Category Archives: Brexit

Boris Johnson is being forced to "reboot" old Brexit arguments, a political expert told Express.co.uk.

The Prime Minister is under renewed pressure with the looming publication of Sue Gray's report into Downing Street parties held in lockdown.

Dr Nicholas Dickinson, a political expert from the University of Oxford underlined the significance of Sinn Fin winning the election, with the nationalist party becoming the largest at Stormont for the first time.

He said: "This really, really messes up Lord Frost and Boris Johnson's plan for what they were going to do about the Protocol.

Because they needed to demonstrate this was unpopular, the way it was working now in Northern Ireland.

And these results kind of say the opposite. So, a leg of that plan has just been kind of knocked away.

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Brexit LIVE: 'Up to London!' tensions erupt as USA wades into row over hated deal - Express

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It taught us a lot. One point I was getting at with that quotation was that there was a time when nearly every important business in the country had its representatives in the House of Commons. I dont mean trade unionists I mean the owners. The Conservative Party was the party of British industry. My favorite example is the owner of Meccano, a very important Liverpool toy company, who was the MP for Everton in Liverpool for many years. But one could repeat that example again and again. It applies to many prime ministers, especially Stanley Baldwin.

However, in the recent past, things have been very different. The UK has been a place where global capitalism does its business. Theres relatively little we could straightforwardly call British capitalism. The FTSE 100 share index tells you very little about the health of the British economy or British firms, for example.

What does this mean in practice? It means that there arent the sort of connections between business and the Conservative Party that there would have been when they were all the same people. There are, perhaps, connections between particular kinds of business and the Conservative Party particular hedge funds, for example, or Russian oligarchs. Between them, theyre pushing the Conservatives to be a party thats pressing for an even greater degree of tax-haven status for the British economy, making it even more of a rentier, liberalized economy than it already is.

That essentially has been the project of the hard, ultra-Thatcherite right of the Conservative Party. Its a policy of liberalization and globalization. It has ironic consequences for free trade and all the rest of it, but at its heart is a belief in a very radical version of the free market. The Thatcherite program, combined with a revivalist view of the British economy, has been extraordinarily powerful in recent British politics.

However, theres another side to this, which I think is very important, and not sufficiently appreciated. Brexit was never thought through by these people. They never had a plan for it. They never really knew what Brexit was going to be or what it would take to make it happen. There was no preparing of the people, no preparing of business, and no preparing of the infrastructure.

There were systematic self-delusions and lies about the impact of Brexit, as we see in what I fear will be a tragic unfolding of the Brexit fiasco in Northern Ireland an absolutely scandalous set of developments, with the unthinking, brutal unionists of the Conservative Party pushing this, together with the Democratic Unionist Party. We have an extraordinary politics, in which a particular fraction of capital, allied with hard-right elements of the Conservative Party, are pursuing a policy that they dont really understand and cant really come to terms with.

That is something radically new in British history. Weve had great programs of political-economic change, from mobilization in World War II to going into the European Economic Community. But those were planned and thought through there werent any great surprises. This one hasnt been. It hasnt even really been improvised. It has just been a very peculiar mess.

The other aspect is that the politics of the Brexiteers themselves arent the politics of Brexit voters. The Brexit vote is an old vote, just like the Conservative vote. One has to credit the Conservatives with realizing that their vote was an old one and doing everything they could to sustain that vote for example, by keeping NHS spending and pension spending up, systematically targeting welfare at the elderly and taking it away from the young.

But many of those old people were in effect Lexiter protest voters people who wanted national industry back and perhaps national agriculture as well. They were expressing an entirely legitimate disapproval of where the economy had been going for the last forty years. But instead of voting out the powers that be in London, they were convinced that they had to vote out the powers that be in Brussels. I think that they made, from their point of view, an appalling mistake, and thats going to add to what I think will be a most incendiary time in British politics.

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Brexit and Boris Johnson Are the Legacies of Tony Blair - Jacobin magazine

Prime Minister Boris Johnson met with the Amir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al Thani at Downing Street today (May 24) to discuss measures to strengthen economic ties. Several key sectors of the UK economy could reportedly be strengthened by striking a deal with the Middle Eastern nation.

As well as energy and defence, other sectors set for a boost include fintech, carbon-neutral vehicles, life sciences and cyber security.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said:"Todays announcement of up to 10billion in new investment from our Qatari friends is another vote of confidence in the UKs brilliant businesses and cutting-edge industry.

"The new UK-Qatar Strategic Investment Partnership will create quality job opportunities across the country in key sectors, delivering on our vision of economic growth through trade and investment.

"Qatar is a valued partner for the UK, supported by Sheikh Tamim bin Hamads leadership. We had a rich discussion on the issues that matter to both of our countries, including boosting the economy, ensuring regional stability and improving energy security following Russias appalling invasion of Ukraine."

This comes after Qatar pledged to invest into Rolls-Royce's revolutionary small nuclear reactors.

These are set to provide a cheaper and more efficient way to provide nuclear power than traditional nuclear energy, with the units able to power half a million homes despite being the size oftwo football pitches

Qatar joined the Government, French oil giant Perenco and US company Exelon Generationwith a joint 500million cash injection to help Rolls-Royce speed up the development of groundbreaking technology.

Rolls-Royce and Qatar are also reportedly teaming up to build a science and engineering campus in Britain to develop green technology start-ups.

READ MORE:UK energy firms face 50m fine for failing to meet heat pump targets

A source familiar with the discussions told the Financial Times that Qatar would invest billions of pounds into the venture over the next 20 years.

Now, the Gulf State appears to be building even further on its collaboration with the UK, which could bring a boost to the country's energy security as bills continue to soar.

Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said: "I am delighted to further the UKs energy cooperation with the State of Qatar as we work to stabilise international energy markets and boost energy security in the context of Russias illegal invasion of Ukraine.

"Qatar is already a valued trading partner, recently investing in the future of British low-carbon nuclear technology through the Rolls Royce consortium developing small modular reactors. Todays meeting will deepen our relationship even further, reinforcing the UKs energy security and delivering cleaner and affordable energy in the years ahead."

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This comes as the UK has been scrambling to slash energy ties with Vladimir Putin amid the Ukraine crisis, despite only getting five percent of its gas supplies from Russia.

Qatar is already the top exporter of liquefied natural gas to Britain supplying 40 percent of this fuel.

Now, Mr Kwarteng has signed aMemorandum of Understanding on energy cooperation with Qatars Minister of State for Energy Affairs, which could help scupper the last remaining links with Putin.

But an emphasis on renewable energy sources appeared to be a feature in the announcements from ministers, which could imply the new funding may be geared towards alternative fuel sources.

Minister for Investment Lord Grimstone said: "It is excellent news that Qatar is targeting up to 10 billion investment into the UK through our new Strategic Investment Partnership.

"Not only will it boost local economies and support jobs, but it supports our green economy and decarbonisation crucial in meeting our Net Zero targets.

"It also strengthens our relationship with Qatar ahead of our UK-Gulf Cooperation Council trade negotiations."

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'Another vote of confidence' in Brexit Britain as Qatar pledges 10bn trade investment - Express

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaks during a meeting with Uruguay's President Luis Lacalle Pou at Downing Street in London, Britain May 23, 2022. REUTERS/Henry Nicholls/Pool

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DUBLIN, May 23 (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Boris Johnson knows very well what action the European Union could take if London fails to comply with the post-Brexit agreement it struck with the bloc on Northern Ireland, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said on Monday.

"We will keep on working to ensure that we somehow find a way out of this, but if it is not possible then we also have to take our next steps and think about those," Rutte said in a joint news conference with his Irish counterpart, Michel Martin, saying his country stood "shoulder to shoulder" with Ireland.

"I don't want to guesstimate about what they could be because I don't think that is helpful, but I think Boris Johnson and the UK know very well what the next steps could be. Let's hope we don't come to that."

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Reporting by Padraic Halpin; Editing by Leslie Adler

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Dutch PM warns UK's Johnson to stick to N.Ireland Brexit terms - Reuters UK

Monday 23 May 2022 1:15 pm

SIr Howard Davies, the chairman of banking giant NatWest, has called Brexit a significant mistake as the City grandee said he is not very optimistic about the future of the UK.

In fact, Sir Howard said he is concerned about the long-term impact Brexit will have on the City of London.

In an interview with the Observer, the financial services veteran said Prime Minister Boris Johnson hates the Treasury because of the departments pro-EU views.

But when he got himself in a hole, who else but the Treasury could bail him out?

Calling Britains departure from the European Union a significant mistake, Sir Howard said: You dont solve the problems of the left-behind by damaging the one area of the country thats been writing the cheques.

London is paying large amounts of tax and will be damaged by Brexit over time.

The NatWest chair is currently finalising a new book, called The Chancellors, which covers the Treasurys role in the running of the economy under every chancellor from Gordon Brown to Rishi Sunak.

It is Alistair Darling Davies seems to respect the most, as he said he would have most time for the man who was chancellor between 2007 and 2010, defining years in finance as they were dominated by the global banking crash of 2008.

Alistair had terrible hand to play. He had no money, a financial crisis and his predecessor as his boss, he stressed.

There wasnt anything Alistair knew that Gordon didnt. Yet he was completely unflappable.

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'Brexit is a mistake and London will be damaged' warns Sir Howard Davies as NatWest chair claims 'Boris Johnson hates the Treasury - City A.M.

In a letter to The Times (of London) this month Gregory Campbell, one of the eight British MPs from the hardline Protestant party in Northern Ireland, the Democratic Unionist Party, says it is wrong to say the DUP are against the Good Friday Agreement's (GFA) abolition of a hard border in Ireland between north and south.

Yet in March last year the DUP leader, Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said support for GFA "is diminishing rapidly" after the Ulster Loyalist Communities Council, which represent loyalist paramilitary organisations, announced they were withdrawing their support for the Good Friday Agreement.

In 2003, Dr Ian Paisley, the founder and still patron saint of the DUP said: "Unless we destroy the (Good Friday) agreement, we will be destroyed forever."

And then on 17 May the DUP MP Paul Garvin used the inflammatory anti-Catholic invocation of "No Surrender" when discussing the EU-UK withdrawal treaty in the House of Commons.

DUP MPs could resolve this matter by affirming unequivocally they support the Good Friday Agreement and will not seek any return of a border with physical controls on movement of people, goods or agricultural produce within the island of Ireland.

But they won't and instead are seeking to harness the authority of the entire British state to bust apart the UK-EU international treaty which prohibits any physical controls on people, goods or farm products circulation throughout the island of Ireland including between its British territory outside the EU and the rest of Ireland within the EU.

However, the opposition to the Good Friday Agreement (which involved the Irish government in Dublin, as well as the United States and European Union, which agreed to pour resources into Northern Ireland to make good some of the damage caused by the violence of the IRA and Loyalist para-militaries) is deep-rooted.

The links between nationalist English Conservatives and unflinching Ulster Unionists goes back nearly a 150 years.

The Conservatives changed their name to the Conservative and Unionist Party in order to capitalise on anti-Catholic feeling and at the time a rejection of the right of the Irish to self-government.

As the Tory prime minister Lord Salisbury said in 1886 "it was absurd to give free institutions to Ireland any more than to Hottentots.' This racist slur merges with deep anti-Catholic prejudice. A century ago English Tories welcomed the creation of what the Ulster unionist leader, Sir James Craig, called "a Protestant Parliament for a Protestant people" when Stormont, now home to the Northern Ireland assembly, was set up after the partition of Ireland in 1921.

The troubles of the 1970s and 1980s grew out of a civil rights movement inspired by Martin Luther King against the denial of core human rights to Catholics in Northern Ireland by Protestant supremacists who were protected by Conservative ministers in London.

So the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, which ended a century of Protestant Unionist domination in the six counties of Northern Ireland, was seen by more ideological Tories in England as a challenge.

In the paper he wrote in 2000, entitled Northern Ireland the Price of Peace, the leading Tory politician Michael Gove, now a member of Boris Johnson's cabinet, wrote that he believed the IRA could have been defeated and the Good Friday Agreement was a capitulation to them by Tony Blair.

Gove argued that the SAS and other undercover British security agents should have been allowed to continue in killing Catholic republicans in Ireland and could have defeated the IRA. Gove complained that "the British state deliberately held its security forces back from inflicting military reverses on the IRA because it preferred to negotiate."

After he became justice secretary, Gove in 2015 used his ministerial authority to campaign for a rupture with the EU in the 2016 Brexit referendum. He then claimed the Good Friday Agreement had turned the Northern Ireland "police force into a political plaything whose legitimacy depends on familiarity with fashionable social theories".

