mountain Restaurant today
MICHAELA/REUTERS
3 hours ago
6.30pm
Overriding NI bill is illegal, says May
Theresa May has warned her successor that the EU were unlikely to meaningfully engage with him after the confidence vote
JESSICA TAYLOR/UK PARLIAMENT/REUTERS
The government’s plan to override the Northern Ireland Brexit bill is illegal under international law, won’t achieve its aims and will reduce Britain’s standing in the world, Theresa May has said.
In an excoriating Commons attack the former prime minister said she could not support legislation to override the Northern Ireland protocol being debated for the first time today.
“As a patriot I would not want to do anything that would diminish this country in the eyes of the world,” she said. “I have to say to the government that this bill is not in my view legal in international law, it will not achieve its aims and it will diminish the standing of the United Kingdom in the eyes of the world and I cannot support it.”
In a jibe at Johnson she suggested that after this month’s confidence vote the EU was unlikely to meaningfully engage with her successor — preferring instead to wait for a new Conservative leader.
“My experience was that the EU looks very carefully at the political situation in any country,” she said. “I discovered after I had faced a no confidence vote, despite having won, they then start to ask themselves — is it really worth negotiating with these people?’
7 hours ago
1.55pm
‘If Ukraine wins, you all win’ — Zelensky’s plea for support
President Zelensky has appealed to western leaders for more weaponry, urging them not to let Russia’s invasion “drag on over winter”.
Addressing G7 leaders via video he said that “if Ukraine wins, you all win” and pleaded for more ammunition and missiles to force Russia back.
President Zelensky addressed G7 leaders at the summit in the Bavarian Alps via a video link
In a joint statement the leaders pledged their “unwavering commitment” to Ukraine after concerns that some in Europe wanted to pressure Zelensky to cut a deal with Russia.
Zelensky told G7 leaders that “we will only negotiate from a position of strength” on territory. Boris Johnson has insisted that Russia must be ejected from Ukraine.
The G7 promised to “align and expand targeted sanctions” aimed at Russia’s arms industry as negotiations continued on oil and gold.
8 hours ago
12.50pm
Nato response force to increase to more than 300,000
Jens Stoltenberg said today that more military exercises will take place in the Baltic states
KENZO TRIBOUILLARD/GETTY IMAGES
Jens Stoltenberg, the secretary general of Nato, said that western nations would make clear that Russia was now considered the “most significant and direct threat to our security” as the alliance significantly bolsters its forces held at high readiness.
At a press conference before a Nato summit in Madrid this week, he said it would agree to increase its 40,000-strong response force to more than 300,000 as part of the biggest overhaul of collective defence since the Cold War.
Multinational battle groups already stationed in Nato’s eastern flank will also be increased by several thousand troops to brigade-sized forces. A standard Nato brigade consists of approximately 3,200 to 5,500 troops. At present Britain leads the so-called “enhanced forward presence” unit in Estonia, with two battle groups each comprising close to 1,000 personnel.
More exercises will take place and equipment will be pre-positioned in countries including the Baltic states, Stoltenberg said.
Nato’s new “strategic concept” — effectively a blueprint on the threats and challenges it faces over the next decade — will also address the rising threat from China for the first time.
9 hours ago
12.00pm
PM likens Russia to Nazi Germany
Boris Johnson declared that “the price of freedom is worth paying” as he braced Britain for a long and costly struggle against Russia (Chris Smyth writes).
Comparing the battle against Russian aggression to fighting the Nazis, the prime minister insisted that giving ground on Ukraine would embolden China to invade Taiwan and that “strategic endurance” would lead to long-term prosperity.
He dismissed his critics, saying he had a “new mandate” from the confidence vote in which four in ten of his MPs tried to remove him, but did not repeat his ambition to remain in Downing Street beyond 2030.
He told the BBC there had been no discussion among world leaders of pressing Ukraine to cede territory in order to ease a global cost of living crisis. “No one here at the G7 can really see any alternative to simply supporting them in regaining their sovereignty,” he said.
Amid rising fuel and food prices, Johnson sought to reassure Britain that “the economic impacts on the UK will start to abate” but insisted there could be no compromise.
“Imagine if we allowed Putin to get away with the violent acquisition of huge chunks of another country, a sovereign, independent territory, the lessons for that would be absolutely chilling in all of the countries of the former Soviet Union, you can see what’s happening in the Baltic countries already,” he said, adding that the effects would also be felt in east Asia.
Asked if there was any limit on the costs Britain would bear to help Ukraine, Johnson said: “I think that sometimes the price of freedom is worth paying ... it took the democracies, in the middle of the last century, a long time to recognise that they had to resist tyranny and aggression ... it was very expensive.
“But what it bought in the end, with the defeat of the dictators, particularly of Nazi Germany, it bought decades and decades of stability, a world order that relied on a rules-based international system.”
10 hours ago
10.45am
Johnson strikes Ukraine pact with Macron
President Macron and Boris Johnson held a bilateral meeting during the G7 summit
BENOIT TESSIER/REUTERS
Boris Johnson and President Macron agreed to hold an Anglo-French summit to improve ties after pledging to help Ukraine to mount a military “surge” against Russia.
The two men’s relationship has been fraught but yesterday the prime minister jokingly referred to it as “le bromance” and said they were “100 per cent aligned”. Although Britain has previously questioned France’s commitment to Ukraine, during a bilateral meeting at the G7 summit the pair agreed that the outright defeat of Russia remained the best outcome.
If that failed Macron said that they needed to put President Zelensky in the best position to strike a deal. Johnson was said to be effusive after he emerged from the meeting because Macron’s firm line on Ukraine exceeded British expectations. Johnson spoke of his love for the French people and Macron spoke of his love for the British. The pair deliberately kept clear of issues they have clashed on in the past.
Read the full article here.
The prime minister’s wife, Carrie, and the French president’s wife, Brigitte, greeted each other warmly today before watching a demonstration of summer training techniques for cross-country skiing.
Carrie Johnson and Brigitte Macron at Elmauer Alm, near Garmisch-Partenkirchen, this morning
MICHAELA REHLE/REUTERS
11 hours ago
9.45am
G7 looks to raise pressure on Kremlin with Russian oil price cap
The Yang Mei Hu oil tanker at the crude oil terminal Kozmino near Nakhodka, Russia. China continues to buy Russian crude, in contrast to the approach of western countries
TATIANA MEEL/REUTERS
The G7 is considering an American proposal to effectively cap the price that can be paid for Russian oil as it seeks to ratchet up the pressure on Moscow over the invasion of Ukraine (Emily Gosden writes).
America has already banned imports of oil from Russia, with Britain pledging to do so by the end of the year and the European Union banning seaborne imports by the end of this year.
However, there are concerns over the extent to which such bans are hurting the Kremlin’s finances as countries such as China and India continue to buy Russian crude and a squeeze on supplies in the West pushes up the price of oil.
Read the full article here.
12 hours ago
9.30am
Johnson to rally G7 behind Ukraine as Zelensky addresses summit
Boris Johnson was up early this morning in glorious alpine sunshine, heading to Ferchensee lake near the Schloss Elmau in Bavaria for a swim with his wife, Carrie. A peaceful dip may well turn out to be the high point of his day: he will attempt to show leadership on the world stage by rallying the G7 summit behind Ukraine, while at the same time instructing MPs at home to rip up parts of the Brexit deal he signed, as his backbenchers openly implore cabinet ministers to oust him.
President Zelensky is addressing world leaders at the summit today via video as Johnson tries to sell a plan to get grain out of Ukraine by insuring commercial shipping to break the Russian Black Sea blockade and repairing the country’s railways.
Boris Johnson gives a thumbs-up as President Zelensky addresses world leaders at the G7 summit
BENOIT TESSIER/GETTY IMAGES
Back in London, George Eustice, the environment secretary, was forced to defend what he acknowledged had been a “choppy and turbulent” six months and defuse a row created by Johnson’s stated desire to remain in No 10 into the 2030s.
Eustice told Times Radio that Johnson would “like to go on and on”, a wish that has infuriated the prime minister’s critics, but argued that “prime ministers can’t win” when talking about their date of departure.
“They either say that they want to carry on and they’ve got a lot to do and they want to keep going. And that’s what obviously Margaret Thatcher said and what Boris Johnson is perceived to have said. Or like Tony Blair, they say they’re not going to go on and on and people spend years arguing about the date of their departure.”
After four in ten Tory MPs voted to oust Johnson, Eustice insisted the party had “put that vote behind us” and was uniting behind the prime minister.
This is true in the sense that backbenchers, denied another vote for a year under present rules, have now moved on to urging members of the cabinet to force Johnson out.
Damian Green, who was deputy prime minister under Theresa May, told Channel 4: “I think if this long agony for everyone concerned, from the PM down, is to be brought to a head ... then maybe somebody in the cabinet might wish to take some action.”
William Wragg, vice-chairman of the 1922 Committee, told the BBC last night: “The sense of disappointment that there is on the back benches towards the cabinet is palpable because you would have expected for some of them at least to show a bit of backbone.”
12 hours ago
9.00am
PM’s battles at home and abroad
Good morning and welcome to The Times’s live coverage of today’s politics as Boris Johnson pushes for his Ukraine grain plan on the world stage, while his future as prime minister is still in doubt at home.
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiYGh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LnRoZXRpbWVzLmNvLnVrL2FydGljbGUvZzctc3VtbWl0LTIwMjItemVsZW5za3ktYm9yaXMtam9obnNvbi1wb2xpdGljcy1saXZlLWpmZzU1Yjl0YtIBAA?oc=5
2022-06-27 17:30:00Z
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