Boris Johnson news – live: Latest Brexit updates as EU rejects request to change NI protocol

Council tax bills could jump by as much as 5 per cent to pay for social care reforms and other government policies, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has warned.

The research centre said that a minimum rise of 3.6 per cent was necessary over the next three years to keep services running.

Kate Ogden, a research economist at IFS, said: “The government has stepped up with billions in additional funding for councils to support them through the last 18 months, it is likely to have to find billions more for councils over the next couple of years if they are to avoid cutting back on services, even if they increase council tax by 4 per cent a year or more.

“The coming financial year is likely to be especially tough, with the likelihood of at least some ongoing Covid-19-related pressures, and a particularly tight overall spending envelope pencilled in,” she added.

The EU Commission will soon publish its proposed compromises to ease trade difficulties between Britain and Northern Ireland – but rejected the UK’s demand to renegotiate the protocol.

“We will not renegotiate the protocol as the UK requested,” the Commission’s vice president Maros Sefcovic told a virtual event on Thursday.

Boris Johnson’s government has threatened to use Article 16 to suspend the protocol if the EU refuses to substantially renegotiate the agreed deal.

“A lot has been said by UK politicians about triggering Article 16. I do not think this has been helpful…It does not help us find solutions.”

Sefcovic said EU proposals to ease trade barriers will be published by the “middle of next week” – predicting talks will continue with Brexit minister Lord Frost and his team throughout October.

We do not consider them take it or leave proposals,” he said. But the EU chief admitted that if the UK government rejects those proposals then “we have a problem”.

Prices will rise for consumers as higher costs continue to bite businesses after Brexit, an industry leader has said.

Andrew Large, director-general at the Confederation of Paper Industries, said firms will need to recoup higher outgoings by upping their prices.

“This is a hugely inflationary situation for the British economy, and members will clearly be in a position where they have to try to pass those costs on to consumers where they can,” he told the BBC.

Labour – and not the Conservatives – are the only party with a “pro-small business policy”, the Federation of Small Businesses has said.

Craig Beaumont, chief of external affairs at the group, told Times Radio: “Looking at this party conference season, there was one party of the two that came out with a pro small business policy.

“And I think, you know, the government should be looking at that and going: ‘Well, maybe we’ve taken this group a bit for granted’. So now, what is that small business offer? What is their response? And at the moment there isn’t much, so there needs to be a really strong response to the budget.”

Some economists have cast doubt on Boris Johnson’s claim that the UK will have a “high wage” economy due to a reduction in “uncontrolled immigration”.

Our economics editor Anna Isaacs takes a closer look:

The prime minister has said the private sector must deal with post-Brexit supply chain issues itself.

But what does the public think of this suggestion?

According to a YouGov poll, 60 per cent of people believe Boris Johnson is wrong and are of the opinion that the crisis should be the government’s responsibility.

Education secretary Nadhim Zahawi has welcomed Tammy Abraham becoming the first England player to reveal that he is vaccinated against Covid.

Asked on LBC if he supported Abraham and wanted more footballers to get the vaccine, Zahawi said: “Totally – get the jab and get yourself and your family protected.”

He added: “What I would urge every footballer … is to go on the NHS website. Look at Public Health England, look at our regulator, best in the world. Look at the data and the safety information. [Vaccines] safe your life and they protect you.”

It follows the health secretary Sajid Javid saying he was “disappointed” after reports emerged that several England footballers were refusing to get vaccinated against Covid.

The prime minister’s decision to blame businesses for labour shortages is not “particularly helpful”, the boss of supermarket Iceland has said.

Richard Walker is among Brexit-backing business leaders who criticised Boris Johnson over the comments he made during his party conference speech on Wednesday.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I don’t think it’s particularly helpful at the moment. I mean business is dealing with so much and so many different crises which has all compounded at once.

“So, pointing the finger and choosing us as the bogeymen for issues such as HGV driver shortages – which is multifaceted and systemic – is simply not helpful.”

Mr Walker added that it is “inevitable” that prices will need to rise amid the current crises.

Businesses have hit out at Boris Johnson for not supporting them amid severe staff shortages.

Here’s Matt Mathers with a round-up of this and today’s other leading politics stories:

Tory MP Peter Bottomley has said that some parliamentarians are finding it “really grim” living off their £82,000 salary.

In an interview in the New Statesman, he described the situation as “desperately difficult” for new MPs.

He advocated increasing MPs’ pay to over £100,000. “It’s never the right time, but if your MP isn’t worth the money, it’s better to change the MP than to change the money,” he said.

My colleague Lamiat Sabin has more details: