Monthly Archives: August 2022

That comes on top of the 6.7 million applications by EU citizens already in the UK who have applied for settled status, of which 6.5 million have been concluded, according to Thursday's data.

It is not surprising that John Hayes, a former Home Office minister and the chairman of the Tory Common Sense group, believes the next prime minister - Liz Truss or Rishi Sunak - must prioritise clamping down on both legal and illegal migration before the next election.

I would like to see all of these figures drastically reduced. That is what my constituents expected when we voted to take back control. It isnt just about borders but migration was a critical element of that. By the next election, we must do so, he said.

So how did Mr Johnsons pledge to take back control result in the highest number of visas being issued since 2005, when modern records began, and potentially the largest number since the Second World War?

Unlike his predecessor Theresa May, the Prime Minister scrapped targets designed to keep net migration below 100,000 a year and instead adopted a significantly more liberalised approach to post-Brexit immigration.

While tough on illegal migration - as illustrated by plans to send Channel migrants on a one-way ticket to Rwanda - he has relaxed rules for foreign skilled migrants and students with sponsored jobs or university places in the UK.

The number of work visas has nearly doubled in a year, from 170,500 to 331,000 and is up 79 per cent on pre-pandemic levels. One factor is that migrant EU workers now require visas with the end of free movement, but they only account for 10 per cent of the total.

Instead, the rise has been largely fuelled by non-EU migrants seeking employment in the UK, led by India (up from 45,600 to 111,000 in a year), Philippines (doubling to 21,900) and Nigeria (doubling to 17,500).

The implementation of a points-based immigration system has opened up half of all jobs in the UK to foreign workers, by lowering salary and skill thresholds for migrants. Previously, employers also had to prove a British worker could not be recruited to fill a vacancy before looking abroad.

The rest is here:

Brexit promised to 'take back control'. Now foreign nationals are arriving in their droves - The Telegraph

Former UK Cabinet Minister Michael Gove (R) at Athens International Airport, Greece, August 2022

Published in partnership with the Centre for Brexit Studies:

I think the people in this country have had enough of experts from organisations with acronyms saying that they know what is best and getting it consistently wrong. Michael Gove, June 2016

It is more than 2 1/2 years since the UK formally departed, with Prime Minister Boris Johnson proclaiming the dawn of a new era. More than six months since Jacob Rees-Mogg was anointed Minister of Brexit Opportunities.

So how have the predictions of the Remoaners and Project Fear fared?

By 2020, GDP would be over 3% smaller than otherwise (with continued EU membership), equivalent to a cost per household of 2200.By 2030, in a central scenario GDP would be over 5% lower than otherwise with the cost of BrexiT equivalent to 3200 per household. OECD Economic Policy Paper, April 2016

UK GDP is estimated to have fallen by 0.1% in Quarter 2 (Apr to June) 2022 UK Government, August 12, 2022

The MPC [Bank of Englands Monetary Policy Committee] now projects that the UK will enter recession from the fourth quarter of 2022, and that the recession will last five quarters as real household post-tax income falls sharply in 2022 and 2023 and consumption begins to contract. CNBC, August 4, 2022

The UK [will] be faced with a noxious cocktail of depressed business confidence; tightening financial conditions; higher inflation; falling real wages; and monetary policy tightening to offset that higher inflation. Neville Hill, Credit Suisse, January 2016

The Office for National Statistics said the consumer prices index rose by 10.1% in the year to July, up from a reading of 9.4% in June and entering double figures at an earlier stage than anticipated. The figure was last higher in February 1982. The Guardian, 17 August 2022

Inflation is expected to risefrom 9.4% in June to just over 13% in 2022 Q4, and to remain at very elevated levels throughout much of 2023. Bank of England, August 3, 2022

The NIESR [National Institute of Economic and Social Research] analysis suggests that leaving the EU and instead establishing a free-trade agreement with the rest of the bloc, similar to the arrangement that Switzerland has could reduce wages in the UK by around 3.1 per cent to 3.8 per cent in real terms within 15 years.

The effects would be far worse if the UK needed to fall back on a WTO trading relationship. In that case, they put the hit to real wages at 4.6 per cent to 6.3 per cent by 2030. Financial Times, 10 May 2016

The real value of UK wages has fallen at a record rate and remains below 2008 levels, according to data published by the Office for National Statistics.

During the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, real-pay growth for UK workers the difference between earnings and inflation fell to a low of -2.7 per cent in September 2011. But the latest figures from the ONS suggest that the current economic crisis has broken that record, with wage growth falling by approximately 3 per cent between October 2021 and June 2022. New Statesman, 16 August 2022

Of course, Brexiteers and the Johnson Government are going to play global conditions as their Get Out of Hell Free card. Chancellor Nadim Zahawi sheltered in the anodyne statement on Wednesday, after the publication of the 40-year record for inflation, I understand that times are tough, and people are worried about increases in prices that countries around the world are facing.

