Health News at Your Fingertips

My colleague Jennifer Rankin in Brussels says that EU sources are going further than Maroš Šefčovič (see 3.15pm) and saying that, unless the UK drops the parts of the internal market bill that would all it to override the Brexit withdrawal agreement, Brussels won’t finalise a trade deal.

The European Union has restated his strong opposition to the internal market bill, the legislation what would allow the UK government to overrule parts of the Brexit withdrawal agreement. Speaking after a meeting in Brussels of the joint committee, which is in charge of implementing the agreement, the European commission vice president, Maroš Šefčovič said:

We maintain that the bill if adopted in its current form would constitute an extremely serious violation of the [Northern Ireland] protocol as an essential part of the withdrawal agreement and of international law. The withdrawal agreement is to be implemented, not to be renegotiated, let alone unilaterally changed, disregarded or disapplied.

In a statement earlier this month, after the bill was published, Šefčovič said the UK should abandon the offending clauses in the bill by the end of the month (ie, by Wednesday). He implied that, if the UK refused, the EU would take legal action to force London to comply with its obligations under the withdrawal act. Today he restated that threat – but without saying when the EU might start proceedings. He said:

Once again, I reminded the UK government today that the Withdrawal Agreement contains a number of mechanisms and legal remedies to address the violation of the legal obligations contained in the text. And I underscored that the EU will not be shy in using it.

When we will do it, how we will do it – proceed, you will have to give us a little bit of time and we will inform you in due course.

But Šefčovič also indicated that, even if the UK refused to rewrite the bill, the EU would continue negotiations on implementing the withdrawal agreement.

Šefčovič is co-chair of the joint committee with Michael Gove, the Cabinet Office minister. Speaking after the meeting Gove said the UK would not drop the internal market bill because it was needed “as a safety net”. But he said the UK government wanted to see the withdrawal agreement “implemented in full”.

There have been a further 286 cases of coronavirus in Wales, but no further deaths, Public Health Wales has said.

NHS England has recorded a further 10 coronavirus hospital deaths. The people who died were aged between 60 and 97 and all had known underlying health conditions, NHS England says. The details are here.

The number of fines issued to rail passengers who fail to wear face coverings has been going up in the past month, figures suggest. As PA Media reports, British Transport Police (BTP) handed out 32 fines between 15 June, when the new laws came into place in England, and 17 August. But the total figure rose to 81 by 24 September, by which point the force had also stopped 54,175 people to remind them of the rules, and asked 3,842 people to leave the railway.

The Downing Street lobby briefing has finished. Here are some of the main points.

• No 10 has dismissed calls for a review of the compulsory 10pm closing time for pubs. Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, called for a review this morning, arguing that the rule “may be doing more harm than good”. (See 9am.) But the prime minister’s spokesman ruled out a review of the kind proposed by Burnham and insisted that the restriction was “introduced for a reason”. Asked to justify the 10pm closing time, he said that the experience from local lockdowns suggested this struck the right balance between the need to let pubs trade and the need to reduce the risks from people mixing.

• The spokesman refused to deny a report saying that a “a total social lockdown” may be imposed on much of northern England. (See 11.39am.) Asked about the Times splash reporting this, the spokesman said the PM has been clear that further restrictions might prove necessary. But he said that it might take at least two weeks from their implementation to assess the impact of measures already announced. Reporters at the briefing were left with the impression that no new nationwide restrictions were being planned for this week.

• The spokesman said the PM was opposed to the idea of students being told to stay away from home at Christmas. He said:

We would expect all students to be able to go home at Christmas.

Some reporters have interpret that “expect” as equivocal (ie, not a firm guarantee), but in the briefing it did not sound that way; it came across as a very firm “expect”. But the spokesman declined to say whether or not the PM thought some universities were going too far in terms of the restrictions being imposed on students now. He just said that everyone should have to follow the rules.

• The spokesman said reports last week suggesting that a UK-EU trade deal was now highly likely to be agreed were “a little on the enthusiastic side”. He seemed to be referring to a column by James Forsyth, the Spectator political editor known for his particularly good access to the private thinking of Tory Brexiters. In a column (paywall) in the Times on Friday Forsyth wrote:

There is cautious but growing optimism in Whitehall that there will be a Brexit deal. At the beginning of this month the mood was grim. There was a feeling that the talks weren’t getting anywhere. This frustration contributed to the Internal Market Bill’s rash commitment to disapply parts of the withdrawal agreement. But there is now a more positive attitude, a sense that things are moving and that a deal is coming into view.

With fewer than 100 days left until the end of the transition period, there has been an outbreak of reality, with both sides beginning to contemplate what the failure of these talks would actually mean in terms of geopolitics and economics.

Columns like this are closely read in Brussels and No 10 may have been worried that its publication may have made Johnson sound over-anxious to get a deal. The spokesman said today:

Although the last few weeks of informal talks have been relatively positive, there remains much to be done. The fundamentals of our position have not changed. From the start of this process we have been saying that we simply want a standard free-trade agreement like Canada’s.

The EU’s position has been less straightforward and we continue to be asked to accept provisions which do not reflect the reality of our status as an independent country.

Significant gaps remain as the EU still needs to adopt more realistic policy positions, but we are ready to work as hard as necessary to move things forward this week.

• The spokesman suggested talks on a UK-EU trade deal could continue to the EU summit starting on 15 October. Although formal talks will end after the round of negotiations taking place this week, the spokesman said “informal discussions” might continue right up to the summit.

• The spokesman said the government would not comply with the EU demand for the clauses in the internal market bill allowing the UK to ignore the withdrawal agreement to be abandoned by the end of this month. The spokesman said: “The bill has been supported by the House of Commons and will continue its passage through the House of Lords.”

• The spokesman refused to commit to giving MPs a vote on emergency coronavirus regulations before they take effect. More than 40 Tory MPs have signed an amendment tabled by Sir Graham Brady, chair of the Conservative 1922 Committee, saying that ministers should ensure “as far as is reasonably practicable” that MPs get to vote on lockdown restrictions imposed via ministerial regulation before they take effect. (Currently, if MPs do get a vote, it is only after the regulations have become law anyway). The spokesman refused to commit to this. He said:

It is absolutely vital that we can take urgent action to stop the virus spreading, protect the NHS from a second wave and save lives.

We will continue to keep parliament updated on the latest data and the scientific advice on the virus, and work in advance with parliamentary colleagues wherever that is possible.

But the spokesman did say that MPs would get a vote on the rule of six (which has already come into force) on 6 October. If MPs get a vote on the Brady amendment on Wednesday, the government could lose, although it seems likely that for procedural reasons the amendment will not be accepted.

• Matt Hancock, the health secretary, will open this afternoon’s debate on coronavirus, the spokesman said.