Brexit

Express
Rishi Sunak has brought back a leading Brexit campaigner in a bid to “reassure” Tory MPs in the European Research Group as hopes of reaching an agreement on the Northern Ireland Protocol soar. The Prime Minister has also put Ulster’s Protocol Bill on ice until the new year as private talks suggest the new deal could be reached by February, a report has claimed. According to the Times, senior officials claim the Bill will not return to the House of Lords this year.
The legislation was designed to give the UK the right to unilaterally suspend aspects of Northern Ireland’s post-Brexit agreement if there is no deal with the Brussels bloc.
The delay is expected to frustrate ERG members but Mr Sunak, who campaigned for Brexit, has brought back a Eurosceptic figure to work as an intermediary.
Former Vote Leave aide Oliver Lewis, who worked as Lord David Frost’s negotiating deputy, is now working as an unpaid figure in an attempt to win over the ERG.
A Government source told the Times that Mr Lewis will work to “reassure them they are being listened to and are in the loop”.

Telegraph
Six years on from the Brexit vote, warnings of an exodus of money and jobs from the City have proven to be overblown.
Brexit has not led to a crash for the City. But until Friday’s “Big Bang 2.0”, Britain had also failed to take advantage of the opportunities available to give London a competitive edge.
Jeremy Hunt will hope that his sweeping reforms can now relax and reshape the most onerous rules.
Experts say over a third of the more than 30 reforms outlined in the shake-up have been made possible by the UK’s departure from the EU. Some of the others being removed were imposed in the wake of the financial crisis to prevent excessive risk-taking, but are now deemed unnecessary.
Mr Hunt said that Brexit freedoms have given the UK “more latitude” and allowed it to “do more” than it otherwise would have been able to.
Changes only made possible because of Brexit include tailored rules on short-selling, altering the Mifid rules and replacing the Packaged Retail and Insurance-based Investment Products (PRIIPS) regulations, which forced investment funds to produce documents for their products they complained were onerous and misleading to consumers.

Times
Rishi Sunak has put the Northern Ireland Brexit protocol bill on ice until the new year after private talks with Brussels paved the way for a new deal by February.
Senior officials say the bill will not be returned to the Lords this year, giving negotiators time to thrash out new trade rules for a St Valentine’s Day agreement.
The bill is designed to give Britain the right to unilaterally suspend aspects of the protocol, including excessive border checks, if there is no deal with Brussels.
But even Lord Caine, the minister in charge of pushing the bill through the Lords, has privately raised questions about whether it may break international law.
Caine said he did not recognise the remarks attributed to him.

Asylum seekers

Telegraph
Radical groups could target hotels housing asylum-seekers in an attempt to recruit people, counter-extremism officials fear.
Officials in the Midlands city of Stoke-on-Trent have become increasingly concerned about the resurgence of Hizb ut-Tahrir, a group that promotes the creation of an Islamic state. It is banned in more than a dozen countries but not in the UK.
The group has been holding sessions in a converted warehouse a short walk from two hotels housing asylum seekers, and sources said they feared the proximity would provide individuals with extreme but not illegal views “easy access” to vulnerable migrants.
It is understood that at meetings with police and council officials working on Prevent, the government’s counter-terrorism strategy, the group’s activities were discussed and concerns raised about whether asylum-seekers could be exploited.
“There have been informed conversations with Prevent teams about the issue”, said a source. “There is a fear when they are operating that close they have easy access and vice-versa. We want to avoid the risk of a tinderbox between extremists and the far-Right, who are also operating in the city”.
Another community source said Hizb ut-Tahrir had been active a number of years ago before going under the radar, expressing alarm at the way in which it had recently re-emerged in the city.

PPE

Mail
Millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money has been spent on Covid-related personal protective equipment (PPE) that never left China.
Ministers signed off orders for 64.4 million surgical facemasks and 3.7 million plastic aprons worth £26 million during the pandemic.
But now the items, which were made in China, have been sold in an online auction for as little as £500.
When auctioned as two lots in late October, the 2,597 pallets of PPE were still in Shanghai.
They were never shipped as they were deemed surplus to requirements.
The facemasks would have cost taxpayers around 40p each when they were purchased during the pandemic, according the National Audit Office, bringing the cost of those just auctioned to £25.8 million.
The aprons cost just 5p each, so the total cost for them was around £184,000.
How much they went for in the auction, organised by UK-based disposals firm Ramco, is unknown.
However, each lot had a minimum sale price of just £250. The items were sold because it was costing money to store them in China.
Last year, the UK spent £23 million storing PPE in China – or around £442,000 a week.

Times
They are the three letters that the Tories cannot seem able to shake … PPE. Last week, the Conservative peer Baroness Mone announced that she was taking leave of absence from the House of Lords amid scrutiny over deals awarded to PPE Medpro. She denies wrongdoing.
Now The Sunday Times can reveal the scale of payments and unused PPE of the 20 privately owned British-based companies firms that received the biggest deals in the pandemic.
Our PPE Rich List shows these businesses — including PPE Medpro — received a total of £7.4 billion in contracts but also produced more than £1 billion in PPE placed in the “do not supply” lane as of June 2021.

