Government hiring negotiator to “reset” EU relations
“The UK government is hiring a new negotiator to help deliver a “reset” of relations with Europe. The job posting says the role will lead the government’s relationship with the European Union and negotiations with the EU “on key UK interests”, with mentions of trade, security and border policy. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has committed to a “reset” of relations between the UK and EU, and previously said he would seek a better deal on trade than the one negotiated by Boris Johnson in late 2020. However, the prime minister has said that resetting does not mean reversing Brexit.” – BBC
- Shadow Foreign Secretary Priti Patel has accused Keir Starmer of “undermining Brexit” – Sunday Express
- Without the EU, the joke is on us if Trump gets his tariffs – William Keegan, The Observer
- ‘Brexit was a humiliation’ and other revelations from Angela Merkel – Book extract, Sunday Times
COP29 agrees $300 billion to poorer countries for climate change
“Richer countries have pledged a record $300bn (£238bn) to help the developing world fight climate change, but the deal is facing recriminations that it comes nowhere near addressing poorer countries’ challenges from global warming. The talks at the UN climate summit COP29 in Azerbaijan ran 33 hours late, and came within inches of collapse. The head of the UN climate body, Simon Stiell, said it had “been a difficult journey, but we’ve delivered a deal.” But the talks also failed to build on an agreement passed last year calling for nations to “transition away from fossil fuels”. Developing nations, as well as countries that are particularly vulnerable to climate change, dramatically walked out of the talks on Saturday afternoon.” – BBC
- Labour commits £70m to foreign aid food security while taxing farmers at home – Sunday Telegraph
- Our climate leadership needs an urgent dose of pragmatism – Leader, Sunday Times
- Miliband’s promises of cheap and easy energy don’t add up – Claire Coutinho, Sunday Telegraph
Assisted dying 1) Poll finds public back reform
“This weekend, a poll of more than 15,000 people by the think tank More in Common found the public almost five times as likely to support assisted dying as not, when they have a view, with 65 per cent in favour and only 13 per cent opposed. Nearly a quarter (22 per cent) were undecided. The public expect either a private service, or extra resources for the NHS to fund it. Three quarters — including supporters of assisted dying — say the NHS is not in a fit state to provide it.” – Sunday Times
- How assisted dying lobby used UK’s favourite soap to sway public opinion – Sunday Telegraph
- ‘One conversation really changed my mind’: the personal stories driving MPs’ decisions on assisted dying – The Observer
Assisted dying 2) Justice Secretary attacks proposal as ‘state death service’
“MPs will be placing the country on a “slippery slope towards death on demand” if they back legislation on assisted dying in England and Wales this week, the lord chancellor and justice secretary, Shabana Mahmood, has said in a letter to constituents before a historic Commons vote on Friday. Mahmood has received numerous letters about the bill from people in her Birmingham Ladywood seat, which has a big Muslim population, and sent out replies saying that she was “profoundly concerned” about the legislation, not only for religious reasons but also because of what it would mean for the role of the state if one of its functions became helping people to die.” – The Observer
- Gordon Brown declares opposition to assisted dying – BBC
- Tory MP Danny Kruger investigated by standards watchdog over assisted dying funds – The Observer
Assisted dying 3) Religious leaders unite in opposition
“A group of 29 faith leaders have joined forces to oppose assisted dying in the biggest intervention from religious groups on the issue to date. Senior figures representing Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus and Sikhs have warned that the assisted dying Bill will lead to people being pressured into ending their lives to avoid burdening families or the NHS. They say a change in law will turn a “right to die” into people thinking they have a “duty to die”. In an open letter signed by the Bishop of London, the Roman Catholic Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster and the Chief Rabbi, they say they are “deeply concerned about the impact the Bill would have on the most vulnerable, opening up the possibility of life-threatening abuse and coercion.” – Sunday Telegraph
Comment
- The assisted dying debate is too important to be rushed – Leader, Sunday Times
- As the architect of the Abortion Act, I think we should welcome this bill – David Steel, Sunday Times
- Assisted dying is a cruel betrayal of the vulnerable – Constance Watson, Sunday Telegraph
- Our NHS is no place to empower doctors to kill you – Kathleen Stock, Sunday Times
Starmer pledges to tackle welfare spending
“Sir Keir Starmer today pledges to crack down hard on the ‘bulging benefits bill blighting our society’ as he tries to steal the Tories’ political clothes over abuses of the welfare system. The Prime Minister uses an article in today’s Mail on Sunday to promise ‘sweeping changes’ to try to tame the £137 billion bill for welfare benefits – including a blitz on cheats and those who ‘game the system’ – vowing: ‘No more business as usual.’ His most hardline comments yet on the issue come as Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall prepares to announce a package of legislation on Tuesday to ‘get Britain working’, after officials forecast that more than four million people will be claiming long-term sickness benefits by 2030 – 60 per cent higher than before the pandemic.” – Mail on Sunday
- Jobs are about dignity and pride. Not just paying the bills. – Keir Starmer, Mail on Sunday
- Starmer must recapture the ruthless edge that won him power – Tim Shipman, Sunday Times
- Kendall vows to cut the number of Brits on benefits as she warns the welfare epidemic is ‘terrible’ for the country – The Sun on Sunday
- Labour’s plan to get Britain working means the end of a life on benefits – Liz Kendall, Sunday Telegraph
- Crackdown on Britain’s workshy could not come at a more critical time – Leader, The Sun on Sunday
- Taming the benefits monster is a tough task. But also a noble one. – Leader, Mail on Sunday
- When my life was shattered, death benefits helped me cope. Proposals to tax many lump-sum death benefits cannot be right, morally or legally – Robert Colvile, Sunday Times
NHS managers involved in cover-ups “to face sack”
“NHS managers who cover up mistakes face the sack under tough measures to be announced by Health Secretary Wes Streeting this week. It comes after warnings that hospital bosses silenced senior doctors who feared killer nurse Lucy Letby might be responsible for the deaths of babies on a neonatal unit. Retired Det Ch Supt Nigel Wenham last week told a public inquiry that paediatricians at the Countess of Chester Hospital “did raise concerns repeatedly but, sadly, they were shut down”. Letby, 34, is serving 15 whole-life jail terms after she was convicted of murdering seven infants and attempting to murder seven others.” – Sunday Express
- NHS managers who put ‘protecting reputation over protecting patients’ must go – Health Minister Karin Smyth, Sunday Express
Surge in deportations of those here illegally
“The number of people who have no right to live in the UK who are forcibly returned to their home countries has jumped by almost a fifth since the election. There were 2,590 “enforced returns” between July 5 and October 28 – up from 2,170 in the same period last year. Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said rules governing who can live in the UK had to be “respected and enforced” and “that hasn’t happened for far too long”. – Sunday Express
- Ahead of a snap election, anger is burning in Ireland over migration – Sunday Times
- Home Office ‘completely lost grip’ at notorious Manston asylum centre – The Observer
>Today: ToryDiary: Badenoch must regain migration credibility to see off Reform, win a 2029 majority, and keep her job
Warning of Russian cyber attack on UK
“Russia is prepared to launch a wave of cyber attacks on Britain that could “turn out the lights for millions”, a Cabinet minister will warn at a Nato conference on Monday. Vladimir Putin is willing and capable of triggering a “destabilising and debilitating” electronic strike on the UK, Pat McFadden will say. Russia is “exceptionally aggressive and reckless in the cyber realm” and wants to gain a “strategic advantage and degrade the states that support Ukraine”, Mr McFadden, who oversees policy on national security and state threats, will warn.” – Sunday Telegraph
- Poll shows strong backing for Ukraine from British voters – The Sun on Sunday
- ‘Sitting duck’ UK needs own Iron Dome missile defence, experts demand – Mail on Sunday
- Putin’s nuclear bang is more of a whimper – Dominic Lawson, Sunday Times
- What will a Trump-led peace deal with Russia look like? – Mark Urban, Sunday Times
Zahawi and Dowden tipped for peerages
“Nadhim Zahawi is tipped for a peerage in Rishi Sunak’s resignation honours list. The former Chancellor has been talked up as a contender for the House of Lords. Other expected honours include a knighthood for former foreign minister Andrew Mitchell, and peerages for Julian Smith and former deputy prime minister Sir Oliver Dowden, which would trigger by-elections. Mr Zahawi did not contest his Stratford-on-Avon seat in this year’s election.” – Mail on Sunday
Hannan: Police and Crime Commissioners should be defending free speech
“If only there were some way to bring the police’s priorities back into line with those of the public they are supposed to serve. Oh, wait, there is. Since November 2012, each constabulary has answered to an elected Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC)…I took to X (it seemed the appropriate medium in this instance) to ask the incumbent, a Conservative called Roger Hirst, what he planned to do. He replied, “No attack on free speech, just due process”. He went on to back his constables’ action, adding “perhaps we need to think about how our black and Asian communities are hearing this debate”. I’m going to go out on a limb, here, Roger, and suggest that “our black and Asian communities” (a tellingly collectivist phrase, as if they all thought the same way) want the same as most white people, namely coppers who concentrate on stopping burglaries and assaults rather than harassing newspaper columnists.” – Daniel Hannan, Sunday Telegraph
- Police accused of ‘turning blind eye’ to anti-Semitism to pursue ‘nonsense’ – Sunday Telegraph
Other political news
- How could the Apple tax windfall be spent in Ireland? – BBC
- Starmer spotted in Directors’ Box at Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium despite freebie controversy – The Sun on Sunday
- Labour’s inheritance tax raid on farmers ‘will spell the death of farm shops’ – Mail on Sunday
- Nominee for agriculture secretary completes Trump cabinet – BBC
- Divorced farmers clobbered by extra £100k in inheritance tax – Sunday Telegraph
- London councils are ‘exiling’ their poor to the north of England – Sunday Express
- MPs ask for extra funds to pay staff after National Insurance rise – The Sun on Sunday
- Buckingham Palace’s £369m refurbishment means no state visits until 2027 – Sunday Times
- Petition demanding general election hits 100,000 – Sunday Express
- Helena Rees-Mogg: ‘I hate how ludicrously posh my voice sounds on camera’ – Sunday Telegraph
- Too many buildings remain unsafe after Grenfell disaster, housing minister warns – The Observer
- New polling shows Kemi Badenoch’s path to power – Sunday Express
- Fire Trudeau for backing arrest of Netanyahu, says Canada opposition leader – Sunday Telegraph
News in brief
- Gordon Brown’s assisted dying intervention could be decisive – James Macintyre, The Spectator
- Adam Smith understood that more babies are a blessing – Nicholas Swanson, CapX
- The honeymoon phase of the X alternative could be short-lived – James Dreyfus, The Critic
- As assisted dying shows, we trivialise Parliament at our peril – Henry Hill, CapX
- Jason Cowley to stand down as New Statesman editor-in-chief after 16 years – New Statesman
