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Boris Johnson continues to believe there is “no basis” to resume trade negotiations with the EU, despite the bloc’s offer to “intensify” talks and discuss legal texts.
With negotiations on a post-Brexit trade deal teetering on the brink of collapse, the EU’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier held a call with his UK counterpart, Lord Frost, on Monday.

Mr Barnier had been told not to bother travelling to London for face-to-face talks as he had previously intended.
This came after the prime minister claimed the EU had “abandoned the idea of a free trade deal” following a bust-up after last week’s EU summit.

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PM’s no deal Brexit warning

During his call with Lord Frost, Mr Barnier appeared to reach across the divide between the two sides, amid anger from UK negotiators over the bloc’s stance towards the negotiations.

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“I confirmed that the EU remains available to intensify talks in London this week, on all subjects, and based on legal texts,” Mr Barnier posted on Twitter after the pair’s conversation.

“We now wait for the UK’s reaction.”

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Downing Street welcomed the “constructive discussion” but called for a further shift in position from Brussels before agreeing to resume formal negotiations.
“The UK has noted the EU’s proposal to genuinely intensify talks, which is what would be expected at this stage in a negotiation,” a Number 10 spokesman said.
“However, the UK continues to believe there is no basis to resume talks unless there is a fundamental change of approach from the EU.
“This means an EU approach consistent with trying to find an agreement between sovereign equals and with acceptance that movement needs to come from the EU side as well as the UK.
“The two teams agreed to remain in close touch.”

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Lord Frost also tweeted: “Constructive discussion with @MichelBarnier today.
“Noted his proposal to intensify work, as we have been asking. But the EU still needs to make a fundamental change in approach to the talks and make clear it has done so.
“We will stay in close touch.”
Mr Barnier’s offer to “intensify” talks came at the same time as senior cabinet minister Michael Gove, who is in charge of no-deal planning, told the House of Commons that further negotiations would be “meaningless” unless the EU changes its position.
He accused the bloc’s leaders of having “in effect ended the trade negotiations” with their conclusions from the European Council summit in Brussels last week.
“The conclusions of that Council reaffirmed the EU’s original negotiating mandate, they dropped a reference to intensive talks that has been in the draft and they declared that all, all future moves in this negotiation had to be made by the UK,” Mr Gove told MPs.
He added that Brussels was “not forthcoming” in attempts to intensify talks, continuing: “The EU was only willing to conduct negotiations on fewer than half the days available and would not engage on all of the outstanding issues.
“Moreover, the EU refused to discuss legal texts in any area as it has done since the summer.
“Indeed it’s almost incredible to our negotiators we have reached this point in the negotiations without any common legal texts of any kind.”

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What? Ex-PM baffled by Michael Gove answer

The government has launched a new campaign to urge businesses to step up their preparations for the end of the Brexit transition period on 31 December and a possible no-deal outcome.
Mr Gove told MPs that “come what may, on 31 December, we will take back control”, although he acknowledged the failure to agree a trade deal could cause some difficulties.
“We recognise that there will be some turbulence, but we’ve not come so far to falter now when we are so close to reclaiming our sovereignty,” he added.
Having been informed of Mr Barnier’s tweet as he spoke to MPs, Mr Gove claimed the UK’s “firmness” was now “bearing fruit”.
“I now believe it is the case that Michel Barnier has agreed to the intensification of talks and also to working on legal texts,” he added.
“I think a reflection of the strength and resolution our prime minister showed, in stark contrast to the approach on which the Opposition have often enjoined us of simply accepting what the EU wants at every stage.”

Image: Michael Gove claimed the UK’s ‘firmness’ was now ‘bearing fruit’. Pic: UK Parliament/Jessica Taylor
Mr Gove said the UK would “need to make sure that we work on the basis of the proposed intensification” from the EU.
“I prefer to look forward in optimism rather than necessarily to look back in anger,” he told MPs.
Labour’s shadow Cabinet Office minister, Rachel Reeves, called on the government to be “honest” about the problems of exiting the transition period without a trade deal.
“They can call it no deal, they can call it an Australia deal, they can call it a Narnia deal as far as I’m concerned, but let’s be honest about what that means – and let’s be honest about how damaging it is for the country,” she said.
Analysis – Has the UK’s tough talk shifted the dial?
By Kate McCann, political correspondent
Just as Michael Gove got to his feet in the House of Commons to bemoan the EU’s refusal to intensify trade talks, Michel Barnier tweeted to say his side is prepared to do exactly that.
“The EU remains available to intensify talks in London this week, on all subjects, and based on legal texts. We now wait for the UK’s reaction,” he posted.
This is quite a shift and timed for maximum impact.
The UK has taken a tough position, refusing to hold face-to-face talks this week without a promise that the EU is willing to work through the night to resolve outstanding issues on fishing and state aid.
Such a statement from Mr Barnier could well spell the resumption of talks.
Both sides want a deal but something had to shift the deadlock, could it be that Boris Johnson’s decision to talk tough has forced some movement, however small?
The next few days will be crucial to see whether both sides are posturing or whether an agreement can be reached.
During the statement, Theresa May warned again that without a deal there will be major damage to the UK’s security regime.
Mr Gove said the UK would not accept major compromises in order to agree on security, prompting the former prime minister to screw up her face and mouth “what” from the backbench.
Scepticism remains about the government’s tactics.
There are many who believe the UK is playing a dangerous game in these final weeks in a bid to win concessions from the EU, talking tough despite wanting a deal.
But if those tactics shift the dial enough to secure a fresh round of more intensive talks it may well be worth the risk.

The boundaries between online and offline retailing are becoming increasingly blurred.
The best-known example of this in the west is the way Amazon has moved into physical retail with both the launch of its Amazon Go outlets and its acquisition of the Whole Foods grocery business.

Yet it is in China that the phenomenon appears to be most strongly under way.
It took another step today when Alibaba, the colossus often described as a Chinese version of eBay and Amazon combined, stepped up its investment in bricks-and-mortar retailing.
The company is paying HK$28bn (£2.8bn) to raise its stake in Sun Art Retail Group, a hypermarket operator, from 21% to 72%. It will now seek to buy out the remaining shareholders in Sun Art, whose Hong Kong-listed shares shot up by 30% initially, before closing up 19%.

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Sun Art, which as at the end of June operated 481 hypermarkets and three mid-sized supermarkets, is China’s second-largest grocery retailer and accounts for around 14% of the hypermarket sector on its own.

The deal is consistent with the “new retail strategy” of Daniel Zhang, Alibaba’s chairman and chief executive, of combining both e-commerce with physical retail.

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He said on Monday: “As the COVID-19 pandemic is accelerating the digitalisation of consumer lifestyle and enterprise operations, this commitment to Sun Art serves to strengthen our new retail vision and serve more consumers with a fully integrated experience.”

Image: European and American retailers sought to cash in on China’s growing wealth but found it tough
Sun Art dates back to the establishment, 20 years ago, of a joint venture between RT-Mart, owned by the Taiwanese conglomerate Ruentex, and Auchan, the French grocery giant, which had respectively opened stores in China in 1998 and 1999. The business floated on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2011 but Auchan had retained a significant stake in the business until now.
Alibaba first bought a stake in the business in 2017 and has since used its strengths in logistics and supply chain management to bolster Sun Art’s business. Since then, all of Sun Art’s stores were brought onto Alibaba’s platforms, allowing the latter’s couriers to deliver the former’s products on the same day as an order is placed – even sometimes only an hour later. As a result, Sun Art has become the only grocery retailer in China to have turned a profit from its online operations, with the service coming into its own during the lockdown period. Online food sales in China during the first eight months of the year were up 35% on the same period last year.
Alibaba is not the only big Chinese online player to have moved meaningfully into physical retailing. Its great rival Tencent, owner of China’s most popular social media app WeChat, has invested in the local grocery operator Yonghui Stores – while JD.com, another Chinese e-commerce giant, has been investing in local supermarket chains and has also established a strategic partnership in the country with Walmart.
Such investments are being seen in China not only as expansionary but also partly defensive. Meituan, the food delivery company which in May this year became the third Chinese company to achieve a stock market valuation of $100bn after Alibaba and Tencent, is seen as a powerful rival to both – particularly because it is regarded as holding greater appeal to a younger demographic.
But the over-riding trend is that all retailers appear to be coming around to the view that, to succeed, you must be positioned in both online and offline.
The logic behind such moves was explained by Zhang Jindong, chairman of Suning.com – an e-commerce business that emerged from an established retail business and whose shareholders include Alibaba – in 2018: “We have one customer base, we share the stock, online and offline, the supply chain, the customer management system. We are in one world, serving one group of customers. Pure online e-commerce is dead.”

Image: Walmart is one of few Western companies to have remained in China
The takeover of Sun Art by Alibaba has a second interesting dimension: it marks a continuation of the slow retreat from China’s retail sector by Western players.
China, bluntly, has been a graveyard for Western retailers. The early years of this century saw a host of European and American retailers announce ambitious openings in China as they sought to cash in on the country’s growing wealth and living standards. From the UK, they included Tesco, Marks & Spencer and B&Q. From France came Auchan and Carrefour and, from the United States, Best Buy, Home Depot and Walmart.
One by one, the foreign retailers have withdrawn, with M&S closing its last Chinese store in March 2017 and Tesco completing its exit from the country in February this year. Kingfisher, the parent of B&Q, sold its controlling stake in the do-it-yourself group’s Chinese arm as long ago as 2014. Its big US rival, Home Depot, had pulled out two years earlier. Even foreign operators nearer to China have enjoyed little success. Takashimaya, the Japanese department store operator which has expanded successfully into Vietnam, Singapore and Thailand, closed its flagship store in Shanghai in August last year and called a halt to its Chinese ambitions.

Image: Carrefour sold most of its Chinese business in June last year
In the hypermarket sector, meanwhile, Carrefour – the world’s second-largest physical retailer after Walmart – sold most of its Chinese business in June last year to Suning.com. Metro, the German cash and carry retailer, sold a majority holding in its Chinese business to the local player WuMart a year ago. Dia, the Spanish supermarket operator, offloaded its Chinese operations to Suning.com two years ago. Even Lidl, which had an online presence in China through partnerships with Alibaba and JD.com, threw in the towel last year – although its German rival Aldi is still opening stores there.
That leaves Walmart. It remains in China and, although it has found the going tough there, it recently reported an 8.7% rise in quarterly like-for-like sales that Brett Biggs, the chief financial officer, described as “exceptionally strong”.
There is the odd exception to the rule: Ikea, the Swedish furniture and home furnishings giant, has made a success of its Chinese operations.
By and large, though, retailing in China is an activity that looks best left to the Chinese.

Two-thirds of businesses say the government has done a poor job of communicating its plans for a post-Brexit trade agreement, according to a survey.
The YouGov online poll of 1,000 businesses showed 21% described the communication as somewhat poor and 45% very poor.

Just 8% said the government had done a very good job and 20% described it as somewhat good.
Six percent said they did not know.
When asked how much communication they had received about plans for a post-Brexit trade agreement, 25% said not much and 28% said none at all.

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It comes as businesses trading with Europe were warned by Prime Minister Boris Johnson that time is running out to prepare for a no-deal Brexit.

Mr Johnson and Michael Gove, the cabinet minister in charge of no-deal planning, are to hold talks with business leaders, urging them to step up their efforts.

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A publicity campaign, entitled “Time is running out”, is being launched and HMRC is writing to 200,000 firms to inform them of new customs and tax rules.
The move follows the collapse of trade negotiations between the UK and EU last week, with Lord Frost, the chief negotiator, telling his EU counterpart not to bother returning to Britain this week.

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‘Half of firms have gone backwards’ in Brexit planning

One out of five businesses told YouGov they were very well prepared for the end of the transition period, another 38% said they were somewhat prepared.
But 30% said they were poorly or very poorly prepared.
Dame Carolyn Fairbairn, director general at the Confederation of British Industry, told Sky’s Ian King Live that businesses had done “as much as they can” but half of them “have gone backwards in their preparations”.
She added: “We are in the middle of a global pandemic.
“Brexit was knocked off the front page of every board agenda in the country, so we can’t expect businesses to be fully prepared and I think frankly the same is also true of government.
“We will do all we can and frankly even if there’s a deal there will be very important changes.
“We are letting our members and businesses know to prepare for those, but honestly I think the massive responsibility is on negotiators on both sides to get a deal. This really is jobs and livelihoods at stake on both sides of the Channel.”
Michael Gove suggested on Sky News’ Sophy Ridge On Sunday that there is now a less than 50% chance of the UK striking a post-Brexit trade deal.
“Make no mistake, there are changes coming in just 75 days and time is running out for businesses to act,” he added.

The new chief executive of British Airways has warned that the UK “will get left behind” if it continues to discourage travel through its quarantine regime.
Sean Doyle, who took over the role a week ago after Alex Cruz was ousted in a group leadership shake-up, used remarks at an industry event to demand that the two week self-isolation requirement is scrapped.

He argued the so-called red list was damaging the UK’s economic recovery and the airline industry’s battle for survival from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Image: Sean Doyle is the new chief executive of BA. Pic: IAG
My Doyle further insisted that the risk to public health from flying was low.
He pointed to data from industry body IATA which suggested that since the start of 2020 there had been 1.2 billion people travelling but only 44 coronavirus cases linked to flights.

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He told the Airlines 2050 conference: “We believe the best way to reassure people is to introduce a reliable and affordable test before flying.

“For the UK, this approach reduces the stress on the NHS testing systems within the UK and on policing the quarantine system.

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“If we look abroad to our near neighbours, we see that business travel and indeed tourism is being prioritised by some countries.

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Arrivals from Portugal now face quarantine

“We need to get the economy moving again and this just isn’t possible when you’re asking people to quarantine for 14 days.
“It’s our view that even if that quarantine period is reduced to seven days, people won’t travel here and the UK will get left behind.”
The government is unlikely to relent at this stage given the fact that infection rates are surging, and as it steps up efforts to ease pressure on the NHS through local lockdowns.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps announced the creation of a new task force earlier this month, aimed at creating a testing regime to be used at points of entry to the UK in the hope quarantine rules could be relaxed.
He told the conference that while he recognised the “devastating” impact of the pandemic on aviation, there were also concerns that border tests “wouldn’t capture sufficient information on those who are asymptomatically carrying the virus”.
British Airways is expected to have cut up to 13,000 jobs by the time it completes its virus crisis restructuring.

Where jobs have been lost in the UK

A jobs tracker by Sky News shows the airline sector is suffering the worst, with airports also among those to have laid off significant numbers of staff.
BA has previously said it does not expect demand to recover its pre-crisis levels until 2023.
There was, however, a glimmer of better news for aviation on Monday when it was confirmed that Flybe had been bought out of administration and its new owners hoped to resume regional flights at some point in early 2021.
Watch and follow ‘Postcode Lockdown: A Divided Nation’ on Sky News from 9pm on Monday, as it examines which strategy is best for Britain

Boris Johnson has claimed the EU has refused to agree to the “Canada-style” trade deal he wanted for the UK so it will now be “more like Australia’s”.
Sky News looks at what that could mean for the UK’s future relationship with the EU.

What deal does Australia have with the EU?
Australia and the EU signed a “framework agreement” in 2017, building on an agreement signed a decade before which establishes a general principle of co-operation on areas including trade, foreign policy and security, development and humanitarian issues.

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Minister says UK will trade with EU ‘on Australian terms’

This means they do not have an actual trade agreement – it is not as substantial or committal as that and is essentially a statement of good intent ahead of a concrete deal being made.

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Some critics have said using the term “Australia-style” arrangement is simply a more palatable way of saying “no deal”.

Business Secretary Alok Sharma confirmed this by saying the difference between an Australia-style deal and no deal is “a question of semantics”.

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While they work towards a deal, the EU and Australia operate mainly on World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules, with large tariffs on imports and exports.
When it comes to customs, Australia and the EU have pledged to “examine possibilities to simplify customs procedures”.

Less than 50% chance of EU trade deal, says Michael Gove

On trade, the agreement commits both sides to try to reduce the “technical barriers to trade” – but with tariffs.
They have a specific wine trade agreement, which came into force in 2010, which safeguards the EU’s wine labelling regime and gives full protection to EU geographical indications so Australian wine producers cannot use names such as Champagne, port and sherry.
And the two sides have reached an agreement to allow Australia to participate in EU crisis management operations.
EU passenger name records are also transferred to Australian border authorities to help combat crime and terrorism under the agreement.
What would an Australia-style deal look like for the UK?
There would not be a free trade agreement with the EU.
The UK would have to abide by WTO rules, so tariffs would be imposed on goods coming into the UK from the EU and vice versa.
At the moment, there are no tariffs on goods moving between the UK and the EU – a big difference to Australia which has always had tariffs with the EU.

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PM: ‘Time to prepare for no-deal’

With tariffs, that would mean there would be 10% additional costs on cars and up to 30% on milk, cheese and some meat.
Shops would inevitably pass that price onto the customer, while some companies have said they would move out of the UK as they rely on frictionless trading relationships.
The UK has a large services market and under an Australia-style deal it would lose any preferential access to EU markets.
Why does Boris Johnson say the EU will not agree to a Canada-style deal?
The EU’s trade deal with Canada includes checks on imports and exports that currently do not exist between the UK and the EU, so there would be a lot more red tape for businesses.
However, it also involves reduced tariffs on imports, with 98% of products being tariff-free, but they do remain on eggs and poultry, for example.

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There are also quotas on some goods, which means a certain amount can be exported without extra charges.
But, Mr Johnson said the EU is offering less generous terms than the Canada deal, including the length of stay for short-term business visitors and a lack of sector-specific provisions for key industries.
He also said the EU has demanded a level-playing field on many more issues than their agreement with Canada.
These include a UK commitment to follow the EU’s state aid rules and preventing the UK from undercutting current regulations to gain a competitive advantage.

The first major corporate casualty of the coronavirus crisis in the UK, Flybe, could be back in the air next year.
It was announced that the company, which folded in March as a collapse in demand for air travel exacerbated already deep financial turbulence, had been effectively bought out of administration by a firm affiliated to a former shareholder.

Sky News revealed on Saturday how hedge fund Cyrus Capital had entered talks with the regional airline’s administrators.

Image: More than 2,000 staff lost their jobs when Flybe collapsed
EY said it agreed to a sale of Flybe’s business and assets, including the brand, intellectual property, stock and equipment, to Thyme Opco for an undisclosed sum.
The administrator’s statement said: “While the transaction is still subject to certain confidential conditions, the deal is expected to allow the Flybe business to restart operations as a regional airline in the UK under the Flybe brand in early 2021.

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“Following today’s announcement, the administrators will work together with Thyme Opco, the Flybe management team and the UK Civil Aviation Authority to prepare for the relaunch of Flybe’s airline operations.”

Flybe would be expected to emerge from the process a much leaner organisation – focusing on the most profitable routes.

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That is because any restart of flying operations would be expected to only follow a recovery in demand as the aviation sector continues to be hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Where jobs have been lost in the UK

