Category Archives: Brexit

Brexit is the name given to the United Kingdoms departure from the European Union. It is a combination of Britain and exit.

On 23 June 2016, the UK held a referendum on its membership of the EU. The question facing voters was: Should the United Kingdom remain a member of the European Union or leave the European Union? 51.89% of voters voted to leave the EU. The UK left the EU on 31 January 2020.

Up to and including 31 December 2020 a transition period was in place. During that time nothing changed and the UK continued to comply with all EU laws and rules. Negotiations were also held on the new relationship between the UK and the EU during this time.

On 24 December 2020 negotiators for the EU and the UK reached a deal on the two parties new relationship.The EU and the UK have set out the terms of this deal in three agreements:

On 1 January 2021 the rules set out in these agreements will come into force. You can find out what this means for you on this website.

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What is Brexit? | Government.nl

The UK government promised that Brexit would liberate Britain from European trading regulations and herald a bright new era for Britain on the world stage.

Yet after spending years campaigning for the UK's exit from the European Union, Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his colleagues have been oddly quiet about Britain's fortunes ever since it left.

The reason for their silence is becoming increasingly obvious. Since Britain left European trade and customs rules at the start of this year, there has been a dramatic decline in UK trade.

According to the UK's Office for National Statistics, trade between the EU and the UK was hit hard in January, with exports down by 40.7% compared with December and imports from the EU down by 28% in the same period.

This is the biggest overall fall in exports since records began, yet the decline for some sectors has been even worse.

Analysis by the Food & Drink Federation published last week showed that exports in January dropped to 7 million or about $9.6 million from 45 million year-on-year, while whisky exports dropped to 40 million from 105 million.

This is a colossal decline. For some sectors, including parts of the UK's world-renowned shellfish fishing industry, the decline could be permanent because of the EU's effectively locking Britain out of its market altogether.

For some smaller businesses, the piles of paperwork, bureaucracy, and export health-certificate checks that are now required to trade with Britain's closest trading partners now make it very difficult to export anything at all.

"What I'm hearing a lot is that a lot of small businesses have been shut out completely," Dominic Goudie, the head of international trade at the Food & Drink Federation, told Insider.

Brexit is not the only reason that trade with the EU nosedived in January: Part of the drop-off was the result of pre-Brexit stockpiling and the COVID-19 pandemic, which has shuttered businesses across the continent, said Goudie, and a British government official told Reuters that trade in February had partially rebounded, though official figures are yet to be published.

Many leading business figures, however, believe that Brexit's impact will be permanent, with Adam Marshall, the outgoing director-general of the British Chambers of Commerce, telling Bloomberg last week that the impact appeared to be serious and "structural."

For an island nation heavily reliant on imports, even small delays to trade can have a big impact.

"If you have a problem with one single item in that entire lorry, it delays everything else," Goudie told Insider.

"That's the stuff that really worries me," Goudie said. "Larger businesses are adapting the volume should start to pick up.

"But the smaller businesses, in particular, are going to be badly hit. That's what really concerns me in all of this."

Sales of many lower-value items have, in many cases, simply become unviable. Simon Spurrell, a cofounder of the Cheshire Cheese Company, stopped exporting his packs of cheeses, which were priced at about 30 each, to the EU because each parcel needed to be accompanied by a 180 health certificate, he told The Guardian.

He said he had been advised by a minister to simply focus on exporting to other markets instead.

All of this is a long way from the bright new trading future promised by Johnson and the UK government.

And while the political debate in Britain has been dominated by the coronavirus pandemic in recent months, the longer-term impact of the UK cutting its ties with its closest trading partners could soon become a massive political issue once again.

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Brexit Is a Disaster for UK, European Trade Collapses ...

Driving across France last Thursday was like driving in Britain used to be no worries about petrol and no queues. Returning to London was a brutal tipping into another reality. One of the first duties of a government is to ensure that citizens can go about their daily business without hassle and anxiety. With abundant petrol in the refineries there was never need for this pain we are living through an abject failure of governance.

Brexit is plainly one of the reasons for the shortage of drivers and for the troublesome frictions at our borders spilling over into problems in the food and supermarket supply chains. More crucially, it was ministers very fear that early action would be seen as proof positive of Brexits frailties that so paralysed them.

Thus road haulage chiefs met junior transport minister Baroness Vere on 16 June to urge temporary visas for overseas drivers, a campaign to attract retired drivers back to work and one to address the driving test backlog. But transport ministers dont trust the Remoaner road haulage lobby, loud in its early criticism last winter of how hard Brexits new border controls has made it to move goods in and out of Britain. On top, every minister recalls the ruthless withdrawal of the Tory whip from 21 colleagues in September 2019. To have any pro-EU sympathies is a mark of Cain.

Vere knew that, as a former executive director of the Conservatives In campaign, she is viewed with suspicion and No 10 wanted the line held. The industry should pay better and recruit and train more British drivers. Part of the point of Brexit was to shift from a low-wage, low-skill economy dependent on EU migrants. She closed the June meeting by telling executives the government did not want to create panic, leaving unsaid that any panic six months after Brexit would be politically toxic.

Over the summer, the line held even as problems mounted. On the evening of 23 September, just as news that BP was closing some petrol stations because of tanker driver shortages, the home secretary, Priti Patel, was celebrating with 25 other self-styled Spartans the Tory MPs who voted three times against Theresa Mays compromise Brexit deals at the Carlton Club. They congratulated themselves on the hardest of hard Brexits they had achieved, along with Patels visa policy excluding low-paid immigrants. Boris Johnson, urged to create at least 20,000 visas to bring in foreign drivers to have a chance of tackling the crisis, knows how strongly his political base supports Patels stance on immigration. He did the least possible, announcing 10,500 temporary three-month visas for tanker drivers and poultry workers, keenly aware of the impending turkey shortage about to blight Christmas.

It was the equivalent of throwing a thimble of water on a bonfire, as Baroness McGregor-Smith, president of the British Chambers of Commerce, memorably said. Now, belatedly, comes the news that 100 army tanker drivers begin on Monday, to be joined by 300 overseas drivers fast-tracked in on a visa especially extended to February. Vere has finally written to a million holders of HGV licences urging them to return to the industry. The thimble of water has grown into a bottle, but the bonfire shows every sign of burning out only slowly and already at the cost of a collapse in business confidence. Panic buying and lost trust are hard to reverse.

Of course the government should have acted far more decisively, far sooner and provided the public with accurate information. Accuracy and honesty are the best ways of calming fears. But there is remarkably little outcry about its dithering and its bluster: a YouGov poll reports that only 23% of the population blame it and nearly half blame the media.

One reason is that Labour cannot lay into the Brexit-induced dither as authentically and strongly as it could and should; it backed the treaty and judges that the public is not yet ready to hear advocacy for the EU. Despite everything, most Leavers continue to back Brexit. They might feel they voted for a higher-wage, higher-skill economy propelled by lower immigration and that, however bumpily, its now in train. Advertised pay rates for HGV drivers have risen 12.8% this year alone, while working-class Leave voters might like the spectacle of Tory ministers urging employers to pay and train people better.

And yet HGV drivers are only one sector. Immigration was always more a manpower than a wages game. For example, the Bank of England found that all EU immigration between 2004 and 2011 reduced semi- and low-skilled service sector wages by less than 1% a year. Any impact was on the lowest 10% of wage earners and then only slight. But what immigration did was to expand the economy: an economys annual output represents the number of average hours worked multiplied by the output per person hour, multiplied by the working population. Immigrants dont change investment or productivity, but they increase the numbers able to pick fruit, kill pigs, rear turkeys and drive lorries.

Without immigrants, the economy grows less quickly or shrinks. A quarter of all UK firms, including half of all transport businesses, say they cant fill vacancies because EU applicants no longer apply. Their scope to pay higher wages is capped by how much they can sell on profitable margins; if they cant employ people at an affordable wage, then supermarket shelves arent stocked and tanks in petrol stations arent replenished.

Without free movement of EU workers or a liberal visa policy, Britain has an intertwined manpower, mobility and skills crisis: there are not enough people in the right places with the right skills to sustain the output we are used to. The mismatch will eventually be solved, the solution delayed by our chronically weak training system and housing shortage; the economy will be smaller, people will gradually acquire the necessary skills, but the dislocation will involve shortages, queues, even rationing and very low growth.

Meanwhile, surveys show a growing majority in favour of immigration. The open question in British politics is whether Brexit can even half work before the public gives up on it. The governments actions betray its anxiety over the answer. My guess, after this week, is that the moment when the public begins to stop believing is approaching and faster than anyone thinks.

