Category Archives: Brexit

Netherlands cashing in on Brexit UK business flocks to EU

The Netherlands has seen a vast amount of investment from UK business, which have flocked to the continent in the wake of Brexit, a new investigation has found. It comes as the UK and Brussels continue to eyeball each other over a series of details contained in the exit deal, including the Northern Ireland Protocol. The European Commission vice-president Maro efovi this weekend called on Brexit Minister Lord David Frost to end what he called his "political posturing" over negotiations on Northern Ireland.

Heated talks over a dispute on checks and controls on goods going from Great Britain to Northern Ireland surfaced earlier this year when the Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) officially came into effect.

It set out arrangements in areas such as trade in goods and services, digital trade and fisheries, among other things, and is underpinned by the safeguarding of a level playing field and respect for fundamental rights between the two powers.

For many businesses, the most important aspect of the TCA was the continuation of free trade.

However, according to a recent investigation by Channel 4's Dispatches, a portion of small to medium sized UK businesses are no longer able to trade freely with Europe.

This is because of the introduction of a slew of new administrative and customs costs.

New customs declarations alone are believed to add around 15billion on to UK-EU trade, the charges affecting UK exporters and EU importers.

This has led many in the UK who own small to medium-sized businesses to relocate to the EU in order to continue frictionless trade.

Harry Wallop, Dispatches' presenter, travelled to the Netherlands to talk to UK-based retailer British Corner Shop after it secured a Dutch distribution hub this year.

The Dutch government's Foreign Investment Agency says it has never experienced so much interest from British firms seeking to open up a base in the Netherlands like British Corner Shop.

Hilde van der Meer, a commissioner at the agency, told Mr Wallop that the Netherlands was experiencing a "large influx of British companies since Brexit".

JUST IN:'What could you possibly object to?' Marr hits out at EU

She said: "We are in talks with about 600 companies.

"In the past year, around 6,000 jobs have been created and will be filled in the years to come.

"Money-wise, we've generated 550million (461million)."

Mr Wallop asked: "So over half a billion euros has been created by British companies coming over here and investing in the Netherlands?" to which Ms van der Meer replied: "Yep, it's a large sum of money.

"And it's a lot of jobs."

She went on to add that Brexit has been "good news" for the Dutch economy.

A Government spokesperson told Dispatches: "The zero tariff quota deal with the EU means we can now regulate in a way that suits the UK economy and UK businesses doing things in a more innovative and effective way, without being bound by EU rules, and seize trade opportunities around the world."

While it is true that the new opportunities could benefit British businesses, many appear eager to trade as they did before January 1, 2021.

DON'T MISS

Brexit LIVE: 'Desperate' Beaune slapped down before EU showdown [REPORT]Trade Secretary eyes up 140bn bonanza in Brexit triumph [INSIGHT]Row erupts as Priti Patel says Home Office 'not fit for purpose'[ANALYSIS]

By June this year, almost a third of British companies that traded with the EU had suffered a decline or loss of business since post-Brexit took effect.

A survey carried out by the Institute of Directors (IoD) for the Financial Times found that 17 percent of UK companies that previously traded with the EU have stopped either temporarily or permanently since the start of the year.

Jonathan Geldart, director-general of the Institute of Directors, told the FT: "Small and medium-sized firms in particular are struggling to navigate new procedures around exporting and importing with the bloc, while business leaders are more broadly reporting difficulties in recruiting following an end to freedom of movement."

The IoD survey asked 651 companies to give their assessment of the impact of Brexit up until that point.

Of those that traded with the EU, 31 percent said new barriers had had a negative impact on commerce with the bloc.

Just six percent said trade had increased, while 58 percent stated there was no change.

Financial firms have also eyed-up the EU.

In April, more than 400 financial firms had moved at least some of their operations, staff, assets or legal entities from Britain to Europe.

Despite the fallout, some businesses could experience an uptick in trade.

Manufactures like automakers rely heavily on other regions of the world outside the UK and Europe for parts in their finished products.

But a section of the TCA states that all products must prove the origin of all their constituent parts when traded between the UK and EU.

It means that manufacturers will now have to source their goods in these fields from within the UK and EU.

Businesses in those places may now experience a boom in demand for parts.

However, this could drive up the price for consumers.

Read the rest here:

Netherlands cashing in on Brexit as '461million' created by UK businesses flocking to EU - Daily Express

Ryanair is pressing ahead with plans to delist from the London Stock Exchange because of foreign ownership and control rules that apply after Brexit.

The low-cost airline, which indicated earlier this month that it intended to become solely listed in Dublin, said its last day of trading on the London Stock Exchange would be 17 December.

As indicated at our interim results, and following subsequent shareholder engagement, Ryanair has decided to request the cancellation of London listing, the company said in a statement.

The volume of trading of the shares on the London Stock Exchange does not justify the costs related to such listing and admission to trading, and so as to consolidate trading liquidity to one regulated market for the benefit of all shareholders.

Ryanair said it had notified the UKs Financial Conduct Authority and would be officially delisted at 8am on 20 December. Earlier this year, Ryanair said that the move away from a listing in London was consistent with a general trend for trading shares of European Union corporates post Brexit.

Sign up to the daily Business Today email or follow Guardian Business on Twitter at @BusinessDesk

The airline said it was also a potentially more acute issue for it because EU rules mandate that airlines are majority-owned by EU nationals. Ryanair has its primary listing in Dublin, Ireland, and has previously made some UK investors sell shares this year to remain in compliance with the rules.

Following the cancellation of the London listing, the company will continue to have a primary listing on the regulated market of Euronext Dublin, which offers shareholders the highest standard of protection, including compliance with the UK corporate governance code, Ryanair said.

Its chief executive, Michael OLeary, said earlier this month that the move was sadly an inevitable consequence of Brexit. While the EU and UK reached agreements that ensured flying could continue uninterrupted, the UK was unable to secure amendments to the foreign ownership rules.

UK and other non-EU-owned carriers cannot operate flights between other European countries, and while Ryanair is EU-based, 45% of its shares are held in the US meaning it had to deter any further investors.

EasyJet relocated much of its operation to a Vienna-based EasyJet Europe before Brexit to remain compliant.

Continued here:

Ryanair to quit London Stock Exchange in December over Brexit - The Guardian

Wednesday 24 November 2021 7:31 am

German real estate company Coros is expanding into the UK as the firm has opened an office on Kingly street in Soho.

The firm said it considers London as a gateway to Europe for international investors who are seeking access to Germany and other European markets.

In addition to sourcing real estate projects, Coros London employees will include networking with international investors and potential project partners who are seeking access to the European real estate market via London.

We are here to stay as London is going to be one of Coros core markets over the next decade. The opening of our new office is thus an important step in Coros internationalisation and growth strategy, said Leonhard Sachsenhauser, Founding Partnerat Coros.

Despite Brexit, the city remains one of the continents most important real estate markets with exciting real estate projects and is a gateway for international investors.

As an international financial centre and emerging tech hub combined with its heritage of culture, arts and education, London is highly complementary to our key markets Berlin, Munich, and Paris, he added.

Visit link:

Post-Brexit vote of confidence: German real estate giant Coros lands in London as it opens office in Soho - City A.M.

SCOTTISH fishing businesses have bemoaned the unnecessary hassle of bureaucratic changes to exporting goods to the continent under Brexit rules.

MSPs have also been warned that new customs controls at the UK border to be rolled out in the new year will lead to quite a lot of bureaucracy for hauliers.

Holyroods Economy and Fair Work Committee heard from Bryan Hepburn, the operations manager at DFDS Group, who is based in Shetland.

Mr Hepburn set out the challenges of exporting fish to Europe since new rules were introduced and with the knock-on impact of the pandemic warning the extra time that everything takes has added to the issues.

He said: All our goods like the fish and mussels are all perishable and they lose their value every day they are delayed getting to market and the market is primarily in mainland Europe.

