Rishi Sunak to face PMQs as mass strikes takes part across Britain – UK politics live

UK government plays down report saying London and Brussels have reached customs deal that could end NI protocol dispute

Lisa O’Carroll

Reports that the UK and the EU have reached a partial agreement to end the dispute over the Brexit arrangements in Northern Ireland have been played down in London and Brussels.

The two sides have reportedly reached an agreement that would eliminate customs checks on goods entering the region from Great Britain, according to a report in the Times.

However, a Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) source indicated that the claim a deal had been struck did not reflect the reality of the current state of the talks.

The FCDO suggested the newspaper’s report was speculative, saying officials were engaged in “intensive scoping talks” with Brussels and declining to pre-empt the discussions.

The Times reported that the customs deal is largely based on the government’s proposals for a red and green lanes system – with the green lane for goods from Great Britain which are staying in the region and the red lane to check and control products going on to the Republic of Ireland and the rest of the EU.

The EU’s version of this plan – involving an “express” lane, rather than a “green” lane – requires customs paperwork on all goods to work but with minimum physical checks on lorries.

A separate agreement would be negotiated on exports of meat and live animals to Northern Ireland, with the UK agreeing to maintain EU veterinary standards on goods destined for the province.

Citing government sources, the Times also reported that Brussels has made concessions on the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice (ECJ), a sticking point for both the European Research Group, a group of hardline pro-Brexit Tory MPs, and the DUP.

Various fudges have been proposed on the UK side including the creation of an arbitration panel as the first port of call with an advisory role for the ECJ.

Brussels sources have always maintained that disputes concerning EU law not settled in lower national courts can only be adjudicated by the ECJ which gives judges across Europe the final interpretation of EU law.

The European Commission declined to comment

In interviews this morning Gillian Keegan, the education secretary, also admitted that she did not realised until recently that individual teachers did not have to say in advance whether or not they would be joining a strike. “It was a surprise to some of us that was in fact the law,” she told Times Radio.

She also hinted that she would like to change this. She said:

I did write to everybody urging them to be constructive, to let their heads know, and I am sure many teachers will have done that.

There are discussions around minimum service levels, minimum safety levels, around hospitals around rail – education is part of that bill as well.

We are hoping not to use that, we are hoping to make sure we continue with constructive discussions and relationships but these things will always stay under review.

The “majority” of schools in England and Wales will remain open today, despite the strike, Gillian Keegan, the education secretary, has claimed. My colleague Aletha Adu has the story here.

Good morning. Rishi Sunak was only born in 1980, which means he wasn’t alive when governments of both parties were brought down to a large extent because they could not prevent industrial disputes in the 1970s, but he must know enough about British politics to realise that what is happening currently could make recovery for the Tories near impossible.

After Christmas Sunak initiated a series of talks between ministers and unions in the hope of resolving the disputes but, as we report in our overnight story about today’s “walkout Wednesday” day of mass strikes, that process has stalled.

Sunak has also been hoping that, with strikes increasingly inconveniencing the public, people might turn on the Labour party, to which some of the unions that have been on strike are affiliated (although not the National Education Union, which may cause more disruption today). But polling shows that there is no overwhelming public opposition to the strikes, and some groups of workers have more people supporting their strike action than opposing.

Sunak will undoubtedly face questions on this at PMQs.

My colleague Geneva Abdul has a separate live blog covering the strikes. It is here.

But I will be covering some of the political aspects here too.

Here is the agenda for the day.

Morning: James Cleverly, the foreign secretary, meets his Australian opposite number, Penny Wong, in London.

11am: Striking teachers start a march through London, culminating in a rally at Westminster.

12pm: Rishi Sunak faces Keir Starmer at PMQs.

4.30pm (UK time): Boris Johnson speaks at an Atlantic Council event in Washington.

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