And major Brexit development with Jaguar Land Rover boss saying “we have other options” if UK imposes a WTO model trading on his supply chain costing £1bn+ a year, saying he doesn’t want to be forced to close plants...
Speth tells @Petercampbell1: “we built this company up in 8 years. All that will be undone. It can go down the river so quickly”...
Blimey these are extraordinary quotes from Jaguar Land Rover boss - “we’re in a cycle plan, I have to make a decision...I just can’t wait wait wait wait” he tells @Petercampbell1 about stalled investment on new production while awaiting if he’ll still get frictionless EU trade
JLR boss says Brexit was causing problems with recruiting top talent particularly for electric car development - since Brexit - at interviews first question candidates “always asked” was about Brexit and whether they would be allowed to work he told @ft ...
Big questions for Govt
All this obvious last autumn when I spoke to JLR for #brexitforensics including talent problems, the “hedge” of Slovakia plant, delayed investment - just that now they’ve decided to be explicit about coming point of no return on investment decisions news.sky.com/story/brexit-f…
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NEW: First Minister of Scotland @NicolaSturgeon tells me at SNP conference “it would be my position “that Northern Ireland backstop on single market being negotiated right now should also apply to Scotland
The First Minister tells me she is “not going to stand in the way of NI having a solution to its issues” but that a NIO-only backstop raises “profound concerns on my part” for the competitiveness of Scotland and losing investment to Northern Ireland
I suggested to FM that surely that would imply checks on the England-Scotland border...
She said “I don’t want checks ... lets wait and see how this all plays out”
The border checks acknowledged by @simoncoveney to @SophyRidgeSky are east-west GB->N Ireland ones on food/farm produce, not North-South ones. not sure how much further that gets us, when senior DUP sources have said they would not accept any increase in what is checked...
salient fact here: offer indicated by PM amid her demand for “respect” after Salzburg was such extra NI checks/ regulatory alignment with Ireland could only be contemplated if approved for NI by Stormont - as of last week had been rejected by EU/IE, & DUP said wd veto there
nothing on paper yet though, and there is of course, no NI Assembly to reject anything...
There is some potential wriggle room, however, for example, if any further east-West checks required, could be one way ie not west-east, enabling NI produce free access to U.K. AND EU
Ministers are well aware of this case, I’ve been told that its significance may be being underplayed, I had been told that the Government would seek to appeal the Court of Session’s reference to the ECJ, but apparently didn’t, or haven’t at the most appropriate opp this week...
This is the actual reference from Scotland’s highest court directly to the European Court of Justice asking for a clarification on whether EU Law (ie Article 50) allows for unilateral revocation dropbox.com/s/3sq5dvjh8ruc… via one of the petitioners @JolyonMaugham
It could have got rather interesting constitutionally if the UK Gov had asked the Supreme Court to overrule Scotland’s highest court asking the EU Court whether a UK Govt had theoretical option to revoke A50 without negotiation, options it says it does not want.
Johnson calls the PM’s Chequers proposals
“Not pragmatic not a compromise.. this is not democracy, not what we voted for... it is a constitutional outrage” to cheers...
Says to fudge it now and fix it later “is a total fantasy”
“Chequers will only embolden those calling for a second referendum” says Johnson...