Boris Johnson has arrived in Brussels where he is shortly due to meet Ursula von der Leyen, the European commission president, to discuss whether or not a UK-EU trade deal is possible. There will be a short meeting ahead of a working dinner, also attended by Lord Frost, Michel Barnier and other officials. At PMQs earlier Johnson adopted a belligerent tone, repeatedly insisting that Britain would flourish in the event of no deal and accusing the EU of wanting to “punish” the UK. He told MPs: Our friends in the EU are currently insisting that if they pass a new law in future with which we in this country do not comply or don’t follow suit, then they want the automatic right to punish us and to retaliate. And secondly they’re saying the UK should be the only country in the world not to have sovereign control over its fishing waters. I don’t believe that those are terms that any prime minister of this country should accept. Johnson’s stance was warmly welcomed by Conservative MPs, and any Tory backbenchers who are fearful of the consequences of no deal have not been expressing their reservations in public. Many observers still think that ultimately both sides will negotiate a compromise, but Johnson’s performance at PMQs will have reassured the sovereignty purists on his own side for whom this would be unacceptable. Tonight’s meeting is being billed as a conversation, not a negotiation, and almost certainly it will not culminate in the announcement of a deal. There may well be an agreement to allow talks to resume at negotiator level, although if Johnson and Von der Leyen conclude that consensus is impossible, they could tell Europe to prepare for no deal.
Angela Merkel has said the major obstacle to a Brexit deal is not access to British fishing waters but future regulatory standards in the UK, adding that she expects the talks to continue for days to come. A Brexit threat to the British banger in Belfast has been lifted, Michael Gove has said, as the EU and UK declared peace over the food supply across the Irish Sea. People with a history of significant allergic reactions should not receive the Covid vaccine, the medicines regulator has said, after two NHS workers experienced symptoms. Prof Chris Whitty, England’s chief medical officer, has warned of a “disastrous” resurgence in coronavirus cases if people stop adhering to social distancing guidelines now that the mass vaccination programme has begun. Labour faces a continuous decline in its traditional heartlands unless it challenges “an enduring perception of us as ineffective, complacent or indifferent”, a stark report by a group of the party’s MPs has warned. That’s all from me for tonight. As and when there is any news from Brussels, there will be details here. The Johnson/Von der Leyen dinner starts at 7.30pm, and so any read-out is no likely to come until after 9pm.