The substantial gains made by the ruling UK Conservative Party in the general election on 12 December 2019 mean that, barring the unexpected, the UK will leave the EU on 31 January 2020. The Conservative government now has sufficient majority to drive parliamentary approval of the draft withdrawal agreement renegotiated with the EU by UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson in October 2019. Mr Johnson campaigned in the run-up to the election for a mandate to…

The removal of diesel trains from operation in the UK could be accelerated as part of the UK government’s plans to reduce carbon emissions. In a speech in February 2018, the UK’s then-Minister of State for rail, Jo Johnson (brother of UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson), stated that he “would like to see us take all diesel-only trains off the track by 2040”. However, less than two years later in October 2019 (and during a…

The UK’s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI), the body tasked by the UK Treasury to administer and enforce financial sanctions in the UK, has issued its biggest monetary penalty to date, against the UK arm of an international telecommunications company for breaching sanctions imposed on a Syrian entity. The £146,341 monetary penalty was issued against Telia Carrier UK Limited, which is said to have ‘indirectly facilitated international telephone calls to SyriaTel’, an entity subject to…

Welcome to Greenberg Traurig’s LIBOR Transition Newsletter, where we provide updates, analysis, and occasional commentary on the latest developments relating to the highly anticipated phasing-out of LIBOR at the end of 2021 – barely two years from now. Questions addressed in this issue: Why is LIBOR being phased out? What will be the immediate effect? Where are we now? Are market participants ready for LIBOR replacement? What should market participants be doing now? Documentation and…

An important difference between UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Withdrawal Agreement and former Prime Minister Theresa May’s Withdrawal Agreement is that provisions relating to environmental protections have been removed and are now to be found in the amended Political Declaration. While the Withdrawal Agreement, once ratified, would be a legally binding treaty between the UK and the EU, the Political Declaration would be non-binding, at least under international law. Therefore, under Mr Johnson’s proposal, the…

In a historic decision issued 24 September 2019, the UK Supreme Court ruled that the UK prime minister, Boris Johnson, acted unlawfully when he advised the Queen to prorogue, or suspend, the UK Parliament for five weeks, until 14 October 2019. The effect of the very clear and unanimous decision of the 11 Supreme Court judges is that Parliament was not in fact suspended and can immediately resume its work. This in turn means that Parliament…

Our last GT Alert on Brexit quoted the saying, “a week is a long time in politics”. New Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson has found that a mere 72 hours is an eternity as he seeks to break the political impasse on the terms of the UK’s exit from the European Union – so far, unsuccessfully. Although the 2016 referendum decision to leave the EU was carried with a low majority – 52% to 48%…