“Rishi Sunak’s government is threatening to block a new law that would make Scotland the first part of the UK to introduce a self-identification system for people who want to change gender. In a significant escalation that brings tensions around transgender rights into the constitutional arena, Westminster made clear it would consider a “nuclear option” of blocking the bill from going for royal assent, a move that would enrage supporters of the changes…The Scottish government pledged to “vigorously contest” any such intervention. The first minister and SNP leader, Nicola Sturgeon, called Sunak and his cabinet “democracy deniers” after the supreme court ruled in October that Holyrood could not… hold another independence referendum…” – The Guardian
“Rishi Sunak has appointed an Old Etonian investment banker and Conservative Party donor as his ethics adviser in an attempt to restore faith in government standards. Sir Laurie Magnus, the chairman of Historic England, becomes the prime minister’s independent adviser on ministerial interests. Magnus, 67, was deputy chairman of the National Trust from 2005 to 2013. The position of independent adviser was previously held by Lord Geidt, resigned from the role in June. Magnus, who will occupy the role for five years… “I will endeavour to discharge the important responsibilities of the role with fairness and integrity, in a manner which inspires the confidence of ministers, parliament and the public,” he said in a letter to Sunak.” – The Times
“Asylum seekers are to get a 10 per cent cost of living boost after Suella Braverman was found by the high court to have acted unlawfully in failing to give them the increase. Internal documents reveal the Home Secretary was advised by Home Office officials in the summer to uprate asylum seekers’ support to meet the rising cost of living or risk breaching the Government’s legal duty to ensure asylum seekers were not left destitute. In a damning high court ruling seen by the Telegraph, Mr Justice Fordham said the Home Secretary had acted unlawfully by failing to increase the subsistence allowance from £40.85p a week to £45 a week after inflation spiralled from three per cent to more than 10 per cent.” – The Daily Telegraph
“The business secretary has threatened fuel retailers with state intervention unless they give drivers a fair deal on prices at the pumps this Christmas. Grant Shapps wrote a letter to them demanding that they come clean on their pricing formula after the release of RAC data yesterday, which showed record high prices in spite of rapidly falling overheads and a 5p cut in fuel duty. Shapps said that he was “committed to ensuring retailers are offering a fair deal at their forecourts” and “will not hesitate to act to ensure competition is healthy and consumers get a fair deal on their fuel”. RAC figures showed a festive pricing record. A full tank of petrol is an average of £4 more expensive to fill up than it was this time last year, at £84…” – The Times
“Britain has joined the international criticism of Joe Biden’s massive US package of green subsidies, warning they are protectionist…Kemi Badenoch, the UK’s international trade secretary, has written to her US counterpart, Katherine Tai, to protest at the structure of the Biden administration’s $369bn attempt to green the economy. The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which passed Congress in August, includes tax credits for green technologies aimed at luring investment to the US and cutting carbon emissions…Badenoch claimed in her letter, seen by the Financial Times, that the US plan would “harm multiple economies across the world and impact global supply chains in batteries, electric vehicles and wider renewables”.” – The Financial Times
“The US is ready to scrap mooted plans for Joe Biden to visit the UK for the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement if Rishi Sunak fails to strike a deal with the EU on post-Brexit trade arrangements with Northern Ireland in time. Diplomatic sources told i that US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, is being lined up as an alternative to visit on behalf of the US, which is a guarantor to the peace agreement, if the President does not attend. News that Mr Biden is considering cancelling his first bilateral trip to the UK puts increased pressure on the Prime Minister and the EU to reach an agreement. The contingency planning may be taken as a sign that Washington has concerns about whether enough progress is being made in negotiations…” – The I
“Sadiq Khan’s powers could be reviewed, under plans being considered by ministers…This week, he announced an expansion of an Ultra-Low Emission Zone (Ulez) in August next year to cover almost all of the area inside the M25. MPs warned it will “crucify” small businesses, but ministers admitted they are powerless to stop it. Officials at the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities are currently weighing up devolution bids from various parts of the country and have recently announced deals with Cornwall, Suffolk and Norfolk. A Whitehall source told The Telegraph that Mr Khan “has obviously got a good majority, but the Met Police are in special measures, the fire services are in special measures and he is underspending on housing development”.” – The Daily Telegraph
“Boris Johnson is being blocked from revealing the opinion of his top lawyer on a Partygate probe, it emerged last night. The former Prime Minister has been told he cannot publish Lord Pannick’s view on the legitimacy of the inquiry by the Commons privileges committee. But leading legal affairs experts say the MPs should release the document because of the huge public interest in the case. Mr Johnson could lose his seat if he is found to have misled the Commons about lockdown-breaking gatherings while he was in Downing Street. Chaired by the veteran Labour MP Harriet Harman, the committee has been running the inquiry for eight months without holding any public meetings. The refusal to allow publication…was revealed by…Joshua Rozenberg.” – The Daily Mail
“Boris Johnson’s four-year NHS Funding Act pushed UK health-care spending ahead of high-taxing countries like Sweden and Switzerland…So we are spending: but we still have about 10 per cent of the population on a hospital waiting list. The leadership on pay talks is coming from Mark Drakeford, the First Minister of Wales. Giving nurses more pay, he said yesterday, means “fewer treatments, fewer nurses, less money for the health service”. If a Labour leader can talk candidly about trade-offs, why can’t the Conservatives? Sunak could…give the nurses the 19 per cent…But he could also share with the public what this would mean…Every extra 1 per cent pay rise for the NHS workforce is the…equivalent to hiring 16,000 extra nurses or 500,000 operations.” – The Daily Telegraph
“A former Tory MP wrongly accused of being part of a fictitious VIP paedophile ring has hit out at Tom Watson’s controversial appointment to the House of Lords, saying his peerage “stains the benches”. Harvey Proctor, whose home was raided in 2015 alongside the late military chief Lord Bramall and the late Lord Brittan of Spennithorne over claims by the fantasist Carl Beech, has called for Watson to apologise to him for promoting the allegations. On Wednesday, Watson, the former Labour deputy leader, gave a maiden speech in the Lords in which he said sorry to Lady Brittan, widow of the former home secretary, for supporting the claims, which led to Scotland Yard’s disastrous Operation Midland.” – The Times
“You’ve met Mondeo Man and Worcester Woman, now meet the key swing voter Labour hopes will win them the next election: middle-aged mortgage man. Party insiders say they are being ruthless about targeting exactly the kind of voters they believe will put them back into power, homing in on people who previously lost faith with Labour but have been personally affected by the spike in interest rates caused by Liz Truss’ “mini-budget”. Just as Labour won in 1997 by targeting upwardly-mobile Mondeo drivers and the Tories in 2010 by focusing on working-class women from Worcester, Starmer’s team believes mortgage man holds the key to success at the next election, likely to be in 2024.” – The Guardian
>Today:
“Christmas is more than just a day of festivity. It is a time of year when we preserve traditions that might otherwise be lost, give space to beliefs that we otherwise push to the back of our minds, and take actions that we might not at other times of year. It is our one remaining festival where we cannot avoid the religious element, and do not necessarily want to… We often speak of the “magic of Christmas” and I don’t think that is coincidental. I agree with those (like the Rev Daniel French, one of the “Irreverend” podcast trio) who argue that Christmas is the one remaining time of year when we still have a glimmer, through a glass darkly, of how the world was before it was disenchanted.” – The Daily Telegraph
Today: