Boris Johnson interviewed as No 10 prepares to publish Northern Ireland protocol bill – UK politics live

From my colleague Peter Walker

I’m not sure that was really worth the early start. The main takeaway from the interview is that the government still has a lot more to do to improve mobile phone coverage in Cornwall. At times the prime minister was barely audible. If it had been an interview with anyone else, Nick Ferrari would have given up and told him to call back on a landline.

I’ll post a summary soon.

Q: When will you cut taxes?

Johnson says the effective national insurance cut next month (because the threshold is rising).

He says 8 million of the most vulnerable households are getting £1,200.

He understands the need to bear down on taxation. But they have an inflationary spike they need to get through now.

And that’s it. The interview is over.

Q: Your Northern Ireland protocol plan is holed below the water line because it has so much opposition in your party, isn’t it?

Johnson says the government needs to resolve the problems with the protocol.

Q: But it is against international law.

Johnson says he does not accept that.

Q: The CBI says it could trigger a trade war with the EU.

Johnson says that would be a “gross over-reaction”.

Q: If only one person is on the flight to Rwanda tomorrow, would that justify the flight?

Johnson says it is important the the people traffickers realise their business model is no longer viable.

Q: But you are failing to deport them. There could be fewer than 10 people on the plane.

Johnson said they always knew there would be legal challenges. There are active lawyers in the field. He has respect for the legal profession, he says. But the government needs to break the business model.

These people are offering migrants false hope.

Q: Prince Charles says this is appalling. The archbishop of Canterbury says this is against the judgment of god. How come you know better?

Johnson claims most people can see the case for disrupting the business model.

Q: So you are saying Prince Charles is wrong?

Johnson says we should not continuing activity by criminal gangs. They are putting people on frail boats. And it undermines people coming to the UK legally.

He says the farm he is on has labourers from all over the world, who have come to the UK legally.

Boris Johnson is now being interviewed.

He is describing his visit to a farm in Cornwall. He says it is one of the few places in the world that can produce vegetables all year round.

Q: Henry Dimbleby, your food adviser, says the plan does not achieve its key aims. So it’s a failure, isn’t it.

Johnson does not accept that. He thanks Dimbleby for his work.

He wants to encourage more domestic production, he says.

Boris Johnson will be on LBC at 8.50am, we’re now told.

George Eustice, the environment secretary, has been giving interviews this morning. He described today’s GDP figures as “disappointing”. He told BBC Breakfast:

As the world comes out of the pandemic there’s obviously a lot of global pressures, particularly inflation and obviously the events in Ukraine and that huge spike in gas prices is going to have a huge impact on the world economy.

We’re starting to see that come through and obviously these are disappointing figures.

Here is my colleague Richard Partington’s story about the figures.

Boris Johnson has joined farm workers to pick courgettes on a vegetable farm in Cornwall as his new food strategy is launched, PA Media reports. PA says:

The prime minister is being shown how to look under the leaves, select the ready courgettes, twist and turn the vegetables and place them in crates at the back of a tractor moving slowly across the field.

“Beautiful shiny courgettes,” he exclaimed.

“They’re very prolific, aren’t they?”

The prime minister was told to pick up the speed as he picked courgettes alongside a dozen farm workers.

Wearing a hi-vis vest, Johnson chatted to the workers as he was shown how to pick the vegetables.

After they told him they hailed from Tajikistan, Bulgaria, Lithuania and were speaking Russian, Johnson asked what the Russian word for courgette is.

After he picked several vegetables, the farm worker showing him the ropes said: “Once you get used to it you can go a little faster.”

Johnson drove a tractor slowly over a courgette field and was shown a modern vegetable planting machine on a Cornwall farm.

The prime minister got into the cab and was shown how to operate the vehicle, moving it very slowly forward as courgette pickers followed behind, sorting the vegetables into crates at the back.

The farmer then showed Johnson a machine capable of planting 150,000 plants a day, saying it is much more efficient than traditional planting techniques.

“So you can plant a lot of cabbage,” the prime minister said, describing it as “unbelievable” and “fantastic”.

He said his grandmother used to grow prize pumpkins, adding that some “exploded”.

Perhaps if all ministers put in a stint on a farm before work every morning that might help address the labour shortage in the industry. This is what the Commons environment committee said about the problem in a report earlier this year.

The food and farming sector has been suffering from acute labour shortages due principally to Brexit and the Covid-19 pandemic. In August 2021, the number of vacancies was estimated to be 500,000 out of 4.1 million roles in the sector. We found clear evidence that labour shortages have badly affected the food and farming industry – threatening food security, the welfare of animals and the mental health of those working in the sector. Businesses have been badly hit, with the pig sector being particularly affected.

The food sector is the UK’s largest manufacturing sector but faces permanent shrinkage if a failure to address its acute labour shortages leads to wage rises, price increases, reduced competitiveness and, ultimately, food production being exported abroad and increased imports.

Nick Ferrari tells his LBC audience that they will be hearing from Boris Johnson “later in the show”.

This is from Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, on today’s GDP figures.

These figures will add to the worry families are still feeling about their own finances and the long-term health of our economy. They will also add to growing concern about abysmal growth and plummeting living standards under the Conservatives.

Instead of properly addressing the structural weaknesses and insecurity they’ve created, all the Conservatives use are sticking plasters. Labour will create a stronger, more secure economy by boosting our energy security, supply chain security and business security.

We were told to expect Boris Johnson on LBC at 8.20am. As often happens, he’s late. He was late, too, for his Good Morning Britain interview, but that time he had food poisoning as an excuse.

Good morning. Boris Johnson is being interviewed by Nick Ferrari on LBC shortly. Johnson tends to grant interviews like this only reluctantly, and his last major intervention in the morning broadcast round – his interview with Susanna Reid on ITV’s Good Morning Britain last month – wasn’t a great success. But, a week after the no-confidence vote, Johnson is keen to show that his government has not run out of steam.

There is plenty for Ferrari to ask him about. The Northern Ireland protocol bill is being published today, and Archie Bland has a good preview in his First Edition briefing.

Ferrari may ask about data out this morning showing the size of the economy shrank in April. That means it has been contracting now for two months in a row.

The government is publishing its food strategy, which has been criticised by its lead adviser on food issues. We preview that here.

And, of course, the controversy about the plan to fly asylum seekers to Rwanda for the first time tomorrow continues, with two legal challenges still under way.

Here is the agenda for the day.

8.20am: Boris Johnson is interviewed on LBC.

10am: The court of appeal hears an appeal against the high court decision on Friday to allow the deportation of asylum seekers to Rwanda. In a related move, Asylum Aid launches a fresh attempt to get an injunction to stop the deportations at the high court at 2pm.

11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.

Afternoon: Liz Truss, the foreign secretary, publishes the Northern Ireland protocol bill. Ministers do not normally make Commons statements to accompany the publication of a bill, but Truss is expected to record a clip for broadcasters.

4pm: Michael Gove, the levelling up secretary, gives a statement to the Commons levelling up committee about the levelling up bill.

I try to monitor the comments below the line (BTL) but it is impossible to read them all. If you have a direct question, do include “Andrew” in it somewhere and I’m more likely to find it. I do try to answer questions, and if they are of general interest, I will post the question and reply above the line (ATL), although I can’t promise to do this for everyone.

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Alternatively, you can email me at andrew.sparrow@theguardian.com