“France must fight Britain’s corner on migrant deportations, Emmanuel Macron will be told, as he hammers out a new deal with Rishi Sunak to combat small boat crossings. The Prime Minister will travel to Paris on Friday for a summit with the French president, where they will discuss small boats, Brexit, defence and energy. British negotiators have accepted that Mr Macron will not agree unilaterally to take back illegal migrants from the UK and will instead argue that there needs to be an EU-wide returns deal with Britain. British officials will press for the French president to take a more proactive stance in battling for an EU-wide deal to accept returns from the UK. Britain has not deported a single Channel migrant to France under its post-Brexit returns policy…” – The Daily Telegraph
“Rishi Sunak is preparing to announce a multibillion-pound cash injection into Britain’s nuclear deterrence programme, as part of a new defence funding package in the wake of the Ukraine war. The prime minister is due to unveil up to £5 billion of additional cash for defence over the next two years on a visit to America next week. He will also publish a “refresh” of the government’s defence and security integrated review that will set out the UK’s approach to strategic threats from both Russia and China. The Times understands that a significant portion of the new money will be earmarked for the Dreadnought programme that will replace Britain’s ageing submarine fleet, which is armed with nuclear weapons.” – The Times
“Britain will design Australia’s first generation of nuclear-powered submarines, Rishi Sunak is set to announce on a trip to the US to seal the deal. The Prime Minister will unveil the historic Aukus agreement at a three-way summit in San Diego alongside President Joe Biden and Anthony Albanese, Australia’s prime minister. It will come as a huge boost to the defence industry, much of which is based in the Red Wall seats the Tories need to hold to win the next election. Senior Conservatives hailed the news as a big win for Britain and said it was testament to the “world-class expertise” of the country’s naval sector. Under the agreement, set to be unveiled on Monday, the UK will provide Australia with plans for a modified version of its next-generation submarines.” – The Daily Telegraph
“Rishi Sunak will determine whether Dominic Raab bullied officials because the formal investigation into his conduct will not express an opinion about his behaviour, The Times has been told. Adam Tolley KC was appointed by the prime minister in November to investigate formal complaints made by civil servants about the justice secretary’s behaviour. Alleged victims of Raab, the deputy prime minister, have been told that Tolley will only seek to establish the facts surrounding allegations of bullying in three government departments. He will not give a “subjective” opinion on whether the events that he outlines in his report, which is expected to be published later this month, amount to bullying.” – The Times
“Downing Street has distanced itself from the Cabinet Office’s claim that it was “entirely coincidental” that Covid-19 was discovered close to a Chinese government laboratory. The Telegraph revealed on Wednesday that Matt Hancock was censored by the Cabinet Office over his concern that the virus was the result of a lab leak in Wuhan. But No 10 declined to repeat the suggestion and said it was willing to consider the “lab leak” theory. A spokesman for Rishi Sunak said that there were “still questions that need to be answered about the origin and spread of Covid-19” and added: “The UK wants to see a robust, transparent and science-led review and believes all possibilities remain on the table until that is concluded.”” – The Daily Telegraph
“Jeremy Hunt will have £166bn of headroom to cut taxes and invest in next week’s Budget, according to one of Britain’s leading economic think tanks. The figure is nine times a prediction by the official spending watchdog in November, underscoring improvements in the economy after booming tax receipts and a sharp fall in energy prices. The National Institute for Economic and Social Research (Niesr), which conducted the research, urged the Chancellor to use this breathing space to rethink a planned corporation tax rise from 19pc to 25pc amid a backlash from politicians and business leaders. Mr Hunt has insisted the increase must go ahead, but business leaders and Tory backbenchers fear it will…damage the country’s standing in the eyes of international investors.” – The Daily Telegraph
“Jeremy Hunt will hand middle-class workers a pension boost next week in a bid to encourage them to extend their careers into later life. Whitehall sources said the Chancellor will use the Budget to unveil ‘significant’ increases in pension allowances that are blamed for driving doctors and other professionals out of the workforce. The £1million lifetime allowance on tax-free pension savings will see the first substantial increase for a decade. The £40,000 cap on annual pension contributions will…be raised. Both moves are designed to tackle the so-called ‘pension trap’ which can leave some professionals facing punitive tax charges if they continue working…It is said to have led thousands of doctors to quit and is seen as a major barrier to encouraging them back.” – The Daily Mail
