Drug companies advising the U.K. government on how to maintain medicine supplies after a no-deal Brexit have signed strict non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) barring them from revealing information on planned border arrangements and supply routes. Politico
The government is being so secretive that information is only being provided to firms orally, or via hard copies of documents that must be returned at the end of meetings, according to a draft NDA document published by Department of Health and Social Care.
Brexit is fraying Britain’s relationship with Ireland, the country’s prime minister Leo Varadkar has warned.Sky News
The Taoiseach said the UK’s withdrawal from the bloc had undermined the historic Good Friday Agreement that ended three decades of violence in Northern Ireland, as he called for a guarantee that there will be no return of a hard border with the Republic.
The European Union plans to have a 29-strong team of diplomats in London to represent it after Brexit. It will be called a “delegation” – not an embassy – and will be part of the EU’s foreign policy arm, the European External Action Service (EEAS). BBC
There will also be a mission with five staff in Belfast to oversee the implementation of the withdrawal agreement in Northern Ireland – if there is a Brexit deal. The plans will be discussed next week. They will be presented for approval by ambassadors from the 27 remaining EU countries on Wednesday.
A majority of voters in all seats held by Labour support a second referendum on Brexit, according to an analysis released by the People’s Vote campaign as it steps up its lobbying of opposition MPs. The Guardian
The campaign commissioned a YouGov study based on polling of 26,000 people in the hope of persuading Labour MPs to vote for a second referendum if May’s Brexit deal is rejected and the party cannot force a general election.
The effort is aimed in particular at Labour MPs in constituencies that supported leave, many of whom still say that the primary message they hear from constituents is they want the UK to get out of the European Union as fast as possible.
Theresa May is facing a new storm of protest over the government’s post-Brexit immigration policies after ministers said that EU victims of human trafficking and modern slavery would have to pay a fee to remain in the UK after it leaves the European Union. The Guardian
The admission, which angered groups campaigning to curb trafficking, drew claims that the Home Office was continuing to foster a “hostile environment” for migrants, however desperate their situation and deserving of help they might be.
The row erupted after immigration minister Caroline Nokes was asked by shadow Brexit minister Paul Blomfield whether fees that will apply under the EU Settlement Scheme would be waived for victims of trafficking and human slavery and their dependents after December 2022.
