No 10 plays down prospect of NHS pay review body being asked to update recommendation for nurses – UK politics live | Politics

On the morning foyer briefing the PM’s spokesperson performed down the prospect of the NHS pay evaluation physique being requested to replace its suggestions for nurses.

This morning Jerry Cope, a former NHS pay evaluation physique chair, advised this as a doable answer to the dispute. (See 10.09am.) He mentioned that the suggestions accepted by ministers are old-fashioned, and that an replace may justify the next supply, whereas nonetheless respecting the pay evaluation physique course of (which ministers don’t wish to abandon).

However requested if ministers would ask the NHS pay evaluation physique to look once more at what it advisable, within the mild of the rise in the price of residing since February, the PM’s spokesperson mentioned there have been “no plans to inform the unbiased physique what to do”.

He additionally insisted the pay evaluation our bodies have been genuinely unbiased, saying that in 2021 the NHS physique made suggestions that have been greater than the affordabilty determine offered by authorities.

It’s also understood that, with out a particular request from authorities, the pay evaluation our bodies on their very own can not unilaterally replace suggestions they’ve already made.

Downing Road has confirmed that the king’s speech is being delayed and that the present session of parliament, which began in Could, is being prolonged till the autumn. The information was reported in Politico’s London Playbook briefing (see 9.47am) and on the morning foyer briefing the PM’s spokesperson instructed journalists:

As has been reported, we’re extending the third session [of parliament since the general election – the current one]. The programme could be very full. And to ensure we’ve on a regular basis we have to get [through] the packed agenda, the session will run till autumn 2023.

As reported earlier, it will liberate extra time for Rishi Sunak to cross his anti-strikes invoice and his asylum crackdown invoice – two items of laws that at the moment are central to his home agenda.

The Financial institution of England has raised UK rates of interest to three.5%, the very best since October 2008, my colleague Graeme Wearden experiences on his enterprise dwell weblog.

Yesterday James Cleverly, the international secretary, instructed MPs in a written statement that the federal government had given the Chinese language per week for six of their diplomats to adjust to a request to be interviewed by the police over the beating-up of a professional Hong Kong democracy campaigner on the consulate in Manchester. He mentioned the diplomats had all prevented police motion as a result of they’ve both left the nation, or are about to take action.

In a Commons pressing query this morning, Alicia Kearns, the Tory chair of the Commons international affairs committee, accused the federal government of letting them off. She mentioned:

The consul common and 5 others brutalised a refugee on British soil and somewhat than being expelled or prosecuted, they’ve been allowed to slide off, flee like cowards, which makes their guilt much more evident.

By giving per week’s discover to them, which matches up to now past the Vienna conference, we’ve primarily denied Bob Chan any sense of justice.

In response, Anne-Marie Trevelyan, a Overseas Workplace minister, mentioned that the federal government had responded to the incident with “agency diplomacy” and that it was “disenchanted” that the police wouldn’t get to interview the diplomats.

And the Unite union has announced {that a} strike by baggage handlers at Heathrow will go forward on Friday.

The 400 Unite members work for the contractor Menzies at terminals 2, 3 and 4.

They’ll strike for 72 hours from 4am on Friday. This can be adopted by an extra 72-hour strike starting on Thursday 29 December and ending at 4am on Sunday 1 January.

Sharon Graham, the Unite common secretary, mentioned:

It is a traditional case of an employer that may absolutely afford to pay staff a good pay improve however has chosen to not. Menzies must cease making excuses and make a pay supply that meets our members’ expectations.

The employees have been supplied a 4% pay improve for this 12 months, and a 6.5% improve from January. Unite is asking for a rise of 13% for this 12 months.

The Public and Industrial Providers (PCS) union has introduced that it’s escalating its strikes affecting public providers.

In an announcement, it mentioned strikes are being added on the Division of Work and Pensions, in courts, by driving examiners and people working for Hinduja International Providers coping with the Disclosure and Barring Service.

As PA Media experiences, that is along with motion being held or deliberate by Border Pressure officers, workers at Nationwide Highways and the Rural Funds Company (RPA). PA says:

Final month, greater than 100,000 PCS members working in 124 authorities departments and different our bodies voted for strike motion.

On Tuesday, driving examiners throughout Scotland and north-east England and other people working on the RPA have been the primary to take motion.

PCS mentioned its members at DVSA [Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency] workplaces in Coventry, Grantham and Stevenage will be part of the motion on December 28, 29, 30 and 31 and January, whereas these at DVSA in Aberystwyth, Basingstoke, Cardigan and Yeovil will strike from January 4-10.

Jobcentre staff in Doncaster will strike on December 23, 24, 29, 30 and 31, becoming a member of colleagues on strike in the identical constructing and people at Jobcentres in Liverpool.

In a separate dispute, 300 PCS members working as authorized advisers and courtroom associates in 82 courts throughout England and Wales will take 12 days’ strike motion over Christmas.

In one other row, 82 PCS members employed by Hinduja International Providers on the Disclosure and Barring Service contract in Liverpool are again on strike till December 23.

Mark Serwotka, the PCS common secretary, mentioned:

We’re delivering on our promise to escalate our motion and we will not stop for so long as the federal government continues to count on our hard-working members to get by way of the winter with only a 2% pay rise.

If ministers can shift their place on wind generators and constructing homes as a result of some Tory backbenchers aren’t completely satisfied, they will shift their place on in-work poverty.

One factor is definite: we received’t shift our place till and until the federal government places cash on the desk for our members, a few of whom are claiming the advantages they themselves administer, hundreds of whom are compelled to make use of meals banks as a result of they will’t afford to eat and extra who’re burning candles at dwelling as a result of they will’t afford their gas payments.

SNP defends taking £100,000 mortgage from its chief government, and Sturgeon’s husband, to assist with money stream

Libby Brooks

The Scottish Nationwide social gathering is accused of working behind a veil of secrecy after it emerged that its chief government – and first minister Nicola Sturgeon’s husband – Peter Murrell gave a mortgage of greater than £100,000 to assist it out with a “money stream” subject after the final Holyrood election.

Murrell loaned the social gathering £107,620 in June 2021, with round half repaid by October that 12 months.

The mortgage was reported within the social gathering’s 2021 accounts, which have been printed by the Electoral Fee in August, however delivered to mild by the Wings Over Scotland blog site.

The revelation raises questions not solely about Murrell’s enviably deep pockets but additionally the social gathering’s lack of considerable donors.

A SNP spokesperson described the mortgage as a “private contribution made by the chief government to help with money stream after the Holyrood election”, however opposition events described it as “murky” in addition to a “slap within the face” for voters scuffling with the price of residing disaster.

MPs have noticed a one-minute silence within the Home of Commons to mark the eightieth anniversary of the declaration on the persecution of the Jews, PA Media experiences. PA says:

The declaration is described by the Holocaust Memorial Day Belief as the primary public announcement by the British authorities on the Nazis’ try to homicide Europe’s Jewish inhabitants.

The declaration happened on 17 December 1942, and experiences from the time say that in response, MPs rose spontaneously and stood for a second in silence.

Marking the anniversary within the Commons chamber on Thursday have been each prime minister, Rishi Sunak, and Labour chief Sir Keir Starmer, alongside different MPs.

Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle instructed the home that seven survivors of the Holocaust have been current within the gallery to witness the commemoration, alongside representatives of Britain’s Jewish group and the Holocaust Memorial Day Belief.

He instructed MPs: “On December 17, 1942, 80 years in the past on Saturday, the then international secretary, Anthony Eden, learn to the Home a declaration issued by the wartime allies, condemning the therapy of Jewish individuals by the Nazis in occupied Europe.

“The declaration adopted a diplomatic observe despatched to the allied powers per week earlier by the Polish international minister in exile, the primary official report that the Holocaust was beneath manner.

“The evil acts described within the declaration have been and stay troublesome to grasp.”

My colleague Toby Helm wrote a very good article about this anniversary in the Observer on Sunday.

And that is what Harry Boardman, parliamentary correspondent of what was then the Manchester Guardian, wrote concerning the minute’s silence from 1942. It was an obscure Labour MP from Islington who proposed the tribute. After describing Eden’s assertion, Boardman wrote:

There adopted a nonetheless extra spectacular manifestation of the deep emotions of the Home. When it was about to cross to ‘the orders of the day’, a Labour member, Mr Cluse, who sits for South Islington, acquired up from the obscurity of a again bench and, in a gentle voice, proposed to the Speaker that members ought to stand in witness of their detestation of Germany’s barbarism. Mr Cluse is an rare speaker, however he was impressed yesterday.

In a second all members have been on their toes, and the Lord Chancellor, within the Friends’ Gallery, with them. Nothing comparable with this has occurred earlier than. The Home stood and sang God Save the King when struggle was declared 1914, and it somewhat went off its head when Mr Chamberlain introduced his journey to Munich, however these have been events when nationwide emotions have been racing on the flood.

Yesterday the Commons rose in calm to carry out one thing like a judicial motion to model Germany for these infamies. This was the Home of Commons in certainly one of its biggest moments.

I’ve taken that quote from a collection of Boardman’s articles printed in 1960 in a guide referred to as (with out irony) The Glory of Parliament. Any political author who proposed a title like that lately can be laughed out of the door by the writer.

In her Guardian column yesterday Polly Toynbee wrote a withering evaluation of the federal government’s justification for its pay supply to nurses. She wrote:

In each interview ministers conceal behind the sanctity of the “unbiased” pay evaluation our bodies, claiming they set public pay. They don’t and nor are they “unbiased”. The federal government decides on pay, utilizing PRBs as camouflage. The 60 or so members of those eight our bodies masking public sectors are picked by ministers, as is their Workplace of Manpower Economics secretariat. I attempted to talk to some members – no luck. Solely two of these 60 individuals come from the workers’ aspect, says the TUC: one from the military, with no affiliated union. (The Tory press protests on the armed forces standing in for some public workers paid greater than them. That’s as a result of, banned from putting, they get short-changed by authorities; a current report says Met police, likewise banned, are increasingly forced to use food banks).

These opaque PRBs are nothing just like the Low Pay Fee that units the minimal wage, whose membership is shared between teachers, employers and unions: the TUC says it really works properly. PRBs have two primary standards to contemplate, each bogus. What are the present monetary circumstances, and what could also be wanted to recruit, retain and encourage workers? However they’re given a set spending envelope, with a set pay rise baked in. Any additional pay comes out of the departmental finances, inflicting cuts.

This morning the At this time programme interviewed Jerry Cope, who was chair of the NHS pay evaluation physique from 2011 to 2017, and he rejected the declare that pay evaluation our bodies weren’t unbiased. He mentioned:

I describe it as fiercely unbiased. I do know there’s quite a lot of cynicism about, however the entire members of pay evaluation our bodies, and there are a lot of of them, fiercely guard their independence and regard what they do as crucial to all of the stakeholders in a specific subject.

Cope mentioned that the knowledge given to pay evaluation our bodies by the Treasury as to what was inexpensive was “a parameter not a constraint”, and he mentioned the NHS pay evaluation physique may have mentioned to the federal government that its proposals have been unrealistic. That generally occurred, he mentioned.

However he conceded that there was an issue with the advice on nurses’ pay as a result of the pay evaluation was old-fashioned. He defined:

It happened in February and the world was a somewhat completely different place in February and due to this fact I feel a number of the proof they thought-about was in all probability old-fashioned by the point it was printed. As a result of the method could be very sluggish, the choice is a bit lagged.

Cope additionally mentioned this issue supplied a doable answer to the federal government.

I feel they [ministers] ought to ask the pay evaluation physique to rethink what they did final 12 months, and never reopen final 12 months, as a result of I feel it’s too late to try this, however truly say I would like you to do a really fast turnaround for this 12 months’s suggestions and I would like you to take account on something you may need missed final time spherical.

He mentioned that would open the way in which to the next supply, in a manner that “respects the integrity of the pay evaluation physique” – though he additionally accepted that the pay evaluation may determine to not change its suggestion.

In his TalkTV interview final night time Sir Jake Berry, the previous Conservative chairman, additionally mentioned that Dominic Raab, the justice secretary and deputy PM, must be suspended from his cupboard submit whereas the allegations about him bullying officers – there at the moment are eight separate complaints, No 10 said yesterday – are investigated. Commenting on the newest developments within the story, he mentioned:

The issue with this growth is, if you happen to work in Aldi in Rawtenstall or Asda in Rawtenstall in my constituency, and also you had allegations like this in opposition to you, you’ll be suspended pending investigation.

