Brexit

Express
Leavers have been left raging amid reports that Rishi Sunak’s Government is considering turning towards a Swiss-style relationship with the European Union. Senior figures in Whitehall hope that pursuing a closer relationship with Brussels will help bring back frictionless trade between the UK and the continent, the Sunday Times has revealed. However, insiders also claimed this would not include a return to freedom of movement.
A source told the broadsheet: “It’s obviously something the EU would never offer us upfront because they would say you are trying to have your cake and eat it but the reason I think we will get it is because it is overwhelmingly in the businesses interests on both sides.”
Another insider said: “I think we will be doing everything we can proactively within our power to make changes to improve things when it comes to the EU.”
The report comes after Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, who campaigned for the UK to stay in the EU back in 2016, indicated that the Government would look to eradicate some of the trade barriers created by Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal.

Times
Senior government figures are planning to put Britain on the path towards a Swiss-style relationship with the European Union.
The move, intended to forge closer economic ties, is likely to infuriate hardline Conservative Brexiteers.
Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, last week signalled that Rishi Sunak’s administration intends to break from the approach adopted by Boris Johnson and remove the vast majority of trade barriers with the bloc.
In private, senior government sources have suggested that pursuing frictionless trade requires moving towards a Swiss-style relationship over the next decade. However, they insist this would not extend to a return to freedom of movement.

Telegraph
Jeremy Hunt pledged to remove the “vast majority of trade barriers” with the European Union to boost growth, as he appeared to call for closer economic ties.
The Chancellor rejected the prospect of rejoining the Single Market but backed work in the coming years to strengthen Britain’s relationship with Brussels.
His comments indicated that the Government may want to change aspects of the deal struck by Boris Johnson, the former prime minister, at the end of 2020.
Mr Hunt’s words also suggested contrasting priorities to some Tory Brexiteers, who saw leaving the EU as an opportunity to focus on “global Britain” by prioritising trade outside of the continent.
Asked by BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Friday whether membership of the Single Market would boost growth, Mr Hunt said: “I think having unfettered trade with our neighbours and countries all over the world is very beneficial to growth.
“I have great confidence that over the years ahead we will find, outside the Single Market, we are able to remove the vast majority of the trade barriers that exist between us and the EU.

Terrorists

Telegraph
Jailed terrorists will be investigated by specialist police officers for minor crimes that could extend their prison sentences.
Justice Secretary Dominic Raab is to introduce new measures that will require any offences within prison, however minor, to be automatically referred to counter-terror police for investigation.
At present, “minor” offences such as vandalising cells or dealing in contraband like drugs are often dealt with by prison governors, who can hand out a maximum penalty of 42 days on top of an offender’s existing sentence.
Now, all terrorist offenders who commit further crimes in jail – however minor – will be automatically referred within a week for a police investigation and potential prosecution.
This will increase the likelihood of them being locked up for significantly longer and ministers believe it will create a strong deterrent against further offending.
Mr Raab said: “Terrorist offenders pose a grave risk to public safety and they must face the full consequences of their actions – whether on the street or behind bars.

CoP27

Independent
Dozens of countries have demanded that the final Cop27 pact should put the world on a path to phasing out all fossil fuels as negotiations went down to the wire on Saturday,
The latest draft agreement from the Sharm el-Sheikh summit has failed once again to include a call to wind down fossil fuel use, the primary cause of the global climate crisis.
Late on Saturday afternoon, the High Ambition Coalition (HAC), an informal group of around 60 countries including small island states and vulnerable nations, demanded more.
“We must emerge from Cop27 with a package of outcomes that keeps 1.5C alive and protects the world’s vulnerable,” said Tina Stege, the Marshall Islands climate envoy said. She was joined at the briefing by Alok Sharma, the British MP and Cop26 president, and Jennifer Morgan, Germany’s climate envoy, among others.
1.5C is the more ambitious global temperature limit of the 2015 Paris Agreement, where all countries also pledged to hold global warming “well below 2C”.

ITV News
For the first time, wealthy countries have agreed to help pay damages to poorer countries worst hit by the climate crisis after marathon talks at COP27.
The historic deal agreed in the early hours of Sunday in Sharm el-Sheikh establishes a loss and damage fund and was welcomed by developing nations who have long called for reparations.
Poorer countries are often the victims of extreme weather, such as floods, droughts, heat waves, famines and storms, made worse by the climate crisis despite having contributed little to global emissions.
But despite the success of the finance deal, the climate summit ended with no agreement to further address the burning of fossil fuels, considered to be the root cause of global heating.
In his closing speech at the conference, UK representative Alok Sharma said that progress on loss and damage has been “historic”, he warned that it was not a moment for “unqualified celebration”.
The loss and damage deal was celebrated by leaders of the worst-hit countries.

Evening Standard
Negotiators at the COP27 summit agreed a landmark “loss and damage” fund for states at risk of the impacts of climate change.
After tense negotiations throughout the night, the final deal was agreed at 7am in Sharm el-Sheikh, 36 hours after the summit’s Friday night deadline.
Despite having no agreement for tougher emissions reductions, “we went with what the agreement was here because we want to stand with the most vulnerable,” said Germany’s climate secretary Jennifer Morgan.
Throughout the summit, poorer states had argued the fund was a matter of fairness due to disasters such as extreme flooding, drought and rising sea levels.
Sameh Shoukry, the Egyptian foreign minister and president of the summit said: “We rose to the occasion.
“We worked around the clock, day and night, but united in working for one gain, one higher purpose, one common goal. In the end we delivered. We listened to the calls of anguish and despair.”

Guardian
Developing countries celebrated on Sunday morning as crucial climate talks ended with a “historic” deal on their most cherished climate goal: a global fund for “loss and damage”, providing financial assistance to poor nations stricken by climate disaster.
However, the deal was far from perfect, with several key elements flawed or lacking. Some countries said the commitments on limiting temperatures to 1.5C represented no progress on the Cop26 conference in Glasgow last year, and the language on phasing out fossil fuels was weak.
Sameh Shoukry, the Egyptian foreign minister and president of the Cop27 UN climate summit in Egypt, said: “We rose to the occasion. We worked around the clock, day and night, but united in working for one gain, one higher purpose, one common goal. In the end we delivered. We listened to the calls of anguish and despair.”
Sherry Rehman – climate change minister of Pakistan where suffering in record floods in September became emblematic of the devastation developing countries are facing – hailed the “historic” loss and damage deal to applause in the conference hall.

Times
In the heat of Sharm el-Sheikh, sandwiched between the Sinai desert and the Red Sea, the Cop27 talks were taking their toll. John Kerry, the US climate envoy, needed a nap. In a shaded area behind the delegation offices, a cushion was brought out. “He put the cushion on a cardboard box, laid down his head, and had a little sleep,” said an onlooker. “Ten minutes later he was up and away.”
That was Wednesday, with several days of negotiation to go. Kerry was not the only one feeling the pace. Two long weeks ago, the night before official talks were due to start, a bad-tempered meeting to set the agenda ran until 4.30am.

House of Lords

Guardian
Keir Starmer will abolish the House of Lords and replace it with a new elected chamber as part of plans to “restore trust in politics”, the Observer understands.
In a sweeping constitutional overhaul, the Labour leader has told the party’s peers that he wants to strip politicians of the power to make appointments to the Lords as part of the first-term programme of a Labour government. Starmer said that the public’s faith in the political system had been undermined by successive Tory leaders handing peerages to “lackeys and donors”.
It is understood that Labour will hold a consultation on the composition and size of a new chamber as well as immediate reforms to the current appointments process. Final proposals will be included in the party’s next election manifesto.
It comes after a series of rows over peerages. Boris Johnson made a number of controversial appointments, including his friend Evgeny Lebedev, who owns the Evening Standard. He is expected to appoint political allies and junior aides as part of a forthcoming list.

Mirror
Keir Starmer is eying plans to abolish the House of Lords and replace it with an elected chamber if he becomes Prime Minister.
The proposal would be part of a plan to “restore trust in politics” with an immediate reform of the current and often-criticised appointments process.
Labour would also hold a consultation on the composition and size of a new chamber. There have long been warnings that membership of the House of Lords is becoming excessive.
Boris Johnson has courted controversy with some of his appointments to the unelected chamber, notably Lord Lebedev. The media mogul and son of an ex-KGB agent was given a life peerage in 2020 but has spoken just once on the floor of the House.
More recently, Mr Johnson has faced accusations that he has proposed several Conservative MPs for peerages but told them to delay accepting them to prevent triggering by-elections.

ITV News
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer would reportedly abolish the House of Lords and replace it with an elected chamber if he becomes prime minister.
The proposal, reported by The Observer, would be part of a plan to “restore trust in politics” and would involve Labour holding a consultation on the composition and size of a new chamber as well as more immediate reform of the current and often-criticised appointments process.
There have long been warnings that membership of the House of Lords is becoming excessive.
Boris Johnson courted controversy with some of his appointments to the unelected chamber, notably Lord Lebedev.
The media mogul and son of an ex-KGB agent was given a life peerage in 2020 but has spoken just once on the floor of the House.
More recently, Mr Johnson has faced accusations that he has proposed several Conservative MPs for peerages but told them to delay accepting them to prevent triggering by-elections.

NHS

Independent
The NHS funding pledged by Jeremy Hunt is hundreds of millions of pounds short of what is required to improve care in the crisis-hit health service, experts have warned.
In his autumn statement, the chancellor promised a further £6.6bn – a figure he said NHS chief Amanda Pritchard had described as “sufficient”. But health leaders warn that the money will allow the NHS only to stave off disaster, and will not be enough to meet new targets set out for the coming years.
The funding gap could prove to be even wider, as the extra money would not cover the cost of giving NHS staff pay rises linked to inflation.
The NHS is likely to remain on a “crisis footing” for the foreseeable future, the Health Foundation said.
Nurses are set to strike before Christmas after the government failed to award an above-inflation pay rise.
Stephen Rocks, an economist for charity The Health Foundation, said the settlement, which will increase the NHS budget by 2.9 per cent, is short of the 4.2 per cent needed to reduce waiting lists, leaving the service hundreds of millions of pounds short of what is needed.

