Category Archives: Brexit

Professor Daniel Hodson suggested what he called a well-resourced Rejoiner campaign was seeking to capitalise on a perfect storm of political pressures to frustrate attempts to sever ties with the bloc once and for all. He was commenting on a blog published by the Campaign for an Independent Britain (CIBUK), in conjunction with Facts4EU, entitled: Brexit threat? Sir Keir Starmer breaks cover to announce he wants to renegotiate with EU.

The report highlights recent remarks by Sir Keir, who earlier this month suggested he would seek to renegotiate the UKs relationship with the EU in the event of a general election victory.

It also cites Remain-backing Tory MP Tobias Ellwoods suggestion that Britain should rejoin the Single Market , as well as remarks by Tory peer Daniel Hannan in a recent comment piece in the Daily Telegraph.

Mr Hodson toldExpress.co.uk: Dont lets fall into the trap of imagining that Brexit is done.

A well-resourced Rejoiner campaign has spotted the opportunity provided by a Government experiencing a perfect storm of political pressures, including Covid, the Ukraine War and inflation.

Mr Hodson subsequently clarified that the campaign which he referred to as a tendency involving europhiles such as the ever-present Andrew Adonis, Tony Blair and George Soros.

He added: All the old threats and porkies are emerging, and now the Labour Party is espousing renegotiation.

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The CIBUK report highlighted Sir Keirs interview with LBCs Nick Ferrari on June 6, in which he said: What I want to do, and what we would if we were in government is make Brexit work.

Which is make sure that weve got a better deal that works, whether its that for businesses because so many businesses are struggling with the extra bureaucracy.

They just want to trade well with their European partners and of course across the world.

It also references to an article by Defence Committee chairman and Bournemouth East MP Mr Ellwood in the June 1 edition of The House, the House of Commons magazine.

Mr Ellwood wrote: The single market means the free movement of goods, services, capital and people.

It would see 7bn of paperwork and checks go, and boost our economy by restoring free trade to sectors demanding change.

It would require acceptance of some EU regulations. However, UK industry, from food to pharmaceuticals, chemicals to motor manufacturing, says they would be better off working with one common standard rather than having to follow two: both a UK regulatory system and the EU one for most exports.

He added: There remain understandable reservations about the free movement of people in relation to benefit claims which would need addressing, but this is not insurmountable.

If joining the single market (with conditions) results in strengthening our economy, easing the cost of living crisis, settling the Irish problem at a stroke and promoting our European credentials as we take an ever greater lead in Ukraine, would it not be churlish to not face this reality?

The reports authors also voice disquiet at remarks by Lord Hannan in his Telegraph article on June 4 suggesting the decision to quit the single market had been an error.

He wrote: Staying in the single market, or large parts of it, would have saved us a lot of trouble. Had we declared, immediately after the 2016 vote, that we intended to return to the European Free Trade Association (EFTA).

An opportunity was lost and lost permanently. The two strongest arguments for retaining many single market arrangements were that it would ease the transition and, by finding compromise, spare us a lot of broken friendships. That moment has now passed.

Express.co.uk has contacted Sir Keir, Mr Ellwood and Lord Hannan for comment.

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'Threats and porkies!' Rejoiners accused of new plot to shackle UK to bloc - Express

The UK left the EU on Friday 31 January 2020 on the terms set out in the Withdrawal Agreement, including the Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland.

On 24 December 2020, the EU and UK negotiating teams reached agreement in principle on a Trade and Cooperation Agreement, which is effective from the end of the transition period. The Agreement will provide for tariff-free, quota-free trade and for sectoral cooperation in a number of important areas. The European Commission has provided more information on the Agreement on its website. Given the late stage at which the negotiations were finalised, the Agreement is being provisionally applied for a period from 1 January while procedures to conclude the agreement are completed.

The Agreement provides for tariff and quota free goods trade, transport and energy connectivity, and cooperation between police services. It protects the Single Market that is so important for our future prosperity and ensures fair competition for our businesses. For more information on the agreement, please click here.

It is important to note that even with the Trade and Cooperation Agreement in place, there will be significant and lasting change to the EUs relationship with the UK. As of 1 January, the UK is outside the EU Single Market and Customs Union. This means new procedures apply for businesses moving goods to, from or through the UK, excluding Northern Ireland. The Protocol on Ireland / Northern Ireland, which forms part of the Withdrawal Agreement agreed earlier with the UK, means that no new procedures will apply to goods moving between Ireland and Northern Ireland.

Businesses and citizens should continue as a matter of urgency with the steps set out in the Government's Brexit Readiness Action Plan.

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Brexit - Department of Foreign Affairs

LONDON -- The British government said Friday it will introduce a bill next week to override parts of the Brexit trade treaty it signed with the European Union before the U.K. quit the bloc in 2020. The move will be a major escalation in a festering U.K-EU dispute over trade rules for Northern Ireland.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's spokesman, Jamie Davies, said the bill has been agreed by the relevant cabinet committees and will be introduced to Parliament on Monday.

The legislation, if approved by lawmakers, would scrap parts of a trade treaty with the EU that Johnson signed less than two years ago, by removing checks on goods entering Northern Ireland from the rest of the U.K.

The EU has threatened to retaliate, raising the specter of a trade war between the two major economic partners.

Some legal experts say the move is unlawful but the U.K. government says it will publish a summary of the legal advice it has received about the legislation.

Northern Ireland is the only part of the U.K. that shares a border with an EU country, Ireland. When Britain left the European Union and its borderless free-trade zone, the two sides agreed to keep the Irish land border free of customs posts and other checks because an open border is a key pillar of the peace process that ended decades of violence in Northern Ireland.

Instead, to protect the EUs single market, there are checks on some goods, such as meat and eggs, entering Northern Ireland from the rest of the U.K.

British unionists in Northern Ireland say the new checks have put a burden on businesses and frayed the bonds between Northern Ireland and the rest of the U.K. -- seen by some unionists as a threat to their British identity.

Britains Conservative government says the Brexit rules also are undermining peace in Northern Ireland, where they have caused a political crisis. Northern Ireland's main unionist party is blocking the formation of a new power-sharing government in Belfast, saying it wont take part until the Brexit trade rules are scrapped.

Follow all AP stories on Brexit at https://apnews.com/hub/Brexit.

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UK to introduce bill next week to breach Brexit deal with EU - ABC News

Brexit caused Brits living in the European Union to "automatically" lose the right to vote and stand in local elections across the bloc, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled.

The ECJ's ruling on Thursday came following a case brought to Luxembourg involving a British national, known as EP, who is married to a French citizen and has been living on the other side of the Channel since 1984.

EP never applied for French citizenship and realised she had been taken off the electoral roll just weeks before municipal elections were held in March 2020.

EP then filed an application to be re-registered on the French electoral roll in October 2020.

However, according to EuroNews, her application was denied by the mayor of Thoux.

EP proceeded to take the matter to court.

She claimed she was now no longer eligible to vote or stand in local elections anywhere.

As a British national living abroad for more than 15 years, EP also relinquished her right to participate in UK elections.

In a press release, the ECJ said: "Since United Kingdom nationals have been, as from February 1, 2020, nationals of a third State, they lost the status of citizen of the Union as from that date.

"Accordingly, they no longer enjoy the right to vote and to stand as a candidate in municipal elections in their Member State of residence.

"This is an automatic consequence of the sole sovereign decision taken by the United Kingdom to withdraw from the European Union."

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Truss poised with 'get out of jail card' to escape hated deal - new twist - Express

My love of gardening is grounded in the thrill of renewal: the first snowdrop bulb, the first songbird to break the silence, that shaft of warmth in early March. This week, as a veteran party member and supporter of every Conservative leader from Churchill to Cameron, I have detected something similar: the renewal of my partys European legacy.

The disastrous consequences of Brexit for living standards, for our economic wellbeing and for Britains reputation abroad, have so far been obscured by Covid, the war in Ukraine and the headline-grabbing story of our prime ministers lack of truthfulness and integrity. But this week, the British press perhaps unintentionally revealed the real world that is emerging as a result of Brexit.

While readers of the Guardian have been kept closely informed about the continuing tragedy of Brexit, its only now that other parts of the British press have begun to consider the truth of its legacy. The economies of three of the regions that voted most heavily for Brexit were smaller at the end of last year than at the time of the vote, wrote David Smith in the business section of this weeks Sunday Times. Despite a weak pound making Britains goods cheap for foreign buyers, exporters are struggling, Jim Armitage wrote in the same paper. First-quarter figures last week showed exports of food and drink to the EU were down 17%, or 614m, on pre-Covid levels. Exports to non European countries increased by 10.7%, or 223m, but not enough to offset the European decline.

Brexit was meant to be a new beginning for the Tory party, Jeremy Warner wrote this week in the Daily Telegraph, but by making trade with Europe more difficult and costly it has so far only added to the countrys travails. In its coverage of recent OECD warnings, the Daily Mail reported that the UK economy is set to flatline next year performing worse than every other G20 country except for sanctions-crippled Russia. Most of these countries have also felt the consequences of the war in Ukraine and the Covid epidemic but not, of course, Brexit.

It goes on. Earlier this week, the Times reported the vice-chancellor of Cambridge Universitys warnings that a failure to agree terms to remain part of the EUs largest science funding scheme is already harming researchers. On the same day, the paper published an opinion piece by Iain Martin, a prominent Brexiteer, who wrote: Painful as it is, we need to talk about Brexit. In the same paper was a story about Brexit immigration rules being to blame for airport chaos, and an opinion piece by Simon Nixon, who warned that the outlook for the UK is deteriorating.

Not all those who voted to remain agreed with me that the campaign to rejoin the EU needed to begin the day after the referendum. But in my view, democracy is a vehicle of choice. Successive governments reverse each others mistakes. The bigger the mistake, the more urgent the need to reverse. It may take time. Brexit took 43 years. Initially, that process began slowly. It picked up pace and virulence with the acquisition of major newspapers by Rupert Murdoch and Conrad Black, and with the replacement of David English, a staunch European, with Paul Dacre at the Daily Mail. Over time, the public were fed a diet of deception, culminating in the lies of the Brexit campaign itself.

Here we come to the core of the matter. Brexit carried clear promises. No border between Northern Ireland and the Republic; new trade deals to replace the single market; a golden future with rising living standards. But a million Europeans have left our country, and Brexit has had dire consequences for the health service, social services and the economy.

Perhaps worst of all is the imminent publication by the government of laws to break its word over the Northern Ireland protocol. Trust is a characteristic of infinite value. It is the rock on which democracy stands. This government regards it as an optional extra to be used when convenient, and disregarded when not. You hear this on every doorstep, read about it in every opinion poll. I overheard two ladies talking about the prime minister: I wouldnt want him to marry my daughter. I wouldnt want him to rent my house, I wouldnt want him to manage my money. Brexit is at the heart of the deception that the British people are feeling so keenly. That is why the issue will not and should not go away.

I have always been sceptical of the approach to politics where so-called experts in opinion manipulation send out ministers like parrots to tell us what they would like us to believe. Need to move on. Draw lines in the sand, squawk. Get on with the job, squawk squawk.

This issue of trust is not going away. Everyone knows that the prime minister effectively lost the vote of confidence. More than 40% of his colleagues openly voted against him. Significantly more will have voted for him not out of any confidence but for a range of reasons. When I stood against Margaret Thatcher, her majority evaporated within days when the real judgment of her colleagues was about to be tested for the second time.

Yet as we have seen, and in some cases almost despite themselves, even the most Europhobic parts of our press are beginning to shine a light on the inevitable failures of Brexit and perhaps inadvertently to fertilise the green shoots of a return to truth-telling in politics, to British values, and to economic common sense.

I say to all those who have supported the European vision of prime ministers from Churchill through to Cameron: now is the time to restore this vision of our country as a major European partner in one of the worlds most powerful and influential organisations. We owe that to generations that are yet to come.

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Even the Murdoch press is now waking up to the truth: Brexit was an act of self-harm - The Guardian

I hate the phrase the architects of Brexit, partly because I still long for an alternate world in which Brexit vanishes as a word and concept, and partly because to say it has architects credits it with a degree of structural soundness it doesnt possess. Nonetheless, there is a man, Daniel Hannan, who has been hurling himself at this project of disintegration since his student days, so lets call him one of its architects. Writing in the Telegraph, he casually dropped in that it would have been easier for all of us if we had stayed in the single market. Tell you what would have been helpful, pal: saying this with any kind of force between 2016 and 2019, when it might have changed or meant anything. This is just the way zealots are it is pointless to try to hold them to account or pose any questions about their sheer brass neck. They will chase you off a cliff and then ask mildly why you didnt think to pack your parachute.

Nevertheless, its hard to get that sour, familiar taste of injustice out of your mouth. Hannan is allowed to say this, since from him it is original, even novel; when a fierce proponent of this idiotic scheme says that maybe it went too far, thats news, folks. If any of the rest of us said it, it would be repetitive, predictable, irrelevant a faux pas, even, like telling strangers how many push-ups you can do or the time you dreamed about a fox.

When a leaver gets stuck in an airport queue in Mlaga for three hours, while their EU counterparts glide through and swipe all the best hire cars, they are allowed to curse the forces of bureaucracy, but if a remainer did it, wed be remoaning again. As the titans of the airline industry Ryanairs Michael OLeary, Jet2s Steve Heapy blame chaotic scenes at airports and stranded passengers on the combined forces of Brexit, the odd Tory schmuck will go through a rote denial, but their heart isnt really in it. Their voices sound a bit tired and you know the day is coming when they shrug and say: Maybe this wasnt such a great idea after all. Perhaps we should go back to the drawing board, start with a little light customs union. There, that isnt so hard, is it? And when, so choked with outrage that we cant even breathe, let alone formulate words, we are reduced to conveying our disapproval with hand signals, our Brexit overlords will turn round, all innocent, and say: Isnt this what you said you wanted? Politicians who can admit when they have made a mistake?

It was always going to be foreign holidays where the sharp point of reality hit the hot-air balloon of taking back control. The nightmare for EU citizens trying to figure out how to stay in the UK and whether to even bother, thats a private matter, playing out in individual households. Staff shortages, supply chain problems, even tailbacks at ports, can all be filed under other peoples problems, at least for a while. Airports, though families in Gatwick having their longed-for trip to Corfu cancelled with 15 minutes notice talking through their disappointment on radio phone-ins; students stuck in Mykonos; queues at borders that a thousand people will use the last 4% of their phone battery to post on Instagram are moments that are just too readily dramatised. No amount of rhetoric can erase them and, sooner or later, there will be reverse-ferreting all over the place.

Looking back, I wish we had fought the entire EU referendum campaign on the hassle of it all. A bit less Project Fear, a bit more Project Ball-ache. Is that really what you want, for yourself, for your descendants? More admin, more queueing, more gigantic pains in your neck? Is anything worth that? We could have met every lofty soliloquy about global Britain with a half-raised eyebrow and a quiet, You know what sovereignty really means? It means waiting for things and filling in forms. It means doing everything you least like in life, much more often.

Oh well, at least well know better for next time.

Zoe Williams is a Guardian columnist

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How do you convince a leaver Brexit was a bad idea? Make them stand in a queue - The Guardian

Its not just longer passport queues being blamed on Brexit, as researchers say the UKs EU exit, as well as Covid-19 lockdowns, has caused a dramatic drop in drug quality.

A new study has found that the quality of MDMA, also known as Ecstasy when in pill form, has severely dropped in quality in the UK since 2021.

Researchers from The Loop, a UK drug-checking charity found that almost half (45%) of substances sold as MDMA at English festivals last year didnt contain any MDMA at all.

To compare, in 2019, just 7% of substances sold as MDMA didn't contain the drug.

Instead, much of the 'MDMA' sold in UK festivals seems to contain either cathinones, a chemical similar to other amphetamines, or just plain caffeine.

"The drug market was turned upside down by Covid, lockdowns and Brexit combined," Professor Fiona Measham, a co-author of the paper, chair of criminology at the University of Liverpool and director for The Loop told Euronews.

In 2021, the UK was one of the first European countries to reopen its nightlife after Covid-19 lockdowns. This was also seen as a likely cause of the change in quality of MDMA in the UK.

COVID-19 lockdowns and the shutdown of UK nightlife led to a slump in demand for party drugs and suppliers scaled back production. Then, as UK nightlife reopened ahead of other European countries, demand outpaced supply, said Dr Michael Pasco, a Cardiff University research associate and co-lead author of the study.

Another interesting studytested the water supply of seven European cities across the Netherlands, Belgium and Italy during lockdowns and showed there wasnt a decrease in use of some drugs like cannabis.

But there was a 50% drop in the use of MDMA. This is likely because its used as a party drug and naturally, there were far less parties in those cities during the pandemic.

"We reasoned that producers reduced production/supply of MDMA during the lockdowns due to decreased demand," Measham says.

"Demand for MDMA would have decreased quite substantially whilst festivals, bars and clubs were unable to operate. Then once UK nightlife reopened after Freedom Day, demand increased and outstripped supply in part because Dutch pill factories took a while to reopen and in part because the transport network between the UK and EU had virtually ground to a halt. Supermarket shelves were short of certain products for the same reasons."

But the researchers at The Loop think that the supply chain disruptions that have plagued post-Brexit trade are also to blame.

This was compounded by Brexit-related supply chain disruptions affecting distribution. During this unprecedented turbulence in the drug market, substances that look like MDMA were mis-sold to unknowing customers, Pascoe explains.

"The whole length of the supply chain was disrupted from manufacture and road haulage, through supply chains to the festivals, bars and clubs where party drugs would have been taken," adds Measham.

The reduction in Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGVs) transporting items from the EU to the UK has also meant a reduction in the amount of trucks used to smuggle drugs.

"A lot of UK ecstasy enters the country via the Netherlands," says Measham.

"Part of ourreasoning for why the cathinones 3-MMC and 4-CMC were so prevalent in 2021 was because they were still technically legal in the Netherlands at the time of the data collection."

"We reasoned that the higher availability of these substances and relatively similar appearance/effects profile to MDMA meant they were readily able to fill the demand for ecstasy," she says.

The cutting of Netherlands-quality MDMA in the UK could be pinned on the supply chains, suggests Steve Rolles,senior policy analyst at Transform Drugs Policy Foundation.

"Supply chain issues for many products have impacted all of Europe, but appear to have been worse in the UK due to Brexit related bureaucracy, and problems with shipping, heavy good vehicle drivers and so on," he says.

"These supply issues and shortages of many products, appear to have been echoed in some drug markets - creating an increased incentive for adulteration and mis-selling as demand outstrips supply," Rolles continues. "The increases in adulteration does seem to have been a bigger issue in the UK suggesting Brexit may have exacerbated the problem."

Interestingly, MDMA quality hasn't dropped in a similar way across the EU.

"We did not detect those same adulterants. Our feeling is that drugs sent by air were more affected, Mireia Ventura, manager at the Trans European Drugs Information Project told Vice.

The European Drug Report 2021 from the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) found that although there was a decrease in MDMA purity across Europe in 2020, the decrease was from 88% to 80%, much higher than the UK figures.

Figures from the 2022 EMCDDA report will be released later this June.

In The Loop's study, its also suggested that the changes in currency exchange values may have incentivised mis-selling of lower quality goods to the UK.

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Brexit and Covid lockdowns blamed for bad MDMA in the UK - Euronews

Plans by the British government to scrap aspects of the Northern Ireland Protocol could have a colossal political and economic impact, Sinn Fin vice president Michelle ONeill has said.

During a party meeting in Belfast, Ms ONeill launched an attack on British prime minister Boris Johnson, who she said was motivated solely by holding on to power.

It was the first party meeting for Sinn Fin since it secured a historic victory in last months Assembly elections, emerging as the largest party in the North for the first time.

However, the DUP has blocked attempts to restore the powersharing Stormont assembly or to form an executive as part of its protest against the protocol, which has created a trade border in the Irish Sea.

The UK government has since revealed plans to introduce domestic legislation that would override parts of the Brexit deal for Northern Ireland.

Speaking about Mr Johnson, Ms ONeill said: Our interests are certainly not his interests, or that of the Tories.

By our interests I mean all of the people here, our local political democracy, our peace process, our progress and the transformation of the island over the past quarter of a century.

Theyve no concern for our future our shared future. Boris Johnsons sole interests are holding on to power, and serving the sectional interests of a London elite.

She added: The DUP have saddled up to the Tories before, and of course they will never learn. Whats at play is that Boris Johnson wants to clutch on to power for as long as he can get away with it.

The DUP and a faction of the Tories with whom theyre aligned want to squeeze from him what they can, while they can, on the Brexit protocol a protocol which is necessary and a direct result of the hard Brexit the DUP and Tories championed.

