“Labour’s Andrew Western has become the country’s newest MP after a comfortable victory in the Stretford and Urmston by-election. The leader of Trafford Council retained the Greater Manchester constituency this morning with a majority of almost 10,000. Bitterly cold conditions on polling day and the expectation of an easy Labour hold contributed to turnout of just 25.8 per cent. Mr Western, who secured a majority of 9,906, said the result sent a “strong message” to Rishi Sunak’s Government. Conservative candidate Emily Carter-Kandola finished in second place with 2,922 votes and a share of 15.8 per cent. Green Party candidate Dan Jerrome finished third. The vote was triggered after Labour former minister Kate Green resigned to become Greater Manchester deputy mayor last month.” – The Sun
>Today:
“Rishi Sunak has held informal talks with the leaders of Stormont’s five main parties, as he seeks to address Northern Ireland’s political impasse on his first visit to the region as Prime Minister. Mr Sunak met with senior representatives of Sinn Féin, the Democratic Unionist Party, Ulster Unionist Party, Alliance and SDLP at a hotel near Belfast at the start visit to the region on Thursday evening. He met all the parties in the same room and spoke to them separately for around 10 to 15 minutes each. Devolution has been in flux since February, when the DUP withdrew its first minister from the ministerial executive in protest at Brexit’s Northern Ireland Protocol, a post-Brexit trading deal which introduced checks on goods arriving from the UK mainland.” – The I
“Downing Street said chief nursing officer for England Dame Ruth May was not speaking for the Government when she apparently backed 100,000 striking nurses and medics on the picket line in the biggest walkout in NHS history. Nurses demanding better pay braved -8C temperatures and snow to bolster picket lines outside ailing hospitals in England, Wales and Northern Ireland on Thursday. Health Secretary Steve Barclay, however, avoided striking medics. Visiting a hospital that did not back action, he remained adamant that the Government wouldn’t meet the RCN’s inflation-busting pay demands. However Pat Cullen, general secretary and chief executive of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), said the first day of nursing strikes had led to ‘fresh pressure’ on ministers.” – The Daily Mail
“Rishi Sunak is under growing pressure to negotiate with striking nurses after four former Conservative ministers joined health service leaders to call for a way out of the escalating dispute… Steve Brine, a former health minister who now chairs the Commons health select committee, said inviting the pay review body to look again would be sensible… Robert Buckland, a former justice secretary, said “a middle way” must be found between the 4% offered by the government and the rise of 5% above inflation the RCN has been seeking (currently amounting to 19%, based on RPI of 14%)… Jake Berry, the Tory party chair under Liz Truss, and Dr Daniel Poulter, another former health minister, also made clear their support for a negotiated settlement involving the PRB.” – The Guardian
“Pressure mounted on union bosses to back down over train strikes after Network Rail workers accepted a pay offer – with the Government claiming the “tide is turning” over ongoing disputes. Huw Merriman, Transport Minister, told MPs he was meeting with the head of the Rail, Maritime and Transport Union (RMT) Mick Lynch on Thursday to “try and facilitate some form of agreement”. He claimed there was “appetite among the workers to strike a deal” after the Transport Salaried Staffs Association (TSSA) backed a pay offer with Network Rail. The TSSA is still in dispute with train operators over pay, jobs and conditions, and the RMT also remains in a dispute with Network Rail, after just over half its members rejected the same offer earlier this week.” – The I
“Parents will not have to change any of their children’s social media settings for them to be protected under new duty of care laws, the Culture Secretary says on Friday. In an open letter to parents, Michelle Donelan said social media bosses would instead have to build these protections into their platforms – or face multi-million pound fines if they failed to do so. Her statement…represents a significant strengthening of the Government’s stance in requiring social media giants such as Facebook, Instagram and TikTok to bake child safety measures into the design of their platforms. Campaigners have complained that parents have had to rely on monitoring settings and filters to protect their children from social media’s algorithms driven by profit and keeping people online rather than safety.” – The Daily Telegraph
“Universities face a ‘growing creep of self-censorship’ a Tory minister has warned, after Edinburgh students cancelled a screening of a ‘transphobic’ film. Education minister Claire Coutinho has warned that the right to free speech is ‘in the very institutions where it should be the most treasured’ after students at the University of Edinburgh stopped a showing of Adult Human Female. The documentary, which has been criticised for containing ‘transphobic language’ and ‘spreading misinformation about trans people’ was due to be shown in a lecture theatre on Wednesday night. But students at the university blocked the doors a week after Edinburgh’s University and College Union writing to the principal last week to ask that the event be cancelled or moved from an official University building.” – The Daily Mail
“Ministers will consult on planning reforms that would free up pockets of brownfield land in cities in England to allow the building of hundreds of thousands of homes and prop up struggling small builders. The government said this week it would look at proposals that would support the development of smaller sites for new housing after Andrew Lewer, a Conservative backbench MP, put forward an amendment to the delayed levelling up and regeneration bill that is going through parliament. Lewer had sought to insert a “small sites clause” into the legislation that would have required councils to “support opportunities to bring forward sites and apply a presumption in favour of development”, provided at least 60 per cent of homes proposed were affordable.” – The Financial Times
>Today:
“I am unusual in having been a civil servant, a special (political) adviser and a minister. In all those roles I have seen that the problem is that, as Sir Humphrey puts it to Jim Hacker: “Minister, you are not here to run this department.” Ministers can’t do any of the things that a CEO in the private sector would, except with extreme effort. That’s why it took the Prime Minister getting involved this week just to put a few hundred extra civil servants onto dealing with the asylum system. Ministers must normally accept the way things are done in their department. That’s a problem because, in my experience, many, perhaps most, Whitehall departments are pretty badly run. It’s not just that they waste time, effort and money. It’s that they do their core job – advising ministers and delivering outcomes – badly.” – The Daily Telegraph
“The NHS should move towards a European-style health insurance model or it will not “survive many more years,” Sajid Javid has warned. Mr Javid, a former health secretary, said the current funding model was not “sustainable for the future” and the UK should look to emulate France…He added that politicians must not “pretend” the NHS is offering a good service and called for an “honest debate” about its future. [He] said a discussion about moving to a form of “co-payment”, where wealthier people pay for some of their care, should be on the table. In an interview…he said many Britons already feel they have no choice but to spend on private insurance. He cited talks in Scotland, where managers of the cash-strapped NHS have held talks about charging wealthier patients for some of their care.” – The Daily Telegraph
“The squeeze on taxes and public spending promised to bring down the deficit will wipe billions of pounds from the economy, the Bank of England warned as it increased interest rates. Rates on Thursday hit a 14-year high of 3.5 per cent, despite early signs than double-digit inflation may now have peaked. The Bank’s monetary policy committee warned that “further increases” in interest rates might be needed in the new year in to bring inflation down from 10.7 per cent to its target level of 2 per cent. Rises in interest rates are usually expected to reduce the level of economic growth as well as adding to the cost of servicing debt. In a statement published alongside its decision, the Bank said that Jeremy Hunt’s Autumn Statement had provided significant stimulus in the short term…” – The I
“Grassroots Conservative rebels who are pushing for more “democracy” in the party have vowed to set up a branch in every constituency in the UK to put pressure on Rishi Sunak. The Conservative Democratic Organisation (CDO), backed by Tory banker Peter Cruddas, launched this week and has attracted the support of former Home Secretary Priti Patel. Its main aims are to give Conservative members the right to elect the party chairman, pick local parliamentary candidates, deselect their MPs and have a say on policy. Critics have suggested the group is a front organisation to oppose Mr Sunak and lobby for Boris Johnson to be restored as leader, but its founders deny the claim. David Campbell-Bannerman, a former MEP who is chairman of the CDO, told i that he was aiming to set up 650 different branches…” – The I
“The Scottish government has raised taxes for the highest earners in the country, widening the gap with the rest of the UK as it sought to raise revenues and offset the impact of surging inflation and increased wage settlements. The pro-independence Scottish National party…stuck to a progressive tax system by keeping rates for lower-paid workers unchanged. But in Thursday’s Budget, which was delayed after some details were leaked to the BBC, Scotland’s deputy first minister John Swinney reduced the level at which the highest tax rate is levied from £150,000 to £125,140. The decision will pull more Scots into the top rate of tax and has matched a similar move by UK chancellor Jeremy Hunt when he presented his Autumn Statement in November.” – The Financial Times
“Alex Salmond has accused Nicola Sturgeon of “flying the white flag” on Scottish independence, after her government decided to spend £20 million she had earmarked for a referendum next year on other policies. Announcing the funding had been reallocated, John Swinney, the Deputy First Minister, said the Scottish Government respected the Supreme Court ruling that it does not have the power to stage a vote. He insisted the Scottish Government still wanted to stage a separation vote in October next year and that other funds would be found if the necessary powers were transferred to Holyrood, as happened in 2014. But he announced that he had to “make full use of the resources available to me” and the money would instead go on helping poor Scots who are struggling with their energy bills.” – The Daily Telegraph
>Yesterday: