Sunak will also discuss support to Finland and Sweden ahead of them joining the NATO security grouping and scaling up joint exercises to further strengthen the JEF alliance…reports Asian Lite News
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will meet his Nordic, Baltic and Dutch counterparts at the Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF) summit in the Latvian capital Riga on Monday, before heading to Estonia to meet British and NATO troops, the government said.
The JEF, a British-led group of Denmark, Estonia, Finland and Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden, will be addressed by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
At the summit, Sunak will call on leaders to sustain or increase lethal aid, economic resilience and political backing to Ukraine in its resistance against Russia’s invasion, according to a British government statement.
The prime minister’s call comes after the UK announced it will supply hundreds of thousands of rounds of artillery ammunition to Ukraine next year, in a package worth 250 million pounds ($305 million).
Sunak will also discuss support to Finland and Sweden ahead of them joining the NATO security grouping and scaling up joint exercises to further strengthen the JEF alliance.
After the JEF summit, Sunak is expected to meet Latvian Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins, before heading to Estonia to meet UK and NATO troops serving on the military alliance’s eastern flank on the Russian border.
Sunak will sign a technology partnership agreement with the Prime Minister of Estonia, Kaja Kallas, to bolster technology ties and support new digital infrastructure, the statement said.
The Prime Minister Rishi Sunak meets patients, their families, and staff during a visit to Northern Ireland Children's Hospice in Belfast. Picture by Simon Walker / No 10 Downing Street
Nurses, teachers, transport workers, post office staff, civil servants, and energy sector employees have embarked on a wave of work stoppages demanding higher pay and better working conditions…reports Asian Lite News
With parliament in recess, politics is also on vacation in UK in what is deemed in this country to be a Christmas truce. But the threat to Indian-origin Prime Minister Rishi Sunak continuing in office seems to be around the corner, if not already present.
Lord Peter Cruddas, a ruling Conservative party peer in the House of Lords and one of the party’s biggest recent financial donors, bluntly told The Observer: “Something’s going to come to a head because the members don’t want Rishi Sunak. The odds are stacked against him.
Sunak, 42, became head of government on October 25. He has at least avoided the ignominy of a tenure shorter than the dubious record set by his immediate predecessor Liz Truss. But he is hemmed in by trouble from within his party as well as the biggest epidemic of strikes by unions in the UK since the 1980s.
Cruddas has donated more than 3.5 million pounds to the Conservatives; and strenuously supported a move in October to bring back Boris Johnson as Prime Minister after he had been forced to resign in July. The plot could therefore be to remove Sunak, perceived to be lacklustre, and reinstate Johnson, who is controversial and allegedly corrupt, but colourful in reaching out to voters.
Cruddas’ outburst came as the latest Opinium poll published by The Observer indicated that the extreme right-wing Reform party has increased its support. This is read as a sign that the pro-Brexit and low tax preferring Conservative voters could be drifting away to Reform.
Another pollster YouGov in a survey of national voting intention carried out on December 14-15, put 48 per cent as being with the main opposition Labour party and only 23 per cent remaining with the Conservatives, who won a thumping majority under Johnson only three years ago. This translates to a Labour landslide, if an election is held now.
Sunak is shown as enjoying the confidence of 24 per cent of the electorate, whereas the figure for Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, is 32 per cent. Although Conservative MPs voted overwhelmingly for Sunak to elect him leader and thereby Prime Minister, the party’s rank and file – who did not get a chance to have their say – do not believe he can connect with the British masses to win them the next election – which can of course be posted to December 2024.
In a centrespread story headlined “Will Sunak blink first?”, Sunday Times surmised: “The Prime Minister is determined to face down union leaders this Christmas. But as their threats of more synchronised strikes in the new year harden, some ministers are getting decidedly nervous.”
Nurses, teachers, transport workers, post office staff, civil servants, and energy sector employees have embarked on a wave of work stoppages demanding higher pay and better working conditions. While this is causing considerable inconvenience to the public, they are no more than divided in their sympathies and distinctly empathetic towards nurses.
Meanwhile, Sunak’s decision to appoint the quite shrill Suella Braverman, whose mother is a Tamil from Mauritius and her father a Goan, as Home Secretary, continues to haunt him. Nimco Ali, a friend of Johnson and Priti Patel, who is stepping down as an independent government adviser on violence against women, suggested he should sack her.
“He’s not going to win (the next election) with Suella as his Home Secretary,” she was reported as saying. She accused Braverman of fuelling racism and “normalising” the extreme politics of the Brexit party, which has morphed into the Reform party.
An Indian in the news linked to the current shambolic state of the Conservatives is billionaire steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal. He is said to have given in excess of 4 million pounds to the Labour party when it was under Tony Blair’s leadership. According to the Sunday Times, he switched his allegiance to the Conservative party in 2019 and invested 10,000 pounds to Johnson’s leadership campaign.
“A senior party figure”, quoted by the paper, apparently said: “He (Mittal) now looks like he might be ready to become a serious player.” There was no comment from Mittal. Contributions to the Conservatives have reportedly slumped by 40 per cent in the past three months.
A separate survey of 1,088 people by Deltapoll on Tuesday put Labour on 45 per cent and the Tories on 32 per cent…reports Asian Lite News
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak would lose his Parliamentary seat in a general election, according to polling by Savanta that puts the opposition Labour Party 20 points ahead of the prime minister’s ruling Conservatives.
Labour would romp to a 314-seat majority if an election were held tomorrow, Savanta said in a statement on Tuesday that put Keir Starmer’s party on 48 per cent, with the Tories on 28 per cent.
The Conservatives would lose almost 300 seats, including Mr Sunak’s constituency in Yorkshire and all other seats north of Lincolnshire. Savanta interviewed 6,237 British adults between Dec 2 and Dec 5.
The survey is the latest in a string of polls giving Labour a wide lead over Conservative, and will add to the sense that Mr Sunak faces a struggle to repair the fortunes of the ruling party ahead of a general election that must be held by January 2025.
The Tory brand has been badly damaged this year as MPs ousted two prime ministers, including Mr Sunak’s predecessor, Liz Truss, who crashed the pound and roiled the bond markets during a disastrous seven weeks in office.
A separate survey of 1,088 people by Deltapoll on Tuesday put Labour on 45 per cent and the Tories on 32 per cent.
The Savanta results reflects “two parties experiencing widely differing electoral fortunes,” Mr Chris Hopkins, Political Research Director at Savanta, said in the statement. But with some of the projections indicating marginal results, “it does show that if Rishi Sunak can keep narrowing that Labour lead, point-by-point, the actual results come 2024 could look very different to this nowcast model”.
The Tories won 365 seats in the 2019 general election, and now hold 356 as a result of suspensions and by-election losses. Under the latest poll, they would win just 69, compared to 482 for Labour. Savanta said the Scottish National Party would win 55, with the Liberal Democrats on 21.
Savanta’s data were subject to so-called multi-regression and post-stratification (MRP) modelling by Electoral Calculus. MRP polling is a relatively recent technique that aims to give a more detailed prediction than a standard opinion poll.
Sunak has reversed those plans and instead raised taxes, reassuring financial markets, but upsetting some Conservative lawmakers…reports Asian Lite News
British Conservative politicians on Sunday launched two campaigns to address concerns about the direction of the party and the government, the latest challenge to new Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s attempts to unite a fractured party.
The Conservative Party has already ousted two prime ministers in 2022 – Boris Johnson and Liz Truss – and trails the opposition Labour party in the polls by double digits, with another national election expected in 2024.
Sunak became Prime Minister in October when Truss resigned after less than two months. Her chaotic tenure was fatally damaged when her fiscal plan for unfunded tax cuts lost the confidence of markets.
Sunak has reversed those plans and instead raised taxes, reassuring financial markets, but upsetting some Conservative lawmakers.
“In the recent budget, the government decided to tax the British public at levels not seen since the end of the Second World War,” a group of 40 Conservative lawmakers wrote to finance minister Jeremy Hunt on Sunday.
“We need to be able to reassure our constituents, who are worried about the cost of living crisis, that every penny of taxpayers’ money spent on their behalf provides value for money and is not wasted.”
The group, which calls itself Conservative Way Forward, said it would publish a report on Monday outlining 7 billion pounds ($8.58 billion) of “waste” that could be shed, allowing the government to cut taxes or spend more on frontline services.
Sunak’s first six weeks as prime minister have been calmer than his predecessor’s, but restive backbench lawmakers have already forced policy concessions on housebuilding targets and onshore wind farms.
He is also having to deal with the impact of surging energy bills, a cost-of-living crisis, and industrial action set to disrupt hospitals and transport in the run-up to Christmas.
A separate group – Conservative Democratic Organisation – was also launched on Sunday aiming to “take back control” of the party on behalf of the party’s membership, after Johnson and Truss were ousted – and Sunak selected – by the parliamentary party. Johnson and Truss were both chosen via a vote by the Conservative Party’s membership of around 170,000.
The group, supported by former interior minister Priti Patel, said that the selection of Sunak by lawmakers, just weeks after members voted for Truss, “had finally ended members faith in any party democracy existing within the Conservative Party.”
The Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, together with Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Steve Barclay, meets the Elective Recovery Taskforce in 10 Downing Street. Picture by Simon Walker / No 10 Downing Street
Hunt will announce a review of the system as one of 30 reforms to financial services regulation to be launched in Edinburgh…reports Asian Lite News
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt is to overhaul the “senior managers’ regime” — rules introduced in response to the 2008 financial crisis that “terrified” senior bankers and held them personally responsible for infractions on their watch.
Hunt will announce a review of the system as one of 30 reforms to financial services regulation to be launched in Edinburgh on Friday, according to people briefed on the plan.
The regime has since 2016 forced senior executives at banks, building societies and credit unions to take personal responsibility for infractions if they had not taken “reasonable steps” to prevent them. Penalties range from fines to bans.
New laws were introduced simultaneously which made it a criminal offence, punishable by up to seven years’ imprisonment and unlimited fines, for senior managers of lenders and major investment firms to cause a bank failure.
Ministers have insisted that Hunt’s “Edinburgh Reforms” will not mark a return to the risky practices that contributed to the 2008 crash and that Britain’s regulatory framework will remain rigorous.
One ally of the chancellor said the senior managers’ regime was seen as too onerous and would be reviewed. “We will introduce an agile but proportionate regulatory framework,” he said. “But we will maintain the high standards for which we are known around the world.”
Described by the Bank of England as a “critical element of the post-crisis reform agenda”, the senior managers’ regime was designed to ensure bankers had “nowhere to hide” for failings on their watch, as the public balked at the lack of accountability for collapses that cost taxpayers tens of billions of pounds.
Hunt will say on Friday that the regime will be reviewed by regulators and the government early next year, according to people familiar with the matter.
The Treasury declined to comment.
By the end of 2019, the rules had been expanded from covering the UK’s lenders to more than 47,000 companies across the City of London.
But while the financial services industry lambasted the rules as being a dead hand on recruitment, enforcement has so far been sparse.
In one of the few penalties issued by regulators, Jes Staley, Barclays’ then chief executive, was fined £640,000 in 2018 for trying to uncover the identity of an anonymous whistleblower.
Several of the key proposals in the Edinburgh Reforms will seek to unwind some of the more constraining features of regulations put in place after the 2008 crash, including loosening “ringfencing” rules for banks.
Hunt has already announced the removal of the cap on bankers’ bonuses and will also order a review of Mifid II, EU legislation that sought to strengthen protection for investors and transparency in financial markets.
