UK and the UN
According to a UN inspector the austerity programme, changes to immigration and Brexit have all “disproportionately” affected Britain’s ethnic minorities.
Evaluation of UK’s international obligations
Government lawyers are attempting to prevent documents that detail the relationship between the British Government and Muammar Gaddafi from being made public under the Freedom of Information Act, just days after apologising for the UK’s role in the kidnap and torture of one of the Libyan dictator’s opponents.
A leaked Government document has shown that the UK is already missing critical deadlines to put full safeguards in place to keep the flow of components and raw material needed to fabricate nuclear fuel after Brexit.
UK’s post-Brexit relationship with the EU
In an article in The Times, Theresa May has implored her Cabinet ministers and the public to trust her on Brexit amid reports that at least a dozen of them are lining up to block her chosen customs plan. However her former deputy, Damien Green, has predicted that her preferred option for customs links with the EU after Brexit will not happen and the factions of the Cabinet are criticising her plans.
Simon Coveney has insisted that the Irish Government will be “inflexible” on any border infrastructure but stated that Ireland was open to any “new thinking” from British prime minster Theresa May on customs arrangements after Brexit. Meanwhile Theresa May clashed with Jacob Rees-Mogg in sending “a tough signal” to hardline Brexiteers that any future customs arrangements must not compromise Britain’s relationship with Northern Ireland.
The House of Lords EU Committee has published a paper considering Brexit and the Common Security and Defence Policy missions and operations.
A Norway-style soft Brexit has been declared ‘dead’ after Jeremy Corbyn ruled out support for it from Labour.
Sam Lowe has written an article for the Centre for European Reform arguing that the UK needs to accept a backstop which grants a special status to Northern Ireland.
The Council of the European Union’s General Affairs Council (Article 50) has released the minutes from its latest meeting in which it was was briefed by Michel Barnier about the ongoing Brexit negotiations and on the latest developments regarding internal UK discussions.
Labour is to stage a Commons ambush in a bid to force the Government to publish secret papers on its plans for a customs deal with Brussels after Brexit. However this has been voted down by MPS. Meanwhile the Government has stated that it will set out the Brexit customs plan in a White Paper published next month.
Ministers have reportedly agreed to tell the EU that the UK is willing to stay in the customs union after 2021, leading Jacob Rees-Mogg to warn of ‘perpetual Brexit purgatory’.
Theresa May is to publish fresh proposals for avoiding a hard border in Ireland in a last-ditch attempt to break the Brexit deadlock.
No Comments