“Rishi Sunak has secured a deal from European leaders to take his fight against people smugglers to the continent amid a deepening migration crisis. The Prime Minister struck the eight-point pact on the sidelines of the European Political Community (EPC) summit after host Spain refused to include migration on the official agenda. Mr Sunak also signed separate deals with Belgium, Serbia and Bulgaria to further stem the flow of illegal arrivals. The deals mark a diplomatic victory for the Prime Minister, with more than 40 countries expected to eventually commit to follow his pledge to “stop the boats”. “What is clear is that this is a shared European problem and everyone agrees that it should be everyone’s own country who decides who comes there and not criminal gangs,” he said.” – Daily Telegraph
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“This is a moral crisis, with criminal gangs exploiting and profiting from the misery of the vulnerable. It is a humanitarian crisis, with shipwrecks of unsafe craft claiming over 2,000 lives already this year. And it is a European crisis: as Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, said on her visit to Lampedusa last month, it’s up to nation states to decide who comes to Europe, not the smugglers and traffickers. We agree, and now is the time for action. Only by stopping the flow of illegal migrants can we restore the trust of the British and Italian people, not just in our domestic borders, but in European and international co-operation. Only by stopping the flow can we protect our two countries’ historic role as places of asylum and sanctuary. How can we take care of those who really need our help, when our resources are so overstretched?” – The Times
“The Conservatives have not seen a “conference bounce” in the polls despite unveiling high-profile policies on smoking, A-level reform and new transport infrastructure in the north and Midlands. A survey of voting intention, carried out for The Times by YouGov, has found that Labour has maintained its 21-point lead over the Tories. However, Sunak’s own personal ratings have improved marginally, with 25 per cent of voters saying that he would make the best prime minister — up three points — compared with 34 per cent who support Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour leader… Tory strategists hoped to use the conference to differentiate Sunak from his predecessors and portray him as the “change” candidate at the next election.” – The Times
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>Today: David Thomas in Comment: Stagnation is fatal to Conservative prospects. To win, we must be the party of national progress.
>Yesterday:
“Radical plans to recruit thousands of foreign doctors are being drawn up by ministers in a bid to break NHS strikes. Health Secretary Steve Barclay has ordered officials to investigate the potential for hiring huge numbers of temporary doctors in the coming months to limit the damage caused by walkouts. Mr Barclay is planning to ask the General Medical Council to fast-track the process for registering doctors to work in the UK, with the aim that they could begin work early in the new year. He has dubbed the plan the ‘Ronald Reagan project’, in reference to the former US President’s controversial 1981 decision to hire thousands of air traffic controllers to end a debilitating strike.” – Daily Mail
“The extra tax haul from Rishi Sunak’s multiyear freeze to income tax allowances and thresholds is set to reach £40bn a year by 2028 because of stubborn inflation — £10bn more than estimated just a few months ago — according to research. The calculation by the Resolution Foundation think-tank for the Financial Times demonstrates how the prime minister is quietly securing vastly higher tax revenues from the public through a process called “fiscal drag”. When the Treasury freezes income tax thresholds while people’s salaries are growing, as they are doing amid the highest inflation for a generation, its revenues increase… Sunak was chancellor in 2021 when he first announced a four-year freeze in income tax allowances and thresholds along with freezes to inheritance tax and National Insurance thresholds.” – FT
>Today: ToryDiary: The tax burden pledge. Its signatories may think they won’t be put on the spot. But they could be. What will they do then?
>Yesterday:
“Two experienced Labour politicians are part of the team appointed by ministers to help turn around the bankrupt Birmingham city council. John Hutton, a Labour peer and former defence secretary, and John Biggs, a former mayor of Tower Hamlets in London, will provide political advice to the council’s leadership “as they take the difficult decisions that will be required”. The pair will act as political advisers alongside five commissioners appointed on Thursday by the levelling up secretary, Michael Gove, to oversee a five-year recovery plan for the stricken Labour-run authority, whose financial woes led it to declare effective insolvency last month. The commissioners will be paid fees of £1,100 a day plus expenses for up to 150 days a year, for a total of £165,000 a year.” – The Guardian
>Today: Gavin Hamilton in Local Government: The dearth of Conservative principles at national level means our council candidates suffer
“Rishi Sunak has been reported to police in Scotland over a joke he made about Nicola Sturgeon in his Conservative party conference speech. Sunak attempted to make fun of the former SNP leader and first minister after she was arrested and questioned as part of Police Scotland’s Operation Branchform investigation into her party’s finances. Sturgeon was released without charge after her arrest in June. She has denied any wrongdoing. In his conference address, Sunak claimed the union between Scotland and the rest of the UK was “the strongest it has been in a quarter of a century”. He added: “Nicola Sturgeon wanted to go down in the history books as the woman who broke up our country. But it now looks like she may go down for very different reasons.”” – The Guardian
Comment:
>Yesterday: Henry Hill’s Red, White, and Blue column: The Union Connectivity Bill never materialised – so how will Sunak deliver promised road projects in Scotland?
“Keir Starmer’s allies boasted he is on track for Downing Street today after an SNP meltdown delivered a massive by-election win for Labour. Sir Keir’s party dramatically overturned a previous 5,300 majority for the separatists to seize Rutherglen & Hamilton West by a margin of 9,400. Experts said if the huge 20 per cent swing was replicated across Scotland then Labour could end up with around 40 MPs north of the border. That compares to just a single MP secured at the 2019 general election, and would almost certainly see Sir Keir become PM. The proportion of the vote received in Rutherglen was in line with 2010 – when Labour had 41 MPs in Scotland… It was another body blow for the SNP’s independence ambitions, with humiliated leader Humza Yousaf dismally failing his first electoral test since taking over from Nicola Sturgeon.” – Daily Mail
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>Today: Georgia L Gilholy’s column: How can a country move toward banning cigarettes whilst tolerating drug consumption rooms?
“Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, has delivered an effective coup de grâce to the northern leg of the HS2 high speed rail line as he refused to commit to reversing Rishi Sunak’s decision to axe the line beyond Birmingham. Starmer said that the UK prime minister’s handling of HS2 had been “a fiasco”, but asked whether a Labour government would save the project, he said: “I can’t stand here and commit to reversing that decision.” Sunak on Wednesday cancelled the northern leg of HS2 from Birmingham to Manchester, claiming that it would save £36bn that would instead be spent on alternative road and rail schemes. Starmer suggested in a round of interviews before Labour’s party conference in Liverpool that Sunak’s decision marked the point of no return for HS2.” – FT
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“Labour is seeking to delay until after the general election a court case against five former staff alleging they leaked a report concerned with the party’s handling of antisemitism complaints, as its costs were said to have apparently soared to £1.4m. The lawsuit concerns the 2020 leak of an 860-page document that claimed factional hostility towards Jeremy Corbyn contributed to the party’s ineffective handling of such complaints. Proposing a trial date no earlier than 28 February 2025, almost five years after the leak, the party has claimed it would be “unfair and inappropriate” to have to go to trial while it runs a general election campaign. But the alleged leakers, who deny responsibility, have suggested Labour wants the delay to avoid “embarrassing or uncomfortable” publicity during the election period.” – The Guardian
“Dozens of cross-party MPs and peers have joined a campaign for an “immediate stop” to the use of live facial recognition surveillance by police and private companies. The former cabinet minister David Davis, the Liberal Democrats leader, Sir Ed Davey, the Green MP Caroline Lucas and the former shadow attorney general Shami Chakrabarti are among the 65 members of the House of Commons and House of Lords to call for a halt to the technology’s use. The campaign is spearheaded by the privacy advocate Big Brother Watch and is also backed by 31 groups including Liberty, Amnesty International and the Race Equality Foundation. Police have deployed live facial recognition at large-scale public events, including King Charles’s coronation.” – The Guardian