And I feel it’s fairly a tough line from the federal government to keep up there at the moment are eight allegations in relation to unacceptable behaviour within the office – that are denied by Dominic Raab – they usually haven’t taken any additional motion than organising some unbiased panel which I don’t suppose anyone, together with me, actually understands.

Each Labour and the Liberal Democrats have said Raab should stand aside whereas the allegations in opposition to him are investigated, and Berry mentioned this was the strategy he adopted to individuals beneath investigation when he was social gathering chairman.

Good morning. Britain’s industrial dispute disaster has turn into notably extra critical right now with the start of a strike by nurses in England, Wales and Northern Eire. Even within the Nineteen Seventies the Royal School of Nursing by no means voted to go on strike, and so this can be a measure of how badly the price of residing disaster is affecting the general public sector workforce.

Many hospitals are usually not affected (nurses voted belief by belief, and in some locations they didn’t attain the 50% turnout threshold for a poll to be legitimate), however that is nonetheless an enormous movement – for the NHS, and sufferers – and my colleague Tobi Thomas is writing a separate liveblog with all the detail here.

I’ll be masking non-strike points right now, however it’s not possible to jot down about Westminster politics with out referencing the dispute and so it’ll get some protection right here too. And one of the vital notable interventions has come from Sir Jake Berry, who was chairman of the Conservative social gathering when Liz Truss was prime minister and earlier than that chair of the Northern Analysis Group, the influential caucus for “crimson wall” Tory MPs. In an interview with TalkTV final night time, Berry mentioned the federal government ought to supply the nurses a greater deal. He mentioned:

The federal government goes to have to enhance its supply.

The nursing union itself is asking for 19%. That doesn’t appear to be a practical determine to individuals working within the non-public sector, to individuals working in different components of our public sector.

They’ve described it themselves as a negotiating place. And everyone knows how this works. They ask for 19%, the federal government affords them 3 or 4, or no matter it’s, they usually’re going to fulfill someplace within the center.

We have to discover a manner, as a authorities, and the union too, to get to that centre level, that time of settlement, immediately.

Berry additionally mentioned that nurses have been “sensible public servants” and {that a} compromise was important. He went on:

Each the federal government and the nurses’ union want to come back up collectively [with] a compromise place immediately. And that has to contain the federal government growing its supply.

Requested by how a lot, Berry initially mentioned “by loads”, after which mentioned he didn’t wish to put a determine on it. However 19% was too excessive, he mentioned.

Berry has turn into one of the vital troublesome Tory backbenchers for No 10. He spoke out publicly about Rishi Sunak’s choice to present Gavin Williamson a cupboard job (efficiently – Williamson resigned) and about his choice to reappoint Suella Braverman has dwelling secretary (unsuccessfully – she remains to be there). He additionally joined a revolt over onshore windfarms (he was was in favour), and he has publicly speculated concerning the prospect of Boris Johnson returning to save the party from electoral oblivion.

Right here is the agenda for the day.

9.30am: Kemi Badenoch, the worldwide commerce secretary, takes questions within the Commons.

Morning: Stephen Barclay, the well being secretary, visits a London hospital, the place he’ll converse to the media.

11.30am: Downing Road holds its foyer briefing.

2.45pm: John Swinney, Scotland’s finance secretary, presents the Scottish authorities’s finances for 2023-24.

Sooner or later right now Huw Merriman, the rail minister, is holding a gathering with the RMT about the strike.

Additionally, persons are voting right now in the byelection in Stretford and Urmston to elect a substitute for Labour’s Kate Inexperienced, who’s leaving parliament to turn into Higher Manchester’s deputy mayor for policing and crime.

I attempt to monitor the feedback beneath the road (BTL) however it’s not possible to learn all of them. When you have a direct query, do embrace “Andrew” in it someplace and I’m extra prone to discover it. I do attempt to reply questions and, if they’re of common curiosity, I’ll submit the query and reply above the road (ATL), though I can’t promise to do that for everybody.

If you wish to appeal to my consideration shortly, it’s in all probability higher to make use of Twitter. I’m on @AndrewSparrow.

Alternatively, you’ll be able to electronic mail me at andrew.sparrow@theguardian.com.