Will Hutton is an Observer columnist

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Panic at the pumps could herald a brave new Brexit order. I have my doubts - The Guardian

Since the 2019 general election, there has been a mutually convenient conspiracy of silence between Britains two main parties about Brexit. Boris Johnson won the election on the soundbite promise to get Brexit done, and then behaved as though all aspects of the UKs departure from Europe were now fully sorted. The Labour party, meanwhile, licked its wounds, tacitly accepted that Brexit was indeed settled, and decided not to mention the subject if it could be avoided.

The Covid emergency then provided understandable cover for both positions. Now, however, as Covid perhaps recedes and something akin to normal politics resumes, silence has become impossible to maintain. Many aspects of Brexit are neither done nor dusted. Some are contributing to increasingly serious national problems. These include issues of trade, movement, education and, above all, the status of Northern Ireland. It is high time that these again became part of national political debate, not least because mishandling them could have a dire effect on Britains ability to deliver an adequate climate crisis deal in Glasgow in November.

Mr Johnson does not talk about Brexits practicalities today, any more than he ever did during the referendum campaign. When he mentions Brexit at all, it is to taunt Labour with being bad losers. He acts, probably with focus-group backing, as if Conservative voters continue to see Brexit as a great emotional issue of reclaimed sovereignty, not a set of still-evolving practical relationships for which government must take responsibility. These relationships need to be settled in ways that are consistent with the 2016 vote while avoiding unnecessary economic, constitutional and international damage. However, Mr Johnson and his minister David Frost still prefer the politics of confrontation to the politics of rational compromise, even over the vexed issues of Northern Ireland.

Sir Keir Starmer seemed content to go along with all this during the first 18 months of his leadership. He knows that there is no point refighting a battle he would lose, or reopening wounds that have barely healed. This autumn, however, something is changing. The trigger has been the large-scale disruption of supply chains in fuel, pharmaceuticals and food caused by the shortage of HGV drivers. This threatens not just panic at the pumps and empty shelves in the shops, but also a crisis at Christmas. All are, in part, the consequence of the sloppy handling of Brexit. Blame for that can be widely shared. But Sir Keir would be failing in his task if he did not take the fight to the government over its lack of planning for these crises. He needs to talk turkey.

In his conference speech, Sir Keir decided to reopen the previously well-padlocked Brexit box a little. He attacked Mr Johnson for a Brexit policy that amounted to little more than a slogan. He identified sorting out Britains relationship with Europe as one of the key issues of the day, along with the climate crisis, Covid recovery, economic regeneration and stopping the break-up of Britain. And he came up with a phrase of his own the need for a plan to make Brexit work. These words may mean something or nothing. But they are a good sign, as far as they go. Now it is the Tories turn to get serious. The issues of implementation are real and pressing. They require policy planning, not partisan posturing from Britains leaders.

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The Guardian view on silence about Brexit: time to talk turkey - The Guardian

In 1979 the Conservative party under Margaret Thatcher fought a successful election campaign with the slogan Labour isnt working. The campaign relied on a profusion of posters purporting to show a long line of unemployed people. It later turned out that this was not a real dole queue but a group of actors hired for the purpose.

This was characteristic of the loose attitude to the facts what President Obama memorably dubbed truth decay that has become more prevalent in recent years.

It is increasingly apparent that Brexit isnt working. But this has not prevented the worst crop of cabinet ministers in living memory from denying that the present supply chain shortages and autumn of discontent have anything to do with Brexit.

When it is pointed out by our fellow Europeans no longer, alas, fellow members of the EU that the petrol and supply chain crisis has everything to do with Brexit, ministers find themselves reluctantly having to concede that it may have been a factor.

In my last column I made mention of a number of metropolitan elite figures who bear considerable responsibility for the meretricious Brexit campaign: the focus was in particular on the three leading culprits, Nigel Farage, Boris Johnson and Dominic Cummings. But thanks to a recent report in the Daily Telegraph that shameless Brexit bastion we now learn that, even when Brexiters like Simon Wolfson, chief executive of Next, are screaming for a relaxation of the clampdown on migrants, a group of Conservative MPs, led by one Sir William Cash, have been celebrating their part in this countrys downfall.

These MPs blithely claim that we would still be effectively in the EU if they had not crucially voted down Theresa Mays compromise proposals on three occasions in 2019. They had a celebration of their dubious achievement in that Conservative holy of holies, the Carlton Club. Cash evidently had the temerity to claim that it was the most important vote since the Norway vote in 1940 the one that brought down Neville Chamberlain and prepared the way for Churchill as wartime prime minister.

This is a weird comparison, possibly qualifying for what my philosopher friends would call a category error. Moreover, as CEM Joad used to say on the old BBC Brains Trust, it all depends what you mean by, in this case, the term most important. Most important in bringing freedom from Brussels, as Cash and co would have it? Or most important in limiting the freedom of British citizens in all manner of ways, via a proliferation of bureaucratic controls, and the chaos caused by effectively sending crucial participants in the economy back to mainland Europe? Care homes, supermarkets, petrol stations and ordinary people all are now feeling the effects.

The last post-hoc rationalisation from those members of the Brexit gang who have not, like Lord Wolfson, recognised the error of their ways is that this is the opportunity for British workers to fill the gap, in a major economic structural change. But the world does not work in the way the more naive free marketers would have it: the point is that the British workers with the right skills are simply not there. The HGV problems have been well aired, and are not going away in a hurry. It took a good five years for the Attlee government to restructure the economy after 1945.

Less well aired than the HGV crisis may be a letter to the Financial Times last week in which leading members of the hospitality industry meant to be a pride and joy of the service sector of the British economy urgently ask the government to revise current settlement and pre-settlement schemes and the highly skilled migrants lists. In other words, a Brexit based on prejudice against workers from continental Europe is a disaster.

Which brings us to the Labour partys hitherto pusillanimous approach to Brexit. At last there are signs of stirrings in the ranks, with Hilary Benn and others speaking out. But when Sir Keir Starmer says we need a plan to make Brexit work I fear he is not going nearly far enough. Yes, we need, in his words, to sort out our future relationship with Europe, but I find it difficult to reconcile this intention with his dismissal of a return to the essence of the single market painstakingly negotiated by Thatcher, namely free movement.

It is the abandonment of free movement to please the likes of the ineffable Cash that has made us the laughing stock of the world. Oh, and by the way, now that he has made such a major contribution to this nations self-inflicted damage, I wonder what Farages future plans are. In March 2017 he was quoted as saying: If Brexit is a disaster, I will go and live abroad.

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Brexit isnt working but Tories of the Carlton Club cant admit it - The Guardian

A majority of British people think Brexit is going badly, a poll has suggested, after a summer of supply-chain issues making life difficult for many in the UK.

The YouGov poll, conducted and published on Wednesday, is the first to suggest a majority of Brits believe Brexit is going badly since the polling company started asking in January, the end of a transition period after the UK left the EU.

Its backdrop was rolling supply-chain issues that have seen empty shelves in some supermarkets and widespread shortages at gas stations.

Some commentators have blamed the issues on Brexit, but the rest of Europe is also facing a shortage in truck drivers, the BBC noted.

YouGov surveyed 6,546 adults from Great Britain. It found that 18% of those polled thought Brexit has been going well since the start of the year.

The previous poll, conducted on June 21, suggested only 38% of British people thought Brexit is going badly.

The intervening months have seen supply chain issues exacerbated by the effects of the pandemic, as supermarkets and fuel suppliers struggle with a shortage of truck drivers, often called heavy goods vehicle (HGV) drivers in the UK.

The shortage of HGV drivers has not been helped by Brexit making it harder for European drivers to transport goods in the UK.

But the shortage is mainly driven by the pandemic limiting HGV driver training, changes to tax rules, and shifts in the economy as former drivers find new jobs, the BBC reported.

None of the YouGov polls survey people from Northern Ireland, which is suffering from serious supply-chain failures in supermarkets as a result of the Northern Ireland protocol.

Northern Ireland continues to follow EU rules on product standards to avoid checks on the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland, but this has led to customs checks on some products from England, Scotland, and Wales.

Unionist parties, which support the relationship between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK, have called for the reform of the Northern Ireland protocol.

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53% of Brits think Brexit going badly, poll says, amid shortages - Business Insider

A Labour government would fix Boris Johnsons Brexit deal, a member of Keir Starmer's shadow cabinet has said raising the prospect of more talks with the EU.

The announcement, which came hours before Sir Keir's speech to Labour conference in Brighton, represents a change in approach from the party and is the first time the new leadership has suggested there could be more negotiations.

Sir Keir said emphatically in January that there was "no case" for renegotiating the accord struck between Mr Johnson and the EU in an effort to put the Brexit issue to bed.

But speaking to the BBC on Wednesday morning, shadow justice secretary David Lammy blamed the agreement for economic problems hitting the UK and said Labour would have to "fix" it in government.

"There are challenges for hauliers, of course, right across Europe. But let's be clear: there are no queues in Spain, in Germany or France.

"So what's the difference? The difference is that we exited the European Union on Boris's deal we're out of a customs union, the cabotage system that were set up that allowed drivers to come here and go back with goods and the tariffs that we now have mean the drivers aren't coming."

Pressed on what a Labour government would do to to change the agreement, which would require renegotiation with the EU, Mr Lammy said: "This is his deal. When we come to government, we'll have to look at how we fix his deal."

He added: "Let's be clear, shortages right across the country, shortages of fruit pickers, shortages of builders, shortages in terms of lorry drivers: all of that is down to Boris Johnson, Michael Gove, Priti Patel, Dominic Raab and the promises they made to the British people."

In January Sir Keir said an incoming Labour government would have to make the existing treaty "work".

But the U-turn comes after he last night told broadcasters that he was ready to break policy pledges if he thought it would help his electoral chances.

The most important pledge I made was that I would turn [Labour] into a party that would be fit for government, capable of winning a general election, Im not going to be deflected from that," he said.

Boris Johnson's government has been pushing hard for changes to the EU withdrawal agreement but the EU has said it is not open for renegotiation.

The bloc has however in the past been more open to closer economic integration through membership of the customs union or single market, though the issue of Brexit is largely considered settled in European capitals.

It comes as amid a separate post-Brexit row over fishing licences which could see the vast majority of French boats locked out of UK waters.

The family of Betty Campbell unveil the bronze sculpture of her during the unveiling of the statue in Central Square, Cardiff, of Betty Campbell, Wales' first black headteacher

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A sign referring to the lack of fuel is placed at the entrance to a petrol station in London

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Police officers detain a protester from Insulate Britain occupying a roundabout leading from the M25 motorway to Heathrow Airport in London

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Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer watches the Arsenal v Tottenham Hotspur match at The Font pub in Brighton

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Scottish pro-independence supporters hold a march and rally outside the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh, Scotland

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Police officers remove two protesters from the top of a tanker, as Insulate Britain block the A20 in Kent, which provides access to the Port of Dover in Kent. The environmental activists have moved location after been banned from campaigning on the M25 motorway in London

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Gabriella, the seven year old daughter of imprisoned British-Iranian Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, joins in a game on a giant snakes and ladders board in Parliament Square, to show the ups and downs of her mothers case to mark the 2,000 days she has been detained in Iran

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A new sign hangs on the Millicent Fawcett statue after it was altered by CrackTheCrises coalition activists to highlight the climate crisis as a feminist struggle in Parliament Square in London

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Gabriella Diment prepares a monumental bronze patinated fibreglass wall sculpture depicting household cavalry soldiers on horseback which is expected to be sold for 12,000-18,000 when it goes up for auction at Summers Place Auctions in Billinghurst, Kent

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Florist Judith Blacklock puts the finishing touches to a floral carousel installation in Halkin Arcade, which she has designed with Neill Strain for the Belgravia in Bloom festival, running from September 20-26, in London

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Bubbles surround Manchester Uniteds Cristiano Ronaldo before the match against West Ham at London Stadium

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Children take part in the Settrington Cup Pedal Car Race as motoring enthusiasts attend the Goodwood Revival, a three-day historic car racing festival in Goodwood, Chichester,

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Hugo, 7, from London rides past a 4x7 metre rainbow arch, made entirely of recycled aluminium cans, which has been installed by recycling initiative 'Every Can Counts', in partnership with The City of London Corporation in front of St Paul's Cathedral in London, to encourage members of the public to recycle their drinks cans ahead of recycling week, which starts on 20 September

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Sheikeh MOhammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, leader of Abu Dhabi, leaves Downing Street after meeting with Boris Johnson

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Children pose by ice sculptures depicting people collecting water by charity Water Aid to show the fragility of water and the threat posed by climate change in London

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Heavy rain covers the A149 near Kings Lynn in Norfolk

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Luke Jerram's 'Museum of the Moon' at Durham Cathedral

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Inspirational young fundraiser Tobias Weller crosses the finish line, near his home in Sheffield, as he completes his latest epic feat where he swam and triked his way to the end of his awesome year-long Ironman Challenge. This is the third challenge Tobias, who has cerebral palsy and autism, has completed, raising more than 150,000 for his school and Sheffield Children Hospitals charity

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British player Emma Raducanu, holds up the US Open championship trophy winning the women's singles final of the US Open in New York

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People paddle board during a misty morning in Ullswater, the second largest lake in the Lake District, Cumbria

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Troops from Wiltshire based 4 Armoured Close Support Battalion Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers during final inspection at Wellington Barracks in London, ahead of providing troops for the Queens Guard

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Workers cross London Bridge during the morning rush hour in London

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A gallery employee poses for photographers next to a painting entitled Prairie by British artist, Louise Giovanelli during the exhibition 'Mixing it up: Painting it up' at the Hayward Gallery in London

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Traders in the Ring at the London Metal Exchange, in the City of London, after open-outcry trading returned for the first time since March 2020, when the Ring was temporarily closed due to the pandemic

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People enjoy the warm weather on Sandbanks beach, Poole

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Demonstrators from Animal Rebellion and Nature Rebellion protest in Trafalgar Square in London.

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South Africa's Ntando Mahlangu (centre) wins the Men's 200 metres T61 Final ahead of second placed Great Britain's Richard Whitehead at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games

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A young common seal on the beach at Horsey Gap in Norfolk, as hundreds of pregnant grey seals come ashore ready for the start of the pupping season.

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Goldfinches fighting over food in a garden in Strensham, Worcestershire

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Gold Medallist Sarah Storey of Britain celebrates on the podium

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Extinction Rebellion protesters hold a a tea party on Tower Bridge in London

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A police office tussles with a demonstrator on Cromwell Road outside the Natural History Museum during a protest by members of Extinction Rebellion in London

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Members of the British armed forces 16 Air Assault Brigade walk to the air terminal after disembarking a Royal Airforce Voyager aircraft at Brize Norton, Oxfordshire

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Fabio Quartararo crashes during a MotoGP practice session at the British Grand Prix, Silverstone Circuit

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An Extinction Rebellion activist holds a placard in a fountain surrounded by police officers, during a protest next to Buckingham Palace in London

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Gold Medallist Great Britains cyclist, Sarah Storey, celebrates after winning the Womens C5 3000m Individual Pursuit Final at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. It was her 15th Paralympic gold

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A demonstrator dressed as bee during a protest by members of Extinction Rebellion on Whitehall, in central London

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Former interpreters for the British forces in Afghanistan demonstrate outside the Home Office in central London

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Police officers form a line in front of the entrance to the Guildhall, London, where protesters have climbed onto a ledge above the entrance during an Extinction Rebellion stage a protest

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People take part in a demonstration in solidarity with people of Afghanistan, in London

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People zip wire across the sea from Bournemouth pier towards the beach.

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Supporters of Geronimo the alpaca gather outside Shepherds Close Farm in Wooton Under Edge, Gloucestershire

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Former Afghan interpreters and veterans hold a demonstration outside Downing Street, calling for support and protection for Afghan interpreters and their families

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Labour now says it would reopen Brexit talks if in power - The Independent

For 16 years, Germanys role in the EU has been shaped by Chancellor Angela Merkel. She has helped steer the bloc through several tough periods, including the financial crash and Europes refugee crisis. However, Mrs Merkel announced several years ago that she would not seek a fifth successive term in office at the 2021 federal election. The public vote, held last Sunday, saw her conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) slip to become the second largest parliamentary party.

The centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) emerged with the most seats in the Bundestag after a successful campaign by Olaf Scholz.

His party took 25.7 percent of the vote compared to the CDU-CSU blocs 24.1 percent.

Mr Scholz has now launched coalition talks with the environmentalist Greens alliance and the liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP).

The third and fourth biggest parties are the potential kingmakers to an SPD or CDU-led government.

Armin Laschet, the leader of the CDU, had also expressed interest in forming a coalition.

JUST IN:Brexit LIVE: Lord Sugar erupts - claims petrol crisis 'tip of iceberg' after leaving EU

However, Mrs Merkels hopeful successor has since reportedly congratulated Mr Scholz on his election win, paving the way for the SPD leader to become Chancellor.

Like the outgoing Chancellor, Mr Scholz is a staunch advocate of the EU and has urged greater unity within the bloc as the world recovers from the pandemic.

According to political expert John Callahan, Germany under Mr Scholz will not diverge far from Mrs Merkel in its approach to Brussels.

Mr Callahan is the Dean of the School of Graduate and Professional Studies at New England College in the US and has worked for the US State Department and in intelligence.

Those four parties are all pro-Europe, theyre all strong believers in Germanys place in Europe.

Mr Callahan said he would guess that nothing would change for UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson with Mr Scholz at the helm.

He said: Thats how the tea leaves look to me, and Im thinking the same for [US President] Joe Biden.

Although I think that the American opportunities after Merkel are actually significantly different from the British ones.

I think Merkel was put up as sort of the anti-American polar opposite leader for Europe and that may change.

This began right before Merkels arrival under Gerhard Schrder when the Gulf War broke out and the great rift between Germany and the US occurred over the invasion of Iraq.

He said the outgoing Chancellor had inherited Germanys frosty transatlantic relationship from her predecessor.

He added: But over the years as the UK went back to a Conservative government with [David] Cameron, Germany sort of became the rallying point for Europeans who were not pleased with American policy.

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Brexit hastened Germanys grip on EU: Headed that way for a long time - Daily Express

The twin spectres haunting the UK economy Covid and Brexit have combined to push up demand for bridging refinancing in 2021, according to industry leaders.

Bridging Refinancing Boosted by Covid and Brexit

London, United Kingdom, Oct. 01, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Were already seeing increased demand for re-bridging, with the majority of cases relating to the pandemic, says Vic Jannels, CEO of the Association of Short Term Lenders (ASTL). During lockdown, the fact that valuers, lenders and solicitors were working from home meant that there was a major slowdown, with many projects unable to complete on time.

Demand for bridging finance in general soared in the UK between July and September 2020, with a record number of applications, the ASTL reported.

Although most lenders were sympathetic to borrowers predicaments, so long as clients were open and communicative, the incidence of re-bridging also rose markedly from mid-2020 and remains a feature of the market.

Were seeing demand for bridging refinance for people who are downsizing, adds Jennels. This is mainly in the large conurbations like London, Manchester and Birmingham, where the pandemic has meant people can work from home and theyre selling their high-priced properties for somewhere with more space and a garden, out of town. This movement is a seedbed for re-bridging where theyre unable to sell as quickly as they hoped.

Covid-19 is by far the biggest challenge facing the bridging finance market, according to the latest market study by Ernst & Young, published early in 2021. It found that 48 per cent of respondents - all professionals in the bridging sector - saw the pandemic as the most important challenge impacting the UK bridging finance market. Like Vic Jennels at the ASTL, the study reports difficulties to advance loans during thepandemic and the challenges associated with the movement to a remote working environment.Just as working from home and months of lockdown prompted the adoption of new technologies such as Zoom calls, the EY report found that technology looms large in the bridging sector, as pressure grows for lenders to adopt new digital platforms and open banking standards, enabling easier access to remote expertise and transactions.

Story continues

A potential consequence of greater digital adoption by bridging finance market is that re-bridging will become more common, as borrowers can more easily and quickly access alternative deals. We see new technology as an important enabler of bridging refinance, says Stephen Clark at Finbri. Speed, which is clearly reliant on our process efficiency, is a prime decision factor when customers seek bridging finance and the adoption of digital technology has helped us achieve that.

In some regards, the effects of Brexit on the UK property market have been minimal. Values are now above the level of January 2020, when the UK formally left the EU, along with mortgage activity and lending. Whereas EYs bridging finance report in 2019 cited Brexit as the single biggest concern and challenge, its threat faded noticeably in 2020 and was yet further diminished in 2021, when just 15 per cent of respondents judged it among the top three challenges.

In December 2019, when the pandemic had not yet bitten, we were looking at a Cold War in front of us, brought on by Brexit, feeling that nobody knew what would happen, says Vic Jennels at the ASTL. But Id say that overall, the mortgage market hasnt really suffered from Brexit. In fact between June 2020 and September 2021 Ive never known such a high level of enquiries: its been the busiest time in the last 20 years.

If anything, Jennels argues that the market has been too busy: We have problems getting staff to deal with the number of mortgage enquiries.

Lack of staff is a common refrain, from hospitality to transport and beyond. It applies equally to the construction sector, where developers have found themselves unable to progress projects thanks to lack of building workers, along with supply chain disruption and the rising cost of materials, exacerbated by Brexit. The delay to materials is a further challenge which could see an increasing number of borrowers running over term, putting pressure on cash liquidity, says Philip Gould at bridging lender Avamore Capital.

Theres high demand for property and very little supply, notes Jennels. So this is one area where development projects slow down and we may see bridging refinance grow.

