PMQs LIVE: Boris faces furious grilling from OWN MPs – Covid rules could be forever

Boris Johnson discusses new trade deal with Australia

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Mr Johnson told the nation on Monday the last set of lockdown restrictions, dubbed “Freedom Day”, will be delayed from June 21 to mid-July due to the Delta variant causing cases to rise again. MPs are due to vote on the new exit day, but are expected to first demand more information from the Prime Minister. Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer is likely to also bombard Mr Johnson with his own queries, although he is expected to support the four-week extension to the end of lockdown restrictions.

However, Sir Keir still ripped into Mr Johnson earlier in the week as he accused him of being too slow to enforced travel restrictions on India, where the Delta strain started.

He told LBC Radio on Monday: “Here we are, 21 June was supposed to be ‘Freedom Day’, and why are we not going to hit it? And it looks like we’re not. Answer – because of the Government’s pathetic borders policy, absolutely pathetic.

“They didn’t introduce hotel quarantine until I think February of this year, and then only one per cent [of travellers].

“Then we went through this ridiculous ‘red, amber, green’ – nobody knows where they are on that.”

Mr Johnson may also be asked about the UK’s new trade deal with Australia, which he agreed on with Prime Minister Scott Morrison yesterday.

But British farmers and animal welfare campaigners have expressed concern the deal will lead to cheaper imports undercutting British meat.

NFU president Minette Batters said: “We will need to know more about any provisions on animal welfare and the environment to ensure our high standards of production are not undermined by the terms of this deal.”

Trade Secretary Liz Truss has already shot down concerns over meat standards, as he told the BBC: “Australia has some very high animal welfare standards and, in fact, in some cases they are higher standards than many EU countries, where we already have a quota-free, tariff-free deal.”

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