This hostility to the GFA runs deep in the English nationalist-right and is seen as part of the Brexit package of hostility to anything associated with the European Union or its member state governments including Dublin.

The decision of the hard-line Brexit ideologues in the government like foreign secretary Liz Truss or the ex-diplomat Lord Frost to back the DUP even after the hardline Protestant identity party was repudiated by a majority of Northern Irish voters in the National Assembly election in early May has placed the UK on a collision course with the United States as well as the European Union.

Senior Congressional leaders like the House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, and the chair of the House ways and means committee, Rich Neale, have repeatedly warned that if Boris Johnson backs the DUP and abrogates the EU-UK withdrawal treaties then the chances of a UK-US trade deal are dead.

It certainly is odd that in the midst of the biggest world crisis since 1945 in Europe the British government should seek to breach international law the accusation made against Vladimir Putin and provoke a row with the EU and US on behalf of a small sectarian religious identity party in a corner of the British Isles.

But the ideological passions of Brexit run deep in today's Conservative Party and helped make Boris Johnson prime minister. He is riding a tiger that may yet swallow him up.

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Brexit hostility to Good Friday Agreement is damaging UK in US - EUobserver

Speaking ahead of introducing the historic Northern Ireland legacy bill tomorrow, he said: I find it strange that the EU keep saying they have shown flexibility when you find what they say is that they will flex from a fully implemented protocol which is quite disingenuous because we dont have a fully implemented protocol.

What they are proposing would actually take us backwards from where we are today and that is just not fair on the businesses and people of Northern Ireland.

Fundamentally the way the EU has sought to implement the EU I would argue actually breaches the core purpose of the protocol.

This is a document which was supposed to protect the Good Friday Agreement but it is now the document that is putting it at risk.

There is a point where the EU arent going to show flexibility when the UK Government has to make a decision about how to rectify these problems for UK citizens in a part of the UK.

Over the last couple of weeks particularly after they said they are not going to show flexibility now, the Foreign Secretary [Liz Truss] rightly made the point that these negotiations arent progressing so it is right we resolve this.

He insisted that the bill announced by Ms Truss last week is not just a threat and will be taken through Parlament but added that it is a twin track approach with talks if the EU wants to engage.

We are open to engage with the EU but we have to do what is right for the citizens of the UK.

Friends of Mr Lewis recently revealed that having been a remainer in the 2016 referendum his experience of the EU has put him on the pro-Brexit side of the argument.

And he admitted that he has been shocked by the EUs intransigence.

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He said: I have been disappointed by the lack of flexibility for the last 12 months.

Even when we took the grace period extension last year [for food and other essential supplies] they didnt disagree with the principle of what we were doing, they just complained that we hadnt done it by agreement.

To do something by agreement the other side eventually has to agree and stop just talking.

Particularly where you are talking about chilled meats where if you dont take action you end up with empty shelves which is where we were last year.

He also accused the EU of not following the Protocol agreement itself and taking a very one sided view of it.

Mr Lewis pointed out that the deal was meant to respect the daily lives of communities, all aspects of the Good Friday Agreement, the UK internal market and state functions and the EU single market.

The only thing of the five things the document says would be respected that it works for is the EU Single Market, he said.

We have got to make sure the other four match up to that.

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'Putting us at risk' EU's plot to take Brexit Britain 'backwards' slammed as tensions soar - Express

Boris Johnson is under renewed pressure after photos have surfaced appearing to show him drinking alcohol at an event that broke Englands COVID-19 lockdown. ITV News published four images that it said show the Prime Minister raising a glass of fizz to colleagues at a boozy leaving party on November 13, 2020. The event, which is reported to have been for Downing Streets outgoing communications chief Lee Cain, was attended by at least eight revellers at a time when indoor gatherings of people from different households were limited to two.

Reports of the incident have questioned why Mr Johnson who was slapped with a fixed-penalty notice over his Downing Street birthday bash in June 2020 was not fined by the Metropolitan Police for this latest party under scrutiny.

In other developments, Sue Gray is expected to release her full report on lockdown-busting parties held in Number 10 as soon as Wednesday.

The civil servant claimed she was previously only able to release a limited version of the findings of her investigation, published in January, due to a parallel probe by the Met.

As the scandal rumbles on, a damning 68 percent of Britons think Mr Johnson is doing badly as Prime Minister, according to YouGovs latest monthly tracker of 1,623 to 3,326 British adults from May.

Politicos most recent poll of polls, from Sunday, makes equally grim reading for the Tories, forecasting a six-point lead for Labour over the Conservatives were a General Election held now.

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Polling guru Mark Pack also puts Labour ahead in his aggregation of nine of the countrys top pollsters, all of which show the Tories as only the countrys second-most popular political party.

The latest twist in the so-called Partygate scandal and the latest polling come after Mr Johnson was dealt a huge blow in the Northern Ireland Assembly election earlier this month as the results messed up his plan to rewrite sections of the Northern Ireland Protocol the controversial agreement governing Britains post-Brexit trade with the territory.

Dr Nicholas Dickinson, a political expert from the University of Oxford underlined the significance of Sinn Fin winning the election, with the nationalist party becoming the largest at Stormont for the first time, ahead of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and the cross-community Alliance Party.

Sinn Fins first minister designate Michelle ONeill is opposed to the Governments attempts to rewrite the Protocol, but the DUP wants to change the Protocol and has blocked a new power-sharing executive in Northern Ireland until the post-Brexit agreement is sorted.

Speaking to Express.co.uk, Dr Dickinson said: There is the first nationalist first minister but more significantly a pretty solid majority in the assembly of parties which are either pro-reunification Sinn Fin plus Alliance, which is quite strongly pro-Remain.

Speaking about the election results, Dr Dickinson added: Now, whether that is good for them or not who knows.

Because one theory about the way they are going to try and win the next election is by having a huge argument over this and essentially rebooting Brexit arguments from 2019.

It doesn't necessarily stop them from doing that now this is the situation in Northern Ireland.

But it certainly weakens the case, and it makes the EU much less likely to make concessions.

It is probably the most significant thing which actually happened in the elections, for British politics as well as just for the politics of Northern Ireland.

The much-maligned Protocol imposes strict customs checks on goods such as chilled meat travelling from Britain to Northern Ireland post-Brexit.

This arrangement is to satisfy the EU as Northern Ireland shares a land border with the Republic of Ireland, which, unlike its neighbour, remains in the 27-nation bloc.

The Protocol has effectively created a de facto trade border between Northern Ireland and Britain down the Irish Sea.

This was decided as the best option in order for the Protocol to uphold the 1998 peace deal, the Good Friday Agreement, and to avoid a hard border on the island of Ireland.

But critics, including the DUP, have lambasted the situation because of the mountain of paperwork and extra costs that are imposed on businesses in Northern Ireland importing goods from Britain.

The UK Government has threatened to unilaterally rewrite sections of the Protocol and has called on the EU to agree to renegotiate this part of Britains Brexit withdrawal deal.

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Boris on brink: Partygate, polls and rebooting Brexit arguments to win general election - Express

Britain could become a world leader in cultured meat production post-Brexit by outflanking the EU to bring the hi-tech products to market swiftly, industry leaders say.

Cultured meat is grown from animal cells in a bioreactor that can be powered by 100% renewable energy, thereby curbing both greenhouse gas emissions and animal cruelty.

EU product approvals for the technology will take up to three years but the lab-grown meat sector is hoping that a post-Brexit white paper on the national food strategy due in May could accelerate the UK process.

Figures in the 1.9bn global industry say they have already had meetings with the UKs Food Standards Agency on the post-Brexit regulatory framework for the products.

In Singapore where products made from cultivated meat are already on sale, the evaluation process takes nine to 12 months.

Theres definitely an opportunity for the UK to become one of the primary innovation hubs for these sorts of novel technologies, Robert Jones, the head of the Cellular Agriculture Europe trade association told the Guardian.

The UK is a large market and every company will be looking at it as an incredible commercial opportunity, said Jones, who is also an executive for the Dutch startup Mosa Meat.

The company hopes to seek regulatory approval for two beef products later this year. Peter Verstrate, its co-founder, said that the UK would be at least a year ahead of the EU in bringing products to market if it adopted a six- to nine-month assessment period.

Last year the UK Food Standards Agency chair, Prof Susan Jebb, described lab-grown meat as one of the new innovations that might help us to change course away from climate catastrophe. A lens of environmental sustainability might be applied to novel, safe and sustainable foods, she suggested.

