MPs voted 295 to 221 yesterday to give the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill a second reading

By Suzanne Evans, Director, Political Insight

MPs voted 295 to 221 yesterday to give the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill a second reading. The proposed legislation gives ministers powers to override parts of the post-Brexit trade deal on Northern Ireland, which was designed to prevent the return of a hard border with the Republic of Ireland. In practice, this means some goods being exported from mainland Britain to Northern Ireland are subject to customs checks, creating problems for some businesses and angering Unionist politicians. Opposition to the imposition of checks at the border has seen the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) refuse to return to the power-sharing Executive at Stormont, leaving the region without a functioning government. Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s view is therefore that the new Bill, which proposes removing checks on goods and animal and plant products travelling from Great Britain to Northern Ireland, is necessary to safeguard the Good Friday Agreement, and peace and stability in the region. He also said changes could be enacted “within a year,” although a Number 10 spokesman later said the Government had never put a “hard target date” on when it would hope to see the Bill enacted. MPs voting against the Bill, however, argue it is illegal under international law, and could spark a trade war with the EU. Former PM Theresa May led significant criticism from the Conservative party benches, saying: “I have to say to the Government, this Bill is not, in my view, legal in international law, it will not achieve its aims, and it will diminish the standing of the United Kingdom in the eyes of the world, and I cannot support it.” Foreign Secretary Liz Truss countered that the Bill had “strong legal justification” although the UK remains committed to seeking a negotiated solution with the EU. Former Justice Secretary Sir Robert Buckland also supported the Bill, saying there is necessity for the Government to act because there is a growing and “real threat”. DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson acknowledged the Bill is not perfect but said: “It empowers ministers to make change where change is necessary to ensure the proper functioning of the UK internal market.” He also warned that should the House of Lords block the legislation, that would be akin to “wrecking the Good Friday Agreement”. Sinn Fein MP John Finucane called the Government’s plans “shameful” and said they will mean “more instability” for the region. He told BBC Radio Ulster’s Good Morning Ulster programme:“It’s very interesting that we are watching a sovereign Parliament debating whether to continue a breach of international law or not.” The Bill must now go through in-depth scrutiny by MPs, be put to a further Commons vote, and then pass to the Lords, before becoming law.
 
New figures from the Office for National Statistics(ONS) show British exports to the EU have reached their highest level on record. The increase has been driven primarily by fuels, British-made machinery and transport equipment. UK exports to the EU (excluding precious metals) reached £16.4 billion in April 2022, a £2.2 billion (7.4%) increase compared with the previous month. Exports to non-EU countries were also up by £0.9 billion (6.5%).
 
Doctors at the British Medical Association's (BMA) annual conference in Brighton have voted to call for a 30% pay rise over the next five years, which they say will make up for real-term cuts to salaries since 2008. Some doctors who supported the motion pointed to the rail worker's strike as inspiration for how public sector workers should pursue pay demands with the current government. Presenting the motion to the conference, Dr Emma Runswick said it was "outrageous" that doctors' pay has been cut by 30%, a sum that represents earnings losses amounting to "millions of pounds". "All around us, workers are coming together in trade unions and winning big - last month bin men in Manchester 22%; Gatwick airport workers won a 21% pay increase two weeks ago, and in March cleaners and porters at Croydon hospital won a 24% pay rise,” she said. "Those workers got together and used a key tool that trade unions have - the ability to collectively organise, collectively negotiate and collectively withdraw our labour... vote for this motion and I'll see you on the picket lines." Doctors also called on MPs to address staff shortages to help the NHS deal with record waiting lists, with one medic saying that "there's no rescue plan beyond 'work harder'". Dr Jacqueline Davies told delegates: “We know that staff shortages lead to critical incidents and who gets the blame? We do, the burden falls on us."
 
Trade union Unite is consulting staff at the Bank of England (BoE) about securing a “decent pay rise” to cushion the blow of soaring living costs, despite pleas for restraint on wages from their own Governor. The Telegraph reports BoE staff have been given a 1.5% increase this year, far below the 9.1% May inflation rate. Unite, which has 600 members at the Bank, refused to be drawn on how big an increase it will ask for but did not rule out demanding an inflation-matching raise. The BoE’s annual report last week revealed that Governor Andrew Bailey turned down a pay rise this year after being offered a 1%. He has faced fierce criticism for calling for restraint while taking a total pay package including pension benefits of almost £600,000.
 
Members of the Communication Workers Union(CWU) at 114 Crown Post Offices - the larger branches often sited on high streets - will take industrial action on 11^th July. It will be the third strike by Post Office workers this year, after union members rejected a pay offer worth 3% and a £500 lump sum. The Post Office said the vast majority of its branches would be unaffected. Meanwhile, more than 115,000 Royal Mail workers begin voting on whether or not to strike today, as the CWU sends ballots out to members. It will announce the result on 19 July. CWU deputy general secretary Terry Pullinger said in a video posted on Twitter that the union wanted an "inflation-based, no-strings pay award" for its Royal Mail members. "The company has imposed a 2% pay award, miles away from where inflation is, totally inadequate," he said.
 
