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Liz Truss accepts US-UK trade deal off the table, as Biden tells PM his problems with protocol move

Liz Truss and Joe Biden in New York. PA Wire/PA Images

No time for shopping at Bloomingdale’s or a stroll in Central Park during Liz Truss’s trip to New York City. The prime minister spent her time in the Big Apple scrambling to keep the special relationship alive. US president Joe Biden shared his displeasure over Truss’s plan to override the Northern Ireland Protocol, the White House made clear. Truss was forced to admit a post-Brexit US-UK trade deal was out of the question in the “short and medium term”. The PM did parlez on the protocol with EU chief Ursula von der Leyen in NYC, but there was no sign of new negotiations. Tory, Labour and cross-party peers have been plotting on how best to thwart the protocol bill in the Lords. One option is to delay it for nine months to give more time for talks – if they ever emerge. Meanwhile, new Northern Ireland secretary Chris Heaton-Harris said he would have to call another Stormont election if no executive is in place by 28 October. The Tory minister warned that a pre-Christmas election is no “idle threat”. Yikes.

The Brexit Headlines 

Biden confronts Truss over her protocol move

Joe Biden was keen to confront Liz Truss over her plans to override the protocol “in detail” at their New York meeting, the White House said. Truss told reporters she accepted that a UK-US trade deal would be years away.

Post-Brexit plan to axe bankers’ bonus cap sparks anger

Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng sparked outrage with his plan to ditch the cap on bankers’ bonuses imposed by the EU after the financial crash. Unions said workers struggling with real-term pay cuts would be “appalled”.

Stalled Brexit talks ‘driving higher UK energy bills’

Stalled Brexit talks are said to be pushing up energy bills by hundreds of millions of pounds a year. The UK’s exit from the EU single market left it using a more inefficient system for buying electricity, power industry officials claimed.

Opinion of the week

NI secretary Chris Heaton-Harris on new Stormont election:

“Is it an idle threat? I don’t think so. It is no threat at all, it is a fact that the legislation says that is what I have to do.”

Stat of the week

28 October

New deadline for restoration of powersharing at Stormont

What you might have missed

• Nicola Sturgeon should use “simplistic” Brexit tactics to win people over to independence, said a top expert on referendums.

• Jacob Rees-Mogg was accused of leading a “biased” consultation into bringing back imperial measurements due to the lack of a “no” option.

• Zac Goldsmith’s axing at Defra could mean animal welfare concerns being downgraded in post-Brexit trade deals, campaigners fear.

• The UK “shot itself in the foot” with Brexit, said a top fund manager who warned the UK could not take advantage of cheaper exports.

• Britons in Spain will protest outside the British embassy in Madrid over the failure to reach a deal over the ban on UK driving licences.

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