Rishi Sunak announces £1.6bn contract led by shipyard Harland and Wolff that will create 900 jobs in Belfast
Shipbuilding is to be revived in Belfast after 20 years as part of a £1.6bn Ministry of Defence contract for three new naval vessels, Rishi Sunak has announced.
A consortium led by the shipyard Harland and Wolff has secured the preferred bidder status which will create 1,200 jobs across three companies, 900 of which will be in Belfast.
Continue reading...Multiple Labour MPs join picket lines after Tory MP for Central Suffolk and North Ipswich urges government to improve offer
On the picket line outside St Thomas’ hospital in Westminster, Linda Tovey, a critical care nurse, said: “It’s increasingly difficult to come to work and go home and think: ‘Actually I don’t think I can turn the heating on.’
“My wages aren’t bad for a nurse but I still have to think about what I’m doing with my money every month and that is not the position I imagined myself being in.
“People do a huge amount of extra work, in terms of studying and all that kind of stuff, and you don’t get the recognition in terms of wages.
Majority of MPC rate-setters back hike of 0.5 percentage points despite fears UK is entering a long recession
Mortgage payers are braced for higher borrowing costs, after the Bank of England pushed up its base rate by 0.5 percentage points to 3.5% despite saying inflation has peaked and Britain is about to enter “a prolonged recession”.
The Bank hiked interest rates on Thursday for the ninth time in a year, to the highest level in 14 years, but told borrowers to prepare for fresh increases in the new year.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Leaked annual survey shows fourfold rise in harassment claims in justice ministers’ office
A third of the staff in Dominic Raab’s private office at the Ministry of Justice have claimed to have been bullied or harassed while working in their current team in the past year, according to an internal Whitehall survey.
The results of the civil service survey from this week, which have been leaked to the Guardian, show that 10 of the 33 people who worked most closely with the justice secretary said they had been a victim of bad behaviour.
Continue reading...Scottish government promises to tackle health and social care crisis to protect weakest and poorest
The Scottish government has promised to spend another £1bn on tackling the crisis in health and social care by raising taxes on higher earners and holiday homes.
John Swinney, Scotland’s acting finance secretary, said the burden of increasing NHS funding would fall heavily on everyone earning more than £43,663 in Scotland as part of a “social contract” to protect the weakest and poorest.
The abolition of a cap on council tax increases next year, alongside £550m extra for councils.
The uprating of all Scottish welfare benefits by 10%, increasing welfare spending by £433m.
£222m on school support for the poorest and extra free school meals in primaries.
£15m for a pilot project to scrap peak-time rail fares.
£336m on home energy efficiency and reducing fuel poverty.
The abolition of non-domestic rates for 100,000 smaller shops and businesses and a freeze in business rates charges, which would cost £356m.
Continue reading...For many striking in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, staff shortages are a bigger issue than pay
In many professions, working a 14-hour day with no break would be unthinkable, but for many nurses on freezing picket lines across the country on Thursday it is increasingly becoming the norm.
“It’s tough at the moment,” said Ella Savage, a children’s specialist nurse at Leeds General Infirmary, where about 200 nurses were gathered at one of 125 Royal College of Nursing (RCN) pickets across England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Continue reading...Ben Wallace and Suella Braverman ‘turned their back’ on former BBC journalists who are in danger, high court told
Ministers have unlawfully “turned their back” on former BBC journalists whose lives are at risk from the Taliban by refusing to relocate them from Afghanistan to the UK, the high court has heard.
Eight Afghan journalists, who worked in high-profile roles for the BBC and other media agencies in the country from which British troops withdrew last year, are challenging the decision to deny them UK visas.
Continue reading...Consular staff wanted for questioning by police over beating up of activists recalled to Beijing
China’s consul general in Manchester and five other diplomats have returned home and will escape questioning by police for their role in the beating up of a pro-Hong Kong democracy demonstrator outside the consulate in the city on 16 October.
The Chinese, citing diplomatic immunity, decided to recall the diplomats after the UK Foreign Office gave the embassy a week to make the diplomats available for questioning by British police.
Continue reading...Latest updates: prime minister faces Labour leader ahead of industrial action by nurses on Thursday
Yesterday Mark Harper, the transport secretary, claimed that public support for the rail strikes was declining. Today Ipsos has published some polling that backs up this claim, although support for the RMT has not collapsed, and public opinion is still divided. It puts support for the strikes at 30%, down from 43% in September. And opposition to the strikes is at 36%, up from 31%.
Yesterday Savanta published polling showing a similar trend. It said that net support for the rail workers on strike was +21 in October (those supporting them, minus those not supporting them), and that now it was down to +13.
Continue reading...Prime minister makes statement in Commons, saying he wants to abolish backlog of unprocessed asylum claims by end of next year
The Conservative MP Adam Afriyie has been made bankrupt after a judge in a specialist court heard how he owed around £1.7m, PA Media reports. A bankruptcy order was made against Afriyie, who represents Windsor, at an online hearing in the insolvency and companies court today by judge Nicholas Briggs.
This story, by my colleagues Heather Stewart and Rowena Mason last year, explains the background to this case.
We completed our enquiry into the impact of the ending of freedom of movement on the adult social care sector in April and submitted the report to government and parliament. We recommended that care workers continue to be eligible to apply for a health and care worker visa and made some additional recommendations for changes to the immigration system to ease the burden on social care employers and migrants.
However, our main recommendation was that a minimum rate of pay should be established for care workers at a premium to the statutory minimum wage where care is being provided with public funds. We suggested that this should initially be set at £1 per hour above the national living wage but expected a more substantial premium to be needed to properly address the crisis in social care recruitment and retention.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Cabinet Office to extend contract with law firm to defend claims ex-PM misled parliament, sources say
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Ministers have been accused of writing a “blank cheque” for Boris Johnson’s legal bills, as it emerged taxpayer-funded support was being extended to help defend him against claims he misled parliament over Partygate.
With just days left until a contract expires with the law firm Peters and Peters, which Johnson and the government have relied on to disparage an investigation by the privileges committee, the Guardian has learned the Cabinet Office intends to renew it.
Continue reading...PM says he has signed deal with Albania and will resume ‘hostile environment’ checks on bank accounts
Rishi Sunak has insisted he can clear a backlog of nearly 100,000 asylum claims by the end of next year as part of a set of policies that include resuming “hostile environment” checks on bank accounts suspended after the Windrush scandal.
The prime minister outlined a five-point plan in the Commons including law changes to criminalise and then remove tens of thousands of people who claim asylum after travelling to the UK by small boats, and a deal with Albania to aid removals to the Balkan state.
A small boats command, with an extra 700 staff from Border Force, the National Crime Agency and other agencies, to combat people smugglers and the surge in arrivals across the Channel.
An end to the use of hotels for more than 40,000 asylum seekers. They will be sent to disused former military bases, holiday camps and student accommodation.
Continue reading...Royal College of Nursing leader criticises ‘belligerence’ in meeting with Steve Barclay at which ministers refused to discuss pay
Nurses’ strikes will go ahead this week after a meeting between the union and the health secretary ended in deadlock, with the Royal College of Nursing condemning ministers’ “belligerence” for refusing to discuss pay.
Six hundred military personnel from all three armed forces will start training to drive ambulances to cover for striking NHS workers across the UK later this month. A further 150 are being readied to act as logistical support, defence sources said, with training for both groups to start “shortly”.
Continue reading...Treasury officials tell select committee they set out impacts of £45bn plan for former chancellor
Kwasi Kwarteng disregarded warnings that his £45bn mini-budget could trigger a backlash on the financial markets, Treasury officials told MPs today.
The department’s permanent secretary, James Bowler, said he was “absolutely confident Treasury officials set out the right advice” to the then chancellor.
Continue reading...Labour highlights issue to back up pledge to invest heavily in addressing shortages
The number of operations cancelled by the NHS in England because of staff shortages may have doubled in three years, with an estimated 30,000 not proceeding because no staff were available to perform them.
At least a third of cancelled operations were those that were deemed urgent, according to the analysis by Labour. It suggested at least 2,500 cancelled operations for cancer patients and 8,000 on children.
Continue reading...Royal College of Nursing says Steve Barclay refused to discuss pay at meeting on Monday; Welsh nurses to strike after last-minute talks fail. This blog is now closed
Pat Cullen, the Royal College of Nursing’s general secretary, told ITV this morning that there was no point talking to Steve Barclay, the health secretary, if he was not prepared to discuss pay. She said
What I’m saying … to the health secretary this morning, is if you don’t want to speak to me directly about nurses’ pay, we have engaged with the conciliation service Acas, they can do that through Acas, but our door is absolutely wide open and it appears at the minute that theirs is totally shut …
Fundamentally, I need to get to a table and talk to them about pay. This isn’t just me, it’s the 320,000 nurses that voted for strike action … They voted through an independent ballot that we carried out and surely to goodness you couldn’t look at one of those people this morning in the eye and say: ‘You’re not worth an extra brown penny’. In my mind they absolutely are.
I think it’s a very challenging international picture. About a third of the world’s economies are predicted to be in recession, either this year or next.
We’re no different in this country and truthfully, it is likely to get worse before it gets better, which makes it even more difficult when we have big public sector strikes going on at the moment.
Continue reading...Figure includes agreements rolled over from before leaving EU, and description of ‘new trade’ is misleading says UKSA chief
The official statistics watchdog has reprimanded the Conservatives for claiming the UK had secured £800bn in “new free trade deals” since leaving the EU, saying the figure includes deals rolled over from before Brexit.
The UK Statistics Authority (UKSA) said it had written to the Tories about the infographic, shared last month by Michael Gove among others, also warning that the party should provide sources for such figures in the future.
Continue reading...Royal College of Nursing and Unison call on health secretary to negotiate with them to avoid action at Christmas and new year
Health unions made a dramatic offer on Saturday night to suspend a wave of planned strikes that threatens to cripple the NHS over Christmas and the new year if ministers agree to open serious discussions over pay.
The moves by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) and the country’s biggest union, Unison, are the first signs of flexibility by either side in a dispute that has been deadlocked for weeks.
Continue reading...Voters risk being turned away and organisers need more time to prepare, argue critics of the new measures
Plans to force voters to present photo ID at polling stations for the first time in May risk damaging access to democracy and must be delayed, senior local government figures have warned ministers.
Amid concerns about voters being turned away and polling station workers being confronted, the body representing councils told the Observer there was simply not enough time to deal with all the risks that will be created by the new system.
Continue reading...Sacked chancellor says he and ex-PM failed to consider political and economic consequences
Kwasi Kwarteng has admitted he and Liz Truss “got carried away” when they wrote the disastrous mini-budget that led to both of them leaving their jobs just weeks after they entered Downing Street.
Kwarteng announced a raft of tax cuts without any reduction in spending in September, which led to the pound crashing against the dollar, pension funds nearly collapsing, a £65bn Bank of England bailout, soaring mortgage costs, and the cost of government borrowing increasing. He also said he would remove the cap on bankers’ bonuses.
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