Brexit

Telegraph
Boris Johnson has warned Rishi Sunak that ditching the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill in favour of a new Brexit deal would be a “great mistake”.
In his first intervention on Brexit since leaving office, the former prime minister urged his successor not to tear up the legislation, which is seen by Brexiteers as the most important bargaining chip with the EU.
On Saturday night, a source close to Mr Johnson said: “His general thinking is that it would be a great mistake to drop the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill.”
The Bill allows the Government to rip up parts of the Northern Ireland Protocol, which would include ending the role of the European Court of Justice (ECJ). It is understood that Mr Sunak believes if he can secure a revised Brexit deal, he will no longer need the Bill.
Mr Johnson’s intervention points to a growing rebellion over Mr Sunak’s deal.
On Saturday, the Prime Minister and Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, issued a rare joint statement saying they had made “very good progress” on solving the Protocol issue.

Express
Rishi Sunak also discussed the issue of Brexit with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on the sidelines of today’s Munich Security Conference.
Rishi Sunak has been warned any attempts to “bounce” Brexiteers into a compromise when it comes to the Northern Ireland Protocol are doomed to fail. And Tory MP David Jones has suggested the Government is “rushing” to resolve the situation in advance of US President Joe Biden’s visit in April.
Unionists are believed to be underwhelmed by the proposals outlined by Mr Sunak yesterday when he visited Northern Ireland.
The Protocol is the mechanism agreed by the UK and the EU with the intention of preventing a hard border on the island of Ireland.
Critics within the Unionist community claim it has has resulted in a border down the Irish Sea by keeping Northern Ireland aligned with some EU rules – and, crucially, under the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice.
During his trip, Mr Sunak held lengthy talks with political leaders aimed at breaking the deadlock – but afterwards DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson warned what was being suggested “fell short” of offering the kind of changes his party could accept.

Guardian
Rishi Sunak is on a collision course with Boris Johnson over his plans to overhaul Northern Ireland’s post-Brexit arrangements, amid a frantic diplomatic blitz to end the bitter dispute with the EU.
In the latest sign of the political danger Sunak faces as he attempts to reform the Northern Ireland protocol, it is understood that Johnson has become concerned that a successful deal will see the government ditch controversial legislation allowing the UK to unilaterally rip up some Brexit arrangements in the region.
With Johnson and the Tory right threatening to disrupt the deal, Keir Starmer told the Observer he was taking the extraordinary step of offering his party’s support in any parliamentary vote on the agreement, enabling Sunak to stop “scrambling around to appease an intransigent rump of his own backbenchers”.
There has been persistent concern among Sunak’s allies that Johnson could attempt to derail a compromise with Brussels. Keeping the Northern Ireland protocol bill, introduced by Johnson’s government and currently working its way through parliament, now appears to have become a key test for the former prime minister.
While government insiders are at pains to state that there is much work to do on the details of any deal, they have signalled that a successful outcome would mean the bill would not be needed. “If we can find a way to satisfactorily resolve the issues with the protocol then you wouldn’t need the bill,” said a senior official. “But we haven’t resolved them yet.”

Sun
EX-PM Boris Johnson has warned Rishi Sunak not to go soft on Brexit with his deal to restore Northern Ireland power sharing.
His successor is on an EU charm offensive to drum up support for his plan, which he is keeping close to his chest.
Most Cabinet ministers do not even know everything in his blueprint — but The Sun on Sunday can exclusively reveal key details.
Crucially, it will give the Northern Ireland Assembly “real power” over EU laws.
This is a key demand of Unionists, who sparked a crisis by collapsing the assembly.
They are also angry at trade barriers with mainland Britain.
But they are concerned a new deal could see Mr Sunak giving up on a threat to shred the Brexit agreement if Brussels refuses to compromise.
Many Tory MPs have already broken cover to back the DUP and warn they will rebel against anything which leaves the EU with control in Northern Ireland.

ITV News
Rishi Sunak’s efforts to break the impasse over Brexit’s Northern Ireland Protocol have been dealt a blow by his predecessor Boris Johnson.
The former prime minister warned that dropping the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill – which would empower the UK to unilaterally scrap parts of the treaty – would be a “great mistake”.
Mr Johnson’s first intervention on Brexit since leaving Downing Street comes as his successor-but-one has engaged in frantic diplomacy to secure a UK-EU agreement on fixing issues with the contentious post-Brexit trading arrangements.
After further talks with EU leaders on Saturday, Mr Sunak stressed that a deal is “by no means done”, amid speculation one could be unveiled early next week.
The government has indicated that a successful outcome would mean the Protocol Bill would no longer be required.
A senior government source said: “If we can find a way to satisfactorily resolve the issues with the Protocol then you wouldn’t need the Bill. But we haven’t resolved them yet.”
Mr Johnson negotiated the protocol, which created economic barriers on trade being shipped from Great Britain to Northern Ireland, as part of his Brexit deal, but later turned against it.

BBC News
Boris Johnson has urged Rishi Sunak not to abandon legislation he introduced on how Northern Ireland’s post-Brexit trade will work in the long-term.
The Northern Ireland Protocol Bill was set in motion when Mr Johnson was PM, but Mr Sunak has been meeting EU leaders to agree a new deal.
Since 2021, certain trade checks cover some goods crossing the Irish Sea.
A source close to Mr Johnson said the former PM thought it would be a “great mistake” to move away from his plan.
If it concludes its passage through Parliament, it would give the Westminster government the power to unilaterally decide to move away from those current arrangements for Northern Ireland.
Many Conservative MPs on the backbenches see the move towards that ultimate position as an important bargaining chip whenever the UK is trying to wring concessions from the EU.

Mail
Tensions emerged last night between Rishi Sunak and Boris Johnson’s camps over whether to abandon Brexit legislation as a deal on Northern Ireland moved closer.
Sources close to the former Prime Minister said it would be a ‘great mistake’ to drop laws that would remove trade barriers in the region.
Senior Government officials have said the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill, introduced last June, will be unnecessary if the issues are resolved before it becomes law. But the Prime Minister warned a deal with the EU to fix issues with trade in Northern Ireland was ‘by no means done’.
Mr Sunak held ‘positive discussions’ with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen at the Munich Security Conference yesterday, according to Downing Street.
While the PM played down the prospect of an imminent breakthrough, the pair said they would ‘remain in close contact over the coming days’.

Asylum seekers

Express
Tensions on high alert between residents and asylum seekers in the Northern seaside town of Skegness.
An iconic British seaside resort has become a “powder keg” after tension between residents and asylum seekers threatened to erupt.
Police in Skegness, Lincolnshire, were forced to ban young people from congregating on the resort’s seafront – making it a no-go area for troublemakers.
Officers are now gearing up for a protest march next weekend by residents angered by the high number of young male ­refugees being housed in the town.
It follows violent clashes between protesters and police in Liverpool, when angry crowds rioted outside a migrant centre.
Meanwhile, police arrested two men yesterday after hundreds of rival protesters faced off outside a Rotherham hotel also housing dozens of asylum seekers.
South Yorkshire Police kept them apart fearing a repeat of the rioting outside a hotel being used for refugees in Kirkby, Merseyside, last Friday.
The tension in Skegness has grown after hundreds of migrants from the Middle East, Africa and Albania were crammed into former tourist hotels on the seafront.

Telegraph
Calais refugee charities are “just as bad as people smugglers”, the new Conservative party deputy chairman has said.
Lee Anderson, who was promoted by Rishi Sunak in his Cabinet reshuffle earlier this month, said he believed charities based on the French coast were acting as “enablers” for migrants making the perilous journey across the Channel in small boats.
The MP for Ashfield – who has been dubbed the “Red Wall Rottweiler” – claimed that refugee charities operating in Calais were “part of the trade” in illegal immigration to Britain.
“You’ve got the people smugglers, you’ve got the camps, the charities at the camps. You’ve then got, when you get to England, the hotels, the lefty lawyers – it is one big multi-million pound industry,” he told The Telegraph.
Mr Anderson described what he had observed on a recent fact-finding trip with the home affairs select committee to Calais, saying he had seen “hundreds of young men” being assisted by volunteers for the British charity Care4Calais.
“They weren’t fleeing any war, or persecution, they told us that they wanted to come for a better life in the UK,” he said.
Mr Anderson said he saw the men being taught English by the Care4Calais workers, which in his view made them feel “encouraged” to make the journey across the Channel to the UK.
He claimed that refugee charities were “just as bad as people smugglers” because they were “fuelling” the trade in human lives.

Express
The presence of the asylum seekers has led to an upsurge in activity by hard-right groups, who have staged numerous protests outside accommodation housing the migrants.
Visits to hotels housing asylum seekers from self-proclaimed “migrant hunters” more than doubled in 2022 from the previous year, according to new research. Currently, over 40,000 refugees are living in more than 200 hotels across the UK , as they await their asylum applications to be processed. The presence of the asylum seekers has led to an upsurge in activity by hard-right groups, who have staged numerous protests outside accommodation housing the migrants.
According to data collated by the anti-fascist and anti-racism group Hope Not Hate, hard-right activists made 253 visits to hotels where asylum seekers were living over the course of last year.
It claimed most of the protesters posed as journalists so as to get close to the accommodation housing the refugees, before using abusive and threatening language towards them and hotel staff.
The so-called “migrant hunters” often film their demonstrations and then post them to social media channels and far-right websites in an attempt to stir up hatred among local communities where the asylum seekers are living.
The videos appear to be attracting an ever increasing audience, according to research by the Centre for Countering Digital Hate.

Telegraph
Britain’s new asylum plan will replicate the Ukrainian refugee scheme for countries where the UK has a “moral” obligation, the immigration minister has said.
In an interview with The Telegraph, Robert Jenrick said the proposed new “safe and legal” routes for asylum seekers would not be an “open door to anyone from anywhere” but would be focused on people to whom “we have the strongest geographical, historical, moral obligation.”
The plan will see the number of refugees allowed to enter the UK capped annually by Parliament with anyone entering illegally via small boats across the Channel detained and removed to their home country or a safe third nation like Rwanda to claim asylum there.
Mr Jenrick, who talks candidly about his own experience of taking in a Ukrainian refugee family, said the Government’s homes for Ukraine scheme provoked such a powerful response from the public because there was a “real connection to the conflict”.
“We don’t have an equal obligation to everyone in every conflict in every part of the world. We have finite resources, and it’s right that we use them to support those people for whom we have the greatest connection and moral obligation,” he said.

NHS

Observer
Some of the country’s most senior NHS clinicians are earning a lucrative sideline running private firms that offer to cut waiting lists at their own hospitals, the Observer can reveal.
Top consultants in Manchester, Sheffield and London are among directors of “insourcing” agencies that charge the health service to treat patients at weekends and evenings and have won millions of pounds of work.
Some hold leadership roles at NHS trusts that have awarded contracts to their own companies, raising concerns about potential conflicts of interest.
One deputy medical director jointly ran a firm that provided “insourcing” solutions to his own NHS trust before it was sold in a £13m deal last year. Other consultants have set up firms that they and their colleagues work shifts through themselves, often at rates above NHS price caps
The Centre for Health and the Public Interest, an independent thinktank, this weekend called for a ban on such arrangements. The General Medical Council said current conflict of interest policies did not always deliver “the transparency and assurance that patients rightly expect”.
An Observer investigation has found:
Three senior consultants in Sheffield ran a private firm, Pioneer Healthcare, offering insourcing services to help the NHS cut backlogs. The company won a series of contracts with local hospitals before being sold to a major private healthcare provider in a £13m deal;
At Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, three top surgeons including a clinical lead and a former clinical director are the owners of Fortify Clinic, a company offering “end to end” services to tackle waiting lists. The firm was paid £1.3m by the trust for work in 2022;
Two senior consultants at the Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust set up Venture Health Group in December and began contracting with their own trust that month to help it meet “challenging backlog targets”.
The deals are revealed as trusts ramp up reliance on the private sector to tackle record waiting lists, with the “insourcing” market alone projected to be worth £295m next year, up from £44m in 2019, according to analysts Mansfield Advisors.

ITV News
On Monday, 45,000 junior doctors in England will know the result of their ballot for strike action over pay and working conditions.
Earlier this week, ITV News revealed a survey showing more than 90% of junior doctors say their mental health has been negatively impacted – with 89% admitting they have considered quitting.
Now the BMA’s chair is set to condemn the government for refusing to meet the terms of trade unions, while addressing a young doctors’ conference in Bristol on Sunday.
Professor Philip Banfield will say Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Health Secretary Steve Barclay are standing on the precipice of a historic mistake.
He is due to say junior doctors deserve better pay, and that the government is letting patients down.

Budget

Express
Jeremy Hunt is reportedly working on a “back-to-work Budget” in response to concerns over a potential pensions crisis caused by the large number of people aged 50-64 who have left the workforce since the start of the pandemic.
Jeremy Hunt is planning a “back-to-work Budget” amid fears of a pensions crisis caused by the number of over-50s retiring early.
Nearly 400,000 people aged 50 to 64 have quit the workforce since the start of the pandemic.
But Ministers fear many have failed to save enough in their pension pots to avoid poverty later in life.
A Treasury source said: “Getting people back into work is a key theme for the Budget.”
“Economic inactivity is the main domestic driver of inflation and the quickest way to boost growth.”
Another government source said: “There’s a tendency for people to under-estimate how long they are going to live. If they are in their 50s, they often don’t take into account the fact they may have 30 or 40 years left.”

Telegraph
Rishi Sunak is facing a major Budget rebellion over his corporation tax hike, The Telegraph can reveal.
Senior Conservative backbenchers, business chiefs and economists have urged the Prime Minister to “abandon” his flagship policy to raise the tax from 19 to 25 per cent.
A letter to Mr Sunak – which has been signed by the leaders of several influential groups of Tory MPs – urges him to “follow a growth agenda” and adopt a fresh approach that will encourage investment.
It is the first coordinated attack on Mr Sunak’s economic agenda from his own MPs since he entered Downing Street.
The intervention will heap pressure on the Prime Minister to reverse his plans for a six percentage point rise in corporation tax.
Signatories include Simon Clarke, chairman of the Conservative Growth Group; Greg Smith, chairman of Conservative Way Forward and the Free Market Forum; and Mark Francois, chairman of the European Research Group.
It is also signed by Sir John Redwood, chair of the Thatcherite No Turning Back group; and Sir Jake Berry who founded the Northern Research Group.

Calais

BBC News
Coach passengers returning to the UK are facing queues of more than six hours at border checkpoints in Calais.
Ferry operator P&O has advised passengers to use the toilet before arriving and to come prepared with refreshments.
Border Force staff in Calais, Dunkirk, Dover and the Coquelles Channel Tunnel terminal are on a four-day strike over pay.
The Home Office said it was working to minimise delays.
The BBC understands the queues include a high volume of coaches bringing pupils home from school half-term trips.
Teachers and pupils from Surrey returning from a ski trip in Austria waited for six and a half hours to board a ferry back to the UK.
A Twitter account for the school ski trip tweeted that the journey was “what can only be described as a nightmare of UK passport control”.
Queues began forming on Saturday morning and P&O Ferries issued an update to passengers, asking them to plan for a wait by bringing snacks, drinks and entertainment.

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