The recent sharp spike in natural gas prices, which caused CO2 manufacturers to shut down and a slew of energy providers to cease operations in September 2021, could be a harbinger of price volatility to come, some of it Brexit-related, and with potentially high impact on the re-bridging market.

UK-based bridging finance as a whole experienced a jump in demand in 2020 compared with 2019, with applications valued at 25.82 billion, compared with 23.19 billion in 2019. Demand remained vibrant in early 2021, with applications up by 18 per cent in Q1 2021 compared with the same period in 2020. This, says Vic Jennels at the ASTL, reflects the enormous potential the bridging market has to provide customers with funding solutions through these difficult times.

Some in the market believe that bridging finance will enjoy a welcome boost in the coming months, as the property market adjusts to the end of the pandemic, and UK planning laws take into account changed realities. Covid is likely to take a heavy toll on the high street and office-space market, says Colin Sanders, CEO of Tuscan Capital. Given a sensible approach to planning regulations, this could provide a further boost to investors and developers, not to mention much-needed city and town-centre accommodation for private use. They argue that the appointment of Michael Gove as Housing Secretary could herald meaningful change in approach, unlocking new development opportunities, with offices and retails premises converted into residential property, helping to alleviate the housing crisis.

While the UK property market remains so buoyant, the availability of both bridging finance and re-bridging is likely to remain high. We believe that re-bridging offers positive options to the market, to the benefit of lenders and developers, says Stephen Clark at Finbri.

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Bridging Refinancing Boosted by Covid and Brexit - Finbri Limited - Yahoo Finance

Reform UK, the rebranded Brexit party, plans to focus less on culture war issues and instead try to attract disenchanted Conservatives with more weighty policy offerings based on the cost of living and healthcare, its leader has said.

Richard Tice, a property developer and Brexit campaigner who took over from Nigel Farage as leader in March, promised to field at least 600 candidates in the next general election, saying half had already been chosen.

In the 2019 election the then Brexit party stood down in hundreds of Tory-held seats, but under Tice it will very clearly target what he now calls the party of high taxes and high regulation.

Speaking to the Guardian before the partys conference on Sunday, Tice said it would not be unfair even to argue he has more in common with Keir Starmer than Boris Johnson. I dont think it is, actually. Ive never met Keir, but I think you can tell we both care about people. Boris only cares about Boris.

The Reform UK conference, while low in profile, carries potentially significant political resonance for several reasons, not least in shaping the future of a party that won the 2019 European elections but then slipped into near obscurity.

In this years council elections, the party won two seats. Knocking on doors, the majority of people hadnt heard of us, Tice admitted, but polls now put Reform UK at up to 5%.

The conference will hear policy announcements in areas including healthcare, tax and the environment, plus one that Tice promised would have a big, unexpected wow factor.

He said this would mark the end of a period in which his party has often gained attention by focusing on the culture wars and associated issues, including opposition to lockdown and a semi-alliance with Laurence Fox, the outspoken actor turned London mayoral candidate.

Yes, we get irritated by what we call the woke stuff, and I think it does irritate millions of people, Tice said. But what affects peoples daily lives are the policies Ive talked about, and the election will be fought on those things. We are deadly serious about this.

Also significant is Reform UKs resolute opposition to Johnsons Conservatives, to the extent of holding its conference in Manchester on the same day that the Tory conference opens in the same city. That was my idea, to really wind them up, which I think it has successfully done, Tice said. Were starting to get abused by Conservatives, which is always a good sign.

Another notable element of the post-Farage Reform UK is that while critical of Johnsonism, it mimics his pick-and-mix approach to policies from the left and right. Thus, while Tice would propose significant cuts to income and business taxes, these would be aimed only at lower-paid people and smaller firms. Any revenue gap, which Tice argues would be temporary, would be plugged not by spending cuts but by increased borrowing.

Everybodys got their knickers in a twist about the national debt, he said. Theres no reason to be so worried about it.

Similarly, while Tice is critical of the governments net-zero plans, he does not overtly deny the climate science and would like to see the government offer 100% loans for people to fit domestic solar panels.

While Tice is careful to not dismiss Farage, to whom he still regularly speaks, it is clear this is a changed approach from a leader now best known for making videos about refugees landing in Dover. Correct, Tice said when asked if it was a new era for the party. This is Reform UK under my leadership, and these policies are driven by my focus.

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Reform UK tones down culture war rhetoric and targets Tory voters - The Guardian