Inside Politics: Brexit negotiators stuck on fish in final push for deal

Despite the fisheries impasse, EU Commission chief believes a path lies ahead for a trade agreement, writes Adam Forrest

Ursula von der Leyen addresses the European Parliament (EPA)

I take it you’ve heard the Tom Cruise tape? The audio recording reveals the star shouting and swearing at the Mission: Impossible 7 crew – threatening to fire them if they broke Covid rules. “We are not shutting this movie down!” Boris Johnson has insisted he is not shutting down Christmas. But the PM did everything short of shout and swear as he pleaded with the public not to mingle much over the five-day break. When it comes to Brexit, no-one wants to shut down talks. Negotiators are still shouting and swearing over fish in the final push to get it done.

 

Inside the bubble

 

Whitehall editor Kate Devlin on what to look out for today:

Jacob Rees-Mogg will make a statement this morning about the Commons rising for its Christmas break at the end of Thursday. But he is set to tell MPs they could be asked to return as soon as next week if a trade deal is agreed with the EU. As talks continue in Brussels, officials from the Cabinet Office will appear at the Lords Brexit committee this afternoon to talk end-of-transition-period plans.

 

Daily briefing

 

DON’T RECALL US, WE’LL RECALL YOU: So Boris Johnson will send MPs home for Christmas until 5 January later today – part of what the Telegraph calls “a bid to ramp up pressure on Brussels”. But No 10 made clear MPs may be asked to come back in a hurry. “We will recall MPs and peers to legislate for a deal if one is secured.” Downing Street is still insisting a no-deal Brexit remains the “most likely” outcome, but in a tonal shift, the PM said there was now a “good deal there to be done”. European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen gave her most upbeat assessment of negotiations yet, telling MEPs a “way forward” has been found on most issues. “I can tell you there is a path to an agreement now. The path may be very narrow but it is there.” But she was downcast on fishing rights – the big remaining barrier. “In all honesty, it sometimes feels that we will not be able to resolve this question.” The UK wants a transition period for fishing fleets of three years, the EU wants 10 years. Will they meet in the middle?

 

BUBBLE AND SHRIEK: Boris Johnson is sticking with the plan to allow three families to bubble up over Christmas. But he doesn’t actually want you to bubble up over Christmas. Got it? Anyone sincerely keen to follow his advice may be tearing their hair out. The PM advised us to decide on bubbles by Friday and isolate before the break, cautioned against staying overnight with family and encouraged the over-70s to count themselves out of the whole business. “A shorter Christmas is a safer Christmas” he said. Nicola Sturgeon added to the confusion by advising that family gatherings be kept to one day, pleading with Scots who haven’t already organised a bubble not to bother. Welsh first minister Mark Drakeford is fed up with “advice” – his administration is making it law so only two households can come together during the five-day period. Keir Starmer said the big bubble plan looked like being Johnson’s “next big mistake” – accusing the PM of ignoring scientists’ advice against it.

 

SPRING IN HIS STEP: Rishi Sunak is very good at keeping those restless Tory backbenchers happy. The chancellor has suggested he will be pushing for social distancing measures to be ditched as soon as the first phase of vaccination is done in the spring. “It’s essentially how quickly can we reduce all the restrictions on the economy and allow it to function normally again,” he told The Spectator. It comes as the government revealed more than 130,000 people have got the jab already. Nadhim Zahawi, in charge of vaccine rollout, said it was a “really good start”. But troubling new research shows some groups are significantly less likely to take the vaccine. The Royal Society for Public Health found only 57 per cent of black, Asian and other ethnic minority Britons said they would take the vaccine (compared with 79 per cent of white Britons). Zahawi warned of the impact of conspiracy theories – advising people to seek out official information rather than what’s being shared via “WhatsApps, videos, all kinds of messages”.

 

ALL THINGS BEING EQUAL: The women and equalities minister Liz Truss believes the “equalities” part of her brief must widen beyond a too-narrow focus on race, gender and sexual orientation. In a speech today, she will argue that the debate “overlooks socio-economic status and geographic inequality”. Truss will announce a data project bringing in those other factors. But the timing isn’t brilliant for her. New figures show the gender pay gap in government is getting worse. The Telegraph found that among 14 departments, eight saw a larger mean gap between male and female workers in 2020 than in 2019. The gap widened significantly at Truss’ own department. Speaking of shocking levels of pay, No 10 sought to dampen down the anger over Dominic Cummings’ £45,000 salary rise before he left Downing Street. “It’s the correct level of salary for the role that [Cummings] performed,” said the PM’s spokeswoman Allegra Stratton. Happy with that?

 

YOUR MACE OR MINE: We’re almost at the end of the long-running saga over the Internal Market Bill (IMB), after No 10 dropped the bits that were going to break international law. The Commons has finally approved changes made by the Lords. But SNP MP Drew Hendry was in no mood for peace, love and understanding. He managed to get himself chucked out of the Commons after shouting and refusing to sit down during a debate – railing against the IMB as an “act of constitutional sabotage”. He then grabbed the parliamentary mace before it was grabbed back off him. Now suspended, the deputy speaker of the house Dame Rosie Winterton said Hendry had been “showing off”. Naughty boy. Speaking of which, the Lib Dems’ London mayoral candidate Luisa Porritt has sent a “formal complaint” to Tory rival Shaun Bailey, after his campaign team distributed campaign flyers mocked up to look like official warnings from City Hall about council tax rises. Porritt condemned the flyer – which featured a fake City Hall seal – as a “heartless and cheap trick.”

 

LATE DRAM-A: Donald Trump’s outgoing administration is suddenly in deal-making mode. His trade representative Robert Lighthizer revealed he was in talks with the UK to try to get a “mini-deal” that would see punitive tariffs on Scottish whisky lowered. “We don’t have a lot of time left,” Lighthizer told the BBC. Meanwhile, Trump was warned not to destroy any official records on his way out the door. More than a dozen state attorneys general issued a reminder that he shouldn’t be touching “emails from private servers” or notes from conversations. It comes as prosecutors in the Netherlands said a Dutch hacker did manage to log into Donald Trump’s Twitter account by guessing his password – “MAGA2020!” But they won’t be punishing Victor Gevers, finding he acted “ethically” to try to protect White House security. Will he get any thanks from the US? No chance.

 

On the record

 

“Have yourself a merry little Christmas but this year, alas, preferably a very little Christmas.”

Boris Johnson tries to make light of Christmas confusion.

 

From the Twitterati

 

“It looks as if all the energy is going into the LPF and once cracked, they’ll barrel into the fisheries stuff ... All told, things could reach a denouement this weekend.”

RTE’s Tony Connelly thinks the white smoke could emerge on Saturday or Sunday…

 

“Depending how many European Parliamentary committees want to scrutinise the deal IF it emerges in next days ... then theoretically it might still be possible for MEPs to vote on it on 28th Dec I’ve been told – even if it’s not ‘ideal’.”

...and the BBC’s Katya Adler thinks it could still be ratified before NYE. 

 

Essential reading

 

Sean O’Grady, The Independent: You’re allowed to have a Christmas get-together, but please don’t get together – all clear?

 

John Rentoul, The Independent: Keir Starmer laid out a damning review of Boris Johnson’s year

 

Marina Hyde, The Guardian: Viruses adapt – what a tragedy that Tory cabinet ministers do not

 

Derek Thompson, The Atlantic: 2020 finally shattered America’s shared reality

 

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