Brexit news live: Nicola Sturgeon ‘misled parliament’ over Salmond case

The UK government is set to give the Northern Ireland secretary powers to force Stormont to speed up the rollout of new abortion laws.

The law was liberalised last year to allow terminations following action taken at Westminster but Northern Ireland-wide services are yet to be commissioned by the Department of Health.

Northern Ireland secretary Brandon Lewis now intends to lay new regulations in parliament next week to allow him to direct the region’s health ministry to commission the services, The Guardian reported.

A DUP MP warned the party would “vigorously oppose” any action to see new abortion laws implemented in the region.

More on this from Chiara Giordano here:

Front line NHS doctor Paul Williams has been selected by Labour to fight the upcoming Hartlepool by-election after MP Mike Hill stood down amid ongoing sexual harassment allegations.

But his selection has already proved controversial as Labour members appeared furious that the selection process resulted in a shortlist of just one name, with no women.

There are also concerns about how well Dr Williams, an arch-Remainer and second referendum advocate, is suited to the heavily Brexit-voting Tees Valley town.

“Parachuting someone like that in is about the best thing they could do – for the Tories,” one local councillor in the town told The Independent.

More on this from Colin Drury, our North of England Correspondent:

Trade between Great Britain and the Republic of Ireland plummeted in January after the introduction of new trade barriers after Brexit, according to the latest figures.

Imports to Ireland from Great Britain dropped by 65 per cent on the previous month, at a decrease of more than €900m (£770m).

Data from Ireland’s Central Statistics Office showed the import of food and live animals dropped furthest, down 75 per cent on January 2020.

A Holyrood committee has concluded Nicola Sturgeon misled an investigation into the handling of sexual misconduct claims against her predecessor, according to reports.

MSPs on the Scottish Government Handling of Harassment Complaints Committee voted 5 to 4 that the first minister gave an “inaccurate” account of a meeting with her predecessor during the live investigation, a source told the PA news agency.

The decision is likely to increase pressure on Ms Sturgeon to stand down before May’s election, although it is unclear whether the committee concluded she had intentionally mislead parliament, which would typically be deemed a resignation-worthy offence.

The government has sold off part of its stake in NatWest, formerly RBS, taking in £1.1bn for the Treasury.

Ministers signed off the sale on Thursday for 190.5p a share, as part of a commitment to return the bank to the private sector by 2025.

The government initially bought an 82 per cent stake in RBS, as it was then known, in 2008, for 440p a share, as the bank faced total collapse at the height of the financial crisis.

NatWest is buying back 591 million shares from the government, leaving the taxpayer with a stake of 59.8 per cent compared with 61.7 per cent previously.

According to the latest estimates from the Office for Budget Responsibility, the taxpayer is expected to make a loss of £38.8bn from the £45.8bn spent in the bailout.

The UK’s debt reached a new high as government borrowing hit £19.1bn last month.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the public sector had borrowed more last month than during any other February since records began in 1993.

The debt owed by public bodies has increased by £333bn since the start of April, bringing the total debt to £2.131 trillion, the ONS said.

Maros Sefcovic, the European Commission vice-president, said the UK has been advising firms in Northern Ireland to break international law by ignoring the terms of the Northern Ireland protocol.

“We have seen this kind of guidance to trade operators on how not to fulfil the protocol and all the obligations stemming from the withdrawal agreement,” Mr Sefcovic, who chairs the EU-UK Joint Committe on the Brexit agreement, said.

“They tell them: you do not have to do this, you do not have to do that, you do not have to apply this until at least 1 October and then we will see,” he said, adding that such guidance in the wake of Britain’s unilateral extension of post-Brexit grace periods led traders into a breach of international law.

More on the legal row over Britain’s unilateral declaration here: