“The UK inflation rate declined to 10.7% in November as the momentum behind the rising cost of food and energy began to ease amid growing fears of a long recession. A drop in the consumer prices index (CPI) figure was slight bigger than expected by most City analysts, who forecast the annual rate of price rises would slide to 10.9% last month, from 11.1% in October. However, there is still likely to be pressure on ministers to pay higher wages across the public sector to close the gap between earnings and rising prices. Bank of England officials are expected to come under intense pressure to increase interest rates when they meet on Thursday to set the central bank’s base interest rate. The monetary policy committee is predicted to push the base rate up by 0.5 percentage points to 3.5%.” – The Guardian
“The asylum system is ‘not fair, not right and it needs to be fixed’, Rishi Sunak said last night. In an interview with the Mail, he vowed to change the law to stop Channel migrants claiming asylum, saying they would be ‘swiftly detained’ and sent back home – or to a ‘safe’ country like Rwanda. The Prime Minister hit out at the ‘appalling’ waste of spending £5.5million a day on hotels for 40,000 migrants waiting for applications to be assessed. He said the bill would be cut by securing 10,000 cheap beds at holiday parks, disused student halls and surplus MoD sites. Mr Sunak also vowed to take on human rights lawyers who repeatedly lodged ‘late or spurious claims’… The PM answered criticism from the Archbishop of Canterbury, who said last week that it was ‘immoral’ to send migrants to Rwanda.” – The Daily Mail
>Yesterday:
“This Christmas, thousands of British families will be setting extra places for the Ukrainian guests they have welcomed into their homes. Ours is a generous country, with a proud history of giving sanctuary to those most in need. But today, far too often, those seeking asylum are not directly fleeing war zones or at risk of persecution. They are illegally crossing the Channel in small boats. Many start their journeys in fundamentally safe countries. All travel through safe countries. This is profoundly unfair. It is unfair when our generosity is abused by people coming here illegally. It is unfair on those who come here legally when others get here by cheating. Above all, it is unfair on the British people who have followed the rules all their lives, when others come here illegally and benefit from breaking those rules.” – The Daily Telegraph
“Boris Johnson will challenge Rishi Sunak to go further on his asylum overhaul by pledging to ignore European rulings over the Rwanda policy. The former prime minister has backed a Parliamentary Bill which would exert Britain’s sovereignty over migration policy by rejecting European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) attempts to stop asylum seekers being sent to Africa for processing. Together with other senior Tory MPs, including former home secretary Priti Patel, Mr Johnson wants to use the Bill – being introduced on Wednesday – to force Mr Sunak to make good on previous promises that he would not allow the ECHR to “inhibit our ability to properly control our borders”. On Tuesday Mr Sunak set out a new plan for tackling the migration crisis…” – The Daily Telegraph
“Christmas travellers will face long queues at airports after the Home Secretary decided against relaxing border and security checks during upcoming strikes. Border Force officials are going on strike over the last week of this year, with six of the UK’s busiest airports facing significant disruption. Suella Braverman was presented with options to speed up travellers’ progress through airports by relaxing security and immigration checks but ruled against doing so, i understands. The Home Office said: “Our number one priority is to keep our borders safe and secure for all travellers, and we will never compromise on this.” Possible options could have included shortening the interviews that some arrivals undergo at the border to ensure they have a valid visa and are not likely to overstay.” – The I
“With money tight and over seven million people on hospital waiting lists, the road to recovery for our NHS was always going to be tough. Now it may get tougher still, with unions representing nurses and ambulance services threatening strike action this winter. This government made a clear decision to prioritise healthcare and the people who provide it. We have accepted the advice of the independent Pay Review Body to give a million NHS staff a pay increase of at least £1,400, on top of their three percent pay rise last year when pay was frozen elsewhere in the public sector. Patients will be worried and frustrated that the nurses’ union, the RCN, is going ahead with industrial action tomorrow… That starts with leaving my door open for further talks in the sincere hope unions can see sense.” – The Daily Mail
>Today:
“Mark Harper, the Transport Secretary, did not deny a claim that the Government had insisted on driver-only operation being a condition for an improved pay offer to rail workers. But he rejected reports that he blocked an offer of 10 per cent over two years, telling BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I haven’t blocked any offers – quite the reverse… I made sure there was an improved offer on the table, it’s a very fair and reasonable offer.” Pressed repeatedly on whether he demanded driver-only operation as a condition of that offer, he said: “Reform has been on the table from the beginning of the process. It is not a new thing at all…It’s part of a package of delivering reform that helps generate the savings that can then fund a reasonable, fair pay offer which is what is on the table.”” – The Daily Telegraph