A Thyme Opco spokesperson said: “We are extremely excited about the opportunity to relaunch Flybe.
“The airline is not only a well-known UK brand, it was also the largest regional air carrier in the EU, so while we plan to start off smaller than before, we expect to create valuable airline industry jobs, restore essential regional connectivityin the UK and contribute to the recovery of a vital part of the country’s economy.”
Analysis by Sky News of the employment landscape shows the aviation industry has, so far, been worst affected by the disruption with more than 34,000 jobs lost to date.
Flybe was Europe’s largest regional airline, carrying around nine million passengers annually at its peak and accounting for 40% of domestic UK flights.
But a rescue deal early last year failed to stem mounting losses and talks over a £100m state loan floundered.
The collapse led to the loss of 2,400 jobs and it is unclear how many roles the revived Flybe will create.
The pilots’ union, BALPA, said of Monday’s announcement: “A renewed Flybe would hopefully restore the vital air connections in the regions and nations of the UK and boost the economic recovery.
“Flybe staff were the first and most badly affected by the coronavirus crisis which has gone on to ravage the entire industry.
“This news will give everyone a degree of confidence that recovery is coming soon, and that their skills and knowledge are still going to be vital.”
Susannah Streeter, senior investment and markets analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, noted a positive reaction from investors too.
She wrote: “Although the wider FTSE 100 slipped into the red, shares in easyJet, IAG (BA’s parent) and Ryanair rose, as investors appeared to glimpse recovery for air travel on the horizon following Thyme Opco’s acquisition of Flybe.”

Wales is imposing a “firebreak” lockdown for 17 days from 6pm on Friday, the Welsh government has announced.
The new coronavirus lockdown will take Wales back to the restrictions introduced in March, with most businesses shutting, and people being told to stay at home and work from home where possible.

The measures include:
Non-essential retail, leisure and hospitality businesses to close
People told to work from home wherever possible, with exceptions for critical workers
Household mixing banned both indoors and outdoors, although those in social bubbles will still be able to meet
Primary schools open after the half-term week and secondary schools will open only to Year 7 and Year 8 pupils
Places of worship to be closed except for weddings and funerals
The circuit break will last until Monday 9 November

Image: Wales will enter a 17-day lockdown from Friday
First Minister Mark Drakeford said the introduction of a new lockdown would deliver a “short, sharp shock”.
“It will have to be sharp and deep in order to have the impact we need,” he told reporters in Cardiff.

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“Everyone in Wales will be required to stay at home. All non-essential businesses will have to close.”

Mr Drakeford said without the new measures, the NHS will not be able to cope and “even more people will die”.

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“There are no easy choices in front of us as the virus spreads rapidly in every part of Wales,” he said.
He also announced a £300m economic resilience fund to help businesses through the shutdown.
Every business covered by the small business rate relief will receive a £1,000 payment.

Which tier is my area – and what are the rules of the three-tier lockdown?

Small and medium-sized retail, leisure and hospitality businesses that will be forced to shut their doors will be given a one-off payment of up to £5,000.
Household mixing will be banned both indoors and outdoors, although those in social bubbles will still be able to meet.
Primary schools will open after the half-term week and secondary schools will open only to Year 7 and Year 8 pupils, while university students will have to remain in their university accommodation.

Image: First Minister Mark Drakeford said all non-essential businesses will have to close
Places of worship will be closed except for weddings and funerals.
Community centres, libraries and recycling centres will also close.
“There will be no gatherings with people you do not live with either indoors or outdoors during this two-week period,” Mr Drakeford said.
“There will continue to be an exception for adults living alone and single parents will continue to be able to join with one household for support.”

Image: The ‘short and sharp’ lockdown will end on 9 November
Last week, details of the lockdown were outlined in a letter to transport operators from John Pockett, director of the Confederation of Passenger Transport Cymru.
The letter, first published by political blogger Bubble Wales and verified by Sky News, said “pubs, cafes, restaurants, hairdressers etc – will all be closed”.
Meanwhile, Northern Ireland has already ordered schools to close for the next two weeks as well as banning most social gatherings and shutting many businesses for a month.
Watch and follow ‘Postcode Lockdown: A Divided Nation’ on Sky News from 9pm on Monday, as it examines which strategy is best for Britain

Ministers are being warned that £13bn of additional spending is needed each year to ensure the UK workforce can prosper in the future economy.
Research by the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) showed 90% of people will need new skills by 2030.

The business lobby group argued that the UK faced a “stark choice” between investment in its people or sustained rates of high unemployment as technology evolves – challenging the most disadvantaged in our society particularly.