A Defra spokesperson said: We want to create the best possible environment for innovators, investors and consumers, and encourage safe innovation in the sustainable protein sector.

The EUs regulatory process can be lengthy in part because approval is needed from experts of all 27 member nations.

Edward Bray, a spokesperson for the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), stressed that its scientific assessments took place within a nine-month window although the clock on this could be stopped if further data or clarification are required.

Beyond that, the approvals timeline is in the hands of the EU legislators who are responsible for the regulatory processes, he said. This is outside the EFSAs remit.

The EFSAs ability to return to a business with additional questions several months after an application was filed made investment and operations decisions very difficult, said Russ Tucker, the co-founder of Ivy Farm, which plans to file for approval of a cultured mince line in the UK this year.

While Im waiting for a decision, how can I then build a facility, deploy capital, recruit people, and get supply arrangements with supermarkets and restaurants? Its very difficult to make those business decisions when there isnt transparency on how the application is moving through the process, he said.

Theres a big opportunity for the UK to think about how to do things differently from the EU, he added.

About a quarter of the worlds greenhouse gas emissions come from agriculture, mostly livestock production. Lab-grown meat could substantially reduce this, according to the UNs Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change with some studies projecting emissions savings of up to 80%.

But food safety will be crucial as new technologies raise new risks. Cells used to make cultivated meat could become contaminated, or suffer dysregulation, as happens with cancer cells, after being multiplied many times.

The technologys bioreactors are also energy intensive and, as with electric cars, the use of fossil fuel-powered grids would limit emissionsavings.

A recent report by the thinktank IPES-Food said claims that lab-grown meat was sustainable were limited and speculative. The paper also dismissed assumptions that the technology could help feed a more affluent world population of up to 10 billion by 2050.

I would [also] be concerned that most of the data on [product] safety are coming from the firms themselves, said Prof Philip Howard, an IPES-Food expert. There arent enough independent studies. This is a very new technology and frankly its not commercially viable. Theres no way to make money on it so pushing for regulatory approval is premature.

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Clare Oxborrow of Friends of the Earth added: This is a technology thats still in its infancy and poses many questions, including who owns and benefits from it.

Meat processors such as JBS, Tyson and Cargill are increasingly investing in the startup sector, according to IPES-Food but states are getting in on the act too.

Last month, the Dutch government ploughed 60m (51m) into cellular agriculture technology, shortly after moving to allow tastings of the slaughter-free tech. In Israel a clean meat consortium was also awarded an $18m (14m) government grant.

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Lab-grown meat firms say post-Brexit UK could be at forefront - The Guardian

If you are thinking about taking your dog elsewhere in Europe this year, then brace yourself for an expensive and time-consuming headache.

Pet owners say they are having to fork out hundreds of pounds for the necessary paperwork after post-Brexit rule changes.

Pet passports issued in Great Britain are no longer valid for travel to EU countries (you can still use a pet passport issued in an EU country, Northern Ireland or a few other places but check it will be accepted before you travel).

Now, before a pet dog or cat or ferret can travel to the EU, its owner has to obtain an animal health certificate (AHC) for it.

To get the certificate, the pet must be microchipped and vaccinated against rabies. A rabies jab typically costs about 50 but some vets charge as much as 80.

You must take your pet to your vet to get an AHC and crucially do this no more than 10 days before you travel.

Make three trips to the EU with your pet and you could face paying almost 1,000 for the certificates that are now required, although prices vary hugely.

Even if you are not going away until July or August, now is the time to act because some vets are already heavily booked up for this summer. If vet practices end up having to turn people away, it could threaten a pet version of the UKs passport delay chaos.

The coronavirus pandemic triggered an explosion in pet ownership levels but surveys have indicated that the majority of dog owners are unsure of the rules concerning taking their animal to the EU.

Mairead McErlean was this week told it would cost 220 to get an AHC for her English bulldog, Pepper, plus another 65 for the rabies jab needed to get the certificate, and 15 for the worming treatment required for her trip a total of 300.

She is travelling to Ireland in July and says 300 is more than my ferry and my petrol Im so cross about the whole thing.

McErlean has family in Ireland and says: If I make three trips a year, which, pre-Covid, would have been pretty normal for me, thats nearly 1,000 to take her with me.

