High energy bills deal heavy blow to Belgian glassware business

Raziye Akkoc
Mon, 30 January 2023


When energy prices blew up last year in the wake of Russia's war in Ukraine, Belgian glassblower Christophe Genard had no other option but to close for three months.

The 45-year-old's gas bill had hit a whopping 6,000 euros ($6,500) a month.

Faced with the prospect of giving up his beloved 20-year career as a glassblower, he was forced to adapt to survive by using a smaller oven to produce his glassware.

"While I was closed, between July and September 2022, I thought about how I could keep earning a living, so I merely changed what tool I used," Genard said at his studio in Liege, where he also hosts classes.

Genard told AFP that he now uses propane gas cylinders to fire up his smaller oven for a couple of days a week.

"That comes to around 3,000 euros a month, half the cost, but I no longer work every day," Genard said, adding that he produces half of what he used to.

Late last year, the Walloon regional government announced measures worth around 175 million euros to support businesses with rising energy costs, but some worry it might not be enough.

"We'll see if it will be sufficient in terms of amount," Walloon Union of Companies chief Olivier de Wasseige said in an LN24 channel interview on January 22.

He called on Belgium's federal government to have a "structural energy policy" that matches neighbouring countries and take serious measures including a transition to renewable energy.

Belgium has allocated just 4.3 billion euros to help households and businesses with the energy crisis -- equivalent to 0.8 percent of its gross domestic product, according to a study published by the Bruegel think tank in November.

It was the fourth lowest level within the 27-nation EU, well behind other nations such as the neighbouring Netherlands, which spent 43.9 billion euros, or more than five percent of GDP on such aid.

Even smaller economies have spent bigger shares of their GDP on such assistance, with Romania earmarking 8.5 billion euros (3.5 percent).

- Businesses feel the heat -

Genard is one of many independent business owners in Belgium forced to change how they work to meet soaring energy costs, even if it means producing less.

The Federation of Belgian Enterprises (FEB) warned this month of spiralling costs for businesses because of higher energy prices and inflation-related wage hikes.

The first half of 2023 will be "extremely difficult" for Belgian companies, the FEB said, as fixed contracts for gas and electricity prices end during this period.

"They will face energy costs three to seven times higher than usual," the federation warned, adding that it would cost businesses an additional 10 to 25 billion euros.

Another survey published last month showed that over 76 percent of Belgian retailers fear they will go bankrupt, citing several threats including higher energy bills.

Three-quarters of the retailers surveyed said they had reduced heating in their shops while 66 percent said they turned off neon signs outside opening hours.

- No more pressure -

Genard said he wanted to keep his prices unchanged "because already most people's purchasing power is falling", he said, surrounded by gold-specked glass apples and vibrant glass hens.

One decorative glass apple costs 60 euros, the same price as in 2022.

"I want to keep producing pieces and welcoming everyone to my workshop," Genard said.

He added he tried not to think about what may happen in the future.

"I find it difficult to look too far ahead. When we think too much about the future, it puts us in uncomfortable situations, feeling fear and anxiety," he said.

But the changes are not all bad for the glassblower.

"I no longer feel constant pressure to be profitable. I have more time to design, to create, to think of ways to develop partnerships."

raz/dc/lth

Australia lifts ranking on global anti-corruption index after hitting record low

Christopher Knaus
Mon, 30 January 2023

Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

Australia has reversed a decade-long slide in its performance on corruption and lifted itself from a record low on a key global ranking system, an improvement attributed to the soon-to-be operational anti-corruption commission.

But Transparency International Australia has urged the federal government to do more to repair its reputation on corruption and integrity by adopting more comprehensive whistleblower protections and pursuing donations and lobbying reforms.

Related: ‘Naccflip’: National anti-corruption commission bill passes Senate after Greens backdown

Transparency International released its annual corruption perceptions index (CPI) on Tuesday, showing a two-point improvement for Australia, improving its score to 75 from 100 and lifting its global ranking from 18 to 13.

Last year, Australia hit a record low score of 73 from 100. The improvement was attributed to the new government’s anti-corruption body, which will commence operation in June.Interactive

The commission, despite concerns around the high threshold needed for public hearings, is widely considered a marked improvement on the weak model proposed but never acted upon by the Morrison government.

But Transparency International Australia has warned that the government must do more on whistleblower protections, including the establishment of a dedicated whistleblower protection authority, and introduce real-time disclosure of political donations and expenditure.

“Greater oversight and transparency of lobbying and longer cooling off periods to reduce the ‘revolving doors’ of lobbying must also be prioritised,” Transparency International Australia chief executive Clancy Moore said.

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“We also need stronger laws to stop corrupt officials, criminals and business people laundering money and hiding their abuses of power, through poker machines, casinos and real estate.”

The government is currently consulting on its bill to reform Australia’s public sector whistleblower protections, but lawyers, human rights groups, and the Greens have warned it has weaknesses, including its lack of protection for those who blow the whistle on personal conduct such as sexual harassment.

In the decade prior to this year’s report, Australia’s performance in the CPI has continually declined, dropping by 12 points. That decline is on par with Hungary, which, while far lower in the CPI’s global standings, has also dropped 12 points since 2012.

The CPI scores are compiled from a range of sources, up to 13 for any individual country, and include expert assessments, the experiences of business executives of corrupt behaviour in the public sector, and assessments of a nation’s anti-corruption system and the strength of its integrity bodies.

The average score in the Asia-Pacific was 45. North Korea received the lowest score at 17. New Zealand, Singapore and Hong Kong received the three strongest scores.

The report said the performance of the region had continued to stagnate.

“As authoritarianism grows and restrictions on civic space and basic freedoms imposed during the pandemic remain in place, Asia Pacific continues to stagnate for the fourth year in a row with an average score of 45 points,” the report said.

“While some governments have made headway against petty corruption, grand corruption remains common. Pacific leaders have renewed focus on anti-corruption efforts, but in Asia, they have focused on economic recovery at the expense of other priorities.”

Transparency International Australia board member and Griffith University whistleblowing expert, Prof AJ Brown, said the organisation was “delighted” at the establishment of the anti-corruption commission.

But he warned Australia’s reputation will only improve further once the commission was operational and when “other issues central to our credibility in the region are seriously addressed”.

“This needs to start with a comprehensive approach to whistleblower protection, including a whistleblower authority, and ending our role as a safe haven for corrupt actors across the region and the world,” he said.

UK
The Guardian view on Tory electoral prospects: dimming by the day

Editorial
Mon, 30 January 2023 

Rishi Sunak
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Rishi Sunak is a Conservative prime minister who wants to be seen as a break with the past. The trouble is, he is leading a party that can’t escape it. The adage that “power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely” hangs like Banquo’s ghost over Mr Sunak’s agenda, disrupting his attempts to reset the narrative. The oxygen of Downing Street’s plan to save the NHS was sucked out of the room on Monday morning as it sank in that Nadhim Zahawi was the second cabinet minister Mr Sunak had lost in his first 100 days in office. Another may go once the investigation into multiple bullying claims made against the deputy prime minister wraps up.

Mr Sunak won’t be out of the woods even then, because the country will be watching Boris Johnson answering questions over whether he lied to parliament during the Partygate affair. For the public, the Conservatives look like a party that has become too complacent, with ministers wreathed in a sense of entitlement that can lead people to act unethically. This has a ring of the 1990s about it. As then, scandals involving an exhausted Tory party hit the headlines. As then, an unpopular Tory government looks to have lost sense of what to do with power and lacks the initiative to push its own ideas. Mr Sunak isn’t responsible for the failings of figures in his party. Nor was John Major. But the tide of scandal ended his career.

Such is the panic in the Conservative party that anyone within its ranks who even raises the prospect of a Lazarus-type revival in its fortunes is heralded as a saviour. William Hague, a former Conservative leader, was forced to deny he would return to frontline politics after he told the cabinet last week that they could still win the next election. Lord Hague compared 2023 with 1990, when the party – with a 100-seat majority – was far behind in the polls, coping with economic problems and losing byelections to the Liberal Democrats. He set pulses racing when he observed that the Conservatives got a “new leader who was more popular than [the] party and won in 1992”.

The Tories look like they are facing not a 1992 win against the odds, but a potential 1997 landslide loss. Labour’s lead is uncertain. But four years of strong growth in the run-up to the 1997 election did not save the Conservatives from a crushing defeat. Voters no longer trusted the party after sterling’s humiliating exit from Europe’s exchange rate mechanism sent interest rates soaring to 15%. Labour won the election on 1 May 1997, but Black Wednesday on 16 September 1992 was the day the Tories lost it. Last year, the Tories’ electoral chances appeared to vanish with Liz Truss’s mini-budget, which saw the pound crash and sent mortgage rates skyward.

