BEST FOR BRITAIN'S
WEEKEND WIRE

Dear John

Another week draws to a close. The Government has been busy being disastrous. No change there. 

But as ever, we bring you your essential weekend update. Enough has happened to keep us on our toes this week, so let’s run through the highs and lows of this week in politics.

Unlawful and awful

If playing fast and loose with the law was a game, our political leaders seemed to be going for some kind of high score this week. 

On Monday, the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill was debated in Parliament during Second Reading. The Bill contains provisions which will essentially allow the UK to renege on the Northern Ireland Protocol and which will enable Government ministers to unilaterally alter their ‘great’ Brexit deal (an international and legally binding agreement) as they see fit. 

Warnings of the Bill’s illegality preceded the parliamentary debate, and several MPs, some of them Conservative, expressed doubts as to whether the Bill would meet the necessary legal thresholds. 

Despite all this, the Government is keen to push through the Bill, regardless of the implications this might have for Britain’s trade, commodity prices and our international reputation. We know people are getting accustomed to this Government breaking the law, but they may be even less forgiving if this time it makes an already painful cost of living crisis worse. 

Focus on food

This week, the UK Trade and Business Commission held a session examining the Government’s new food strategy and featured insights from a range of experts on food, agriculture and global supply chains. 

Panellists painted a rather bleak picture, with many noting that not only is the price of food rising, but the price of nutritious food is rising the most. A number of our panellists highlighted the delayed costs of failing to subsidise healthy food in terms of health and growth outcomes, especially for children. They also provided a rather apocalyptic assessment of the future if the UK does not increase domestic food production as climate change and global destabilisation may mean that in the decades to come, Britain may no longer be able to buy our way out of the problem.

The witnesses did not mince their words with regards to Brexit, which they highlighted had exacerbated the UK’s food insecurity beyond that of other countries with increased red tape and labour shortages. Others noted the need for a policy body focused on food stability to be formed so that regardless of political changes, nutrition and food stay a high policy priority. 

Watch the full session using this link. Our write-up is here.

Who’s for seconds?

Earlier this week, a new report from the Food Standards Agency (FSA) and Food Standards Scotland (FSS) found that Brexit poses significant risks to the quality of food imported into the UK.

The report warned that without Government support, the FSA and FSS would be unable to halt the import of unsafe foods into the UK. The FSA and FSS have highlighted that more resources need to be allocated to carrying out checks on imported food, but the agencies also noted that this is something that everyone’s favourite Dickensian throwback Jacob Rees-Mogg keeps delaying for cost reasons. 

Less of a bonfire of red tape, a skipfire more like. 

Best for Breakfast

Continuing with the food theme and our press team has been busy looking at how the last three years of economic mismanagement has affected a true British staple: the not-so-humble fry-up.

The team analysed ONS data and found that tea, toast and almost every other component of a full English (barring eggs) have gone up in price meaning that in total, the cost of a full English has gone up by 9.3%.

Fans of a full Welsh, which also includes cockles, are being hit by the steepest price rises of 10.4%. The Scottish breakfast, which includes haggis and tattie scones is up by 9.9% and the Ulster Fry has gone up by 9.6% in price. 

If you take startling energy price rises into account (which our press team didn’t) the picture is probably even bleaker, heralding dark days for all fans of fry-ups, breakfast food and, to be honest, food in general. Pretty much all of us fit into that last category.

Inflation is a global issue, but as our press team points out, Brits are feeling an extra pinch on account of the increased trade barriers brought in by Brexit. 

Brexit - making quintessentially British things harder to access. Who’d have thought it? (Spoiler: we did)

At last

The delayed public inquiry into the UK’s Covid-19 response has finally been launched. Chaired by Heather Hallett, the inquiry’s terms of reference have been broadened to include the impacts of Covid-19 on minority ethnic communities, on children and on mental health. 

In something that could be construed as a warning to Boris Johnson, Lady Hallett stated: “I shall not tolerate any attempt to mislead the inquiry, to undermine its integrity or its independence.”  

The APPG on Coronavirus, of which Best for Britain is secretariat, has called for the inquiry’s interim findings to be published ahead of the next election. Layla Moran MP, Chair of the APPG, was quoted in more than 100 local papers calling for this, and you can read her comments in this Independent article. 

The publication of findings is crucial to allow the public to truly give their verdict on how our elected leaders handled the crisis. Many more of the APPG’s recommendations were included in the Inquiry’s terms of reference. You can read them here. 

Defence debate

Also in the news this week has been Britain’s defence policy. With the NATO summit having taken place this week in Madrid, all eyes were on the substance of Britain’s agenda with regards to defence. 

The news emerged that Ben Wallace, the Defence Secretary, had called for Britain to significantly raise its defence spending by the mid-2022s. 

Unfortunately, Wallace couldn’t have timed things any worse. This week, Boris Johnson ditched the Conservative manifesto commitment to raise defence spending by 0.5% above inflation by the mid-2022s. Foreign Secretary Liz Truss also announced plans to cut the military by 10,000 troops, citing the fact that warfare had changed in nature. A rather odd statement to make while troops are literally crossing borders in Europe. 

As ever though, our PM could be relied upon for a U-turn. On Thursday, Johnson vowed to spend 2.5% of GDP on defence by 2030 safe in the knowledge that despite his own bravado, he probably won’t be in post to honour any such pledge. With a declaration that "the cost of freedom" is "always worth paying" Johnson made clear that he had finally woken up to the realities of the conflicted world we live in. 

He may have changed his mind by next week though. 

If you’re looking to read some expert views on the current situation with regards to UK defence readiness, why not take a look at this piece from Best for Britain Chair Lord Kim Darroch which featured in the Telegraph this week?

Steel yourself

You’ll remember the dramatic resignation of the PM’s ethics adviser Lord Geidt, but do you remember why he resigned?

Lots of people say partygate (and the lying) was the real reason, but the official reason issued by Geidt was because the UK was planning to extend tariffs on steel imports, putting the Government at odds with World Trade Organisation rules. 

Well, now the Government has gone ahead and done it. The Government will extend tariffs on steel imports for another two years, a protectionist move that it says will support the UK’s domestic steel industry.

While Labour was supportive of the move, Nick Thomas-Symonds, the Shadow International Trade Secretary, expressed surprise that the Government was choosing to override WTO rules to extend the tariffs and suggested that there were ways for the Government to protect the steel industry without rowing back on international obligations. 

But will the Government listen? That’s almost certainly a no. 

That’s all from us this week. Have a lovely weekend and we’ll be back with more before you know it.

Best wishes,

Maheen Behrana

Senior Campaigns and Policy Officer, Best for Britain

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