Inside Politics: Boris Johnson threatens and pleads with EU over Northern Ireland

The prime minister has asked Brussels for grace-period extensions, while vowing to ditch parts of the protocol if necessary, writes Adam Forrest

The UK has suffered more than 100,000 deaths due to coronavirus (Getty Images)

The mother of the teenage boy who heckled Chris Whitty in the street has said she is “horrified” by her son’s rudeness and will confiscate his favourite toy. She’s vowed to take his PlayStation away and will make him go back and apologise to the chief medical officer. Boris Johnson has scolded rude EU chiefs, claiming they’ve been naughty boys and girls by risking the delicate arrangements in Northern Ireland. But it’s the PM who is now chucking his toys out of the pram – threatening to go back and rip up parts of the all-important protocol.

Inside the bubble

Our policy correspondent Jon Stone on what to look out for today:

Trade secretary Liz Truss will pay a flying visit to India to meet with senior Indian government figures. It comes after Boris Johnson had to scrap his trip to the country, which has cooled on the possibility of a trade deal. There’ll be more Brexit fallout at the Scottish affairs committee at 11.30am, as representatives of the country’s seafood industry detail problems caused by the trade deal.

Daily briefing

RIP IT UP AND START AGAIN: The government has pleaded with the EU for an extension to Brexit grace periods in Northern Ireland until 2023. Downing Street is also asking Brussels to expand upon agreed arrangements on the movement of goods from GB into NI. Michael Gove said there should be permanent changes to requirements on chilled meat products. “What is now required is political, not technical, solutions,” said Gove in his letter to EU counterpart Maros Sefcovic. Would it be enough to keep the DUP happy? Would anything keep the DUP happy? Party chiefs have decided they don’t like anything about the protocol. Following a call between Boris Johnson and Arlene Foster, the DUP stated: “Northern Ireland needs to be free of this protocol.” What does Johnson think? The PM said he’s willing to ditch parts of it if necessary. “We will do everything we need to do, whether legislatively or indeed by triggering Article 16 of the protocol, to ensure there is no barrier down the Irish Sea.” Ireland’s foreign affairs minister Simon Coveney said it was “completely unrealistic” to change arrangements now. What. A. Mess.

DON’T LET THE SUN GO DOWN ON THEM: Sir Elton John said he held “very positive” talks with culture secretary Oliver Dowden about post-Brexit travel problems faced by British artists in the EU. Elton is not a miracle worker – he said visa-free touring is not “on the cards”. But he wants to do all he can for younger artists. He and Dowden discussed the set-up of a website which could help bands “with the logistics of touring in Europe”. Dowden, always keen to keep famous people happy, said there was “lots of work going on in government on this”. Elsewhere, the environment secretary George Eustice admitted the Brexit deal for fishing has fallen “short” of industry expectations. “It’s fair to say that we didn't get everything that we wanted on fishing,” said the minister. Environmental campaigners fear the government is falling short on the climate emergency. Leading climatologist and former NASA scientist James Hansen warned Boris Johnson he would be “vilified around the world” if a new coal mine in Cumbria goes ahead.

TIRED OF WAITING FOR YOU: The UK is finally “past the peak” of the winter wave of the pandemic, according to Christ Whitty. But the chief medical officer warned of a further spike in cases if curbs are lifted too soon. As impatience with lockdown grows, Boris Johnson ruled out re-opening schools in England any earlier than 8 March – warning that infection levels are still “alarmingly high”. The PM is under pressure to follow Wales and Scotland by allowing some pupils to start back after half-term. It looks like some of that pressure is coming from the guy next door. Rishi Sunak is said to fear No 10’s scientific advisers are “moving the goalposts” on the requirements for lockdown easing. An ally told The Telegraph the chancellor is worried that the main goal of saving lives has been superseded by a focus on bringing case numbers down. In vaccine news, a trial has been launched to see if giving people different jabs for first and second doses works as well as the same type twice.

LONELY ISLAND: Grant Shapps has claimed bringing in strict Australia-style border closures wouldn’t help the UK because we’re “an island nation – unlike Australia or something which is an entire continent”. Hmmm. The transport secretary argued that the UK’s proximity to Europe means it’s essential for goods to move in and out. The PM made the same argument in the Commons, claiming it was “not practical” to shut the borders to people given the amount of food and medicine we import. Hmmm. Matt Hancock will make an announcement today about plans for hotel quarantine. On Wednesday the health secretary revealed the movie Contagion partly shaped his vaccine programme strategy. Hancock said the film starring Matt Damon – which focuses on the struggle to contain a deadly virus – helped prepare him for the global scramble to get hold of jabs. If only Dido Harding had watched a few more disaster movies. The head of test and trace said around 20,000 people per day are still not self-isolating when ordered to do so.

HANDBAGS AT NOON: Did Keir Starmer and Boris Johnson get into a “heated exchange” outside the Commons chamber after PMQs? Tory MP Mark Francois claimed he saw Starmer outside the division lobbies “puce with anger” and “wagging his finger” at Johnson. But Labour MP Chris Matheson dismissed the account as “absolute b******s”. The exchange came after the Labour leader blundered at PMQs. He thought Johnson had repeated his untrue claims that Labour wanted the UK to join the EU vaccine procurement programme. Actually, the PM made a different claim – saying Starmer “wanted to stay in the European Medicines Agency” (referring to old statements by Starmer). A Labour spokeswoman later said: “Keir admits he was wrong and made a mistake in his response.” Oh dear. Things aren’t going brilliantly for Starmer right now. Left-wing MPs were scathing at reports about the party strategising a more patriotic stance. Clive Lewis said: “The Tory party has absorbed UKIP and now Labour appears to be absorbing the language and symbols of the Tory party.”

INFAMY, INFAMY, THEY’VE ALL GOT IT IN FOR ME: We turn now to heated exchanges in Scotland. Alex Salmond has accused Nicola Sturgeon’s government of “disgraceful” behaviour and “systematic” dishonesty in its handling of sexual misconduct claims made against him. In an explosive statement to the Holyrood inquiry probing the saga, Salmond also claimed Sturgeon had initially “suggested” she would back mediation into the allegations against him. But Sturgeon “decided against such an intervention”, according to Salmond – prompting him to pursue a lawsuit against her government. Expect fireworks when Salmond gives evidence in person next week. It comes as Boris Johnson’s chief adviser on the union Luke Graham has quit the role. Apparently there was a “heated row” (yet another one) over No 10’s strategy to counter Scottish independence, according to The Times. So Oliver Lewis, the former Brexit adviser known as “Sonic”, comes in as a replacement.

On the record

“Sticking plaster solutions and grace periods that kick the can down the road will not solve these problems … Northern Ireland needs to be free of this protocol.”

DUP unhappy with the protocol created for Northern Ireland’s benefit.

From the Twitterati

“The new customs checks under the Northern Ireland protocol flow solely and entirely from Brexit. No Brexit, no problem.”

Labour peer Lord Adonis says difficulties were inevitable…

“Why did Johnson, Gove and Frost declare ‘Brexit done’ victory, arrangements in the NI Protocol that they now say are unworkable? Was it that they didn’t know or that they didn’t care?”

…and Lib Dem peer Sarah Ludford wonders how much ministers knew. 

Essential reading 

Emmanuel Macron, The Independent: We have to work with, not against each other over the pandemic

Tom Peck, The Independent: Keir Starmer reaching for the union jack suggests he is out of ideas

Kate Andrews, The Spectator: What the latest vaccine news means for lifting lockdown

Emily Tamkin, New Statesman: Why the Republicans can’t – or won’t – dump Trump

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