Pepper, who is almost five, is a rescue dog and has abandonment issues, so putting her into kennels is not an option, she adds.

Later in the summer, McErlean is going to France with friends, and is planning to take Pepper, so that is at least another 220 she will have to pay, plus whatever fees a vet in France charges for the paperwork for the return trip.

When she phoned her vet this week she was told that July was really busy and she would be lucky to get a slot as other people had already booked the AHC appointments.

Eventually the vet told McErlean, who lives in Milton Keynes, that they would squeeze her in.

However, she adds: If my parents move to Ireland permanently, what do I do in an emergency? The only option would be for my partner to stay at home with Pepper.

The Kennel Club says an AHC typically costs between 100 and 200. This usually includes the consultation and reviewing the paperwork. However, each veterinary practice sets its own price and there have been reports of some vets charging more than 300.

You can add up to five pets to an AHC, and often you will pay less for the additional animals.

One woman posted on Facebook earlier this month that she had paid 230 to take two dogs to France. While there, I obtained two worming tablets and two French pet passports for 34 (29), she said, adding: I did have to provide proof of a French address. However, it was recently reported that the rules for obtaining French pet passports have been tightened up.

When Guardian Money did a price check this week, we found that many of the vets who are part of the CVS Group which runs more than 500 practices are charging 250 for the first pet and 50 for any additional animals.

At the cheaper end, we found a practice in Folkestone, Kent, that says it charges from 75, and one in Havant, Hampshire, that charges 99 for a standard AHC.

The certificate needs to be signed by an official veterinarian, or OV, not just anyone at the practice. Some practices do not have an OV, and those that do will often limit how many AHC appointments they book in. We spoke to a practice in north-east London that is booking in only one a day.

Once issued, an AHC lasts for four months, which includes any travelling around Europe.

However, the certificate is valid only for a single trip into the EU. So every time you make a new trip to an EU country from Great Britain, your pet will need a new AHC, even if your last one was issued only a few weeks earlier.

Vets say the reason the certificates can be pricey is that there is quite a lot of work involved: the form runs to about 10 pages and needs to be completed in English and the language of the country of entry to the EU.

Dr Ed Hayes, the head of public affairs at the Kennel Club, says Covid travel restrictions have delayed the impact of AHCs, adding: Its going to be a bigger issue this year.

However, he says owners of second homes who make multiple trips may be able to obtain an EU pet passport issued by that country. Try to find a local vet, he says.

The British Veterinary Association says AHCs are considerably more complex and time-consuming than the previous EU pet passport system, so practices have to factor in the extra resources required to complete them when setting their costs and deciding how long they may need to offer for an appointment. Some practices have had to make the difficult decision not to offer AHCs, as they simply dont have the time and capacity to deliver them. It is also important to note that the vet needs to be a certified official vet, so legally only some vets can sign the certificates.

BVA president Justine Shotton says changing the requirements is outside of the professions or the UK governments control, as they are set by the EU, but it has asked ministers to offer practical support for simplifying and streamlining the process.

A vet must treat your dog for tapeworm and record it on the AHC or pet passport if you are travelling directly to Ireland, Malta, Finland or Norway.

Also (although this is not a new requirement), when coming back to Great Britain, dogs must typically receive treatment for tapeworm one to five days before returning.

You cannot take more than five pets to an EU country unless you are attending or training for a competition, show or sporting event.

It is not clear how many owners get turned down for a a certificate. A veterinary industry expert says the vets who provide AHCs do so within a very narrow scope, with specific conditions needing to be met (for example, rabies vaccination requirements and specific timing requirements), and if a client is turned down, it may be because they do not meet these conditions.

This article was amended on 23 May 2022 because an earlier version included Northern Ireland as a country where owners travelling with their pets from Great Britain would need to supply additional paperwork. From 1 January 2021, Northern Ireland remained part of the EU Pet Travel Scheme and Great Britain did not, which would mean additional documentary requirements, health preparations and checks for travelling with a pet. However, on 15 September 2021, it was announced that checks on all pet dogs, cats and ferrets travelling from Great Britain to Northern Ireland would be suspended indefinitely while negotiations between the UK government and EU continue.

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Pet travel after Brexit: taking a dog to the EU could cost 300 a time - The Guardian