City executives have long complained about the red tape imposed by post-crash regulations, but they have also since overhauled their businesses to cope with the demands. Such restructuring means that any reforms to regulations could take some time to lead to changes in how banks and corporate brokers operate.
London’s position as the pre-eminent European financial centre has been dented in recent years. London briefly lost its long-time crown of most valuable European stock market to Paris before gains in the pound pushed it narrowly back ahead, while Amsterdam took the title of busiest European share dealing centre.
After 15 years of scandal and state aid, Rome was prepared to bend the rules to ensure that Monte dei Paschi, the world’s oldest lender, could be safely sold off https://t.co/TwTrLxXXk2
Leading hedge fund manager Sir Paul Marshall of Marshall Wace recently described the London financial markets as a “Jurassic Park” of old-fashioned companies and investors, and it has struggled to attract the world’s fastest growing companies to list on UK exchanges, often losing out to New York, Shanghai or even Amsterdam.
Labour politicians have criticised the scrapping of the bonus cap and said the UK should not engage in a regulatory race to the bottom, but the government will insist the reforms strike the right balance between stability and innovation.
Others will say that in loosening regulation we risk forgetting the lessons of the financial crisis when excessive risk taking ended in billions in bailouts and a decade of stagnating productivity.
Aides did not rule out the possibility that this could include a ban on walkouts by ambulance staff and other emergency workers, or the extension of proposed minimum service level legislation to cover the whole public sector…reports Asian Lite News
Emergency workers could face additional restrictions on their right to strike, after Rishi Sunak declared his intention to impose “tough new laws” to tackle industrial action.
Aides did not rule out the possibility that this could include a ban on walkouts by ambulance staff and other emergency workers, or the extension of proposed minimum service level legislation to cover the whole public sector.
And the prime minister later said he was ready to do “whatever I need to do” to minimise disruption to day-to-day life.
Sunak’s comment came a day after the GMB, Unison and Unite unions announced co-ordinated strikes by NHS staff including ambulance workers on 21 and 28 December.
The government promised legislation to enforce minimum service levels during strikes in essential services as long ago as the Queen’s Speech of 2019.
But a bill to introducing the requirement in the transport sector only is yet to start its progress through the Commons.
Transport secretary Mark Harper today admitted that the legislation will not be in place in time to mitigate the wave of rail strikes due to bring travel to a standstill later this month.
“That legislation may well lead to an improvement in the medium to long term, but however fast it is progressed… it is not a solution to dealing with the industrial action we see at the moment,” Harper told MPs.
Answering questions in the House of Commons, Sunak said he would “take action to protect the lives and livelihoods of the British public” if union leaders “continue to be unreasonable”.
The prime minister told MPs: “The government has been reasonable. It’s accepted the recommendations of an independent pay review body, giving pay rises in many cases higher than the private sector.
“But if the union leaders continue to be unreasonable, then it is my duty to take action to protect the lives and livelihoods of the British public.
“That’s why, since I became prime minister I have been working for new tough laws to protect people from this disruption.”
He later said, “If union leaders are not going to be reasonable, then my priority is always going to be to protect people’s safety and to minimise disruption on their day-to-day lives and I will do whatever I need to do to ensure that that’s what we can make happen.”
The PM’s official spokesperson confirmed work was under way on measures to curb the disruption caused by strikes, but refused to discuss the details of the proposals or put a timetable on their introduction.
“We keep the powers under review and obviously in light of what we are seeing with effectively rolling strikes, the prime minister thinks it is right to push ahead with new powers,” said the spokesperson.
The work was being done “at speed”, led by chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Oliver Dowden, he added.
A Labour spokesperson said the party regards minimum service levels as “unworkable” and will oppose the legislation currently before the Commons.
Responding to the PM’s comments, TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady said: “The right to strike is a fundamental British liberty. With inflation running at 11 per cent, Rishi Sunak wants to make it harder for working people to win better pay and conditions.
“Public sector workers would love to be able to deliver minimum service levels. But 12 years of Conservative cuts and mismanagement have left our public services falling apart at the seams. Rather than attempting cheap political pot shots, the government should be getting around the table and negotiating with unions about pay. So far, ministers have seemed more interested in sabotaging talks than trying to resolve disputes.”
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “No-one will be fooled by this attempt to divert attention away from the sheer incompetence of this government.
“We will not be intimidated by anti-trade union attacks. If they put more hurdles in our way, then we will jump over them. We are ready industrially and financially. As general secretary of Unite I will continue to fight and win for workers.”
In his bid to keep the Tories together, he is set to water down local house-building targets to make them advisory rather than mandated by the Government…reports Asian Lite News
Rishi Sunak caved to the demands of Tory backbenchers last night as he seeks to avoid a Commons showdown with his own MPs.
The Prime Minister has ditched compulsory house-building targets for local areas after widespread discontent from Conservative parliamentarians.
As many as 60 Tories had threatened to vote against Mr Sunak’s Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill.
It has also been reported the Prime Minister is preparing to ditch the ban on onshore wind farms amid opposition from MPs including Boris Johnson and Liz Truss.
Sunak’s desire to avoid a clash with his own party comes after his predecessor was forced to resign less than 24 hours after a row over a Commons vote descended into chaos, with pandemonium breaking loose in the voting lobby.
Shortly after becoming Conservative leader, the Richmond MP warned his party they must “unite or die”.
In his bid to keep the Tories together, he is set to water down local house-building targets to make them advisory rather than mandated by the Government.
Last night Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove told The Telegraph the changes were a “sensible compromise” with local authorities incentivised to adopt local development plans drawn up in consultation with residents.
“When I came into this job I said we need to create neighbourhoods not dormitories, and that is what this will achieve,” he said.
“What we will see is more homes being built in places where we need them. The current planning system is dysfunctional and in need of reform. We need to change it to ensure that developments have the characteristics that communities cherish.”
While the Government has scrapped its plans for mandatory top-down targets on house-building, ministers insist the Conservative manifesto pledge to build 300,000 new homes a year remains in place.
Schools minister Nick Gibb said the party remained “committed” to getting more people out of the rental sector and into owning their own property.
Asked about the 300,000 homes promise, he said: “We are committed to that. We want young people and not so young people to be able to get on the housing ladder. The Conservative Party it’s in our DNA for people to have their own home, the property-owning democracy is part of what we stand for. We are committed to that, it’s not a U-turn, it’s working with parliamentarians.”
The royal household has also begun publishing data on the ethnic breakdown of its staff, admitting it has more to do to ensure due representation…reports Asian Lite News
Breaking his silence on the latest race row to engulf the royal household, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said racism, whenever encountered, must be confronted.
Sunak said he had faced racism in his early life but believes the country has progressed since then. However, without directly commenting on the incident or the monarchy, he acknowledged that there is still work to be done.
“I have experienced racism in the past. But what I am pleased to say is that some of the things that I experienced while I was a kid I don’t think would happen today because our country has made incredible progress in tackling racism,” Sunak told reporters on Thursday.
“But the job is never done and that’s why whenever we see racism we must confront it. It’s right that we continually learn the lessons and move to a better future,” the British PM said.
Sunak’s remarks came in the wake of allegations of racism against Lady Susan Hussey, who is godmother to heir apparent Prince William and served as lay-in-waiting to the late Queen Elizabeth II.
The controversy erupted when Ngozi Fulani, a British national of African heritage and Caribbean descent, wrote on Twitter that the royal aide had repeatedly asked her: “What part of Africa are you from?” when she attended an event hosted by King Charles’s wife Camilla, the queen consort, on Tuesday.
Without naming Lady Hussey, Fulani said she was left traumatised by her persistent inquiries. In the end, she told her: “I am born here and am British.”
As the scandal blew up, Lady Hussey resigned from her role in the royal household and apologised over the incident. The Buckingham Palace also issued a statement terming her comments as “unacceptable and deeply regrettable.”
Meanwhile, Labour MP Diane Abbott, the first black woman to sit in the House of Commons when she was elected in the 1980s, said it was “really shocking” that a black Briton’s identity could be interrogated in this way.
But she told Times Radio that Buckingham Palace had made “progress” on race issues in the past 10 years.
Back then, “they would have said she (Fulani) was oversensitive and just dismissed it”, said Abbott.
The palace appears to have taken lessons on board particularly since last year, when Harry and his mixed-race wife Meghan accused an unidentified royal of racism with regard to their unborn baby.
Then, William retorted: “We are very much not a racist family.” But the family said the matter would be dealt with “privately”.
The royal household has also begun publishing data on the ethnic breakdown of its staff, admitting it has more to do to ensure due representation.
Yet from their new lives in California, the duke and duchess of Sussex have been portraying themselves as modernising outsiders who tried to take on a reactionary establishment.
Ironies abound as the feuding brothers both find themselves on the US East Coast — with no plans to meet.
William is set to award an environmental prize in Boston inspired by former president John F. Kennedy’s “Moonshot” ambition in the 1960s.
Next week, Harry and Meghan are due to attend an awards gala in New York held by the human rights foundation of Kennedy’s brother Robert.
His daughter Kerry Kennedy says the couple will be recognised for taking a “heroic stand” against “structural racism” within the British monarchy.
There is further irony in the row erupting in the week that saw new data from the 2021 census confirm that Britain is more racially diverse — and less Christian — than ever before.
Charles himself has a lifelong commitment to multi-culturalism and religious diversity while the government is led by the country’s first prime minister of colour, Rishi Sunak.
The last two by-elections, which took place on the same day in June, were a disaster for the Tories, with Labour snatching Wakefield and the Liberal Democrats securing a historic victory in Tiverton and Honiton…reports Asian Lite News
Labour has won the City of Chester by-election, retaining the seat and delivering a defeat to Rishi Sunak in his first electoral test as Prime Minister.
Pollsters said the result shows Labour is in the strongest position it has been in a decade – but shows the Tories have “probably” clawed back some ground since Liz Truss’s administration.
Congratulations to @CllrSDixon, Labour’s new MP for City of Chester.
This is a landslide result for Labour – bigger than in 1997 – and Sam has achieved the best result in the constituency’s history.
The message to the Conservatives is clear. It’s time for a Labour government. pic.twitter.com/6LUQCLhYPT
Samantha Dixon, a former local council leader, held the seat for Labour with a 10,974-vote majority, representing a 13.8 per cent swing in the party’s favour.
The contest was triggered by the resignation of Labour MP Christian Matheson after complaints of “serious sexual misconduct” were upheld by a parliamentary watchdog.
Matheson, who denied the allegations, was facing a four-week suspension and was asked to resign by Labour before he quit.
Dixon defeated Conservative candidate and NHS nurse Liz Wardlaw, handing the Conservatives a defeat in the first Westminster by-election since Boris Johnson’s forced resignation and the market chaos that ended Liz Truss’s short stint in No 10.
In a victory speech after the result was announced, Dixon said: “People in Chester and across our country are really worried. Worried about losing their homes because they can’t afford the mortgage repayments or the rent, worried about whether they can put the heating on, worried about whether they can put food on the table for their families. This is the cost of 12 years of Conservative government. The government, which has wreaked havoc with our economy, destroyed our public services and betrayed the people who put their trust in them at the last general election.”
Political scientist Professor Sir John Curtice said with the “possible exception of the Middlesborough by election of 2012”, the result was the best performance by Labour and “the biggest swing from Conservative to Labour in any by election since David Cameron first walked through the door of Downing Street”.
“The claim of the opinion polls that Labour are well ahead, they are about 20 points ahead, is probably confirmed by result of this by election,” he told Radio 4’s Today show on Friday.
“Albeit things are probably not as bad as the 30 point lead Labour was enjoying in the final days of the Liz Truss administration. I think if this by election had taken place when Liz Truss was Prime Minister, in her dying days, the swing would almost undoubtedly been bigger,” he said.
“It doesn’t look like Labour are 30 points ahead anymore. But they are still 20 points ahead. It is still very substantial.”
Professor Sir John said the result shows Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is being reminded by the voters “he still has got a lot of work to do”.
Conservative pollster and peer Lord Hayward said Labour “had to be pleased” with the result.
But he said the Conservatives will be relieved they got more than 20 per cent of the vote.
“It’s not quite as bad as the opinion polls had been suggesting,” he told Sky News on Friday.
He said there was even a glimmer of hope for Sunak in polls, which shows he is doing better with voters than the Conservative Party he leads.
“He’s taken over in incredibly difficult circumstances. He knows what he wants to do. The question is whether he can actually do it. He’s got a very slight bounce. The opinion polls showed the Tories were at the bottom of a very deep barrel.”
The opinon polls show the Tories have lifted themselves “a bit” he said.
“Rishi comes across to the public at large as managerial. His ratings are way ahead of the Tory Party,” said Lord Hayward.
“His ratings, which will worry the Labour Party, are on a par with Keir Starmer, depending on which poll you look at. So he is showing there is potential, but the cost of living and strikes are clearly big issues.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOJreasi4Z0
Election officials earlier confirmed that turnout was 41.2 per cent, with 28,541 votes cast.
Labour had been widely expected to hold the seat, having won it in 2019 for the third time in a row with a majority of 6,164.
The result is the latest by-election defeat suffered by the Conservatives.
The last two by-elections, which took place on the same day in June, were a disaster for the Tories, with Labour snatching Wakefield and the Liberal Democrats securing a historic victory in Tiverton and Honiton.
Braverman is in fact opposed to freer movement of people from India to the UK, which is one of the Indian government’s demands in the current negotiations over a free trade agreement with the UK…writes Ashish Ray
British Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak’s reported plan to restrict foreign students to premier universities in the UK could meet resistance from his chancellor of the exchequer, Jeremy Hunt.
Hunt told media immigration was required to boost growth, adding there had to be “a long-term plan if we’re going to bring down migration in a way that doesn’t harm the economy”.
Besides, the British government’s department of education could also raise objections, as the contemplated cut-down would increase state funding of universities, who otherwise benefit from high fee-paying international students.
The chairman of Whitehall’s Migration Advisory Committee, Brian Bell, said in an interview to BBC that the idea said to be in Sunak’s in-tray could “send many universities over the edge”.
“Most universities for most courses lose money on teaching British students and offset that loss by charging more for international students,” Bell emphasised.
Indians constitute the largest contingent of foreign students in the UK at present. If the restriction being mulled over by Sunak becomes policy, they are likely to be the worst sufferers.
New figures disclosed net migration had exceeded half a million – an increase of 300,000 in a single year. Among additional, the steps Sunak is believed to be considering is a clamp down on visas for dependents of overseas students.
Sunak’s hard line Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, previously expressed concern about foreign students “bringing in family members who can piggyback onto their student visa”. According to her, they undertake “substandard courses in inadequate institutions”.
Earlier, in an interview to The Spectator magazine, she accused Indians of being the biggest illegal over-stayers in the UK.
Braverman is in fact opposed to freer movement of people from India to the UK, which is one of the Indian government’s demands in the current negotiations over a free trade agreement with the UK.
However, the right-wing, inward looking Conservative party are happy about their 42-year-old new Prime Minister contemplating curbing the intake of foreign students to reduce immigration. At the same time, some of his MPs are already beginning to give up on him.
One such lawmaker who won from a constituency that was formerly an opposition Labour party stronghold in the north of England, commented to the pro-Conservative Daily Mail newspaper: “Rishi would be a decent project manager. Or senior civil servant. But he’s not a natural Prime Minister. He’s just not the sort of guy you want to follow out of the trenches.”
Meanwhile, the UK’s National Grid issued its first emergency warning about a winter blackout. And inflation is soaring. “But”, the Daily Mail, highly influential among Conservatives, said: “The Prime Minister was absent. Or, if not exactly absent, busy elsewhere.”
Sunak recently visited Kiev to pledge 125 anti-aircraft guns to Ukraine in its fight against Russia.
As economic hardship bites, a majority Britons are seemingly beginning to tire of the war, which wasn’t the case in the summer.
In the Mail’s opinion: “After the unrelenting bombast of the Boris Johnson years, and the frenetic mayhem that was the month of Truss, such reflective disengagement may be welcome… But the country is experiencing a growing sense of crisis. And what it needs isn’t a manager, but a leader.”
It headlined elsewhere: “Dire warning for ‘tainted’ Tories (Conservatives) as bombshell polling reveals Sir Keir Starmer (Labour leader) is ahead of Rishi Sunak on 11 out of 12 key issues – including cost of living, NHS (National Health Service), immigration and Brexit.”
Indian group urges govt to resolve issue
An Indian diaspora-led students’ organisation on Friday urged the UK government to remove international students from the country’s overall immigration statistics amid unconfirmed reports that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak may be considering a crackdown on foreigners granted study visas.
According to some UK media reports, Sunak is mulling a crackdown on foreign students bringing dependents and studying so-called low-quality degrees at mediocre UK universities after the country’s net migration figures hit record levels.
Downing Street has indicated that “all options” to bring overall migrant numbers down are on the table. The National Indian Students and Alumni Union (NISAU) UK, which campaigns for streamlined provisions for Indian students studying in the UK, said any move to arbitrarily rank universities would prove counterproductive in the long run.
“Students who are in the UK temporarily, should not be counted as migrants,” said NISAU UK Chair Sanam Arora.
“International students, of which Indians are the biggest cohort, bring a net revenue of GBP 30 billion into the British economy and go back as friends of the UK, furthering ties of trade, culture, and diplomacy. The UK’s higher education sector is one of our largest exports to the world, and we are hopeful that the government will ensure that there is no arbitrary definition of what counts as a ‘top’ university,” she said.
The group called for a “creative and innovative policy solution” that addresses the UK’s skills and labour shortages through its international graduates. The Universities UK International (UUKi), which represents over 140 UK universities, also sounded a note of caution over any policy moves to cut down international student numbers as a potential act of self-harm and pile on additional financial pressures on universities.
“Cutting international student numbers would run directly counter to the UK government’s strategy to welcome more students from around the world,” said UUKi Chief Executive Vivienne Stern. “International students make an enormous cultural and financial contribution to the UK. They help make our campuses and cities the vibrant, thought-provoking places they are known for being. They sustain jobs in towns and cities up and down the country,” she said.
“Beyond this, the financial contribution they make has been very significant for UK universities. Limiting international students would be an act of self-harm that would damage many parts of the UK,” she added. The concerns arise in the wake of the latest Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures this week revealing net migration to the UK rose from 173,000 in the year to June 2021, to 504,000 in the year to June 2022 – an increase of 331,000 post-Brexit.
International students were a large contributory factor to this spike, with Indians overtaking Chinese students as the largest cohort of student visas for the first time. The Conservative Party-led UK government has a manifesto commitment to reduce migration “overall”, something reiterated in recent weeks and months by UK Home Secretary Suella Braverman. She has previously expressed worries about foreign students bringing in dependent family members who “piggyback” on a student visa and is believed to be looking at proposals to tackle the issue.
