Watchdog says says repeated delays have caused unnecessary costs and strategy lacks a ‘clear timetable’ The government expects to have spent at least £4.7bn on introducing post-Brexit border controls, which have been repeatedly hit by delays, the public spending watchdog has warned. Plans to bring in border checks on goods coming from the EU faced “significant issues” including critical shortages of inspectors before their introduction last month, the National Audit Office said in a report ..read more

Telling patients I can’t get their life-saving medication is awful. The government must act to prevent a real tragedy Mike Hewitson owns a pharmacy in west Dorset For the past 16 years, I have run a small community pharmacy in rural west Dorset. My business is older than me – the little yellow-brick building I own is about to turn 235. Right now, I am really concerned about it getting through the next 12 months. In my years as a pharmacist, I have never seen things as bad as they are at the moment. We are going through a period of rampant drug shortages in England, caused by global shortages ..read more

Scientists point to loopholes in new legislation that have been closed under European Union regulations New rules intended to reduce the use of antibiotics in farming in the UK have been criticised as too lax and weaker than their equivalent under EU laws. The updated regulations come into force on Friday. They ban the routine use of antibiotics on farm animals, and specifically their use to “compensate for poor hygiene, inadequate animal husbandry, or poor farm management practices ..read more

European Commission vice president, Maroš Šefčovič, cites progress on trade and economy for territory but not border checks Talks on a post-Brexit deal to govern the border between Gibraltar and Spain have broken up without an agreement, although both sides insisted a deal was “getting closer”. David Cameron, the UK foreign secretary, met the European Commission vice president, Maroš Šefčovič, in Brussels to discuss the British overseas territory on the Iberian peninsula, which has been in limbo since Britain left the EU ..read more

Cold and wet weather also thought to have led to more lambs dying in early season, as Morrison drops 100% British lamb pledge The price of British lamb has hit an all-time high as cold weather and disease in the UK and difficulties with imports have combined with a surge in demand. Wholesale prices have soared by more than 40% year-on-year to more than £8.50 a kg , while the amount of lamb expected to be produced in the UK this year is forecast to shrink by 1.4%, according to the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB ..read more

A Belfast court ruling exposes quite how far the prime minister has wandered from the pragmatic governing ethos he once espoused The Windsor framework was Rishi Sunak’s first significant achievement as prime minister and will probably turn out to be the last. A deal to settle problems with the way that Boris Johnson’s Brexit withdrawal agreement applied to Northern Ireland was achieved by rejecting the former prime minister’s maverick, confrontational approach and embracing instead an ethos of diplomatic pragmatism. But no sooner had Mr Sunak demonstrated the merit in honouring international t ..read more

Lorries carrying meat, cheese and cut flowers held up by new checks, with retailers rejecting some orders Lorries carrying perishable food and plants from the EU are being held for up to 20 hours at the UK’s busiest Brexit border post as failures with the government’s IT systems delay imports entering Britain. Businesses have described the government’s new border control checks as a “disaster” after IT outages led to lorries carrying meat, cheese and cut flowers being held for long periods, reducing the shelf life of their goods and prompting retailers to reject some orders ..read more

UK government considers appeal after judge says act undermines post-Brexit human rights protections guaranteed in the region The cornerstone of Rishi Sunak’s Rwanda deportation policy should not apply in Northern Ireland because it undermines human rights protections guaranteed in the region under post-Brexit arrangements, a high court judge has ruled. Parts of the UK’s Illegal Migration Act were also incompatible with the European convention on human rights (ECHR), Mr Justice Humphreys said ..read more

Withdrawal agreement means Graham Beresford is eligible for free treatment but Italian authorities have said he must pay A British man settled in Italy who has a rare cancer has been unable to receive the free healthcare he is entitled to because local officials do not understand the Brexit withdrawal agreement, he has said. Graham Beresford, 61, has spoken out days before the foreign secretary, David Cameron, who triggered the Brexit referendum, has his first major meeting with the European commission vice-president Maroš Šefčovič in Brussels about post-Brexit relations ..read more

Trade data is a long neglected subject, but it’s never been more important For most of my career in economic policy, no one asked much about trade data – about developments with imports and exports. The subject just wasn’t that controversial. That’s all changed since 2016. Brexit has made trade data great again – at least in the sense of reinserting it into the centre of politics. But so far that attention is creating political heat, not the greater understanding we need of where the UK’s economy is, and is not, performing ..read more