“We will do whatever it takes.” Johnson fights back at the G7 – doubling down on the Northern Ireland Protocol, flying in the face of diplomatic convention.

“I think we can sort it out, but it is up to our EU friends and partners to understand that we will do whatever it takes,” he said. “If the protocol continues to be applied in this way, then we will obviously not hesitate to invoke article 16, as I have said before.”…Johnson is due to hold a press conference on Sunday as the summit draws to a close, but No 10 fears EU leaders could use their own statements to hammer home their Brexit message.”- Observer

G7 1) Northern Ireland:

• Johnson fired back at Macron: ‘how would you like it if the French courts stopped you moving Toulouse sausages to Paris?’ – Mail on Sunday
• Macron replies that Paris and Toulouse are part of the same country… Sunday Telegraph
• …And Johnson says that “some countries need to get it into their heads” that the UK is a single country – Observer
• On the brink of a trade war – Sunday Telegraph
• Loyalist rally report. “Our British sovereignty and status within the United Kingdom is in its greatest danger since the state of Northern Ireland was created 100 years ago.” – Observer
• Irish post-Brexit fishing crisis – Sunday Express
• Abolish the Protocol- Daniel Hannan, Sunday Telegraph

G7 2) Climate change

• More climate commitments, no new spending – Observer
• We need to make a net-zero, nature-positive world the norm – George Eustice, Sunday Telegraph

G7 3) China

• The summit rallies against it – Sun on Sunday
• Keep going, resist tyranny – Iain Duncan Smith, Sun on Sunday

G7 4) Johnsonia

• What the wives were wearing – Mail on Sunday
• Wilfred Johnson steals the show – Sun on Sunday

G7 Comment

• Brexit Britain 1) The G7 shows that we’re still a force to be reckoned with – Dan Hodges, Mail on Sunday
• Brexit Britain 2) Johnson must show we can be trusted to keep our word – Rob Colvile, Sunday Times
• “Building back fairer and building back more equal and in a more gender-neutral and, perhaps a more feminine way: what on earth is Johnson going on about?” – Sarah Vine, Mail on Sunday
• “From gender neutrality to tax harmonization, everything the PM signed up to belonged to the global elite social democratic consensus” – Sunday Telegraph

> Yesterday: WATCH – The G7. Johnson fires back over the Northern Ireland Protocol. If necessary, he “won’t hesitate to invoke Article 16”.

Prime Minister rolls the pitch for freedom day delay

‘We are seeing some worrying stuff in the data, clearly. We are seeing the Delta (Indian) variant causing an increase in cases, we are seeing an increase in hospitalisations,’ Mr Johnson said…’The whole point of having an irreversible road map is to do it cautiously and that’s what we are going to do. I know people are impatient to hear more but you will be hearing the full picture on Monday.” – Mail on Sunday

• Cases now rising by 57 per cent a week, a doubling time of just 11 days. But there is uncertainty about the consequences of the rise – Sunday Times
• “Month long delay to reopening will cost £1 billion a week” – Sun on Sunday
• We face a third wave and the die may already have been cast – Sunday Telegraph
• What are the alternatives to re-opening? – Observer
• Poll finds majority support for continuing present shutdown – Observer
• Stormclouds over lockdown extension – Macer Hall, Sunday Express
• We can’t rule out Covid lab leak in China, says WHO Chief – Sunday Times
• Can we hope to vaccinate the world by next year? – Sunday Times
• Theresa May’s unlikely new role: heroine of the Brexiteer lockdown sceptics – Mail on Sunday
• No excuse for a further delay to liberty – Graham Brady, Mail on Sunday
• A cynical bid to make us love lockdown – Janet Daley, Sunday Telegraph
• We need to accept that Covid can’t be eliminated – Sunday Times Editorial
• If we can’t open up now, then when? – Mail on Sunday Editorial
• Who’s to blame for the delay? We’ll tell you. Bonkers anti-laxer Piers Corbyn – Sun on Sunday Editorial

Dominic Lawson: Britain isn’t America. Why I believe the forces of common sense will win the war on woke

“Despite Luntz’s doom-filled warnings to the UK, I still maintain that not only do we have nothing approaching the maniacal Salem-style persecutions of the US culture war, but that the pressure will actually fall, here. It is true that the language of the British “woke” movement is entirely derivative of the US experience: indeed, the term itself is an American import. A cultural appropriation, one might say. So, for example, the NHS glossary repeatedly refers to “BIPOC”, which stands for black and indigenous people of colour.” – Sunday Times

• The Euros: Starmer accuses Johnson of ‘a failure of leadership’ by failing to criticise fans who boo taking the knee – Mail on Sunday
• Wales team takes a knee “for a few seconds” – Mail on Sunday
• Munira Mirza v Henry Newman: the Downing Street battle over Stonewall – Mail on Sunday
• How Mirza and Dougie Smith weaponised the woke war for Johnson – Sunday Times
• Universities regulator says academics should ‘leave their personal political views at home’ – Sunday Telegraph
• Maya Forstater interview – Mail on Sunday
• Andrew Neil GB News launch interview trailer – Mail on Sunday
• Why taking the knee could put back the cause of racial justice – Matthew Syed, Sunday Times

> Today: Marc Glendening on Comment: Taking a knee. The tyranny and cowardice of the Football Association.

> Yesterday: ToryDiary – The Forstater case highlights why the role of the courts in politics is worth scrutinising

Channel boat crossings rising

“Between January to May this year, French authorities have stopped 314 boats involving 4,072 migrants.  In the same time frame for 2020, 220 boats involving 1,834 migrants were stopped.   In total, 8,410 made the journey across the Channel in 2020.  The numbers of migrants risking the dangerous journey are rising despite Home Secretary Priti Patel’s pledge in March to overhaul the immigration system and to make illegal Channel crossings ‘unviable’.   The Home Secretary blamed the spiralling crisis on social media giants such as Facebook and Twitter who allow people-smugglers to use their platforms to advertise their criminal services.” – Mail on Sunday

Ashcroft Starmer biography serialisation opens.

It suggests that the Labour leader’s background is “lower-middle class”.“I will also describe how Sir Keir, a man of many contradictions, who attended a fee-paying school and Oxford University, has, in my view, overplayed his supposed working class credentials when friends and colleagues have confirmed to me that realistically he is anything but. ‘One of Keir’s faults, which has come out from time to time, is his wanting to insist how working class he is when he’s absolutely, plainly not,’ says Professor Bill Bowring, who teaches law at Birkbeck College, University of London. ‘If you’re a QC and former Director of Public Prosecutions, you’ve left your working-class roots far behind. That’s a weakness of his, to go on about it. He’s become very middle class.” – Mail on Sunday

• Court challenge to Cruddas peerage – Observer
• “Ministers will be banned from lobbying for up to five years” – Sunday Times
• Appointments watchdog review – Mail on Sunday
• The snobbery of the metropolitan elite against the working class is the last form of prejudice allowed in Britain today – David Skelton, Mail on Sunday