Daily Briefing – Thursday 21st May

Good morning and welcome to your daily news briefing for Thursday 21st May - here are the stories that the Britain Unbound team think the country will be or should be talking about today:

• Ongoing Labour Leadership Challenge
• New Trade Deal with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)
• EU Reset Summit 1st Anniversary
• The Banning of Tumble Dryers

New Trade Deal with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)

As had been expected in the run up to yesterday, the UK and the Gulf Cooperation Council have concluded their negotiations for a brand new and comprehensive free trade agreement (FTA) - a deal with six countries that the EU does not currently have a trade deal with, and so is wholly a benefit of Brexit that this has been secured.

• Read the official statement from the GCC on the conclusion of negotiations
• Read the official statement from the UK on the conclusion of negotiations

EU Reset Summit, 1st Anniversary

It is a year ago this week, that the high level terms of the EU Reset were announced at the summit in London. It has not escaped the notice of the Britain Unbound team, that outside of the UK giving away an additional 12 years of fisheries access at a value of roughly £12 Billion, nothing else of any consequence has been delivered in this agenda for the past year. Given the propensity for the current government to give things away during negotiations though, this may well be a blessing.

• Read our in-depth explainer on the contents and implications of the EU Reset

Banning Tumble Dryers

An early-day motion has been raised, seeking to annul a particularly stealthy attempt at EU alignment, on the topic of banning vented and condenser type tumble dryers from sale in Great Britain. This ban is already in place in Northern Ireland due to the Windsor Framework requiring NI alignment with EU rules, but the UK government is now trying through a statutory instrument to put in the same EU-aligned policy by the backdoor into the rest of the UK.

The effect of this EU alignment is to require that the only legally allowed type of tumble dryer to be sold in the UK is the significantly more expensive and worse performing heat pump variety, on the altar of being better for the environment by being a wholly worse product.

• Read the early day motion to annul the statutory instrument
• Read the article on the attempt to ban tumble dryers, from Northern Ireland MP Jim Allister