Mr Sunak does not even have a record of strong growth in office to fall back on. Last week it emerged that the Office for Budget Responsibility thought Britain’s prospects for growth had declined. This bad news was probably leaked to silence Tory MPs, especially those on the libertarian right, calling for tax cuts. The Conservative party has been doomed by a culture of rebellion and magical thinking that has flourished since Brexit. Rightwingers have gleefully divided their party and humbled its leaders – even when those leaders emerged from their ranks. It is their strength that now makes a Tory defeat seem so probable.

Rare ‘mother of pearl’ clouds spotted over Scotland

Ian Sample Science editor
Mon, 30 January 2023 


Excited weather watchers have captured stunning images of rare “mother of pearl” clouds, which have formed high up in the atmosphere over Scotland.

Such clouds tend to develop in the extremely cold air above polar regions, but were spotted on Sunday evening and Monday morning by BBC weather watchers in Aberdeenshire, the Highlands and Moray.

Also known as nacreous or polar stratospheric clouds, the formations are some of the most beautiful to be found in the twilight sky. They gain their name from the iridescent pastel colours produced as the sunlight diffracts around the tiny ice crystals inside them.

One BBC weather watcher called the clouds “absolutely fantastic” after photographing the spectacle at sunset. “What a fantastic sight to behold,” they added.

Nearly all clouds form in the troposphere, which ranges from about 30,000 to 50,000 feet above the Earth’s surface. But nacreous clouds form higher up in the stratosphere, at about 68,500 to 100,000 feet. Because the stratosphere is so dry, temperatures have to be extremely cold, below -78C, for moisture to freeze into the ice crystals that form nacreous clouds.

The clouds are a more common sight during Scandinavian and Canadian winters, where the atmosphere can chill to the temperature required, but sightings are rare in the warmer UK and at lower latitudes. Nacreous clouds can appear over the UK when cold polar air spreads southwards because of a shift in the polar vortex, the hurricane-strength winter winds that circulate about 30 miles up in the stratosphere.

Nacreous clouds are most visible during civil twilight, shortly before sunrise and after sunset, when the sun is, at most, six degrees below the horizon. Because the clouds are so high, they are still illuminated by sunlight, and appear with striking, bright colours in the surrounding darker sky.

“In the UK, it’s fairly rare to get to the temperatures overhead to form the ice crystals these clouds are made up of,” said Tom Tobler, a meteorologist at MetDesk, a weather forecast provider. “At the moment the polar vortex, which is usually more towards the pole, is a bit displaced towards the UK, so there is that cold air up in the stratosphere that’s allowing these clouds to form.

“Having these clouds form at right time and in the right place, with no other clouds to impede the view of them, is what makes them so rare across the UK.”

SAME IN NORTH AMERICA

UK Firefighters renew warning of rise in fires caused by e-bikes

Helen William, PA
Mon, 30 January 2023

Firefighters have renewed a safety warning about “incredibly concerning” fires involving e-bikes after one went up in flames at a high-rise block of flats in south-east London.

The London Fire Brigade (LFB) spoke out after a woman and three children were treated for smoke inhalation and taken to hospital after escaping from a flat on the third floor of a seven-storey block in Erith on Friday.

The fire in Arthur Street is believed to have been caused by a faulty e-bike lithium battery.

LFB said it dealt with 88 fires involving e-bikes and 29 linked to e-scooters in 2022, up from 49 related to e-bikes and 30 to e-scooters a year earlier.

A similar warning about fires involving e-bikes was issued in June after residents were evacuated from Stebbing House in Queensdale Crescent, Shepherd’s Bush, as firefighters battled flames in a 12th floor flat 

(Antons Jevterevs/Alamy/PA)

A spokesman said: “It’s incredibly concerning we are continuing to see a rise in incidents involving e-bikes and e-scooters.

“When these batteries and chargers fail they do so with ferocity, and because the fires develop so rapidly the situation can quickly become incredibly serious.

“Lithium-ion batteries are susceptible to failure if incorrect chargers are used and there is a significant risk posed by e-scooters which have been converted.

“We are predominantly seeing fires in ones which have been purchased from online marketplaces and batteries which have been sourced on the internet (and) may not meet the correct safety standards.”

The LFB was called to the Erith fire at 10.51pm on Friday and it was just past midnight when it was under control.

A similar warning about fires involving e-bikes was issued in June after residents were evacuated from Stebbing House in Queensdale Crescent, Shepherd’s Bush, as firefighters battled flames in a 12th floor flat.

