Inside Politics: Boris Johnson ‘set to breach international law’ over Brexit, says EU

Brussels is furious over No 10’s unilateral decision to extend protocol grace periods, writes Adam Forrest

(PA)

The boss of Channel 4 believes social media is fuelling the dangerous divides in our society. C4 chief exec Alex Mahon says our tendency to live in weird online “bubbles” is now a serious problem. Right on cue, Keir Starmer has accused Rishi Sunak of living in a one-man social media bubble – saying his Budget would “look better on Instagram”. It comes as the EU accused Boris Johnson of living in a bubble, after Downing Street revealed it would float off and do entirely its own thing on protocol grace periods.

Inside the bubble

Political editor Andrew Woodcock on what to look out for today:

Chancellor Rishi Sunak will take to the airwaves to defend his decision to increase taxes. The number crunchers at the Institute for Fiscal Studies will issue a considered judgement on the impact of Budget measures. And Boris Johnson may find his time occupied with trying to fend off legal action from the EU, which has accused him of “violating” his Brexit deal.

Daily briefing

GIMME SOME TRUTH: Rishi Sunak has decided being “honest” with the public is the best policy – telling us the economic recovery would take “a long time”. How was his Budget received by the Tories? The chancellor got a warm reception at the 1922 committee of backbenchers last night. But the grumbling about take hikes can now begin. The Office for Budget Responsibility said the tax burden will rise to its highest level since the 1960s. Sunak pushed corporation tax up and froze income tax thresholds in a “stealth” bid to bring more people in higher bands. The furlough scheme, support for self-employed and the £20-a-week uplift in universal credit will all continue until September. Keir Starmer said the measures merely “papers over the cracks”. Sunak was also accused “naked pork barrel politics” after billions of pounds of handouts appeared to favour Tory constituencies. Asked why 40 of 45 places receiving £1bn of towns fund grants are represented by Tory MPs, Sunak insisted it was purely about “economic need”. Is Mr Honesty telling porkies?

UNAMAZING GRACE: It hasn’t taken too long for the new Brexit minister David Frost to cause another big Brexit ruckus. The EU is furious at Downing Street’s decision to unilaterally extend the grace periods for Irish Sea border checks. “This is the second time that the UK government is set to breach international law,” the EU Commission said. The body’s vice president Maros Sefcovic held a meeting with Frost last night and made clear he considered it a “violation” of protocol arrangements. A UK government official accused Brussels of lacking the “pragmatism required to make the protocol work”. Irish foreign affairs minister Simon Coveney described the unilateral move as “deeply unhelpful”, while NI’s deputy first minister Michelle O’Neill pleaded for sanity. “The EU and the British government need to work together,” she said. One senior EU official told a Eurasia Group analyst: “We’re heading towards a very tumultuous period. [David] Frost is not here to solve problems.”

THEATRE OF THE ABSURD: So Nicola Sturgeon was grilled for eight hours (!) by MSPs on the Alex Salmond inquiry. The first minister insisted she had no reason to want to “get” Salmond as she dismissed his claims of a plot against him as “absurd”. Sturgeon did not spend all eight hours on the defensive, repeatedly attacking the “deeply inappropriate behaviour” of her predecessor. She also apologised to the two women who had made the complaints over her government’s botched handling of the investigation. Did we learn anything new? Bits and pieces. Referring to the member of her staff accused of revealing the name of a woman, Sturgeon: “The clear view of the person being accused of this is that this didn’t happen.” Anything left to pick apart? The inquiry committee is still to see all of the senior SNP officials’ WhatsApp messages which Salmond believes show the “shocking” plot against him. Asked about those messages – including some from her husband Peter Murrell – Sturgeon referred to them as a “bit of gossip about what was going on”. Hmmm. It would be interesting to see those messages.

MAGNETIC NORTH: Jeremy Corbyn has accused Rishi Sunak of nicking economic policies from his old pal John McDonnell, the former shadow chancellor. The former Labour leader said the relocation of civil servants to the north of England – announced by Sunak on Wednesday – were in Labour’s 2019 manifesto. “The chancellor had obviously read quite a lot of my friend’s proposals before the last election,” Corbyn said. Sunak said a new Treasury campus would be set up in Darlington and a new national infrastructure bank will be created in Leeds. He also announced eight English “freeports” – economic zones granted controversial tax break status to “unlock billions of pounds of private sector investment”. Sunak claimed they were a benefit of Brexit – even though seven freeports existed in the UK between the mid-1980s and 2012 (when they were scrapped by the Tory-led government).

MONEY FOR NOTHING, DRUGS FOR FREE: London’s Tory mayoral candidate Shaun Bailey has been attacked for claiming people would simply “buy lots of drugs” if they were given a universal basic income (UBI). He made his comments during a debate about piloting the radical welfare system in some parts of the capital. Bailey’s claims Londoners could turn into drug fiends if given extra financial support were criticised as “extraordinary” and “shocking”. Simon Duffy, director of the Centre for Welfare Reform, said: “There is a myth that ordinary people don’t know how to spend money.” Meanwhile, Boris Johnson is facing anger from Tory MPs after he refused to rule out a trade deal with China – declaring himself as a “Sinophile”. MPs are livid about such flippant remarks when they’re trying to raise the issue of human rights abuses. Iain Duncan Smith said: “It is difficult to understand how we are even thinking about doing a trade deal with Beijing.”

RISING UP AGAIN? Police in Washington DC say they have uncovered intelligence of a “possible plot” by a militia group to breach the US Capitol on Thursday – nearly two months after a mob of Trump stormed the iconic building to try to stop Congress certifying Joe Biden’s victory. The threat appears to be connected to a far-right conspiracy theory, mainly promoted by supporters of QAnon, that Trump will rise up and take power on 4 March (the original presidential inauguration day until 1933). It comes as Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani was mocked on social media for speaking out on the dangers of “misinformation”. The former New York mayor – now a king of election conspiracy theories – dedicated the latest episode of Rudy Giuliani’s Common Sense to focussing on “the dire consequences of misinformation on social media.” “If only we could actually watch the pot meet the kettle. I miss irony so much!” wrote one of those social media users.

On the record

“I would never have wanted to ‘get’ Alex Salmond – I would never, ever have wanted any of this to happen. I had no motive, intention or desire to ‘get’ Alex Salmond.”

Nicola Sturgeon denies conspiring against her old boss.

From the Twitterati

“While the political reasons are clear, the fact that Brexit didn’t get a single mention or allusion in Sunak’s statement while businesses nationwide drop like flies is just mind-boggling.”

Politics Home’s Adam Payne finds Brexit’s Budget absence odd...

“Anyone who thought there was nothing on Brexit … There was. It came at the end without actually using the B word. Freeports for low tax, low regulation … Organised crime and disaster capitalists rejoice.”

…but Alastair Campbell says freeports are in the spirit of Brexit.

Essential reading

Andrew Grice, The Independent: The Johnson-Sunak double act can be a powerful weapon for the Tories

Tom Peck, The Independent: We mustn’t grumble about the cost of Carrie Symonds’ ‘exquisite’ tastes

Anoosh Chakelian, New Statesman: Sunak’s Budget doesn’t mean the end of austerity

Ronald Brownstein, The Atlantic: Can Democrats stop the Republican assault on voting rights?

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