Brexit news live: Latest updates as exports to EU plunge by record

A Green Party peer has suggested a 6pm curfew for men following the disappearance and suspected murder of Sarah Everard.

Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb argued the move would “make women a lot safer” and reduce “discrimination of all kinds”.

Emily Goddard has more details:

Arlene Foster has urged Boris Johnson to “stand up for Northern Ireland” and ditch the “intolerable” Northern Ireland Protocol governing Irish Sea trade post-Brexit.

Stormont’s first minister and DUP leader welcomed Mr Johnson’s announcement setting out plans to mark the centenary of Northern Ireland’s formation, but added: “The prime minister must also stand up for Northern Ireland and replace the Protocol, which is damaging to the economic and constitutional position of Northern Ireland.”

“Not a single unionist party in Northern Ireland supports this unworkable Protocol. Rather than protect the Belfast Agreement and its successor agreements, the Protocol has created societal division and economic harm,” she said.

“Whilst grace periods have been extended unilaterally, we need a permanent solution so business can plan and the integrity of the United Kingdom internal market can be restored.”

“We need the prime minister to act to deliver unfettered trade from GB to NI and to restore the balance of relationships between East-West as well as North-South.”

One of the few dairies allowed to make Stilton has said it lost 20 per cent of its online turnover ‘overnight’ due to Brexit.

Hartington Creamery at Pikehall, Derbyshire, said the paperwork needed to send orders to the European Union was too expensive to make business with the EU viable.

Ella Glover has more details:

The husband of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe says her case has been a “failure of diplomacy and campaigning” ahead of her return to court in Iran on Sunday.

Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe, 42, last week completed a five-year sentence in Tehran on spying charges levied by Iranian authorities, the last year of which was spent under house arrest due to the pandemic.

But she must return to court to face more charges in the case some observers have linked to a long-standing debt Iran alleges it is owed by the UK.

Speaking to Times Radio on Friday, Mr Ratcliffe said: “She served her full sentence, she’s still being held. That’s a failure of diplomacy. It’s also a failure of campaigning.

“I don’t think it ever occurred to me at the beginning that it would last this long, because it shouldn’t have done.”

Boris Johnson is facing a huge backlash from Conservative MPs in the north of England after the government decided to “call in” a controversial plan for a new deep coal mine in Cumbria.

Workington MP Mark Jenkinson said the move represented a “capitulation to the climate alarmists”.

Adam Forrest has more on this story:

Priti Patel has said the “vast majority” of police officers “represent the very best of public service” in the wake of the arrest of a constable over Sarah Everard’s disappearance.

Joanna Taylor has more on the home secretary’s comments:

PwC’s chief economist has said figures released by the Office for National Statistics today suggest the UK is “managing from an economic perspective” about seven times better than during the first lockdown in April last year.

Jonathan Gillham said: “Looking back to April last year, when the country had gone into lockdown, the economy shrunk by 20.4 per cent. This was the largest decline in GDP that the country had ever seen.

“However, now the economy is becoming much more adaptable to lockdown and the figures published for January suggest that we are managing from an economic perspective around seven times better than last April.

“The 2.9 per cent reduction in GDP is slightly worse than our own prediction of 2.6 per cent and it should not be forgotten that this contraction is still substantial and is a reflection of the difficulties that many businesses and households are facing.

“Our services-focused economy is still taking the brunt of the lockdown impacts, shrinking by 3.5 per cent, and manufacturing also fared badly – down 2.3 per cent, the first decline since April. Despite their adaptability and resilience many businesses are still struggling – 19 per cent of the workforce is estimated to still be on furlough and many businesses are close to using up their cash reserves.

“Data released today suggests that businesses are still struggling to import and export. With only roughly 40 per cent of businesses saying they have no problems, and many saying they are struggling with transportation costs, paperwork and tariffs.”

Speaking ahead of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s return to court in Iran on Sunday, her husband said keeping her “visible” had “kept her a bit safer”.

Richard Ratcliffe said his wife “remains in harm’s way until she gets on the plane” and that her case had been a failure of both diplomacy and campaigning.

“I think we’ve kept her a bit safer. It sounds a bit rich given all she’s been through already but some of the stories from her cellmates… are even more harrowing,” he said.

“I don’t think it ever occurred to me that it would last this long, because it shouldn’t have done.”

His comments came after a new report warned the British-Iranian national is “a victim of torture” and in urgent need of medical support. Mayank Aggarwal has more details:

Boris Johnson has been accused of “a callous disregard for others” by the father of a child killed in the 1996 Dunblane massacre, over an article he had written as a journalist calling a move to ban firearms “something-must-be-done-ism” and implying the action was “authoritarian”.

Vincent Wood has more details:

The government is exploring whether anti-harassment education should be given to men in the wake of the Sarah Everard case, ministers have said.

Education minister Michelle Donelan said the school system should not just be about academia but also “developing people’s character and their interactions with others”.

Our policy correspondent Jon Stone has more details:

A crucial system for the UK’s border security is running at least three years late despite “staggering” cost to taxpayers and may not be able to cope with expected passenger numbers, a scathing report has warned.

Despite being initially slated to go live in 2019, the Digital Services at the Border (DSAB) programme is being used by only 300 of the intended 7,000 border staff, with full rollout now not expected until March 2022.

Our political editor Andrew Woodcock has more details:

Schools, colleges and universities can now apply for funding to allow students to study and work abroad as part of the post-Brexit replacement of the Erasmus exchange programme.

The £110 million Turing scheme, which will fund global exchanges for about 35,000 UK students from September, will target disadvantaged students and those from under-represented areas.

University students from disadvantaged backgrounds are set to receive a maximum of £490 per month towards living costs, alongside money towards travel costs.

Our deputy political editor Rob Merrick has more details about the scheme:

UK goods exports to the EU plunged by a record 40.7 per cent in January after the end of the Brexit transition period, according to official figures.

In the same month, UK gross domestic product (GDP) is estimated to have fallen by 2.9 per cent, as government coronavirus restrictions reduced economic activity.

Our business correspondent Ben Chapman explains: