After returning yesterday from his getaway in Spain, Boris Johnson is today hosting a cabinet “away day” in the southwest as concern mounts over spiralling energy prices and the supply chain crisis.
The prime minister will be joined by his senior ministers after a “relaxed” few days “painting in the sunshine” during his stay at “a £25,000-a-week villa”, said the Daily Mail. But his “back-to-work” schedule will be dominated by “turmoil as he struggles to get a grip on the shortage of lorry drivers, delays at ports and surging energy prices”.
The get-together will also take place as Brexit Minister David Frost attends a summit with his European Commission counterpart Maros Sefcovic, giving Johnson another potential headache to resolve as he gets settled back into life in No. 10.
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Boris back
Johnson was last night “spotted” at the launch of his father’s new book in the first sign that he was “back from Marbs”, Politico’s Alex Wickham said.
And as he heads off for the cabinet “away day”, Johnson will be keen to head off criticism from Keir Starmer, who told the Daily Mirror that his holiday showed the PM “abdicating responsibility” amid the series of ongoing crises.
“We’ve just got a picture of the PM painting in Marbella – utter complacency,” Starmer told the paper. “It’s the same old, same old, which is a failure to plan and abdicating responsibility for the inevitable consequences of failing to plan and blaming somebody else while sitting on a sun lounger.”
Christmas carnage
Top of the agenda for the cabinet meeting will be “fears that the festive season could be blighted by logjams as the global economy recovers from Covid”, the Daily Mail said, adding that “panic buying of toys and other products already seems to have begun”.
Leaked internal documents seen by The Independent reveal that Amazon is planning to “push shoppers to buy Christmas gifts four weeks early” amid “supply chain disruption” that is expected “to linger until at least spring next year”.
A source within the retail giant’s UK arm told the paper that “there’s an effort to shift the big push of orders that comes through ahead of mid-December earlier”, adding: “It’s hard to overestimate the level of supply disruption we’re facing, even with our resources.
“It’s going to be a long, quite painful road to a new normal and air freight can’t take all the strain off of other routes.”
Chancellor Rishi Sunak yesterday told the BBC that he was “confident there’ll be a good amount of Christmas presents available for everyone to buy”. He said that “supply chain issues are being felt globally”, not just in the UK, the Evening Standard reported.
During the prime minister’s holiday, the government also “faced pressure to ease immigration rules as an emergency measure to attract HGV drivers from overseas”, The Telegraph said, “amid warnings that 100,000 more were needed”.
After last year’s Christmas disruption, Johnson will be keen to ensure that “the supply chain shambles” does not “wreck Christmas” again, the Daily Mail said.
Deja EU
Brexit Minister Frost is today meeting the EU’s Brexit pointman Maros Sefcovic as the duo spearhead efforts to resolve the post-Brexit border dispute.
In an interview with Politico ahead of the summit, Frost warned that “there needs to be significant change if we are to get an agreed solution” on the Northern Ireland protocol. He added that the government “recognizes that the EU has made an effort here”, but that the UK’s position is “where we need to end up”.
The government is currently considering an offer from the European Commission to remove 80% of spot checks on foods coming into Northern Ireland from Britain, with Frost telling the site that “the detail is important, but we are studying them constructively”.
Asked about a report in The Times that the “EU is open to a compromise deal that would limit the role of European judges in Northern Ireland”, Frost added: “All I can say is the governance issue needs to be addressed seriously.
“If the EU are willing to have a conversation about that on which they move off existing positions obviously we will be happy to have that conversation.”
Johnson, who ran in 2019 on a pledge to “get Brexit done”, has faced criticism for jetting off on holiday during ongoing negotiations.
Frost sought to play this down, telling Politico: “The PM has taken a very close interest in this right from the very start.”
But as criticism persists, Johnson will be keen to put the issue to bed.
Countdown to Cop
With just 16 days to go until the global Cop 26 climate summit takes place in Glasgow, “Johnson is in a race against time to strike an ambitious deal with world leaders for a serious plan to tackle climate change”, said Politico’s Wickham.
As well as planning the response to a “domestic energy crisis this winter”, the cabinet discussions today will also include “the government’s green agenda”, he added, with the “long-awaited plan for gas boilers” likely to come up.
The Times has this morning added to rumours that Xi Jinping plans to “snub” the Glasgow conference, a decision that Reuters said would serve as a “hammer blow” as China represents “almost 30% of global carbon emissions”.
Johnson’s “best hope” may be that previously Cop summits have also “been preceded by frenzied but not always accurate speculation over top-level attendance”, the agency added. But the ministers “organising this one will be praying it’s the same case here”.
