Day: September 12, 2019

    The boss of the Co-op has warned that a no-deal Brexit could lead to fresh food shortages and higher prices in supermarkets. Steve Murrells said the product area he is most worried about is fruit, where he expected prices to surge as retailers may be forced to fly in supplies if the chaos predicted in leaked government documents became a reality. We think there will be shortages in some fresh food areas. Where that is the case we would endeavour to bring it in to give our customers a choice. Murrells said the convenience chain was using extra warehouse space to stockpile long-life products such as water, toilet paper and canned goods but the pinch point was fresh food, particularly soft fruits such as blueberries, and also apples and pears, which are imported durin...

    Michel Barnier has told MEPs there remain insufficient grounds for reopening formal negotiations over the Brexit withdrawal agreement, six months after Theresa May and the European commission closed them. In a private briefing with the European parliament’s leaders, the EU’s chief negotiator said Boris Johnson’s officials had yet to offer any “legally credible and workable” proposals to replace the Northern Irish backstop on which the two negotiating teams could build. In an earlier briefing with diplomats representing the EU27, a senior member of Barnier’s Brexit team had described the ideas so far put forward during technical talks between officials on both sides as “aspirational”. “Another longish meeting without tangible progress on Wednesday,” said an EU diplo...