Tag: White paper

Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiatior, rejected the customs proposals in the British government’s Brexit white paper. On Friday last week he said: Barnier said today that the EU was “open to a customs union” with the UK after Brexit. He said: Barnier said the UK and the EU had made good progress towards a deal on security after Brexit. (@nickeardleybbc) This from Michel Barnier today doesn’t bode well for the Chequers proposal... pic.twitter.com/oRBHNSarOX July 26, 2018 Here is some reaction to the press conference from journalists and commentators. He says he negotiates with Theresa May, with Dominic Raab, and their teams. He says he has been asking the UK to say what it wants. But there are other points where the EU has “a problem”, because the UK’s plans contradict his negotiating mandate. Raab says he and Barnier have had a good meeting. He says the UK has decided to leave the EU, with its single market and four freedoms. He says the UK government has a backstop plan.

The publication of Theresa May's new Brexit plan descended into chaos when speaker John Bercow had to suspend the Commons to allow MPs to see copies of the white paper. Labour described it as an "utter shambles" that MPs were unable to read the 98-page document until Brexit secretary Dominic Raab appeared to give a statement on the plans, which could allow some EU migrants preferable treatment as part of future trade deals. It comes as Tory rebels ramped up pressure on Ms May to scrap her new Brexit plan, which has already caused the resignations of Boris Johnson and David Davis, as well as several other Tory Eurosceptics. In a show of strength, Eurosceptic backbencher Jacob Rees-Mogg and allies have tabled a string of amendments to the government’s trade and customs bill, raising the threat of Commons defeats on Monday. Meanwhile, Donald Trump was due to face major protests after he arrived in the UK for his much-anticipated working visit. See below for live updates Live Updates

The EEF said an independent industrial strategy council – promised by the business secretary, Greg Clark, in last autumn’s white paper – should be created immediately and given the “urgent task” of setting clear goals for boosting Britain’s manufacturing performance. The employers’ organisation said growth in manufacturing productivity, or output per hour worked, had fallen from 4.7% a year on average between 2000 and 2007 to 1% a year on average since 2008 – but said there had been big variations between different sectors of industry. The EEF said that, overall, Britain’s manufacturing productivity had been the weakest of the four countries since 2009, following a period in which it had performed more strongly. Lee Hopley, the chief economist at the EEF, said: “We’ve known about the productivity problem for some time, with various attempts made to try to fix it across the whole economy. “Manufacturing offers a good area to get gains on productivity growth. The industrial strategy council should now be created urgently and put to task to identify how the overall strategy can improve productivity in those industrial sectors where it has lagged.” Government efforts to tackle Britain’s weak productivity have so far concentrated on economy-wide solutions such as increasing spending on infrastructure and improving skill levels. The EEF said its report, Unpacking the Puzzle, showed there was no one factor that could explain the productivity performance across all manufacturing subsectors and called for targeted solutions. Sectors with a higher share of larger firms tended to outperform internationally. Italy had higher levels of investment in capital equipment compared to Germany but productivity levels in Italy were weaker. Evidence suggested companies with better management capabilities were more likely to have higher rates of productivity growth.