“They have told the English National Opera to move to Manchester and made Treasury officials relocate to Teesside. Now the last bastion of the establishment is to be “levelled up” after Rishi Sunak instructed Whitehall officials to give more knighthoods, damehoods and other honours to people living outside of London and the southeast. In an edict to the officials who run the birthday and honours system, the prime minister has said he wants them to prioritise awards to under-represented areas of the country. Sunak has also called for awards to civil servants to be reformed…The shake-up comes after a government audit revealed that people in London and the southeast were more than twice as likely to get an award as those living in the north and the Midlands.” – The Times
“Rishi Sunak has declared war on vape-makers who target children — saying he does not want his daughters seduced by them. He has ordered a crackdown on enticing vapes with bright colours and fruity flavours. The PM, whose daughters are ten and 12, said: “I have two young girls and I worry about that, and that’s why we’ve actually recently funded a new hit squad that’s going to go in and tackle all these shops that shouldn’t be selling vapes to children, which is already illegal… I don’t want my kids to be seduced by any of these things.” Last month, the PM announced several measures to curb the rise in under-age vaping. Health Minister Neil O’Brien has launched the illicit vapes enforcement squad, backed by £3million of new funding.” – The Sun
“Rishi Sunak risks missing a key pledge to clear the asylum backlog as new figures reveal that just 1 per cent of migrants who arrived in small boats over the past year have had their claim processed. It helped to push the asylum backlog to a record high, with 172,758 people waiting for their claim to be processed by the end of March, Home Office figures published yesterday revealed. Separate figures published by the Office for National Statistics revealed that net migration hit another record high of 606,000 last year, adding the equivalent to a city the size of Glasgow to the UK’s population. Immigration continues to be fuelled by soaring levels of non-EU migration, which increased by 287,000 in a year to 925,000 in 2022.” – The Times
“The headline number, 606,000 more people arriving than departing last year, is hugely controversial. It’s six times David Cameron’s old target. It raises embarrassing questions about what “taking back control” meant, or why the Tories have doubled the net migration that they promised to cut. But without these industrious newcomers, the Tories would be forced to confront deep social and economic issues like mass welfare dysfunction, the skills gap, the mental health crisis. No politician is very keen to do that. Brexit has given Sunak complete control over the borders, to numbers as low as he likes. But he won’t use these powers, because the newcomers offer such help in politically sensitive areas.” – The Daily Telegraph
“Tens of thousands more patients will be signed up for clinical trials as ministers promise drug companies better access to the NHS to expand the economy and develop cutting-edge treatments. Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, is promising a £650 million package to boost life sciences as he attempts to lure pharmaceutical giants to Britain. GPs will be offered financial incentives to recruit patients into trials of new treatments and hospitals will be given research targets under plans to reverse a slump in clinical testing while the NHS struggles with the backlog from Covid-19. Looser planning rules for laboratory space have been promised as Hunt hopes to revive an “Oxford-Cambridge arc” of high-tech development.” – The Times
“Ministers are considering a sweeping reform to the fund that protects savers in company pension plans that could turn it into a vehicle able to invest tens of billions of pounds in UK businesses. Proposals before ministers could see the government-backed Pension Protection Fund, which has £39bn in pension assets, given an extended remit to take on struggling corporate “defined benefit” retirement schemes….Currently, the PPF has a restricted role in providing a safety net for pension schemes when their employer fails, and cannot meet members’ retirement payment promises in full. However, proposals being considered by the Treasury would see the PPF’s remit widened so it has a more active role in taking on company pension plans that have not failed…” – The Financial Times
“One in five of the new hospitals promised by Boris Johnson will not be built this decade, ministers have admitted. NHS bosses warned that the delays would be “hugely damaging for the healthcare of hundreds of thousands of people”, as patients were being treated in “crumbling wards”. The pledge to build 40 new hospitals by 2030 was a key plank of the Conservatives’ 2019 election manifesto. So far only two have opened, with five others under construction. Steve Barclay, the health secretary, confirmed yesterday that eight of the projects had been pushed back until after 2030, as billions of pounds earmarked for new NHS sites were being diverted to stop existing hospitals falling down. Hospitals denied funding include St Mary’s in London…” – The Times
“Teachers must tell parents if their children declare they are transgender in class, the Education Secretary has said. Gillian Keegan said she disagreed with the stance taken in some schools where staff ‘affirm’ a pupil’s new name and pronouns in secret. She promised that the ‘common sense’ involvement of parents would be included in long-awaited transgender guidance for head teachers…But she also revealed there will be ‘quite a long consultation’ on the ‘sensitive’ rules due to be published before the summer holiday, raising the prospect that it may be many more months before the guidance is in force. Her comments…come after a BBC survey found that three-quarters of secondary school teachers said they taught trans or non-binary pupils.” – The Daily Mail
“Migrant salary limits must be raised to persuade Britons back to work, Tory MPs have told Rishi Sunak, after he admitted record levels of net migration were “too high”. The Prime Minister faced a backlash from within his own party after it was confirmed that net migration hit a record high of 606,000 in the year ending December 2022. Robert Jenrick, the immigration minister, admitted he had “a lot of sympathy” with Tory MPs calling for the salary threshold for migrants to be raised to stop employers undercutting British workers. He said the Government would consider “further measures in the future”. Red Wall MPs led demands to raise the £26,200 a year threshold for skilled workers, pointing out that it is 20 per cent lower than the current UK median salary of £33,000.” – The Daily Telegraph
“An animal welfare law to protect sheep from aggressive dogs and ban monkeys being kept as pets has been scrapped by the Government. Ministers dropped a flagship law containing several manifesto commitments, including to ban the export of live animals and crack down on puppy smuggling. Mark Spencer, an environment minister, told the Commons the Government would instead pursue its plans through individual pieces of secondary legislation rather than with a flagship bill. But animal rights campaigners accused the Government of an “astonishing betrayal of both animals and public trust”. Publicly, the Government has blamed Labour for playing “political games” by trying to amend the legislation to add more animal welfare protections.” – The Daily Telegraph
“The Covid-19 inquiry is pressing the Cabinet Office to release WhatsApp messages and diary entries relating to the Downing Street parties scandal amid potential concerns over an “inadequate” response to the pandemic by ministers. Baroness Hallett, the head of the inquiry, said that “superficially unrelated” matters such as the lockdown-breaking parties in No 10 may provide context for her investigations. She is threatening the government with criminal sanctions if it does not hand over the messages and 24 diaries from Boris Johnson’s time in Downing Street by Tuesday. The government is considering launching a legal challenge to block the release of thousands of unredacted messages from Johnson, Rishi Sunak and 40 other senior government figures…” – The Times
>Today:
“Humza Yousaf’s Government has unveiled plans for a sleepover tax for anyone staying in Scotland in tourist accommodation, in one of its first major law changes. The Visitor Levy (Scotland) Bill would give councils the power to impose a tax on stays in any form of overnight accommodation, including hotels, bed-and-breakfasts, private rentals and tents or caravans on camping sites. Local authorities would set a levy based on a fixed percentage of the cost of the accommodation, with hoteliers and other providers liable to pay the sum. However, they would pass on the cost to their guests. SNP ministers pressed ahead with the tax despite opposition from 63 per cent of organisations that responded to a public consultation on the plan.” – The Daily Telegraph
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