[1andrew1]

Originally Posted by OLD BOY

You look at things far too narrowly, Andrew. I get what you’re saying, but what is to stop the EU saying “We’ll agree to discuss a new deal if you agree to take a share of our immigrants”?

My point was that Starmer would cave. Labour is the party of multiculturalism, which they believe will enhance their electoral prospects.

We should be in no doubt about what a Labour government will bring if the nation decides ‘it’s time for a change’.

Whilst the Labour party might aspire to be this, in reality the Conservative Party is the successful party of multicultarism and well done to them for achieving that. We have a Prime Minister with East African-born Hindu parents of Indian Punjabi descent. A Home Secretary whose parents come from Mauritius and Kenya. And a Business Secretary who described herself "to all intents and purposes a first-generation immigrant".

What will be in no doubt that a Labour government brings? The current government is set to receive a million immigrants? Are you worried it might actually reduce this figure?

---------- Post added at 10:37 ---------- Previous post was at 10:06 ----------

More Brexit costs incoming.

New Brexit border checks to cost business £320mn a year

Minister’s letter to Labour MP sets out government forecast as companies warn of food price rises

The confirmation from Cabinet Office minister Baroness Lucy Neville-Rolfe in a letter to a Labour MP follows repeated warnings from the logistics and food industry that the new border checks would drive up food prices.

“It will depend greatly on how businesses adapt their business models and supply chains to integrate the new controls regimes. We estimate these new costs of the model at £330mn p.a [per annum] overall, across all EU imports,” she wrote in the letter, seen by the Financial Times.

From January European businesses exporting animal and plant products to the UK will be required to submit additional paperwork — export health certificates — with physical checks costing up to £43 a time being introduced from April 2024.

https://www.ft.com/content/015e1f25-...d-bf9ec0dc4678

British exporters face hefty EU carbon tax bill after Sunak weakens climate policies

UK carbon market collapse lets Brussels benefit from revenues that would previously have gone to Treasury

Rishi Sunak’s weakening of UK climate targets has left British exporters facing hundreds of millions of pounds in EU carbon border taxes within the next decade — revenues that otherwise would have flowed to the Treasury.

The UK carbon market, which sets the price large manufacturers and energy companies must pay for every tonne of CO₂ released, has collapsed after the Conservative government weakened a number of green initiatives.

UK emissions prices have fallen to less than half the EU equivalent in recent months, having previously traded near parity.

The EU’s forthcoming carbon border tax regime will seek to penalise countries with substantially lower carbon costs than the bloc’s. As a result, the drop in UK emissions prices means that British exporters to the EU will become liable for the EU tax when it comes into force in 2026.

The lower emissions price also means that the UK Treasury will generate less revenue from carbon pricing; in effect the changes will divert a portion of companies’ carbon bills from Westminster to Brussels.

“UK industry will still be paying for emissions on exports to the EU, but instead of taxes going to the Treasury, they will be heading to Brussels, which has earmarked these revenues for further investment into renewable industries,” said Marcus Ferdinand, chief analytics officer at carbon consultancy Veyt.

From Sunday exporters to the EU will have to start recording carbon emissions embedded in their products as the early trial period for the EU’s carbon border adjustment mechanism, known as CBAM, begins.

With more than 40 per cent of UK electricity still generated by burning gas or coal, a similar portion of the CBAM levy will be applied to all UK electricity imports, as the EU cannot easily tell whether imported power came from clean or dirty sources, industry body Energy UK warned.

“It’s a really big problem as UK wind farms that had planned to send a lot of what they generate to the EU on very windy days could find themselves priced out of the market,” said Adam Berman, deputy director at Energy UK.

https://www.ft.com/content/53e91aab-...d-19b9ee915baa