“Dominic Raab blocked the reappointment of the victims’ commissioner for England and Wales earlier this year and is not expected to find a replacement for months, the Guardian can disclose. Victims’ groups said the lack of a commissioner meant critical legislation was passing through parliament without an independent tsar, in effect silencing victims and limiting scrutiny. Sources said Raab, the justice secretary and lord chancellor, intervened to prevent Vera Baird from staying in the watchdog role, which she had been told to reapply for in February in advance of the end of her tenure in June. She stepped down from the job in September after being told in July that she had not been successful in the recruitment round, despite officials having found her to be “appointable” to the post…” – The Guardian
“A nationwide advertising campaign urging Britons to save energy by turning down boilers and radiators, despite the recent cold snap, will be launched by the Government this weekend. Posters attached to the sides of buses, commercials on television and messages broadcast on radio will all feature this winter under plans to be revealed by ministers. The Telegraph can reveal details of the ad blitz, which is expected to cost the taxpayer around £20million pounds – though those involved believe the money will be more than made back in savings. The campaign has been built around the slogan “It All Adds Up”, which is designed to convince the public that they can make financial savings by reducing energy consumption.” – The Daily Telegraph
“The UK’s trade secretary has refused to commit to a deadline to finalise a much-hyped trade agreement with India, but said that looming elections in both countries are increasing pressure to secure a deal. The two countries missed an October deadline agreed by Indian prime minister Narendra Modi and his former UK counterpart Boris Johnson to secure an agreement by the Hindu festival of Diwali, following months of political turmoil in the UK. Kemi Badenoch, who serves as trade secretary under UK prime minister Rishi Sunak, told the Financial Times that she was no longer willing to commit to a deadline, saying “my view is that timelines are not helpful”. But she said that upcoming general elections, which are due around 2024 in both countries, would make talks “difficult” if a deal is not finalised before then.” – The Financial Times
“A long-awaited ban on single-use plastic cutlery, plates and polystyrene cups could be imposed in the next few weeks. Environment Secretary Therese Coffey is expected to announce that she will phase out the items and replace them with biodegradable alternatives imminently. It is hoped the move will reduce the amount of single use waste – with around four billion items of plastic cutlery and one billion plates thrown away in England every year. The move comes more than two years after the Government banned the sale of plastic straws, stirrers and cotton buds in England. Last year ministers launched a consultation into banning several other disposable objects including food and drink containers and balloon sticks.” – The Daily Mail
“Young voters on TikTok are at risk of election influence from the Chinese, the security minister has warned. The video sharing app will be used to “influence minds” of first-time voters, Tom Tugendhat fears. More than seven per cent of people now say that they get news from Chinese-owned TikTok. Mr Tugendhat told a Policy Exchange event: “For too long foreign interference has been slowly creeping into British democracy. He said he was worried by influence from “organisations whose editorial board is comprised of members of the Chinese Communist Party”. Social media has long been replacing traditional media like the BBC and ITV, but “foreign states hold considerable sway” over what is now being seen on screens, he said.” – The Sun
“Labour would win a 314 seat majority if a general election was held today with senior Tories including the prime minister losing their seats, a poll suggests. The MRP survey, which maps voting intention by constituency, found that the Conservatives would lose 296 seats while Labour would gain 280. The Liberal Democrats would almost double their representation in Westminster, winning 21 seats including that of Dominic Raab, the justice secretary and deputy prime minister, in Esher & Walton in Surrey. Savanta’s latest MRP model in conjunction with Electoral Calculus gives Labour a 20-point voting intention lead which, when converted to seats, would more than double the number of MPs it has in Westminster. The last time the company carried out a similar…it predicted a 56-seat Labour majority…” – The Times
“Sir Keir Starmer is under pressure to ditch a Labour MP candidate engulfed in the Rotherham grooming scandal. Dominic Beck quit as a council cabinet member in 2015 after a damning report on the authority. It was accused of ignoring the horrific sexual exploitation of more than 1,400 girls between 1997 and 2013 by gangs of predominantly Pakistani men. But now Beck could join Sir Keir in the Commons after being selected as the party’s candidate in Rother Valley. Sir Keir faces calls to dump him after admitting as Director of Public Prosecutions the abused girls had been betrayed by the justice system. The current Tory MP Alex Stafford said there was no way Beck should be an MP… The 2014 independent report by Professor Alexis Jay laid bare how the majority of the grooming perpetrators were of Pakistani heritage.” – The Sun
“A judge has thrown out a legal challenge by feminist campaigners against the Scottish Government’s definition of a woman in law. The challenge from campaign group For Women Scotland opposed guidance produced by Scottish ministers around gender representation on public boards. The campaign group won an appeal earlier this year, after which Scottish Ministers produced revised statutory guidance to the Gender Representation on Public Boards (Scotland) Act 2018. However, the campaign group returned to court contending that the revised guidance was ‘unlawful’. They argued the definition of woman in the Equality Act 2010 is to be taken as a reference to ‘biological woman’ and that any attempt to conflate that concept with an acquired gender is ‘impermissible’.” – The Daily Mail