Image: Automation is among the threats to jobs
It said that at a time of growing automation, participation in training for those in lower-skilled jobs was 40% lower than that for higher-skilled workers.
The CBI added that the COVID-19 pandemic – which has forced unemployment to a three-year high – offered an opportunity to grow learning and skills.

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Its director general, Dame Carolyn Fairbairn, said the damage made investment in skills all the more important and would help the government meet its election pledge to spread prosperity.

“The right skills strategy can help every worker to progress their careers, drive up living standards and level-up the country,” she said.

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“But a failure to act will leave businesses facing skills shortages and workers facing long-term unemployment. We are at a fork in the road that requires urgent and decisive action.
“The recently announced Lifetime Skills Guarantee is an important step in the right direction, but it is only a start.

Where jobs have been lost in the UK

She also said it was time for an apprenticeship shake-up, arguing the apprenticeship levy had failed to deliver for both businesses and new workers alike.
The CBI’s recommendations included “training tax credits” for small and medium-sized firms and transforming job centres into one-stop “Jobs and Skills Hubs” to support workers looking to retrain.
Education Secretary Gavin Williamson responded: “Our priority is making sure people across the country gain the skills we know employers value and that will help our economy recover as we build back better from coronavirus.
“The prime minister recently announced a new lifetime skills guarantee that will help support adults across the country to make lifelong learning a reality – opening doors for more people to realise their talents, develop new skills and get better jobs.
“To help boost apprenticeship opportunities, we are supporting employers to invest in the skilled workforce they need to recover and grow by offering £2,000 for each new apprentice they hire aged under 25 and £1,500 for those aged 25 andover, in recognition of the value apprentices of any age can bring to businesses and to our economic recovery.
“Our forthcoming white paper will also outline plans to build a high-quality further education system that will provide the skills that individuals, employers and the economy need to grow and thrive.”

China’s economic recovery accelerated in the third quarter as consumer spending picked up and factories rushed to meet global demand for medical equipment such as face masks, according to official figures.
The world’s second-largest economy suffered its worst quarterly fall in output since the 1960s between January and March as it became the first to reel from the effects of the COVID-19 crisis ahead of its global spread.

It has reported a modest recovery since as its economy reopened, with 3.2% growth on a year earlier reported in the following three months.

COVID vaccine tracker

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Monday that a figure of 4.9% was achieved in the third quarter running to the end of September – confirming a continuation of the ‘v-shaped’ recovery that has proved elusive in the UK and elsewhere.
That figure was slower than analysts had expected but they pointed to encouraging data in the final month of the period as giving good reason for optimism.

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Retail sales grew by 3.3% in September from a year earlier, speeding up from a modest 0.5% rise in August, while car sales rose by almost 13% on the previous month.

Image: Factory output is rising despite weak demand from overseas as key export markets remain damaged by virus restrctions
Industrial output grew by 6.9% after a 5.6% rise in August.

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It is hoped that a nascent economic recovery in China will help stoke the engine of growth elsewhere in the coming months.
But there is concern in Beijing that demand for Chinese goods overseas will remain shaky as the economic fallout from the pandemic continues to grip key markets, including Europe.

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China pledges carbon neutrality by 2060

NBS spokesperson, Liu Aihua, said: “Right now the overseas epidemic situation is still severe.
“We are also faced with the instability and uncertainty of the international circumstances. The domestic effective demand is still insufficient.
“The recoveries of different industries and regions are still imbalanced. Much needs to be done to consolidate the base of a sustainable economic growth.”
China has held off on additional post-crisis stimulus to get the economy moving in recent months, for fear of adding to its huge debt mountain at a time of weaker demand.
The authorities have moved to create nine million jobs after more than 20 million factory workers were feared to have lost work in the wake of the virus shutdown.
Independent analysts estimated 130 million people were without work – at least temporarily – during the country’s lockdown.
Nevertheless, the International Monetary Fund has forecast growth of 1.9% in China over the full year.
China would be, under that scenario, the only major economy likely to record rising year-on-year output.

Businesses that trade with Europe are to be warned by Boris Johnson this week that time is running out to prepare for a no-deal Brexit.
The prime minister and Michael Gove – the cabinet minister in charge of no-deal planning – are to hold talks with business leaders, urging them to step up their efforts.

A publicity campaign, entitled “Time is running out”, is being launched and HMRC is writing to 200,000 firms to set out new customs and tax rules coming into force.
The move follows the collapse of trade negotiations between Lord Frost and Michel Barnier last week, which ended with Lord Frost, the UK’s chief negotiator, telling his EU counterpart not to bother returning to the UK this week.

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Sophy Ridge On Sunday highlights

Interviewed on Sky News’ Sophy Ridge On Sunday, Mr Gove suggested there was now a less than 50% chance of the UK striking a post-Brexit trade deal with the EU.

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Announcing the no-deal campaign, Mr Gove said: “At the end of this year we are leaving the EU single market and customs union and this means there are both new challenges and new opportunities for businesses.

“Make no mistake, there are changes coming in just 75 days and time is running out for businesses to act.

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“It is on all of us to put in the work now so that we can embrace the new opportunities available to an independent trading nation with control of its own borders, territorial waters and laws.”

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Business Secretary Alok Sharma added: “With just 75 days until the end of the transition period, businesses must act now to ensure they are ready for the UK’s new start as an independent trading nation once more.
“There will be no extension to the transition period, so there is no time to waste. There will be a guaranteed set of changes for which businesses need to prepare for.
“Businesses have a crucial role to play in ensuring a smooth transition, and the government will be there to support them through this change every step of the way.”

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PM’s no-deal Brexit warning

The government publicity campaign will warn businesses:
If you sell goods to the EU you must prepare for new customs procedures
If you travel to the EU for work purposes you will need to check if you need a visa or work permit and apply if necessary
If you employ overseas nationals you will need to prepare your business for the implementation of the new immigration system
From 1 January 2021, if you want to hire anyone from outside the UK, including from the EU, you must be a Home Office licenced sponsor
If you are a UK business or organisation that receives personal data from contacts in the EEA, you may need to take extra steps to ensure that the data can continue to flow legally at the end of the transition period
If you provide services in the EU, you must ensure that your qualifications are now recognised by EU regulations to be able to practice or service clients in the EU
In a move to speed up government preparations, Mr Gove has ordered the cabinet’s Brexit sub-committee to meet five times per week and said he will chair the 150th meeting of the committee next week.
He is hosting European Commission vice president Maros Sefcovic at a meeting of the EU-UK Joint Committee in London on Monday to discuss progress on the implementation of the Withdrawal Agreement.
The prime minister and Mr Gove will then on Tuesday host a call with business representative organisations, federations and businesses with large supply chains.

Image: Lord Frost and Michel Barnier have said there remain significant obstacles to overcome to strike a deal
Responding to Mr Gove’s announcement, British Chambers of Commerce director general Adam Marshall said: “Facing the triple threat of a resurgent coronavirus, tightening restrictions and a disorderly end to the transition period, it is little wonder businesses are struggling to prepare.
“Many firms will be tired of posturing, cliff edges and deadlines, while others are still grappling with fundamental challenges as a result of the pandemic.
“A UK-EU deal is still both possible and critical. Much may change for business at year end, but a deal would give firms more clarity so that they can plan and adjust.”

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Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick also told Sky News’ Kay Burley show that Brussels should show more “flexibility and maturity”, but added quitting the transition period with no free trade deal was still “acceptable”.
The SNP’s Westminster leader, Ian Blackford, said: “With businesses facing more barriers, warnings of queues in lorry parks, potential disruption to supplies, and the double economic hit due to imposing Brexit in the middle of a pandemic – it will no doubt fill businesses with further concern that the UK government’s latest campaign comes with the strapline of ‘time is running out’.
“Businesses will be in despair at the UK government’s extreme approach which risks inflicting further harm at a time when many are struggling to deal with the impact of the coronavirus crisis.
“It’s clear beyond any doubt that only by becoming an independent country can we properly protect Scotland’s interests and our place in Europe.”