Evening Standard
The NHS is likely to remain on a “crisis footing” with rising waiting lists despite extra funding, it has been said.
The health service will receive an extra £3.3billion in each of the next two years, while £4.7billion will go into social care, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt announced in his autumn statement on Thursday.
However, the Health Foundation believes while the increase to the NHS budget will provide “temporary respite”, health and care services will face “difficult trade-offs” on issues such as pay and the backlog.
Its analysis found the increase to spending over the next two years amounts to two per cent each year in “real terms”.
The annual increase over the next two years is 1.2 per cent in real terms “which is below the average” seen in the decade preceding the pandemic (two per cent), as well as the historical average of around 3.8 per cent, the analysis indicated.
Anita Charlesworth, director of the Health Foundation, said: “Thursday’s statement offered short-term relief, especially compared with other public services.

Social care

Guardian
Jeremy Hunt’s decision to fund more social care through increases in council tax will deepen inequality and undermine the cause of “levelling up”, the architect of the government’s planned reforms said last night.
The criticism from Andrew Dilnot, the economist whose blueprint for reform was delayed by another two years in Hunt’s first budget on Thursday, was echoed by senior figures in local government who said it would leave poorer areas at a disadvantage and was not the answer to the social care crisis.
Dilnot said there were two problems with funding more social care locally. First, it was impossible to know if all councils would want to ask voters to pay higher council taxes, so there would be uncertainties about levels of funding between local authority areas. Second, the amounts that could be raised would be higher in more prosperous areas where demand for means-tested care would often be lowest. “Funding extra spending on care through council tax further accentuates inequality, and further skews the system,” Dilnot said.
Dilnot made clear his frustration at Hunt’s decision to postpone implementation of his reforms – which include raising the amount of assets a person can have before getting state funding from £23,250 to £100,000 as well as capping lifetime care costs at £86,000. However, he welcomed the provision of an extra £4.7bn in the budget for social care in England.
Hunt also made clear in the budget that local authorities would be able to use additional “flexibilities” (to raise council tax by up to 5%) to pay for more care.

Ukraine

Express
Ukraine’s deputy defence minister claimed that Kyiv’s forces could reach Crimea by Christmas and end the war by spring, a news report has stated. Volodymyr Havrylov suggested that it is likely that the Ukrainian army could “step in Crimea” by the end of this year.
He said he would not rule out the possibility of a “black swan” event within Russia helping Ukraine in the coming months.
This could potentially see an unexpected political development affecting the Kremlin.
However, Havrylov said that even without such an event, the timeline for reaching Crimea was “possible”.
Asked by Sky News whether the war could be over by February 24, Havrylov said that “being realistic… we will need some time”.
He added: “But my feeling is that by the end of the spring, this war will be over.”
Meanwhile, Russia is seeking a “short truce” – a proposal Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky vehemently dismissed as it would allow Moscow’s forces to regain strength after suffering a series of battlefield defeats.
Officials in Moscow have repeatedly said they were ready to engage in peace talks without any conditions, but it is not clear if they have made a formal ceasefire offer as mentioned by Zelensky on Friday.

Mail
Rishi Sunak has made his first visit to Ukraine since taking office, where he met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and made a £50million arms pledge.
The Prime Minister, who arrived in Kyiv this afternoon, said that it was ‘deeply humbling’ to be in the city, where he had his first face-to-face meeting with the Ukrainian President.
During the surprise visit, Mr Sunak confirmed a £50million package to help bolster Ukrainian air defences against Putin’s forces and Iranian-supplied drones.
The UK defence spending aims to ‘protect Ukrainian civilians and critical national infrastructure from an intense barrage of Russian strikes’.
It comes following intense bombardment by Vladimir Putin’s forces this week, with Ukraine saying Russia had rained down more than 148 missile strikes on critical infrastructure, leaving approximately 10million people without power.
The courage of the Ukrainian people is an inspiration to the world,’ the Prime Minister said in comments alongside Zelensky at the President’s official residence, the Mariinskyi Palace.

Telegraph
Rishi Sunak made a surprise visit to Ukraine on Saturday to meet with Volodymyr Zelensky, as he announced a new £50 million air defence package to help counter Russian attacks.
The Prime Minister arrived in snowy Kyiv saying he was “humbled” to be in the country for his first face-to-face meeting with the Ukrainian president.
A video posted by Downing Street showed the two leaders, Mr Sunak wearing a suit and Mr Zelensky in his usual military outfit, sharing a warm embrace outside the presidential palace before heading inside to meet senior Ukrainian officials and have a one-to-one.
As the pair shook hands, Mr Zelensky gestured to the falling snow and said: “You brought us weather,” to which Mr Sunak replied: “Well there we go. I’ve brought my coat for later.”
Later, as the pair walked into the palace, Mr Sunak appeared to say that he and his wife, Akshata Murty, “came here several years ago”.
Mr Sunak’s arrival was accompanied by the UK announcing a £50 million package of defence aid comprising 125 anti-aircraft guns and technology to help Ukraine counter Russia’s Iranian-supplied drones, including radars and anti-drone technology.

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