Dublin not expecting EU objections to new trade rules for Northern Ireland – as it happened

5.40pm GMT

Afternoon summary

• New rules to smooth post-Brexit trade between Great Britain and Northern Ireland have been unveiled by the government as part of a deal with the Democratic Unionist party that will restore the Stormont executive and install a Sinn Féin first minister.

• Nicola Sturgeon has admitted failing to properly record key discussions about the Covid crisis after being pressed at the UK Covid inquiry over claims some decisions were too centralised and secretive.

• More than 30,000 asylum seekers are on bail and under the threat of deportation from the UK to Rwanda, the Home Office has disclosed, as James Cleverly insisted that the total backlog of 94,000 cases should instead be referred to as a queue.

• Labour’s proposed investment of £28bn a year in the low-carbon economy is an absolute minimum, a leading business figure has said, adding that without green investment on that scale the UK will face steep decline as a result of crumbling infrastructure and stagnating industry.

• George Osborne has been hired by the American cryptocurrency exchange operator Coinbase as it faces an intense legal battle with the US regulator.

Sir Jeffery Donaldson, the DUP leader, in Belfast today. Photograph: Niall Carson/PA

5.18pm GMT

Jim Allister, the leader of Traditional Unionist Voice, a small, hardline unionist party which has repeatedly accused the DUP of not doing enough to stand up for Northern Ireland, has criticised the “Safeguardind the Union” deal.

In a video posted on X, he said there was nothing in the document “that removes one word of the protocol, removes one syllable of EU law”. Instead the document left Northern Ireland “continuing to be governed in part by laws we don’t need and can’t change”, he said.

The only thing which has changed today is that the DUP have, sadly, become Protocol implementers. pic.twitter.com/WZcoCX8vkE

— Jim Allister (@JimAllister) January 31, 2024