Brexit news – live: Boris Johnson warned six months of port ‘mayhem’ ahead in 2021, even if trade deal agreed

The Government has suffered another defeat over the controversial Internal Market Bill after peers backed moves aimed at ensuring the devolved administrations are involved in post-Brexit operations of the UK’s internal market.

The House of Lords voted for steps to force Westminster to seek the consent of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland before exercising powers contained in the legislation.

My colleagues Nick Lester and Trevor Mason have the details:

The governor of the Bank of England has said that the long-term economic impact of a no-deal Brexit will be more damaging than those of the coronavirus pandemic.

Andrew Bailey told the Commons Treasury select committee on Monday that it would be in the best interests of both the UK and the EU to agree to a trade deal, “no question about it”.

His warning comes after an analysis by the London School of Economics and think-tank UK in a Changing Europe found that the economic impact of a no-deal would be two to three times worse than the pandemic.

Our Policy Correspondent Jon Stone reports:

Scotland is set to become the first country in the world to make period products free, if new legislation is voted through today.

Holyrood will vote on the groundbreaking Period Products (Free Provision) (Scotland) Bill, which would introduce a legal right of free access to sanitary products like tampons and pads in public buildings.

My colleague Chiara Giordano reports:

If you missed it yesterday, Boris Johnson’s spokesperson said the PM believes MPs should have their pay frozen next year, instead of receiving a £3,000 pay rise as proposed.

The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA), which sets MP’s pay, is currently consulting on a proposed £3,360 pay rise for all MPs – but the issue has sparked more anger as the Chancellor Rishi Sunak is expected to confirm a pay freeze on many public sector workers in his spending review on Wednesday.

Catch up on the report by our Political Editor Andrew Woodcock:

Transport secretary Grant Shapps has said he thinks MPs’ pay should be included in the public-sector pay freeze – and that if he were given a pay rise he would give his share to charity because it would be “the right thing to do”.

“I will pay mine to charity, that’s my decision,” he told Good Morning Britain, adding: “Public-sector workers, many are facing perhaps a three-year pay freeze, (so) the right thing to do is that politicians should not be taking a pay rise.”

Shapps added that ministers have had a 5 per cent pay cut and an “ongoing” 10-year pay freeze which he also supports.

Transport secretary Grant Shapps has clashed with Sky News host Kay Burley during an awkward interview over new quarantine rules. From December 15, travellers will be able to use the negative test results to come out of quarantine after five days.

Burley said he had failed to explain why it took so long to bring measures the airline industry had requested for months, having asked him three times. “I’m afraid the science has taken time,” said Shapps.

Challenged over the £22bn cost of test and trace system thus far, Shapps said the government had to do whatever it takes to “get through and beyond” the virus. “We have to get through this coronavirus and I’m afraid there has been no other option but to spend a lot of money.”

Shapps gave little away about tier status for England’s regions, saying only that the government will decide based on “the number of cases” in each area. But he did say people in high tier areas would have to seriously consider any travel plans. “We are saying, avoid travel outside of your area.”

The British government is operating a secretive internal unit to block requests for information by the public under transparency laws, it has been revealed.

The FOI Clearing House, an “Orwellian” operation within Michael Gove’s Cabinet Office, shares personal information about journalists and researchers – and has been accused of “blacklisting” people making freedom of information requests.  

An investigation by OpenDemocracy found the unit issues edicts to other departments to “protect sensitive information”, collates lists of journalists and transparency researchers, and even has sign-off powers other government departments’ freedom of information requests.

Transparency campaigners and data protection experts said the unit was certainly an attempt to circumvent the transparency protections in the Freedom of Information Act, and possibly even unlawful.

Labour’s chief whip Nick Brown has asked former leader Jeremy Corbyn to “unequivocally, unambiguously and without reservation” apologise for claiming that the scale of antisemitism in the party was “dramatically overstated for political reasons”.

The harsh tone of the letter – which accuses Corbyn of causing “distress and pain” – suggests he won’t have the whip restored without a much more substantial mea culpa that the one he offered last week.  

Corbyn but was reinstated as a Labour member by the NEC following a brief suspension, but blocked from sitting as a Labour MP.

President-elect Joe Biden will formally announce his cabinet today, and Anthony Blinken is widely expected to become the next US secretary of state. Worth noting that Blinken as “a total mess”, and compared the process to a dog being run over by a car.

“This is not just the dog that caught the car, this is the dog that caught the car and the car goes into reverse and runs over the dog” he said on the podcast Pod Save The World last year.

The lowest paid could lose out when chancellor Rishi Sunak reveals the government spending review this week, according to reports.

The planned 5.6 per cent increase to the national living wage – which was due to increase to £9.21 an hour in April – will be limited to only £8.90 an hour, a rise of 2 per cent, according to The Times. The Low Pay Commission are said to have claimed the full rise from the current rate of £8.72 an hour was unaffordable.

Frances O’Grady, general secretary of the TUC, said: “Rowing back on this planned pay rise is no way to treat those who kept the country going through this pandemic.”