27/02/2018 The Papers

Hello and welcome to our look ahead

to what the the papers will be

bringing us tomorrow.

With me are the former Pensions

Minister Baroness Ros Altmann,

and Laura Hughes,

political correspondent of

the Financial Times.

Many of tomorrow's front pages are

already in. The Metro pictures the

beast, the wintry weather bringing

subzero temperatures to the UK.

The Mirror has the same shot

reminding us that four people have

died due to the extreme conditions.

And the Express says it's about to

get worse with the onset of counter

storm Emma.

Storm clouds over Downing Street,

the paper coming Tory rebels are

threatening a showdown with Theresa

May over the customs union.

The financial time -- the Financial

Times feature the ongoing battle at

Sky.

The Telegraph leads on a leaked

letter written by Boris Johnson in

which it is claimed there could be a

hard Irish border following Brexit.

It also features news that the BBC's

media action charity has sacked six

people for sexual misconduct.

The Times Luksa Northern Ireland,

saying the Prime Minister is to one

Brussels not to use Brexit to break

up the UK over the customs union

rules.

So, the bitter winter weather

proving irresistible for many

editors, fighting Brexit for space

on the front pages. So, let's start

here with the story on the front

page of the Telegraph, which we've

been mentioning here on BBC News a

little bit earlier in the evening.

Extraordinary, Boris raises the

prospect of hard border in Ireland.

This is absolutely incredible. Even

in November, Boris was saying that

the hard border in Ireland is

unthinkable and it would be economic

and political madness. And here we

are, he is perhaps figured out that

you can't make the border with

Ireland and the Good Friday

Agreement work with coming out of

the customs union single markets, so

instead of saying that red line will

be to keep the UK together, he says,

no, the red line is we got to come

out of the customs union and single

market. I think the priorities are

all wrong. We have an international

agreement, the Good Friday

Agreement, that we signed up to in

good faith, it's been accepted in

good faith. In December, we promised

there would be regulated realignment

if nothing else could work for the

border. And here we are a few weeks

later, suddenly saying, well, we

didn't really mean it.

And Laura,

this has come out as part of a

leaked letter?

Yes, which was

submitted ahead of this big crunch

meeting at Chequers. It is

extraordinary given the government's

position, which they have reaffirmed

tonight, is that there will not be a

return to a hard border. The Prime

Minister has been very clear on that

for that we've talked about with the

Good Friday Agreement, but also the

DUP would not countenance it, and

they provide the Prime Minister with

her majority in Parliament. So

that's not going to happen. Boris

Johnson suggesting that trade would

not be affected by a hard border if

there was one. That word if that he

uses is what the Telegraph have

clearly grabbed onto. It's him

saying that it might actually

happen, and his words are quite

interesting. So, what will happen,

who knows, but it's not good timing.

Tomorrow the EU will put out their

draft recommendation for the

withdrawal next stage and what is

good to happen with Ireland. From

the stories coming tonight, it looks

as though they are playing a tough

game too. They are not going to go

with a Prime Minister's preferred

options and they are saying the

Northern Ireland needs to stay in

some sort of customs agreement. It's

a mess.

And as we've already seen,

opposition MPs suggesting this calls

into question Boris Johnson's

position.

Well, I just don't quite

see where he's coming from on this.

Is it a game of bluff? We've got to

talk tough and we got to be tough

with the EU and ultimately we'll see

how far we can push them. I don't

know. All I can think is that either

he doesn't understand how the border

really works and how the Good Friday

Agreement has been operating so that

you have this frictionless, seamless

interaction between North and South,

or there is something else that he

might have in his mind but nobody

else has quite figured it out. There

is no technological solution, and

certainly...

That's what the

Brexiteers say, you can have a

electronic methods of making sure

that goods are entitled to go

across, we have trusted trade

status.

Even if you could have

something like that, and there is

nothing like it anywhere in the

world that would work across that

whole long border, it would take a

long time to set anything like that

up. And you still may be regulatory

alignment to know that whatever is

shipped has come in in the right way

and can then pass on safely.

We have

lots of Brexit stories, as ever.

This issue of whether or not Britain

could stay in the customs union also

featuring on this story on the front

page of of the i.

This has been

supported by a number of Labour MPs.

The Labour Party shifted the

position, finally everyone was

writing it was going to happen and

did. They are saying that they never

officially support a customs union

after Brexit. There are a number of

Tory who feel very strongly and I've

spoken to a number of them this week

to save the country comes first,

it's not about working with Labour,

they are doing their own thing.

There has been talk of, will the

issue turn into a no-confidence

vote? And the rebels in the Tory

side are clear, it's up to the

Government whether or not they want

to make it an issue of no

confidence. We have the big speech

from the Prime Minister on Friday,

she will probably fudge it somehow

with the wedding, there will be some

kind of customs arrangement, or

maybe not even the word customs, as

it seems to be so controversial. She

will have to find some language that

both appeases the rebels, who

ultimately look like they would

defeat the Government, but also

appeasing the Brexiteers.

At all is

that like it is important to bear in

mind that also having a customs

union isn't enough to prevent a hard

border in Northern Ireland.

You also

need at least some elements of the

single market, if not the E a tub of

arrangements. So this only gets you

a certain way. And Labour's position

has shifted but not to the place

where it needs to be if we are going

to honour the Good Friday Agreement.

So there race still further to go.

There is a huge chasm between the

real world and the world that the

Brexiteers and those who are looking

at how on Earth we can manage this

process are living in.

And if we

look at the Times, which is picking

up on this similar theme, again,

looking at that document due to come

out from the EU side tomorrow, don't

break up Britain. Battles with her

Cabinet, her backbenchers, and it

looks like she is going to have to

have a battle with the EU too.

And

across the EU is on the side of

Ireland, which they made in

December. The DUP on this Irish

border issue, it's stalled talks, it

was a crazy 24 hours for political

journalists. I think on the Boris

point, perhaps no one really seems

to have a solution on this question.

If there isn't a solution, maybe

this idea of having a hard border

that is being put at there by the

Foreign Secretary, if this is not

going to work, that man's -- the

demands the EU will make tomorrow,

the Prime Minister will say no. If

she's going to say no, it's not good

to happen, the EU are not going to

be happy. -- it's not going to

happen. Theresa May is a Unionist,

there is no way in which she will

see Northern Ireland leaving the EU

on different terms as the rest of

the UK.

Which is why I feel it's

hypocritical for her to talk about

the EU breaking up the UK. It is our

so-called red lines that are

imposing the requirement for this

hard border. If we didn't rule out

staying in the single market customs

union or EEA, we wouldn't even need

to be talking about breaking up the

UK. I know a lot of my colleagues on

the Tory benches will be very angry

with me, but I don't sign up to this

idea that somehow it's fine if you

leave our major free trading

partners and our closest neighbours,

but actually, I have to say what I

think and I think a lot of the Tory

rebels have just genuinely been

saying what they believe is

essential for the interests of this

country. We are a United Kingdom and

Northern Ireland is an essential

part of the United Kingdom. We

should not be jeopardising it.

Let's

just take a quick look at the

Financial Times. Narrated by Michel

Barnier. -- berated. What do you

make of this?

Yes, I mean, it's a

really big point, David Davies is

the head of the UK negotiating team

and the head of the EU negotiating

team has not seen him in a really

crucial time. He is busy touring the

Nordic countries. He would argue he

is going out and reaching out to

leaders in Europe.

Which he is.

Which he is, I'm sure that would be

his response. Also in the story are

some comments this mine from Martin

Donnelly, who used to work as the

permanent secretary in Liam Fox's

Department, which livened up the

debate. It brought it back to less

complicated language. He said going

into Brexit was like giving up a

three course meal for a packet of

crisps.

It's a wonderful quote, very

strong line.

It sums it up.

Lots of

other stories to get through. Back

on the Telegraph, the story here

about GPs paid to cut hospital

referrals.

I think a lot of people

are quite worried that if GPs are

incentivised not to send you to

hospital and even if you might

actually need to go, they might

decide not to send you. I suspect

that actually, GPs are a lot more

ethical if they genuinely believe

than you do need to put a hospital,

they will send you there. But there

is a social attitudes survey allied

to this story which suggests that

confidence and satisfaction with

doctors is at a pretty much all time

low, the lowest in 35 years. So

something is happening and people

are less and less satisfied with the

Health Service. And we need to be

concerned, I think, but overall, we

see too many negative headlines, and

you don't want that because

actually, the NHS is a wonderful

service.

Although very briefly, it

is obviously a sign of how much, how

great the pressures are on the NHS.

Again which is not good news for

Theresa May because this is a

massive issue that the public are

concerned about and again, this

story as to this public perception

that the NHS is in crisis and it

can't cope with demand. I think you

are right to say that GPs probably

would send you to hospital if it was

that serious. There is an issue

about people going to the doctor

when maybe they don't need to, going

to the NHS when they don't need to.

So there is a balance to be struck

there.

We should move on, because of

course, many of the papers,

including the Metro, have got

photographs of the weather. The

beast! It has been known as the

beast from the east. An

extraordinary photo. Just brilliant.

I think one of the police

helicopters has captured this storm

sweeping in and dumping snow all

over London. Basically it's all over

the country and I think there is

more to come. This is most unusual,

it's almost March and we got this

major cold snap, it's perishing the

cold, not the normal kind of

temperatures that you would expect.

And some saying that, some say us

Brits are we talking about the

weather but this has caused a huge

amount of disruption and some people

have lost their lives.

And road

accidents, that's inevitable I

suppose, and there are statistics on

elderly people who have

unfortunately passed away because of

the call, it will again bring up the

issue to the Prime Minister of

homelessness, that might come up

again in PMQs by Jeremy Corbyn if he

was covered because the two things

do link of course, the rise in

homelessness and this weather,

pretty bad news for them. Whenever

this happens, we all go, why aren't

we prepared? In other countries they

have is whether all the time, but in

England and London, we go, we can't

go to work today!

We've completely

run out of time, lots more coming up

on the weather, but that's it

tonight.

Don't forget, you can see the front

pages of the papers online

on the BBC News website.

It's all there for you, seven days

a week at bbc.co.uk/papers,

and if you missed the programme any

evening, you can watch it

later on BBC iPlayer.

Well, I thank you to Baroness Ros

Altmann and Laura Hughes. For now,

the by. -- goodbye.