Ms ONeill said: Boris Johnson knows that to gamble the protocol is to breach international law and to jeopardise the British Governments agreement with the EU on their withdrawal and future trading relationship with colossal political and economic impact.

The threat of unilateral action by the Tories to legislate and breach international law serves nobodys interests, anywhere at any time.

With 40 per cent of his own MPs diverging in this weeks confidence vote he has big choices to make in the interests of his own country and people.

But, the absurdity of people of this island being subjected to this figure of disrepute is untenable.

He is driving an anti-Good Friday Agreement agenda, which is disingenuously wrapped up in a pro-agreement rhetoric.

Boris Johnson and [Northern Ireland Secretary] Brandon Lewis are giving the DUP cover and lets be clear the political stability of the north cannot be a hostage to the Tory in-fighting, Westminster chaos and continued DUP disruption.

Ms ONeill also said that if powersharing could not be restored in Northern Ireland, then there should be joint authority rule from Dublin and London.

She said: If those elected to serve fail to restore the democratic institutions then it is not a case of direct rule from London on the cards, but joint authority from Dublin and London.

And if the people decide, Sinn Fin hopes to lead that government from Dublin.

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Brexit protocol legislation could have colossal economic impact, Sinn Fn warns - BreakingNews.ie

TheSNPhaveslammed theTories'Brexitobsession as the economic impact of the UKs withdrawal from the EU has been revealed by a new study.

The latest figures from the Centre for European Reform show that Boris Johnsons Brexit strategy has cost the UK economy 31 billion.

A comparison showed that by the end of 2021 the UK economy was 5% smaller than it would have been if it remained in the EU.

This follows a reportthat the UK economy will grind to a halt next year with it expected to be the second-worst performing economy among the G20 only bettering Russias which has been hit by trade sanctions amid its invasion of Ukraine.

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With the cost of livingcrisis worsening and fuel prices skyrocketing, the SNP say that independence is the only way to save Scotlands economy from being further impacted by Brexit.

The SNPs Westminster Depute Leader, Kirsten Oswald MP, said: There can be no doubt that the only way to protect Scotland from Westminsters Brexit obsession is with independence.

As the cost of living crisis continues to hammer households across all four nations, it has brought into sharp focus how Scotland also has a cost of living with Westminster crisis.

The people of Scotland voted overwhelmingly in favour of remaining within the European Union because they knew this outcome would follow and yet we still have to suffer its fate. This is wrong and democratically unjustified.

That is why independence is the only realistic route for Scotland to regain its EU membership and escape this toxic Westminster system for good.

Meanwhile, Nicola Sturgeon is looking to publish her governments vision of what an independent Scotland would look like before the end of this parliamentary session on July 1.

The first paper ofthe scene setter blueprint could be published as early next week.

While details within the paper are yet unclear, many will expect the planto reflect the SNPs longstanding policy for Scotland to rejoin the EU after gaining independence.

This comes as the SNP have repeated their commitment to hold an independence referendum by the end of 2023.

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SNP slam Tories as devastating economic impact of Brexit revealed - The National

Ursula von der Leyen may be facing the same fate as Boris Johnson following calls for a vote of no confidence in the EU Commission chief.

The move was prompted by BelgianMEPGuy Verhofstadtwho is urging his colleagues in the European Parliament to call into question Mrsvon Der Leyen's leadership after she approved recovery funds to Poland.

In a letter to MEPs, Mr Verhofstadt said the Commission "blatantly disregarded Parliament resolutions" on Poland's capabilities to follow EU rules.

He wrote: "The Commission decided to give a positive assessment, in blatant disregard of several Parliament resolutions, several ECJ rulings, and dissent within the College, as five key Commissioners publicly doubt whether the so called milestones are sufficient to comply with the ECJ rulings.

"Moreover these Commissioners fear that implementation will not be rigorously verified by the Commission.

"The Commission is fully aware that the remedies announced by the Polish authorities are purely cosmetic.

"The Commission is the guardian of the Treaties, responsible for the application of EU law under the control of the European Court of Justice.

"The EU Values are a fundamental cornerstone of the Union and are not for sale.

"If the von der Leyen Commission no longer fulfils its role as guardian of the Treaties, Parliament should withdraw its confidence."

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BREXIT: Nadine Dorries tears into Jeremy Hunt in 'wrong about everything' jibe - Express