READ MORE:Scotland's 9bn Brexit blow as UK suffers exports drop since leaving EU

So we struggle getting everything down there. Now we can just about get across the border into Boulogne before we run out of time. We used to be able to do down to Spain and the south of France so thats had a knock-on effect for our exports.

Mr Hepburn warns that people just werent prepared for the changes, adding that there was a great cloak of ignorance from some smaller customers.

He added: A lot of the guys that used to pick things up in Europe have just stopped doing it and theyve now because of the driver shortage in Europe, theyve been able to do that.

They just make their money in the UK without having to go abroad. Its just because, frankly, of the hassle of having to get across the border and back again with goods.

Mr Hepburn told MSPs that the uncertainties for businesses and customers over a range of things including VAT creates unnecessary hassle.

READ MORE:SNP attacked for ignoring lorry crisis that could 'kill' Scottish economy

MSPs were also told of the dismay from freight companies over new customs controls at the UK border which will begin in the new year.

A requirement for full customs declarations on goods coming from the EU to the UK will start on January 1, with further post-Brexit border controls being phased in later in the year.

Robert Windsor, of the British International Freight Association, said the new changes coming in force on January 1 are very significant.

He added: In effect, you are seeing the UK reimposing full customs controls on all goods coming from the European Union into the UK.

One of the changes will be a need for pre-notification of sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) goods, covering products of animal origin.

Mr Windsor added: It is quite a lot of bureaucracy to go through.

My view and the associations view is these are more significant impacts on the UK as a whole than what we saw on January 1 this year.

Mr Hepburn was also asked about the changes stressing he hoped the changes will not lead to bottlenecks at ports which he has experienced recently.

Seafood being transported to continental Europe from Scotland may be affected, he said, while DFDS is working with its customers to ensure they know about the new rules.

He added: Were actively preparing and were hoping that were going to be ready.

In September, the UK Government said it was delaying implementing a number of border controls in response to the pandemic.

Requirements for export health certificates were pushed back to July 2022 after originally being scheduled for October this year. New customs rules will take effect from January 1.

The rest is here:

Businesses warn over 'unnecessary hassle' caused by Brexit rules ahead of new changes - HeraldScotland

The impact of Covid and Brexit has been blamed for an increasing squeeze on medical supplies including steel used for ligature knives and bottles for blood tests.

For around two weeks in September, the NHS trust that runs community blood testing in Liverpool, Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust, cancelled all non-urgent tests due to a global shortage of bottles.

That shortage has now eased, but other areas of the trust's operations are also beginning to feel the squeeze.

READ MORE: Scale of problems at troubled Liverpool Council exposed in new report

Mersey Care runs most of the area's mental health services, including secure psychiatric hospitals, and staff are trained in the use of specialist knives to cut patients free from any ligature if they attempt suicide by hanging.

Global shortages of steel have caused issues replacing these knives.

The global supply chain has been hit due to several factors including shortages of lorry drivers and other specialised roles, port closures due to covid and rising fuel and shipping costs.

This week a meeting of the Mersey Care board of governors heard that problems are beginning to affect different areas.

A Safety Report described how the trust was attempting to deal with potential supply issues.

The board were told: "September saw the residual effects of COVID-19 and possibly Brexit on our supply chain, most acute with the blood bottle shortages early in the month, which did start to ease, although we are now potentially seeing supply issues in other areas such as medical devices, fuel and food costs."

The trust has formed a "supply chain task and finish group" to keep an eye on the issue and escalate any problems to executives.

The problem with ligature knives also highlighted internal issues with how the knives were procured and maintained.

The report noted: "The shortage of steel impacted the supply of ligature knives to the Trust, which, in turn, highlighted differences in process across the three mental health divisions on procurement, training and maintenance of the knives.

"The different process did not only create a gap in controls for dealing with the procurement of knives, it also highlighted a serious patient safety concern on how knives were being maintained."

The trust said it would look at standardising the procurement of a single type of knife.

Earlier this month hospitality and retail bosses were quizzed by the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs select committee over labour shortages in the food sector and supply chain.

MPs were told there are "no guarantees" over festive supplies to stores as firms were trying to cope with an "acute" lack of warehouse workers.

Receive newsletters with the latest news, sport and what's on updates from the Liverpool ECHO by signing up here

Read more:

Medical supply chain creaking thanks to 'covid and brexit' - Liverpool Echo

The International Trade Secretary told MPs the deals agreed in principle with the two countries would soon be formalised. It comes after over a year of intense negotiations.

She told the Commons International Trade Committee: "We're just in the final throes."

An agreement with Australia was first announced in June, while a pact with New Zealand was secured last month.

Despite one being agreed four months before the other, the legal texts to formalise both deals are set to be signed at a similar time.

Ms Trevelyan said: "With Australia, we are further along on the process to the final completion of the legal text.

READ MORE ON OUR BREXIT LIVE BLOG

It is hoped the agreements with help Britain in its plans to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership made up of 11 countries.

She said striking bilateral deals with members already a part of the bloc would help speed up the process.

The minister said: "Where you have a bilateral arrangement already with a country that makes it much easier for them to say 'well, we already know this country', in a simplified way, 'we have a great relationship so we have no anxieties we're bringing in a country into the CPTPP family that wouldn't have the right perspectives and same framework on free trade."

The CPTPP was worth 110billion of UK trade in 2019.

While Ms Trevelyan has hailed the agreements as "fantastic" for the United Kingdom, the National Farmers' Union has criticised the amount of foreign meat that can be imported under the deals.

Brushing off the concerns, the Trade Secretary told the committee: "I think this is great for farmers and I think it is a fantastic deal for removing tariffs on all food and drink exports, from gin and chocolates, to pork and wine.

"There is a great range of liberalisation on all of those.

"We will include protections for our agriculture industry where there are sensitivities - a range of tools to defend British farmers against any unfair trading practices that could lurk, and those things like tariff liberalisation on sensitive goods like beef and lamb will be staged over time."

Go here to read the rest:

Brexit Britain closing in on TWO mega trade deal: 'We're just in the final throes' - Daily Express

The EU has urged David Frost to end his political posturing over negotiations on the Northern Ireland protocol and accept that he cannot undo Brexit.

The European Commission vice-president Maro efovi was commenting after Lord Frost, the UKs Brexit minister, called for an injection of more urgency into the talks aimed at solving the dispute over checks and controls on goods going from Great Britain to Northern Ireland.

The comments by Frost and efovi on Sunday suggest the two sides are as far apart as ever, dashing hopes raised by the cabinet minister Michael Goves remarks that he was confident article 16, which would suspend some or all of the protocol, would not have to be triggered.

efovi told BBC Ones The Andrew Marr Show he was surprised by Frosts call for urgency because sometimes I have the feeling that in our meetings Im the only one who pushes for urgent solutions.

He said the EU had offered a solution on 30 June to one of the main issues over medicine supplies but that the UK was still dragging its heels.

I remember very well Lord Frost telling me that what is very important for him is not only content but also process and therefore I was waiting [to see] if we can deliver on that solution jointly. And I have to say that [as of] today this is not the case.

I dont think that it will solve the most pressing issue for the people of Northern Ireland and therefore we might be acting alone to make sure that the Northern Ireland people have the medicines they need, he said.

On the removal of checks down the Irish Sea, efovi reiterated that the EU had already made proposals to cut customs paperwork by half and eliminate 80% of the checks on food.

In an article in the Mail on Sunday, Frost said those solutions dont deal with the problems, pointing out that 200 retailers had stopped delivering to Northern Ireland and Marks & Spencer had withdrawn its entire click and collect range for Christmas because of the uncertainties in delivery timetables.

Theres a simple solution. Goods which both we and the EU agree arent going to leave Northern Ireland should not be treated as if they were moving from one country to another because they are not, he said. But at the moment the EU says it is impossible. I urge them to think again.

Pressed on this point, efovi said it was impossible to remove all surveillance of goods as the EU needed an overview on movement of goods entering the single market. We cannot undo the Brexit, he said.

Frosts comments on Sunday suggest the UKs approach has not changed despite an apparent shift in tone two weeks ago and that triggering article 16 remains a possibility.

The current problems with the protocol go to the heart of our territorial integrity, of what it means to be one country and one market. They will not just disappear, said Frost. I still hope the EU can show the ambition needed to fix the problem by agreement. If they cant, of course we will have to safeguard our position in other ways.

Read the rest here:

EU calls on Brexit minister to stop political posturing over NI protocol - The Guardian

Lord Frost proposed a system whereby goods remaining in Northern Ireland could be treated differently to those moving to the Republic. Speaking on Sunday, Mr Sefcovic rejected the proposal. He also claimed the EU cannot undo Brexit despite threats to trigger Article 16.

Speaking on the Andrew Marr Show, he said: "Would the UK accept not to have the overview of what's coming to the UK market? Would they accept it? I don't think so.

"And you just simply have to understand that if something is coming to the EU single market that we have to have an overview."

Lord Frost has lambasted opposite number Maros Sefcovic over the EU's petty refusal to allow English oaks to be transported to Northern Ireland to be planted in honour of the Queen's Platinum anniversary next year.

And the Brexit minister admitted recent trips to the North had filled him with deep concern at the situation - while stressing the UK was ready to take steps to safeguard our own position. Writing in the Mail on Sunday, Lord Frost said: We know that many medicines and drugs are being withdrawn. We have seen the Jewish community in Northern Ireland saying they feel at risk because they are struggling to import kosher products from elsewhere in the UK.

Garden centres cant get many kinds of plants and seeds from the rest of the UK because their import to Northern Ireland is banned.

He added: We are even in a position where plans to mark the Queens Platinum Jubilee next year by planting trees cannot be properly implemented in Northern Ireland because English oaks, and many other trees, cant be moved there even though plenty were moved until the end of last year, and as far as I am aware have not all been cut down since.

Referring to the Northern Ireland Protocol, the controversial mechanism for preventing a hard border which critics say has instead resulted in a border down the Irish Sea, Lord Frost explained: Whenever I go to Northern Ireland I find a high degree of concern about this situation.Some want it resolved by negotiation; some want us to use the safeguards available under Article 16 of the protocol. But everyone wants it resolved.

I still hope the EU can show the ambition needed to fix the problem by agreement. If they cant, of course, we will have to safeguard our position in other ways.

[THIS IS A LIVE BLOG - SCROLL DOWN FOR REGULAR UPDATES]

See more here:

Brexit LIVE: EU mask slips as Sefcovic throws out Frost's demand in bitter sabotage plot - Daily Express

Conservative MPs have had second, third and fourth jobs for years. From time to time, the intersection between some Tories idea of public service and their pursuit of money has burst into the headlines. But thanks to an uneasy mixture of low expectations of politicians, a certain deference, and the idea that Tory avarice was part of the natural order of things, most of the people involved have been left alone.

Suddenly, though, we seem to be in one of those political moments that is not so much about new revelations as an instant realisation that what was tolerated or ignored yesterday ought to be rejected today. Why the shift? The most obvious explanation is Boris Johnsons self-described act of crashing the car in the Owen Paterson case, and how an attempt to change the rules on parliamentary standards highlighted the contorted ethics of scores of MPs. But there are other reasons, too one of which is a huge change that is only just starting to be understood.

Two years ago, 107 new Conservative MPs were elected, and the views they have and the places they represent are starting to have a fascinating effect on Tory politics. Up until the Brexit referendum, the Conservative party tended to be seen as the enduring voice of the shires and suburbs, speaking for and to those who were either rich or comfortably off, and millions of others who at least aspired to be. When the party had extended its appeal in the past, it was by offering people individual advancement, rather than by economic interventionism most spectacularly, when Margaret Thatcher encouraged people to own their council houses via the right-to-buy scheme. In that context, if the people at the top of the party made money by fair or foul means, they were only living the dream they offered the electorate at large not least in the 1980s, when the comedian Harry Enfield invented a ubiquitous character called Loadsamoney, and the old Tory vision of the property-owning democracy was joined by the brief dream of millions of people owning and trading in shares.

But eventually, something very interesting happened. From around 2012 onwards, in response to Labours weakening connection with some of its old core vote, some adventurous Conservatives (the Harlow MP Robert Halfon is a good example) had held out the idea of the Tories somehow becoming a new workers party, and re-embracing the idea of an activist state. None of this ever cohered into anything solid. But when Brexit broke politics open, and seats in the so-called red wall fell to the Tories, vague hopes of the party acquiring a new support in the post-industrial north and Midlands suddenly became a reality.

After Theresa May had already begun to point her party in a more collectivist direction, this huge electoral shift was reflected in Johnsons promises of levelling up and his apparent belief in the power of government. But in retrospect, because the prime ministers politics are emotional and short-termist, and thanks to both his own wealth and his ties to other moneyed people, he perhaps failed to realise something obvious: that the politics of the red wall might well demand a profound change not just in rhetoric and policy but in Tory behaviour. We now see the results of that oversight. If in solid Conservative seats many peoples feelings about MPs interests and ethics are suddenly hostile, you can imagine how so-called sleaze is going down in such new Tory territory as the old Derbyshire coalfield or the Potteries.

Over the past 10 days, this part of the current Tory drama has begun to play out in the Commons chamber, as well as the partys inner circles. Among the 13 Tory MPs who voted against changing the rules governing the parliamentary standards system were the new Conservative representatives of such seats as Hartlepool, Scunthorpe and Newcastle-under-Lyme. Mark Fletcher, the MP for Bolsover (elected in 2019 in a seat represented for 49 years by Labours Dennis Skinner), abstained on the vote, but later made a righteous speech in the Commons taking aim at some senior colleagues on the backbenches who thought he had not yet understood how this place really works. His punchline came with a compelling irreverence: I think that two years here is more than enough to know the difference between right and wrong.

None of this has yet hardened into factional warfare. But there does seem to be a deepening estrangement between the kind of long-serving, often complacent MPs whose seats tend to be in traditional Tory areas and younger colleagues who have a self-awareness suited to the social media age, and often practise their Conservatism in more challenging territory. As an unnamed Tory recently told the Daily Mail, the former kind of MP thinks that their annual pay of 82,000 is the basic salary, which they can build up outside Westminster, while the latter considers 82,000 all the money in the world. Moreover, seasoned Tories are often old-school Thatcherites who are sceptical about levelling up, whereas many of the partys new MPs were elected on the promise of government coming to the aid of their areas.

The fact that more senior Conservative MPs include a lot of zealous backers of Brexit think of Paterson, John Redwood or Iain Duncan Smith gives the story a fascinating twist. When a movement pulls off a revolution, the casualties are often its elders. And so it might prove in this case: our exit from the EU was led by older, rightwing Tories, but has given rise to a younger cohort of Conservatives, many of whose visions of post-Brexit Tory politics are very different from theirs. Where the prime minister sits in all this is a very interesting question: dining at the Garrick, currying favour with older, more privileged Brexiteers, and trying to smooth over the Paterson fiasco with the most trifling of changes to rules on second jobs does not really suggest someone who understands either basic leadership or the challenges his party faces nor where its future probably lies.

Johnson should also be worried about the apparently dwindling credibility of his levelling up drive, symbolised by last weeks broken promises on improvements to the rail system and the fact that the governments social care plans will disproportionately hit pensioners in less well-off places. There is something about the combination of that story and the second-jobs mess that highlights glaring Tory shortages: of working-class voices in the cabinet, any policy as potent and totemic as right to buy and, even after two years, any real sense of what levelling up actually means. The usual caveat applies: Tory woe does not entail a convincing Labour revival. But one modern political truth seems unquestionable. We live in irreverent, rebellious, volatile times and though senior Conservatives have so far used those currents to their advantage, they may sooner or later find themselves being swept away.

Visit link:

A Conservative party divided is one more unintended consequence of Brexit - The Guardian

Macron says the ball is in Britains court

Jayne Adye offered her upbeat analysis as tensions between the UK and the bloc continued to simmer in a number of key areas, including the ongoing wrangle over the Northern Ireland Protocol, and the bitter dispute over EU access to UK fishing waters. The director of the Get Britain Out campaign group said regardless of the increasingly fractious nature of relations between London and Brussels, there were plenty of reasons to be cheerful.

Citing a scheme which has been much-touted by Prime Minister Boris Johnson, she pointed out: The UKs first Freeport has now been opened in Teesside, with businesses and investors in the area benefiting from reduced tax rates and relaxed planning regulations. All only possible because of Brexit.

Ms Adye also highlighted a recent development which appears to run counter to claims by Remainers about a mass exodus of companies as a result of the UK leaving the EU.

She explained: The fuel company Royal Dutch Shell now to be simply known as Shell - has decided to close their Dutch HQ and base all of their operations from the UK because of our global focus after Brexit.

With respect to the Square Mile, Ms Adye suggested Britain was likewise in a good position as a result of unshackling itself from Brussels.

She said: The EU has been forced to extend the ability of European businesses to use financial services clearing houses in the City of London, because EU-based clearing houses cannot meet demand and EU businesses do not want to abandon their established relationships with London-based firms.

Highlighting an increasingly alarming situation which has seen Austria impose a full lockdown in the last few days, Ms Adye added: The UK economic growth forecasts are set to outpace the Eurozone by a substantial margin, as many countries on the European Continent are being forced to return to lockdowns due to an escalation in Covid cases.

JUST IN:Brexit LIVE - Final straw! Frost loses it as Queen dragged into EU row

Finally, in reference to the UKs stated aim of forging new post-Brexit trade relationships, Ms Adye said: The UK Trade Envoy to the Far East, Natalie Black, has confirmed the UKs negotiations to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) are still moving forward at a good pace and should be finished before the end of 2022.

Speaking on Friday, French President Emmanuel Macron accused Britain of playing with his country's nerves in a post-Brexit row over fishing rights and said France "will not yield".

He renewed criticism of Britain in the dispute, which has harmed relations between the two countries, after France said it was still waiting for 150 more licences to be issued to French vessels to fish in British waters.

The French President told reporters: "We have not got what we wanted. They are playing with our nerves. We will not yield."

Relations between traditional allies Paris and London have become increasingly strained since Britain voted to leave the EU in 2016, with the fishing dispute a key source of tension.

Paris says London should have issued more French boats with licences to fish in British territorial waters since Britain left the European Union, while Britain says it is respecting the arrangements that were agreed.

The dispute centres on the issuance of licences to fish in territorial waters six to 12 nautical miles off Britain's shores, and in the seas off the Channel Island of Jersey.

Critics of the protocol argue it has resulted in a border down the Irish Sea, hence driving a wedge between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK.

Campaigners gathered at the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic on Saturday to warn the UK Government against triggering Article 16, hence suspending the mechanism for preventing a hard border on the island of Ireland.

A crowd gathered at Carrickcarnon to demand that the post-Brexit arrangements introduced for Northern Ireland are retained and protected, amid ongoing negotiations between the UK and the EU.

Damian McGinty, from Border Communities Against Brexit, told the crowd that the majority of people in Northern Ireland opposed the UK's exit from the EU.

He said: "Don't forget, 56 percent voted to remain and we voted to remain in the EU and by any calculation that is a majority.

And a majority also support the protocol, the DUP do not speak for us."

Mr McGinty took aim at Brexit chief negotiator Lord Frost, and called his approach to Brexit "disgraceful".

He stressed: "The European Union have a critical role to play here.

He said that if the UK does trigger Article 16, which would suspend elements of the protocol, "the EU must stand in solidarity with Ireland and stand in solidarity with the people who live in this region".

Read this article:

THATS why we left! Brexiteer lists FIVE reasons Britain is better off outside the EU - Daily Express