And of course, part of the reason for the economic deterioration has been a series of shocks from the Coronavirus pandemic to disruption of supply chains to Russias invasion of Ukraine.

But the fundamental is that Brexit, isolating the UK from the EU and its largest market, left Britain in a weakened position to deal with those shocks. As a result, the UK is out-performing every other developed country in its downward spiral.

Among the G7 countries (UK, US, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan), only the UK is projected to have flat or negative growth in 2023.

The projected UK inflation rate for 2023 far exceeds that of its G7 compatriots. While the Bank of England expects the British rate to remain above. 10%, the US rise is expected to be 3% in 2023. Canadas is expected to be 2%.

Adam Posen, who set interest rates for the Bank of England and is now president of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, summarizes that 80% of the difference between inflation in the UK and other countries is due to Brexit.

Youve seen a huge drop in migrant labour, a disruption in labour markets that everybody experienced due to Covid and reopening, but with fundamentally less elasticity and [Brexit] has to be a major part of it.

Posen also notes that Brexit has reduced the openness of UK trade openness and cut inflows of foreign direct investment.

Vicky Pryce, a former head of the Government Economic Service and chief economic adviser at the Centre for Economics and Business Research, adds that a very substantial drop in the value of the poundimmediately inflated input costs after the Brexit referendum in 2016.

That also tends to discourage companies from investing, so you add to supply problems for the future, she explains.

Yes, we are bearing the soaring costs of Government mismanagement and deregulation of energy markets. Yes, the UK has long-standing issues with business investment and loose monetary policy.

But this is not an either-or. Brexit has interacted with other structural and tactical weaknesses to whip up the storm.

Meanwhile, as the Conservative Party is mired in the pillow fight over who succeeds Boris Johnson, Michael Gove has disappeared over the past month except when he was caught up in a lengthy queue at Athens International Airport on August 14.

Former Labour Party councillor Candida Jones spotted Gove as she was enduring a 30-hour delay of her return to the UK because of a lack of staff due to the pandemic compounded, in the case of the UK, by Brexit.

In a 15-minute discussion, Jones rebuffed Goves attempt to explain the supposed benefits of Brexit vaccine rollouts and agricultural reforms: You are a smart guy, and know what you are telling me is not true, and you have got to stop treating the British people as if were stupid.

Gove made no comment, including whether he blamed experts for the encounter.

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Yes, Mr. Gove, The Experts Were Right About Brexit - EA WorldView

Brexit Britain has signed a new deal with Ukraine to help rebuild the war town country.

n response to a specific request by PresidentVolodymyr Zelensky, Anne-Marie Trevelyan, the International Trade Secretary, met with Yuliia Svyrydenko, First Deputy Prime Minister andUkraines Minister of Economy of Ukraine, and Mykhailo Fedorov, Vice Prime Minister and Ukraines Minister of Digital Transformation, via video link to reiterate the UKs unwavering support forUkraineand begin talks.

The deal will make it easier for UK companies to work with Ukrainian businesses and support the country's economic recovery.

MsTrevelyan said: Putins brutal and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine has had devastating human consequences.

"The UK stands shoulder to shoulder with Ukraine and will use trade as a force for good to help the country rebuild its modern economy after this barbaric war.

READ MORE.

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Brexit: Truss handed blueprint to solve illegal migration as record numbers hit UK - Express

It may well transpire, as some Irish economists believe, that inflation is at or near its peak, but the latest wholesale price index from the Central Statistics Office (CSO), published this week, still made for sobering reading.

Among the most eye-catching numbers in the release was the 10.9 per cent increase in the prices that retailers and other intermediaries have been paying for fish since July 2021. Fish producers groups say two main factors have conspired to increase the cost of bringing their catch to market. For one, marine fuel prices have, like auto diesel and petrol prices, skyrocketed in the past year, first because of the post-Covid rebound in oil demand and more recently as a consequence of Russias invasion of Ukraine. Coupled with that, fresh quotas introduced as part of the Brexit Co-operation Agreement last year mean Irish fishermen and women are catching and supplying fewer fish to their customers, sending prices up.

So far, consumers have got off relatively lightly. The CSOs July consumer price index indicates that fish and fish product prices have climbed about 5.4 per cent in the year to the end of last month, about half the rate of increase with which retailers have been grappling. Fish Farmer Magazine reported this week that pan-European Iceland Seafood Group, which owns Irish salmon company Carr & Sons, pinpointed soaring salmon and fish prices as the main reason for slumping to a 2.9 million loss in the first half. However, it said salmon prices, in particular, have levelled off somewhat and there may be some relief on the way.

In recent months, the European Commission has given member states elbow room to offer fuel subsidies to fish producers without fear of breaching EU state aid rules. But the industry here is baffled as to why the Government hasnt followed its Spanish and French counterparts in doing this. And with more reductions in the States fish quota in the offing over the coming years, the sector was already entering choppy waters.

Continued here:

Fish producers on the hook for Brexit and fuel costs - The Irish Times

In response to a specific request by President Volodymyr Zelensky, Anne-Marie Trevelyan, the International Trade Secretary, met with Yuliia Svyrydenko, First Deputy Prime Minister and Ukraines Minister of Economy of Ukraine, and Mykhailo Fedorov, Vice Prime Minister and Ukraines Minister of Digital Transformation, via video link to reiterate the UKs unwavering support for Ukraine and begin talks. The digital trade deal, agreed in the presence of Vadym Prystaiko, Ukrainian Ambassador to the UK, yesterday, will aim to support Ukrainian businesses by cutting red tape, enabling them UK more efficiently through technology such as electronic transactions, e-signatures, and e-contracts.

It will also make it easier for UK companies to work with Ukrainian businesses and support with their countrys economic recovery.

Total trade between the UK and Ukraine in 2021 was valued at 1.9billion in 2021 and UK exports of digitally delivered services accounted for 73 percent of all UK services exports to Ukraine in 2020.

International Trade Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan said: Putins brutal and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine has had devastating human consequences.

"The UK stands shoulder to shoulder with Ukraine and will use trade as a force for good to help the country rebuild its modern economy after this barbaric war.

She added: Our partnership with Ukraine will help them seize the brighter days ahead, and we will continue to do everything in our power to protect Ukrainian jobs, livelihoods and families.

Mr Prystaiko said: The United Kingdom has shown unwavering support throughout this illegal invasion and the ties between our governments have never been closer.

READ MORE:Cannon fodder! Desperate Putin seeks new recruits

While we fight fearlessly for the freedom of our nation, many Ukrainians also look ahead to how we will rebuild our country.

Strengthening our economic ties through this landmark digital trade agreement will support our IT industry, which is set to become a major driver of economic growth for our businesses and cities.

The announcement comes as a result of a direct request from Mr Zelenskys government.

The Ukrainian government has identified supporting the digital economy as one of its areas of focus for the recovery and reconstruction of the country, with the UK, as a global leader in digital trade, is well placed to help with that.

In May, the UK removed of all tariffs under the existing UK-Ukraine free trade agreement in May, supporting Ukrainian businesses and producers to export goods and rebuild their economy.

A new digital trade agreement would further strengthen the trading relationship between the two nations, providing additional and much-needed economic support for businesses in Ukraine.

In July, Ms Trevelyan launched a new UK-Ukraine Infrastructure Taskforce, which is building partnerships between UK and Ukrainian businesses to help repair damaged and destroyed infrastructure including bridges and homes in and around Kyiv.

The UK has also introduced one of the largest and most severe packages of economic sanctions against Russia.

Measures cover over 18billion worth of products that were traded with Russia in 2021, as well as more than 1,000 individuals and more than 100 entities in key sectors such as defence.

Read more from the original source:

Brexit win as UK signs bumper deal with Ukraine to drive trade past 2billion a year - Express

Four years ago, Tom Mutch thought he had the scoop of the century blowing open Russias involvement in Brexit. Now, after the UK has left the European Union and Putin wages genocidal war in Ukraine, he wonders whether we are any closer to knowing the truth

As I told my friend Boris Johnson, its you and I that are always being blamed for this, the Russian Ambassador in London, Alexander Yakovenko, said as he turned to me and smiled. It was a mischievous answer to my question on whether Russia had been involved in campaigning for Brexit.

The charming and sharp-suited senior Russian diplomat had just given quite a speech at the Oxford Union. It was May 2018 and he had been invited to promote the upcoming FIFA World Cup. Instead, he used his perch to deny Russias involvement in the ills of the world, issuing denial after denial.

No, Russia was not involved in the war in Ukraine. Nor had it interfered in the 2016 US Presidential Election. He repeated conspiracy theories about the Skripal poisoning in Salisbury and said he couldnt know whether the head of the Chechen republic Ramzan Kadyrov was right about there being no gay people in that part of Russia.

I had collared him for a short interview. Tell me, why would Russia want to cause such a mess? he asked me with an expression of bafflement on his face.

He could not have known then, but I had a particularly good answer to that question. For I possessed evidence that Yakovenko may have been personally involved in what could have been one of the biggest boons for Russian foreign policy of all time.

Having spent the past months in bunkers and trenches watching Putins armed forces trying to annihilate Ukraine, I thought about the Russian Ambassadors waspish charm and its incredibly ominous undertones.

In the book, Banks described his campaign to take on the British establishment with a ragtag team of fringe politicians and social media whizzes. With money from his insurance companies, combined with some pluck, gusto and well-placed Twitter trolling, Banks credited himself for pulling off one of the biggest upsets in British political history.

It was a tale that would take him to the top of Trump Tower, where he and his team were photographed next to a grinning President-Elect Donald Trump. Banks would later claim a little credit for this other great electoral shock.

But in the year after the book was published, Banks had come under serious scrutiny from both journalists and regulatory agencies around the source of his funding.

Reports which Banks contested suggested that his businesses were losing money and he could not have afforded his donations. Oakeshott and I had heard from a security services source that spooks were probing whether Banks had serious business interests in Russia and if this was connected to his Brexit largesse.

In late 2017, I was sitting with my family in Australia when I got a call from Oakeshott. Could I check the records we retained from our time working on the Bad Boys of Brexit and find if there was any truth to the allegations? I agreed. What I found deeply concerned both of us.

The documents revealed many undisclosed meetings between Banks Leave.EU campaign team and officials based in the Russian Embassy in London. Rather than the single boozy lunch the group had claimed in our book, it had held around a dozen meetings.

Several of these were with a Russian spook they described as the KGBs man in London. They included a series of lunches with the Russian Ambassador, who had offered Banks and his business associates significant investments in Russian state-controlled gold and diamond firms. They had also met to discuss the Brexit campaign and frequently traded messages of friendship and mutual support. One example was an email sent during a public dispute between Russia and the UK over the Syrian refugee crisis. Suggest we send a note of support to the Russian Ambassador, Banks wrote.

Isabel and I had already become uncomfortable with his attacks on journalists investigating him. He had shared a meme depicting Observer journalist Carole Cadwalladr being beaten in a mock-up of a scene from the comedy film Airplane. He said she wouldnt be so lippy in Russia!. Other emails detailed his plans to hire private investigators to dig up dirt on the BBC Newsnight team investigating his finances. This was personal stuff, things like girlfriends, if hes in debt.

Nothing we uncovered proved any illegality. Putting out false press statements or leading journalists up the garden path is not a crime. Nor is meeting representatives of foreign governments or considering investment proposals. Banks was a businessman, after all, with significant legitimate investments in commodities including diamonds.

But it was clear that the Russians were trying to cultivate important UK political figures to increase their influence.

The announcement of Robert Muellers probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 US election showed how high the stakes were especially as I was aware how intricately connected the two transatlantic campaigns of Brexit and Trump were.

Other documents showed Banks and Wigmore were offered a meeting with both Marine Le Pen of the French National Front, and that a Trump foreign policy advisor had asked them for an introduction to members from the German far-right AfD party.

The team behind the book drafted a public statement, saying that Oakeshott was concerned that Banks could be working as an agent of influence for the Russian state and that she cannot stand by while Banks publicly lies about his connections to hostile foreign powers. Unfortunately, she did.

Oakeshott, and her publisher Michael Ashcroft, decided to instead hold the material for an upcoming book about UK defence. I accepted this, but was never that comfortable with it. As time went on, revelations about Cambridge Analytica and the poisoning of Sergei Skripal increased my concerns that this material needed to come out.

I began speaking with journalists from other organisations about the documents, including Byline Times co-founder, Peter Jukes. He shared a draft with the Observer, which published it and all hell broke loose. The story was on the front pages of newspapers, the lead item on CNN and the UK Government called for an investigation into Banks finances. Senior opposition politicians were claiming that Brexit needed to be stopped until these allegations could be investigated.

A few months later, the National Crime Agency would announce a criminal probe into Banks, based on reasonable suspicion that he was not the true source of his funding for the Leave.EU campaign. Further investigations would show that one of Banks business partners had filed court documents claiming that the money he had raised from Russians to expand his diamond mines in a South Africa business had been diverted to fund Banks Leave EU referendum campaign.

It seemed like the scoop of the century the smoking gun connecting Trump, Brexit and Russia.

Shortly afterwards, the pandemic struck and by an odd twist of fate Arron Banks and I both ended up being stuck in Auckland. I asked if he would be willing to meet. To my surprise, he agreed.

Sitting in a small restaurant in the quiet suburb of Mt Eden, he looked a picture of health. Trim, well-dressed and beaming with energy. The restless politico was keeping himself busy with projects in the Antipodes and said he had just lunched with the populist New Zealand Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters. He toasted me with his glass of pinot noir. It was his fourth or so bottle of wine by about 2pm.

A few games of squash, a couple of glasses of wine, and I feel the best I have in years, he said. After what we went through, I needed a break! Banks explained that, after the publication of his correspondence with the Russian Embassy in London, a Sunday Times reporter had called to tell him I cant believe it, weve never, in all my time at the paper, devoted the first six whole pages to a single report.

He said we were on the front page of The New York Times, the Washington Post and we had who knows how many hit pieces on us from Newsnight and Channel 4. He explained how he had suffered heavily at the hand of the fake news press; a slight smirk betraying how he somewhat enjoyed the notoriety.

We had met just once before, at an election night party on the eve of Trumps victory. Held at Londons exclusive Devonshire Club, I had listened to Banks close associate and press guru Andy Wigmore explain just how deep those transatlantic connections went.

He reckoned Trump could pull off a similar upset to Brexit. Leave.EU, he explained, had assisted the Trump campaign to design a strategy for targeting white working-class voters in the rust belt states of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. This, he told me, was based on data and experience derived from Nigel Farages bus tour around similarly deprived communities in the north of England.

Banks said something similar in an email to a friend that December we have been in the US helping the Trump campaign for the last few months. He also boasted close relationships with three of the most senior figures in the incoming administration Steve Bannon, Kellyanne Conway and Jeff Sessions.

It appeared his connections were taken seriously by figures in the UK. Steve Hilton, David Camerons former advisor and advocate for positive populism, reached out to Banks to request a mobile number for Bannon. Wigmore even passed his contacts in the Russian Embassy a telephone number for the Trump transition team.

I asked Banks if this account was accurate. Yes, he said, before backtracking and claiming that Wigmore had slightly oversold it. What we did do was help Trump deliver his message better, he told me. Before we got there, he was reading these dull, pre-written speeches. Nigel got him to ditch the teleprompter, improvise more and liven things up.

Then, as the talk flowed, he let slip the thing that surprised me most. You know the lads from the National Crime Agency like most of the police are very working-class, he said. They made it clear to me they were backers of Brexit. I could not know exactly what he meant by this, but I had long harboured my own suspicions that the NCAs investigation had lacked rigour.

We are very interested in all of this, one of the officers told me gravely. Their subsequent actions would not bear this out.

They gave me a cable to transfer my records from my laptop to one of their computers. The transfer completed and I left.

Around a week later, they called again. The transfer had failed midway and corrupted the files and they wanted me to upload the material to a cloud-based system and give them a link to open it. I did so and then they changed their minds again, saying they were worried about the chain of custody of the evidence if they opened the link. They wanted me to transfer all the material to a hard drive, travel to the Peruvian capital of Lima (Id been travelling in South America at the time) and hand this drive into the British Embassy in the city. Despairing, I made it clear if they wanted, they could come and get it.

They never contacted me again.

When the NCA released a letter outlining its findings, there was no mention of any investigation of Banks links to the Russian state. The Electoral Commission, which had initially referred the case to Londons top cops, took the extraordinary step of publicly criticising the judgment for allowing foreign money into British elections.

The NCA claimed it had interviewed Banks and examined material from his business records in the Isle of Man, where his companies are based. The Isle of Man is regarded as a tax haven and has some of the worlds most secretive banking laws. I spoke with a senior source working for its financial regulatory agency who told me that its financial crime team had spent significant time preparing to deal with a request from the NCA to probe Banks dealings. This request had never arrived and the NCA did not probe Banks confidential financial records, according to this source.

There were hints that people at the agency knew more than it had let on.

Shortly before it publicly cleared Banks, a security source told the Daily Mail that Cabinet ministers joining Boris Johnsons Government in July were warned by security officials to steer clear of insurance tycoon Banks and his associates they were gently told they risked huge embarrassment if charges are brought and they were still meeting. The article went on to say that the NCA investigation was still live and that sources say its scope has widened. Another report claimed that former Prime Minister Theresa May had blocked a security services probe into Banks activities as it had been too politically sensitive.

As Parliaments Intelligence and Security Committees report into Russian interference in the UK showed, the Government and the security services had made no effort to investigate potential Russian influence on the Brexit vote.

After an ominous pause, he cracked a smirk and exclaimed: We really just dont care! He broke into a peal of laughter and turned to the group of students huddled around. Thats all from me today! he said, giving a wave. A moment later, he was whisked away.

The same week I met Yakovenko, I also attended a talk at the Institute for Statecraft, a think tank in central London but supposedly a haunt for members of the intelligence community. Brexit inevitably came up.

An audience member asked: Will the British public change their minds on Brexit, once it is publicly revealed how deeply the Russians could have been involved? After everything I have done to expose the links, I know the answer no, it didnt change a thing.

Banks sued Carole Cadwalladr in a court case that dragged on for nearly three years when she said he had lied about his connections with the Russian Government.

The judge in the case concluded that the four meetings were probably not the full extent of Mr Banks meetings with Russian officials and that the reason Banks gave for claiming and then denying his trip to Moscow was not credible.

Around the same time this judgment was handed down, I was standing beside a platoon of Ukrainian soldiers watching Russian rockets smash into the fields just a few hundred metres in front of us. Melodic birdsong mixed with the whistle and crash of the shells landing all around us. I was in Donetsk on the frontline of Russias war in Ukraine.

Though the truth behind the Russian states involvement in Brexit seems murkier than ever, we now know the depths of evil that Vladimir Putins foreign policy has been aiming towards. No longer is the Kremlin content with meddling in democratic elections it is now engaged in a full-on war intended to annihilate its democratic and sovereign neighbour.

As I hear the rumble of artillery outside my windows, I finally see what was lurking behind the ambassadors mask of jovial charm. And thats the story of my whole scoop of the century: what I had thought were diamonds, turned out to be ashes.

Byline Times has repeatedly contacted Arron Banks on a variety of issues raised in this article, meeting with no response or one of curt dismissiveness

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On the Frontline of Exposing the Truth About Russia and Brexit Byline Times - Byline Times

Stanley Johnson said the UK really did get a cleanup while in the EU and was known as the dirty man of Europe before joining.

Speaking to LBC host Rachel Johnson, the PMs sister, Mr Johnson said it was down to his sons government for the staggering amount of sewage being pumped into Britains waters.

The 82-year-old suggested that Brexit caused Boris Johnsons administration to feel not able to push to stop pollution as strongly as it might have if the UK was still part of the EU.

He said Britain faces a long slog now that he doesnt have the backing which the EU framework gave, and suggested Britain must now build a new union within the wider European network.

Has Brexit impacted sewage being discharged?

The Prime Ministers father recalled how Britain was known as the dirty man of Europe before it joined what is now known as the European Union in 1973 - due to the lack of statistical measurement of water quality at UK beaches.

He told LBC that European regulations during that period transformed the quality of bathing water around the whole of Europe and the UK really did get a cleanup.

But now the UK has left the EU, Mr Johnson said he suspects that we are now in a very, very difficult and dangerous situation.

He said while some of the EU legislation was carried over and should in theory be in effect, without the backing which the EU framework gave ... we face a long slog.

He added: Im talking particularly about the backing of the European Commission, the European court, and the fact that people were ready to take the government to court for not insisting that these standards are upheld.

Bring back, for example, the statistical measurements.

We havent measured water quality on our beaches for three or four years now. Its a shocking state of affairs.

Mr Johnson said that although weve finished with Brexit, ministers absolutely need to build a new union within the wider European network.

On the LBC show his daughter pressed him on who is to blame for the sewage situation.

Mr Johnson replied: I would say we have to blame the government for not pressing this matter as hard as it should have done, and of course absent the EU push as well you can understand how the government has felt able to not push this thing as it should have pushed.

We do have the amendment now ... but what I would like to see is for Britain to go back not go back obviously into the EU but at least go back into an agency which gives us the statistical evidence.

He added: Its not just sewage which goes into our seas and rivers.

Its all sorts of things. And you have to have a general framework of water management, and that was one thing which flowed well from the EU directives.

How did regulations on sewage discharge change?

Regulations over the process of dumping sewage into the sea changed in 2021.

Towards the end of last year, some businesses found it more difficult to get hold of water treatment chemicals because of supply chain disruption at ports - blamed primarily on Britains departure from the EU.

Because of this the Environment Agency said companies struggling to get hold of the required chemicals would be allowed to "discharge effluent without meeting the conditions" of their permits, which normally require water to be treated by a multi-step process.

Amelia Womack, deputy leader of the Greens, told The Independent at the time: "Our rivers are already appallingly polluted: water companies discharged raw sewage in UK rivers no fewer than 400,000 times last year.

"The public were rightly horrified by this failure of the Environment Agency to take action and clean up our waterways.

While the UK was part of the EU, the bloc had established two main legal frameworks for the protection and management of freshwater and marine resources.

The EU Water Framework Directive aims to prevent and reduce pollution, promote sustainable water use, protect and improve the aquatic environment and mitigate the effects of floods and droughts.

Member states are requested to draw up so-called river basin management plans to achieve good environmental status for all waters.

Meanwhile the urban waste water treatment directive introduced controls on the disposal of sewage and required water companies to phase out dumping sewage in the sea.

This regulation is still in place for members of the EU, but ceased to apply to the UK after it left the trading bloc.

What has been revealed about sewage discharge in the UK?

Ministers have come under increasing pressure to halt the routine pollution.

Dozens of pollution warnings were put in place this week at beaches and swimming spots across the UK after heavy rain overwhelmed sewer systems.

This led water firms to release sewage into the natural environment.

Environment Agency figures published suggested there had been a 27-fold increase in untreated sewage discharges into rivers and seas over the last five years.

The figures, obtained by Labour via Freedom of Information requests, showed raw sewage has been pumped into UK waterways for a total of 9,427,355 hours since 2016.

Meanwhile Lib Dem analysis of the agencys data found nearly one in four UK sewage discharges went unmonitored last year.

It also found that 1,802 monitors installed by water companies were not working for at least 90% of the time, and there was a complete absence of monitors during 1,717 storm overflows.

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How has Brexit impacted sewage being discharged in UK? - NationalWorld

Ukraine should 'start negotiating' with Russia says Lord Dannatt

For the first time since records began, there were no imports of Russian fuel to the UK in June 2022, six months earlier than the Government had planned to do so in response to the invasion of Ukraine. According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), imports of Russian goods fell 96 percent compared to the average for the previous 12 months, hitting their lowest level since 1997. The data show the UK has made far greater strides in achieving energy independence from Russia than the rest of Europe.

In response to Russias invasion of Ukraine earlier this year, the UK Government announced it would phase out Russian oil imports by the end of 2022.

And now, according to new ONS data, this goal was achieved within four months, six months ahead of the deadline, with the UK recording no imports of Russian fuels in June.

Prior to the start of the conflict in February, Russia was the UK's largest supplier of refined oil, accounting for 24.1 percent in 2021, and also supplied 5.9 percent of the UK's crude oil and 4.9 percent of the UK's natural gas.

As of June, these have all hit zero, a 499million decrease compared to the monthly average in the year leading up to the start of the conflict in February.

As a result, there have been significant increases in fuel imports from Saudi Arabia, Belgium and Kuwait to compensate.

In terms of broader goods and services, the UK has also all but cut off imports from Russia.

Totalling just 33million in June, a 96.6 percent fall on the year, Russian imports were at their lowest level since comparable data was first published in January 1997.

Exports to Russia, despite increasing slightly in June, have collapsed by almost 70 percent, or 168million, relative to the monthly average for the year to February.

The only commodity whose exports to Russia have increased are chemicals, driven by a 39.1million increase in medicinal and pharmaceutical products, exempt from sanctions.

READ MORE:Britain to send microdrones to Ukraine

Although the Governments economic sanctions, including the imposition of 35 percent import tariffs on an expanding range of goods, are likely to be the primary reason for the drop-off in trade with Russia, businesses voluntarily seeking alternatives is also likely to be a factor.

The data show the UK is leading the way in terms of cutting off Russias principal revenue streams income from its fuel and gas exports.

However, this does come at the cost of exacerbating the cost-of-living crisis at home as household energy bills and food costs soar.

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Russia was the worlds largest fossil fuels exporter in 2021, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).

Fuel exports brought in roughly 170billion to the country in 2021.

Sanctions from NATO and its allies were implemented to make the cost of war too great to bear, but the Russian economy is faring better than expected.

Despite fuel export volumes falling, surging prices have curbed the impact of sanctions.

Having initially predicted a 12 percent contraction for the year, the Russian economy ministry now forecasts just a 4.2 percent fall in output.

Nearly half of all Russian crude and petroleum products were exported to Europe prior to the invasion of Ukraine.

In 2021, the EU imported 48billion (40.5billion) worth of crude oil and 23billion (19.4billion) of refined oil products from Russia.

Although the EU countries closest to Russia geographically are most dependent on its oil, Germany, Poland and the Netherlands were the biggest buyers of Russian crude in 2021.

The EU also got 40 percent of its natural gas from Russia last year.

On June 3, the EU introduced an import ban on all seaborne Russian crude oil and petroleum products, phasing them out in orderly fashion over the next six to eight months.

The EU has also committed to reducing Russian gas imports by two-thirds within a year, but the cost of shaking off the blocs energy dependency is slowing progress and threatening economic collapse.

Energy price inflation across the EU hit 38.3 percent on the year to July, pushing consumer price inflation up to 8.9 percent, according to the EUs statistical agency Eurostat.

In mid-August, Eurostat revealed that between April and June, economic output across the 19 countries using the Euro as their currency the Eurozone increased by just 0.6 percent, down from 0.7 percent forecast only a month earlier.

As the bloc attempts to build up gas reserves for the winter, pushing wholesale prices even higher, a growing chorus of economists predict an EU recession before the end of the year.

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Brexit Britains triumph over Putin as UK free of Russian gas MONTHS before EU nations - Express

Eurostar stops in Kent will not restart for at least two years and post-Brexit border rules are among the factors affecting the delay, the operator has suggested.

Ashford International and Ebbsfleet Eurostar services were put on hold in March 2020 and had been expected to resume in 2023.

In a statement, Eurostar said: We can confirm that Eurostar services will not stop at Ebbsfleet or Ashford International stations in 2023, and that we cannot make any commitment for another two to three years.

As such, the wait for stops in Kent to restart could continue into 2025.

Our recovery is progressing well, but we have considerable financial commitments following the pandemic which we will continue to face for a number of years, Eurostar added.

Our border environment has also toughened post Brexit, and further complexity is expected with the launch of the EUs Entry Exit System.

The EUs Entry Exit system (EES) is due to come into effect in May 2023 and will involve extra checks on UK passport holders as, since Brexit, they are treated as third-country nationals when entering the EU.

Currently, UK passport holders travelling to an EU or Schengen-area country should have their document stamped on entry and exit to ensure they are complying with the rule that means that their stay within the Schengen area must be of no more than 90 days in every 180 days.

Passport stamps will no longer be required when EES comes into effect, but more checks will apply.

The new system will register a travellers name. their type of travel document, biometric data (fingerprints and captured facial images) and the date and place of entry and exit.

Border crossing processes will be affected by the EES requirement to record each UK passport holders (and other third-party nationals) fingerprints and picture. These checks could also slow down the entry process.

Alongside the EES, next year will see launch of the Etias (The European Travel Information and Authorisation System), a Esta-style application that non-EU visitor exempt travellers, including UK passport holders, will need to complete to visit EU and Schengen area countries. The date of its launch is now expected to be November 2023.

International travellers have no firm date by which they can expect services at the Kent stations to resume.

Trains heading for the Continent regularly stopped at both Ashford International and Ebbsfleet stations before the Covid-19 pandemic.

Ashford International was rebuilt and upgraded for Eurostar services at a cost of tens of millions of pounds but since the start of the pandemic has only offered trains to London and South East England.

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Brexit partly to blame as Eurostar Kent stops to remain closed for at least two years - iNews

Business leaders are calling on the UK to abandon its plan to tear up the Brexit deal with the EU. The Northern Ireland Business Brexit Working Group called on the Government to make a compromise with Brussels amid fears a trade dispute could cause a "myriad" of issues. The protocol and the Northern Ireland border in general has been a thorn in the side of Brexit negotiations from the get-go, with outgoing Prime Minister Boris Johnson eventually negotiating to keep Northern Ireland in the EUs single market. This, however, has caused a de facto border in the Irish sea, cutting Northern Ireland off from Great Britain.

As a result, Northern Ireland has faced disruptions to trade, and many unionists feel the country's place in the UK has been undermined.

Businesses are not the only voice to urge the Government to compromise.

In May, US President Joe Biden's allies were working to convince the UK to back down in the trade row with the EU.

Congressman Richard Neal is one of many people in Washington who have criticised the UK Government's stance.

He told the Guardian at the time: They havent breached it yet. Theyre talking about breaching it, so part of my job is to convince them not to breach it."

Mr Neal, a top Democrat in Washington, also told Politico: The broader occurrence here is that the protocol was duly negotiated by the British Prime Minister.

Its an international agreement that should be adhered to.

Its not going to be the words of the UK its going to be their actions.

"I dont think that Ireland, the Good Friday Agreement and the elections in the north [of Ireland] ought to be held hostage by a disagreement the UK has with the European Union.

President Biden has himself voiced concerns over the Northern Ireland protocol on a number of occasions over the last few years.

In May, he called on Prime Minister Boris Johnson to show leadership and make progress in talks with Brussels.

Mr Johnson is on his way out, with Foreign Secretary Liz Truss the favourite to replace him.

READ MORE:Joe Biden warned he 'cannot salvage' midterms

Nile Gardiner, head of the Thatcher Centre at Heritage Foundation, said: Regardless of who is in office in Downing Street, there can only be tensions between London and Washington."

Elisabeth Braw, a UK specialist at the American Enterprise Institute, added: Just as Johnson and Biden were a culture clash...[Truss[ would have worked better with somebody like George W. Bush.

In response, a spokesperson for Ms Truss told Politico: Liz has a good relationship with her American counterparts.

"Theyve worked well together during her time as foreign secretary, in particular responding to Russias illegal invasion of Ukraine. As Prime Minister she would continue to work closely with our American allies.

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Biden's Brexit meddling as US tried to convince UK to back down to EUs demands - Express