NHS

Mail
Labour’s shadow health secretary has joined ‘bullyboy’ Steve Barclay in hitting out at ‘hostile’ health unions as he promised to take on ‘vested interests’ to reform the NHS.
Wes Streeting targeted the BMA trade union, which represents doctors and medical students, as he urged his party colleagues to see the NHS as a ‘service not a shrine’.
It follows Health Secretary Steve Barclay who slammed NHS unions on Saturday night after he allegedly failed to agree to negotiations on pay which could have seen a pause to strikes and saved 15,000 operations from being cancelled.
The Royal College of Nursing had offered to ‘press pause’ on planned strike action if Mr Barclay agrees to negotiate properly on pay, amid fears that the winter walkouts will cripple an already struggling NHS.

Telegraph
Labour will take on “hostile” health unions holding back the NHS, the shadow health secretary has said.
In an interview with The Telegraph, Wes Streeting warned that the NHS was “a service, not a shrine” and needed to “reform or die”.
Mr Streeting – who revealed that he has been waiting for months for delayed scans after cancer treatment – said the health service faced an “existential crisis”, with “appalling” difficulties accessing care.
He said the public had sacrificed “a lot of their lives and liberty” to prevent the NHS from being overwhelmed during repeated lockdowns, only to see it now “collapsed” around them.
His stance strikes a new tone for Labour, which relies heavily on union support and has accepted more than £15 million from unions involved in this winter’s strikes since Sir Keir Starmer became leader.
As the NHS braces for a wave of industrial action by nurses and paramedics, the shadow minister urged all unions to put patients first.
Mr Streeting said a Labour government could not afford the pay rises nurses are seeking, but criticised ministers for failing to negotiate on pay or get round the table when strikes were mooted.
The MP for Ilford North said that if Labour won the election he would not hesitate to take on unions holding back the cause of patients, singling out the British Medical Association (BMA) for being “hostile” to the idea that patients should expect better standards.

Guardian
Ministers were under intense pressure last night to open new pay talks that could avert a devastating series of NHS strikes as health unions suggested a deal could be struck if both sides were willing to negotiate and compromise.
Amid claims from Labour and from NHS sources that ministers appeared to be playing politics and deliberately “spoiling for a fight”, union leaders strongly suggested that an improved, but still sub-inflation, offer similar to that made to Scottish health unions at the end of last month by the Holyrood government – which has led to strike threats being lifted north of the border – could help break the deadlock elsewhere in the UK.
The health unions, led by the Royal College of Nursing, Unison and the GMB, are furious that health secretary Steve Barclay is refusing to even discuss any improvement of the government’s offer to health service workers, which is capped at 3% and based on the recommendations of the NHS pay review body.
Officials say that in two meetings since the RCN ballot for action was announced, Barclay has refused to discuss pay levels.
The RCN yesterday stepped up its preparation for strikes on 15 and 20 December. Only five areas of care will be protected: chemotherapy, critical care, dialysis, paediatric intensive care and neonatal. But the unions also hinted at flexibility.

BBC News
A nurses’ strike this month may be called off if the government negotiates “seriously” over pay, says the head of the union representing them.
A “swift change of tactics” would pay off for everyone concerned, said Pat Cullen, general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN).
The walkouts in England, Wales and Northern Ireland are planned for 15 and 20 December.
The government has said doors for further talks remain open.
The RCN is calling for nurses to be given a pay rise of 5% above the RPI inflation rate.
Ms Cullen said her offer to negotiate was turned down five times.
“I will press pause on it when the health secretary says he will negotiate seriously on our dispute this year,” she added.

Mirror
NHS bosses have forked out nearly £3.7billion to hire private agency doctors in the last four years.
That works out at almost £1billion a year – enough to pay the salaries of more than 30,000 new junior doctors.
The figures were uncovered by Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting, who said: “Taxpayers are picking up the bill for the Conservatives’ failure to train enough doctors and nurses over the past 12 years.”
He vowed: “ Labour will train 7,500 more doctors and 10,000 more nurses a year, paid for by abolishing the non-dom tax status.”
In September, there were 9,000 vacant doctor posts in secondary care.
A British Medical Association survey also found nearly half of senior hospital doctors in England plan to leave the NHS or take a break from it next year. Meanwhile, newly qualified foreign GPs are being driven out of the NHS over deportation fears.

ITV News
The Royal College of Nursing has offered to “press pause” on unprecedented strike action next week if health secretary Steve Barclay agrees to negotiate properly on pay.
Up to 100,000 nursing staff are set to take part in the walkouts on December 15 and 20 amid a long-running row over pay and unsafe staffing levels.
However, RCN general secretary Pat Cullen told The Observer that she was willing to halt the strike action in England, Wales and Northern Ireland if Mr Barclay agreed to come to the table to discuss a deal.
The union has accused the health secretary of refusing to properly negotiate on pay, and of deploying “bullyboy” tactics against a largely female workforce.
Ms Cullen said: “Negotiate with nurses and avoid this strike. Five times my offer to negotiate has been turned down.
“I will press pause on it when the Health Secretary says he will negotiate seriously on our dispute this year.
“That means each of us giving some ground. He gains nothing by ignoring the representatives of the NHS workforce.
“The public blames Government for this dire situation, and they have to face up to it. A swift change of tactics will pay off for all concerned.”

i news
The Royal College of Nursing has offered to “press pause” on planned strike action if Health Secretary Steve Barclay agrees to negotiate properly on pay.
The offer, reported in The Observer, came on Saturday ahead of the first wave of planned strike action next week.
RCN general secretary Pat Cullen, whose members are due to take part in unprecedented strike action on December 15 and December 20, said that she was willing to press pause on the walkout by thousands of nurses in England, Wales and Northern Ireland if Mr Barclay agreed to come to the table and discuss a deal on pay demands.
The Department of Health on Saturday night said that the Health Secretary’s “door remains open for further talks”, but did not say whether pay would now be on the table.
Labour called it an “offer the Government can’t refuse”.
The RCN has accused Mr Barclay of refusing to properly negotiate on pay, with Ms Cullen on Friday suggesting the Health Secretary has deployed “bullyboy” tactics against a largely female workforce.
“Negotiate with nurses and avoid this strike,” Ms Cullen said in a statement released on Saturday evening.
“Five times my offer to negotiate has been turned down.

Times
‘There are patients everywhere . . . we are having to double up on cubicle spaces, putting two patients in one cubicle because we are running out of space,” said the nurse in an A&E department. “They are so close they could hold hands.”
The woman, who is in her thirties, insists it is conditions like this, not just pay, that are prompting her to walk out on strike with an estimated 100,000 colleagues this week.
“It’s heartbreaking. None of us signed up to be in this profession to cause harm to patients,” she said. “When you go to work, and you’re getting no respect from members of the public, and there are not enough of us to give the care we want to give.

Social care

Guardian
People would be given a legal right to visit their relatives in care homes and stop providers threatening those who complain with eviction under new legislation proposed last week.
The private members bill, introduced in the House of Lords by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath in an effort to spur ministers into action, is designed to stop a small minority of care homes from preventing or limiting visits due to Covid, more than two and half years after the first lockdown began.
Campaigners say other care providers are using outdated guidance to limit visits, which can play an important role in maintaining the well-being of dementia sufferers and other diseases of old age. Some say their relatives have been threatened with eviction after they have complained.
However, care providers have urged caution about creating a new law, saying they are concerned that the vast majority of care homes that allow and encourage visits may be unfairly penalised.

Education

Telegraph
A top private school head has warned that Labour’s private school plans are “economically illiterate” and will have unintended consequences.
David Goodhew, headmaster of Latymer Upper School in Hammersmith, west London, where alumni include Hugh Grant and the late Alan Rickman, said there were “popular myths” about private schools, such as “all their money goes on gold-plated swimming pools that are filled daily with unicorn tears”.
He said that while the majority of private schools’ spending goes on staff pay, a fifth of Latymer’s income is spent on bursaries, scholarships and costs towards trips and equipment for pupils who can’t afford them.
In the 2020-21 academic year fee assistance was £4.7 million which benefited 332 pupils.
The school also offers a huge amount of extra teaching to 200 local state schools and charitable organisations for free. These include Covid catch-up classes, a primary school debating programme, a Saturday school STEM academy, and music activities.
“On a typical Saturday morning, there are 450 children in school, who don’t go to Latymer, but are here because of the programmes that we’re running,” Mr Goodhew said.

Fighter jet

Express
Britain is joining forces will Japan and Italy to develop a cutting edge fighter jet to meet the challenges of the 21st century, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has announced. The Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP) is unprecedented international aerospace coalition merging Japan’s Mitsubishi F-X project with and Britain’s Tempest to deliver the next generation of combat air fighter jets – delivered a £26billion shot in the arm to the UK and creating more than 20,000 new jobs in the process.
Mr Sunak explained: “The security of the United Kingdom, both today and for future generations, will always be of paramount importance to this Government.
“That’s why we need to stay at the cutting-edge of advancements in defence technology – outpacing and out-manoeuvring those who seek to do us harm.”
He added: “The international partnership we have announced today with Italy and Japan aims to do just that, underlining that the security of the Euro-Atlantic and Indo-Pacific regions are indivisible.
“The next-generation of combat aircraft we design will protect us and our allies around the world by harnessing the strength of our world-beating defence industry – creating jobs while saving lives.”

White Christmas

Mail
Like Bing Crosby, many of us dream of a white Christmas – and those hopes might come true this year.
Forecasters said snow was likely in the Christmas period, but they cannot say for certain if it will fall on December 25.
Ladbrokes is offering odds of 11/10 on snow falling anywhere in the UK on Christmas Day.
Leon Brown, of The Weather Company, said: ‘The Christmas period looks like seeing milder, moist air coming to the UK and hitting the cold air.
‘This would bring snow, especially in the South and even to low levels. The North is more likely to have a continuation of the cold air and wintry showers.’

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