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Good Morning. Boris Johnson will dine with Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, in Brussels tonight in what is seen as a watershed moment for trade talks between the UK and the EU. If they conclude that compromise will not be possible, then they might come out with the news that both parties must prepare not to reach an agreement.
But if, as they hope, the dinner is not a failure, the opposite does not seem to be the case; we should not wait for an announcement that a deal has been closed. In an interview this morning Michael Gove, the Cabinet Office minister, suggested that the best he hoped for was “more political momentum.” He told Times Radio:
I hope that the prime minister can establish, during the course of dinner, where movement is required. The conversation between the prime minister and the president tonight, I hope, will generate further political momentum, ensuring that we reach an agreement.
His language is very similar to this statement on the prospects for the Johnson / Von der Leyen dinner that was released to the media last night by a UK government source.
It is clear that some political momentum will be required for the talks to make further progress. If we can move on politically, Lord Frost and his team may resume negotiations in the next few days. But we must be realistic that a deal may not be possible as we will not commit to claiming UK sovereignty.
In Brussels also officials have been emphasizing that tonight’s meeting will not result in an agreement. The spokesman for the European Commission said yesterday that the two leaders would try to find a reason to “hopefully move forward with the negotiations, which hopefully they could continue after that.”
Here is the agenda for the day.
9.30 am: Professor Chris Whitty, the government’s top medical adviser, and Sir Patrick Vallance, its top scientific adviser, provide evidence to the joint science / health committee research on the lessons to be learned from the coronavirus.
12:00 h: Boris Johnson faces Sir Keir Starmer at PMQ.
12:15 pm: Nicola Sturgeon, the Prime Minister of Scotland, is holding a briefing on the coronavirus.
12:15 pm: The Welsh government is expected to hold a briefing on the coronavirus.
12.30 pm: Michael Gove, the Cabinet Office Minister, makes a statement to MPs on the agreement with the EU on how to implement the Brexit withdrawal agreement and its Northern Ireland protocol.
Night: Boris Johnson dines with Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, in Brussels.
Politics Live is now doubling down as the UK’s coronavirus live blog and given the way the Covid crisis overshadows everything, this will continue for the foreseeable future. But here we also cover non-Covid political stories, and for much of today I will focus on Brexit.
Here’s our global coronavirus live blog.
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