Heathrow Airport has been told to cut passenger charges for airlines each year until 2026 by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). Currently, Heathrow charges airlines £30.19 per passenger, but the CAA says it wants the cap to drop to £26.31. The charges are paid by airlines but are usually passed onto passengers via airfares. The CAA said the plan to reduce the charge "reflects expected increases in passenger numbers as the recovery from the pandemic continues and the higher level of the price cap in 2022, which was put in place in 2021 to reflect the challenges from the pandemic at the time". Heathrow was given permission to raise the passenger charge from £19.60 to £30.19 in December 2021. Richard Moriarty, CEO of the CAA, said the planned reduction in charges "is about doing the right thing for consumers,” but Heathrow CEO John Holland-Kaye told the BBC that the regulator "continues to underestimate what it takes to deliver a good passenger service, both in terms of the level of investment and operating costs required and the fair incentive needed for private investors to finance it". "Uncorrected, these elements of the CAA's proposal will only result in passengers getting a worse experience at Heathrow as investment in service dries up," he added.
 
Spain has ordered a new fleet of 20 Typhoon fighter jets which will net the FTSE-100’s BAE Systems in excess £500 million. More than 5,000 BAE Systems employees directly support the Typhoon programme in the UK, supporting more than 10,000 jobs in the UK economy as a whole.
 
AstraZeneca said yesterday that its Enhertu and Lynparza drugs have been recommended for approval in the European Union for patients with breast cancer. The FTSE-100 listed Anglo-Swedish drugs giant said Lynparza, a HER2-negative high-risk early breast cancer treatment, had demonstrated "a statistically significant and clinically meaningful" improvement in invasive disease-free survival. In the trial, Lynparza was shown to reduce the risk of invasive breast cancer recurrences, new cancers, or death by 42% compared to placebo. It also showed an improvement in overall survival by lowering the risk of death by 32% versus placebo.
 
Family owned CiNER Glass UK has been given the green light to build a new £390 million glass container manufacturing facility which uses recycled glass at the Rassau Industrial Estate, north of Ebbw Vale in South wales. The project is set to create around 600 highly skilled jobs on a currently vacant 21.5 hectare plot. The project will also create significant supply chain opportunities, supporting 1,200 indirect jobs in the supply chain, and between 400 – 500 jobs will be created during the construction phase, with several hundred people working on site during the peak of construction.
 
Research by Adzuna has revealed the university degrees that lead to the highest and lowest salaries post-graduation. The job advert search engine analysed more than 120,000 CVs to find the jobs that graduates are working in five years after leaving university, then matched them with average salaries. Information systems degrees were revealed to be the best value for money, as graduates earn £47,120 five years after graduating. This was followed by courses in computer engineering (£46,281), petroleum engineering (£45,579), and project management (£44,455). Photography was revealed to be the lowest-ranked course for expected salary five years after graduating, followed by courses in translation (£24,815), film (£24,851), and fine art(£24,999). Roughly 40% of university degrees fail to net an average salary above £30,000 within five years, the analysis found. Of the 74 degrees included in the research, 14 did not exceed the student loan repayment threshold within that period. An average university degree leaves graduates saddled with £45,000 in debt, which they only begin paying back when their salary rises above £27,295.
 
Credit Suisse has been found guilty and fined for involvement in money laundering related to a Bulgarian drugs ring. Switzerland's criminal court found that the bank did not do enough to prevent members of the crime syndicate from profiting off the trafficking of cocaine into Europe. It was fined around £1.7m and ordered to pay £15m to the Swiss government. The bank denies wrongdoing and says it would appeal against the ruling.
 
A winding up petition has been filed against Evergrande Group, the embattled Chinese property developer, according to Reuters. The petition is understood to have been brought by filed by Top Shine Global Limited (TSG), an investor in Evergrande's Fangchebao business, an online real estate and car marketplace. TSG acquired 0.46% of Fangchebao for HK$750m (£77.71m) in March 2021, when Evergrande sold 10% of the business to 17 investors for a total of $2.1bn (£1.71bn). The move was a precursor to an initial public offering (IPO). An unnamed TSG executive told Reuters that under the terms of the sale, if the IPO did not take place by 8 April this year, Evergrande would repurchase the shares at a 15% premium. The executive said TSG wanted Evergrande to honour the agreement. Heavily-indebted Evergrande has been at risk of collapse since last autumn, when it first missed interest payments on international bonds. Its shares have been suspended by the Hong Kong stock exchange while the group - which has around $300bn in liabilities - attempts to restructure. A hearing is due to be heard on 31 August.
 
Sri Lanka has suspended sales of fuel for non-essential vehicles as it faces its worst economic crisis in decades, the BBC reports. For the next two weeks only buses, trains, and vehicles used for medical services and transporting food will be allowed to fill up with fuel. Schools in urban areas have shut and officials have told the country's 22 million residents to work from home. Sri Lanka defaulted on its foreign debt for the time in its history last month. The country has said it needs $5bn (£4.06bn) this year in support from the international community, including the IMF.

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