“The Justice Secretary has promised a full risk assessment of the anticipated early release from prison of Joanna Simpson’s hammer killer. The victim’s mother Diana Parkes, 83, met Dominic Raab yesterday to discuss her concerns about Robert Brown going free. Brown battered wife Joanna, 46, to death with a claw hammer in Ascot, Berkshire, in 2010. We revealed yesterday he was blocked from an open prison move last year as he was found to still be a serious public threat. And Mr Raab says he will review in detail whether to use the new Power to Detain law closer to Brown’s scheduled automatic release date in November.” – The Sun
“The Home Office has had to find an extra £2 billion to fund hotel rooms for asylum seekers, as the Government admitted there is no deadline to end their use. The number of migrants being housed in hotels has passed 50,000 for the first time, up from just 2,600 in March 2020, at a cost of more than £6 million a day. Analysis by the Telegraph shows there are now asylum hotels in 90 per cent of England’s 48 counties. It has prompted fears among MPs that tens of thousands of migrants will still be housed in hotels across the country by the next election, widely expected to be in 2024. Treasury figures have been pushing for the Home Office to scale back the use of “expensive” hotels while Suella Braverman’s department wanted more money to plug the black hole in its budget.” – The Daily Telegraph
“Britain’s long delayed high-speed rail line between London and Manchester will be pushed back by another two years, ministers have announced, blaming spiralling construction costs. Mark Harper, the transport secretary, said construction of the Birmingham to Crewe leg of HS2 would not enter service before 2032 at the earliest. The government also warned that plans to bring HS2 into Euston station might not be completed until 2041 — with trains stopping outside of central London. The move is the latest blow to the controversial £100 billion project that has been beset by cost overruns, delays and scaling back of ambition. Harper insisted that the London to Birmingham stretch of the line was being prioritised and would open at some point between 2029 and 2033.” – The Times
“Boris Johnson has slashed the number of people who will feature in his resignation honours list from almost 100 to as few as 50 after the former prime minister was advised by officials that he had proposed too many. People briefed on Johnson’s latest list said he had for a second time put forward former Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre for a peerage, despite his rejection last year by the House of Lords appointments commission, which vets nominations. Outgoing prime ministers have a right to nominate people for peerages, knighthoods, damehoods and other awards in a resignation honours list. But some have proved controversial, including Harold Wilson’s so-called Lavender list, which involved honours for prominent business people.” – The Financial Times
“A senior Conservative MP has been referred to Parliament’s standards watchdog over claims he broke lobbying rules during the coronavirus pandemic. Steve Brine, the chairman of the health and social care select committee, lobbied the chief executive of the NHS and ministers on behalf of a firm paying him £1,600 a month for “strategic advice”. The Telegraph’s Lockdown Files, a leaked cache of more than 100,000 pandemic-era WhatsApp messages, revealed that Mr Brine told Michael Gove in February 2021 he had been “trying for months” to convince the NHS to hire anaesthetists through Remedium, a recruitment firm. He said he had contacted Lord Stevens, then head of NHS England, and the Department of Health and Social Care.” – The Daily Telegraph
“Net migration is expected to come down and ministers will set themselves the objective to stop all small boats’ crossings in the…Channel if Labour wins the next general election, Yvette Cooper has said. The shadow home secretary also raised concerns about the Government’s new Illegal Migration Bill, which MPs will vote on early next week, saying that it would make it harder to protect modern slavery victims. David Cameron, the former prime minister, was heavily criticised for setting his government a target to cut net migration to “tens of thousands” of people… Last October, Suella Braverman, the Home Secretary, said that she “ultimately” wanted to bring net migration down to tens of thousands of people. Last year, net migration into the UK hit…502,000.” – The Daily Telegraph
“Humza Yousaf has told Kate Forbes that the Scottish Tories are “rooting for you to win so that your words are on every single leaflet”, as the first UK-wide televised debate between SNP leadership contenders saw further clashes between the frontrunners, while polling for the Channel 4 hosts suggested the contest remains too close to call. Referring to heated exchanges at first minister’s questions earlier on Thursday, when Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross jeered that finance secretary Forbes had “torched” the Scottish government’s record, Yousaf said: “What unfortunately happened in the last TV debate, Kate, was that you essentially gave our opponents so much ammunition to attack us with.”” – The Guardian
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