It led to eight fire engines and about 60 firefighters attending the scene, while the London Ambulance Service said one person was taken to hospital and two assessed at the site.

The spokesman added on Monday: “Our advice is to try and store and charge these items in a safe location if possible, such as in a shed or garage, and if they have to be stored inside, make sure there is smoke detection fitted and your means of escape is not obstructed.

“However we know this won’t be possible for everyone, so if you are charging them indoors, please follow our advice on safe charging and ensure everyone in your home knows what to do in the event of a fire.”

Lesley Rudd, chief executive of the Electrical Safety First charity, which aims to reduce deaths and injuries caused by electrical accidents, called for online marketplaces to be regulated to “force them to take reasonable steps to ensure that goods sold on their platform are safe”.

She said: “Our own investigations have found dangerous chargers for e-bikes freely available on online marketplaces, leaving shoppers at serious risk of a fire.”

BEAT COPS NOT COP BEATINGS
UK Labour pushes for increase to neighbourhood policing as communities face '3,000 anti-social incidents a day'

Mon, 30 January 2023 


Labour will push the government for an increase to the number of neighbourhood police officers on Tuesday, saying communities are facing 3,000 incidents of anti-social behaviour a day.

In an opposition day debate in the Commons, the party will point to the latest crime statistics from the ONS, which showed 1.1 million incidents of anti-social behaviour had been reported to the police in the year leading up to September 2022.

Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper will accuse the government of failing to invest in neighbourhood policing teams, saying it has "left communities to fight crime and anti-social behaviour on their own".

And she will call on ministers to increase local police numbers, including ringfencing a proportion of the Police Uplift Programme - the government plan to recruit 20,000 more officers by March - for neighbourhood teams.

The latest update from the Home Office shows 15,343 have been recruited so far, with two months to go to reach the target.

Home Secretary Suella Braverman has previously pledged the new officers would "add to efforts to drive down invasive crimes like burglary and neighbourhood offences, return to common sense policing and make our communities feel safer and stronger".

And the Home Office said £120m had been spent on initiatives such as improving street lighting and home security to cut neighbourhood crime as part of its Safer Streets Fund.

But according to Labour, 6,000 neighbourhood police officers have been cut since 2015, and the number of Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) dropped by more than 8,500 since 2010.

Meanwhile, crime figures show the overall charge rate for crime is 5.5% compared to 15.5% in 2015.

Read more from Sky News: 

Support rising for unions despite strikes, Sky News polling shows

Rees-Mogg attacks 'skeletal' anti-strikes bill

'People just don't see police on their streets anymore'

Ms Cooper will say: "This Conservative government has decimated neighbourhood policing. Across the country, people just don't see police on their streets anymore, and feel less and less safe as a result.

"Meanwhile, for millions of people anti-social behaviour has become part of day-to-day life, ruining lives without consequence."

The shadow home secretary will also outline Labour's plans for government - namely a £360m package of 13,000 additional neighbourhood officers and PCSOs paid for through a "police efficiency programme" to increase shared services and procurement.

"Labour is the party of law and order," she will add. "The next Labour government will put policing back where it belongs, at the heart of communities."

The Home Office has been approached for comment.

ENTROPY
Average age of UK Christians reaches 50 and over for first time

Blathnaid Corless
Mon, 30 January 2023 

Person filling out 2021 census on their laptop - Victoria Jones/PA Wire

The average age of Christians is over 50 for the first time in census history, latest figures reveal.

Data from the Office for National Statistics show the median age of people who identified as “Christian” in 2021 was 51, an increase from 45 in the 2011 census.

Of the 27.5 million people who identified as “Christian”, nearly three in 10 (29 per cent) are aged 65 and over – up from just over two in 10 (22.3 per cent) a decade ago.


The figures released on Monday also show that most young people identify as having “no religion”.

The Church of England said it does not “underestimate the need to connect with Generation Z” following the latest figures, and that doing so is one of the church’s “key priorities” for this decade.

People identifying as Muslim had the youngest average age of any group at 27 years, up from 25 in 2011.

Most of the other main religious groups have seen an increase in the age profile of worshippers, with Hindu up from 32 years to 37 years, Sikh from 32 to 37 and Buddhist from 37 to 43, while the average age of people identifying as Jewish was unchanged at 41 years.

Christianity had the oldest average age, as well as the largest increase in median age for all religious groups since the last census – alongside Buddhism, which also saw an increase of six years.

Meanwhile, the average age of people saying they have no religion has increased from 30 to 32.

More than half of people in every year from age 22 to 30 chose this option, while 27-year-olds account for the highest proportion of non-believers at 53 per cent. Only 8.8 per cent of those who said they had no religion were aged 65 and over.

While the older demographic of Christians in England and Wales is expanding, the numbers are depleting in younger age groups.

In 2011, 5.1 per cent of people (1.7 million), who identified as Christian were aged 21 to 25 years; this decreased to 3.9 per cent (1.1 million) in 2021.

This cohort would have been aged 11 to 15 years in 2011, at which time they accounted for 5.5 per cent (1.8 million) of those who identified as Christian, compared with 3.9 per cent (just over one million) in 2021.

Responding to the latest data, Dr Stephen Hance, the Church of England’s national lead on evangelism, told The Telegraph: “Every generation needs to hear the good news of Jesus Christ and we certainly don’t underestimate the need to connect with Generation Z. That is why we have made it one of the Church of England’s key priorities for this decade.

“We know that younger people today are less likely to have been brought up in the Christian faith than in the past. But while they may be less familiar with its message that doesn’t mean they are less open to faith.

“The church, both locally and nationally, is exploring ways of connecting with Generation Z through traditional means and new forms of communication.”

Commenting on the contrast between the average ages of Muslims and Christians in the latest figures, Chris Doyle, the director of the Council for Arab-British Understanding, said: “Many Muslim-majority countries where perhaps British Muslims have originated from have younger populations than in Europe.”

He added that in some of these countries “most of the population is under 30,” and that the relative youth of Britain’s Muslim population was likely “in part due to migration”.
‘The UK faces a non-religious future’

The figures come after it was revealed that Christians are now a minority in England and Wales for the first time.

The number of people who identified as Christian between 2011 and 2021 decreased from 59.3 to 46.2 per cent.

The census data also show that every major religion increased over the 10 year period, except for Christianity.

Andrew Copson, the chief executive of Humanists UK, which ran a campaign ahead of the two most recent censuses encouraging non-religious people to tick the form’s “no religion” box, said the figures “make plain that the UK faces a non-religious future”.

He added: “This is in stark contrast to how our state institutions operate today. No other European country has such a religious set-up as we do in terms of law and public policy, while at the same time having such a non-religious population.

“Politicians should look at today’s results and recognise they must renegotiate the place of religion or belief in today’s society.”

DISARM THE POLICE THEN DEFUND THEM

Congressional Black Caucus pushes Biden to restart police reform talks

Andrew Feinberg

The Independent
Mon, 30 January 2023


Members of the Congressional Black Caucus have asked President Joe Biden for a meeting to press him on restarting stalled talks on police reform legislation, in the wake of the death of Tyre Nichols at the hands of Memphis police officers.

Representative Steven Horsford, the Nevada congressman who serves as chair of the CBC, said in a statement on Sunday that the caucus is asking for a sit-down with Mr Biden “to push for negotiations on much needed national reforms to our justice system - specifically, the actions and conduct of our law enforcement”.

Mr Horsford said Mr Nichols’ death, which was captured on disturbing video showing him being beaten and kicked by a group of officers who are now facing murder charges, is “a grim reminder that we still have a long way to go in solving systemic police violence in America”.

"No one in our nation should fear interacting with the police officers who serve our diverse communities, large and small. We all want to be safe,” he said.

He added that the CBC is calling on its House and Senate colleagues to “jumpstart negotiations now and work with us to address the public health epidemic of police violence that disproportionately affects many of our communities”.

During the 117th Congress, the House passed multiple police reform bills, including the Justice in Policing Act named for George Floyd, the Minneapolis man whose videotaped murder by police officers sparked nationwide protests and calls for reform during the summer of 2020.

But no police reform bill made it past the Senate due to the upper chamber’s 60-vote threshold for most legislation. Negotiations between two of the chamber’s three Black senators — Republican Tim Scott and Democrat Cory Booker — broke down over proposals to strip police officers of immunity from lawsuits in misconduct cases.

The White House did not immediately respond to a query from The Independent on whether Mr Biden would meet with the CBC.

This mega-lab can create sun, snow, wind and rain - all to work out how to build better houses

Luke Hurst

EURONEWS
Mon, 30 January 2023 



A newly opened mega-lab allows scientists to create the weather - all to test the energy efficiency of homes.

The huge facility in Salford, in the north of England, can emulate sunny and rainy weather conditions, and even wind and snow.

Capable of setting temperatures to a range between -20C to 40C, it contains a number of houses that are the test subjects.

Could floating solar panels be a solution to both the climate crisis and soaring energy prices?

The prototype houses are being put through their paces in different weather conditions to see how homes can be made more energy efficient at a time when energy costs - and climate change - are at the forefront of policy debates.

"When you try and understand how a house is energy efficient, you normally have to wait for the weather, so here we bring the weather to the research problem," said Professor Will Swan, the director of Energy House Labs at the University of Salford.

"We can compress a two-year experiment into sometimes a matter of weeks".
Working towards net-zero housing

The giant lab, called Energy House 2.0, is made up of two massive chambers containing the test homes which are made by some of the UK’s biggest housebuilders.

Swan explained they are experimenting with "everything" in the test homes: doors, windows, insulation, fabric, heating and cooling systems, ventilation systems, and heating controls.

"The experiments we’re doing here now with our partners are really to try and understand how we deliver those future net-zero homes in the UK," he said.

Electricity-generating windows? Swiss scientists design more efficient transparent solar panels

And there is new technology being put to the test here.

"We’ve got the panel heating, which is a point source in the room, and then we’ve got a very unique research product here which is an infrared coving," said Tom Cox, a technical director at Saint-Gobain, the construction product manufacturer involved in the testing.

There are also mirrors used as infrared radiators, sensors monitoring which rooms are in use, and air-source heat pumps being trialled.

"So, one of the key technologies that we’re trying on this house is almost like a building management system for residential buildings," said Cox.

"You connect all of that technology into a single interface. It’s almost like the Alexa of the home energy system, and that can be automated as much as the occupant wants".

To make sure the homes really do work for humans, volunteers are going to live in them for a few days at a time.

NO SERIOUSLY, HE MEANS IT. STOP LAUGHING

Russia wouldn’t have invaded Ukraine without Brexit, suggests top MEP

Adam Forrest

Tue, 31 January 2023 

Russia may not have invaded Ukraine if Brexit had not happened, senior MEP Guy Verhofstadt has said on the third anniversary of the UK’s withdrawal from the EU.

Mr Verhofstadt – the European parliament’s former Brexit coordinator – suggested Vladimir Putin calculated that the continent was not united on defence after the UK’s exit from the bloc.

“This war, this brutal invasion started with Putin and Russia,” he told LBC. “It’s really an attempt by Putin to restore the old Soviet Union. The only difference is the communist party is replaced with his own cronies.”

Mr Verhofstadt added: “A united Europe, certainly on defence matters, would make an enormous difference. I think maybe without Brexit, maybe there was no invasion. I don’t know.”

The MEP, former leader of liberal alliance in the Brussels’ parliament, said he hoped the UK could still rejoin the EU – but conceded it was unlikely in the next five years.

“Let’s hope that Britain can re-join, and let’s hope Ukraine can join. Why not within five years? Maybe it’s a little bit optimistic with the UK,” he said.

Mr Verhofstadt added: “My feeling is, the last time when I was in London, that for the first time in public opinion in Britain, people understand that Brexit was the wrong choice and that Brexit has done a lot of damage to Europe, and certainly to the UK.”

Former Brexit opportunities minister Jacob Rees-Mogg insisted that Brexit was “going well” for a whole range of reasons on the third anniversary.

Mr Rees-Mogg pointed to “cheaper insurance” after a change of EU rules, the gene-editing bill, Solvency II regulations to cut red tape in the City, and Britain not being liable for the EU’s £191bn Covid bailout.

He also claimed problems with the Northern Ireland Protocol were not the “inevitable consequence” of Brexit.

“It’s temporary,” he told Sky News. “It seems to me the protocol is failing and needs to be fundamentally reformed. There must not be a border in the Irish Sea.”

Rishi Sunak, meanwhile, claimed Britain has taken “huge strides” in taking advantage of the opportunities opened up by Brexit – claiming the country was confidently forging a new path as an “independent nation”.

The PM pointed to the opening of eight new freeports, plans to review or abolish EU red tape, and the overhaul of the regime for business subsidies among the benefits of the break with Brussels.

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan – who has called for the UK to rejoin the EU single market – said it was time to abandon “the hostile mentality of the referendum years and open a dialogue with our European neighbours about greater alignment”.

The SNP and Greens said Scottish independence is the only way to escape the “unmitigated disaster” of Brexit as the UK marks the third anniversary of leaving the bloc.