Afternoon summary
- Chris Grayling, the leader of the Commons, has accused leftwingers of “scaremongering” about TTIP (the transatlantic trade and investment partnership, the proposed EU/US trade deal). Speaking during business questions he said:
There has been a huge amount of inappropriate scaremongering about TTIP; it is being used by left-wing pressure groups as a vehicle to make an anti-Government campaign more widespread. It is about time those groups acted more responsibly and stopped telling people things that are simply not true.
Later, during a backbench debate on TTIP, the Labour MP Geraint Davies called for the investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) provisions to be removed from the bill. These allow corporations to sue governments in some circumstances if they are adversely affected by policy decisions. Davies said:
My point about TTIP isn’t to burn it, shoot it, get rid of it, it is actually to pull the teeth, the ISDS teeth, out of the wolf and actually genetically edit it so that we actually have environmental imperatives in it, we have enforceable rights at work, we have human rights, so it is a blueprint for future global trade rather than a blueprint for environmental and human rights and other destruction.
Guto Bebb, the Conservative party who heads the all-party parliamentary group on TTIP, told the same debate that concerns about the treaty were being fuelled by “a latent anti-Western, anti-US agenda which I find frankly disreputable”.
- Resistance to David Cameron’s proposed four-year freeze on in-work benefits for non-British EU citizens is now total across the other 27 countries. As Ian Traynor reports, a view has crystallised in Brussels that the British prime minister will need to climb down on the welfare issue if he wants a deal by February. While Cameron is in a hurry to finalise an agreement to be put to a referendum, other key governments including Germany do not want to be rushed. Cameron, according to a senior source in Brussels, “has to adapt his position to reality” on the welfare row. “All the legal experts say this is not feasible,” the source said. “Everyone we consult tells us the same thing. This is the most critical point. There will be no deal next week.”
That’s all from me for today.
Thanks for the comments.
Updated
Ray Johnson, the father of Elliott, the young activist who apparently killed himself, triggering an investigation into the extent of bullying within the Conservative party, has strongly criticised Nick Boles for his article about the affair. (See 1.38pm.) Johnson told the Telegraph that Boles was wrong to defend Lord Feldman, the Conservative chairman. He said:
[Boles] should apologise unreservedly for his comments because they are unsympathetic, ill thought-out and seem to be very mercenary.
Not only has he made our grief worse and sullied my son’s memory but he has actually tried to justify Feldman’s position because he has been such a wonderful raiser of funds for the Conservative party.
There is more from Johnson in the Telegraph story.
Updated
Tory minister Nick Boles attacks BBC for its coverage of the Elliott Johnson story
Nick Boles, the skills minister, has written an article about the Elliott Johnson affair for ConservativeHome. Mostly it is a defence of Lord Feldman, the Conservative party chairman who is now under pressure to resign as a result of the affair, but in the blog Boles also launches a strong attack on the BBC, and on Newsnight in particular, for their reporting of this story.
Here’s an extract.
The death of one good man will not be assuaged by giving into a media witch hunt and forcing another good man to resign. The BBC claims to be a standard bearer for objective and well-sourced reporting. So it’s frankly extraordinary that earlier this week it allowed Newsnight and then Today to lead with a story about a dossier which apparently they have not even seen, and broadcast one man’s claim that it was shown to Lord Feldman in 2010 without any corroborating evidence to back his assertion up.
Having haemorrhaged its best reporters in recent weeks, Newsnight is a sinking ship trying desperately to reassert its political relevance. But let’s not stoop to its level. The BBC may be willing to compromise its standards; we should not.
Updated
Under the Transparency of Lobbying Act, professional lobbyists have to register. Today the Cabinet Office has announced that the annual charge for registering is going up from £700 to £950.
More than 420,000 people have signed the official online petition to parliament calling for Donald Trump to be banned from the UK after his call for Muslims to be refused entry to the US. It is on course to become the most popular parliamentary petition ever, beating the current record of 446,482 signatures on a petition calling for the UK to accept more asylum seekers and increase refugee support.
Theresa May, the home secretary, is the minister who has the power to ban people from entering the UK. Asked today if she would ban trump, she said:
We never comment on individual cases. What I would say is this - I think it is up to politicians to ensure that we work to bring communities together, rather than seeking to divide them ...
We’ve made a very clear statement today that we reject any attempts to create division and marginalisation amongst those we endeavour to protect.
On Twitter Trump has hit back at his UK critics.
The United Kingdom is trying hard to disguise their massive Muslim problem. Everybody is wise to what is happening, very sad! Be honest.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 10, 2015
But he has also revealed his remarkable ignorance about the British media.
Thank you to respected columnist Katie Hopkins of Daily https://t.co/LgtY0qdv9U for her powerful writing on the U.K.'s Muslim problems.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 10, 2015
Lunchtime summary
- Jeremy Hunt, the health secretary, has described as “totally and utterly unacceptable” the findings of a leaked report saying that Southern Health NHS Foundation trust failed to properly investigate the unexpected deaths of more than 1,000 people since 2011.
Many readers have strong views about Jeremy Corbyn. My colleague James Walsh is inviting readers to contribute their views for an article to mark his first three months as Labour leader. To submit a comment you need to use the form embedded in this story (below).
Updated
Cabinet ministers will meet tonight to decide whether or not to go ahead with a third runway at Heathrow, the Press Association reports.
David Cameron, George Osborne and key Cabinet ministers will meet tonight to discuss how to respond to recommendations that a third runway should be built at Heathrow.
Downing Street said a decision on how to proceed on airport expansion will be made, which will go before the cabinet.
Cameron has previously said a decision would be made by the end of the year but the promise later appeared to be watered down. No 10 repeated its commitment to providing a “clear direction” by the end of the year.
At the end of last month two people were subject to Tpims (terrorism prevention and investigation measures, the successors to control orders), Theresa May, the home secretary, has revealed in a written ministerial statement. They are both British citizens.
Poland says agreement on Cameron's EU renegotiation likely to take months, not weeks
Back to Poland, and the journalist Jakub Krupa has been tweeting about the briefing from the Polish government after David Cameron’s talks with Andrzej Duda, the Polish president.
Presidential aide @KSzczerski starting his briefing after Duda-Cameron talks now.
— Jakub Krupa (@JakubKrupa) December 10, 2015
.@KSzczerski says Duda and Cameron agreed that refugees should be helped "as close to their countries as possible".
— Jakub Krupa (@JakubKrupa) December 10, 2015
.@KSzczerski says Cameron and Duda agreed that sanctions against Russia introduced during the Ukraine crisis should be extended
— Jakub Krupa (@JakubKrupa) December 10, 2015
Presidential aide @KSzczerski: Duda reiterated that the principle of freedom of movement & indiscriminate treatment is 'absolutely crucial'
— Jakub Krupa (@JakubKrupa) December 10, 2015
Presidential aide @KSzczerski on EU benefit reform: 'we need more creative solutions, proposals, than those on the table at the moment'
— Jakub Krupa (@JakubKrupa) December 10, 2015
.@KSzczerski: President Duda said clearly that Poland has duties towards its citizens living abroad, including the UK
— Jakub Krupa (@JakubKrupa) December 10, 2015
.@KSzczerski: "it's a matter of months, rather than weeks, until we possibly agree on another proposal from our British partners"
— Jakub Krupa (@JakubKrupa) December 10, 2015
In a written ministerial statement Iain Duncan Smith, the work and pensions secretary, has announced that, as universal credit (UC) gets rolled out over the next five years, some council jobs will go. That is because councils currently administer housing benefit, but under UC they will no longer do so. In the statement Duncan Smith says he is not planning to give these council staff jobs administering UC.
The government will help councils meet the cost of redundancies, he says.
The phased nature of this process means that the impact on local authorities can be managed in a way which minimises the need for any redundancies. Where this does not prove possible, after the exercise of all reasonable efforts to redeploy people, the department has given local authorities a commitment that we will meet their costs of any residual redundancies.
In the statement he does not say how many jobs are at risk.
And here is my colleague Denis Campbell’s story about the NHS figures.
And here is how it starts.
The number of patients who are trapped in hospital despite being fit to leave has reached an all-time high, putting extra pressure on the NHS as it enters its critical winter period.
Such patients, who cannot be safely discharged usually because local social care is inadequate, accounted for 160,094 bed days in October - the highest number since records began more than five years ago. That is the total number of bed days in effect lost to the NHS because hospital staff could not use them for another patient, which leads to hospitals getting overcrowded.
In all 5,328 patients who were fit to go but could not leave – mainly frail, elderly people were still in hospital at the end of October. That is almost 50% more than the previous month, suggesting a sudden worsening of the problem in the late autumn, and about double the 2,647 such patients who were in the same position in September 2010.
In addition, hospitals are already struggling to treat and either admit or discharge A&E patients within the required four hours and to give patients key diagnostic tests quickly enough, ambulance services are missing key targets to respond to 999 calls, and growing numbers of cancer patients are not being treated within 62 days.
A&E waiting times getting worse
And the NHS waiting times figures are out. This is from the Press Association.
The NHS in England has missed a raft of key targets for A&E waiting times, cancer treatment and ambulance responses as experts warned the health service will struggle to cope with the busy winter period.
Monthly figures have shown 92.3% of patients attending emergency departments were seen within four hours in October - against a target of 95%.
It is the lowest figure for October since current records began in 2010.
The 62-day wait for cancer treatment from GP referral was hit for just 81.8% of patients, against a target of 85%. It is the 18th month in a row it has been missed.
Ambulance trusts also continued to miss the target for 75% of critical “Red 1” calls - such as for cardiac arrest - to be responded to within eight minutes. In October this was hit for 73.3% of calls, the fifth month in a row it has been missed.
Some 68.8% of “Red 2” immediately life-threatening calls - such as for stroke - were responded to within eight minutes, against a target of 75%. This target has not been met by the NHS since January last year.
There were 1,923,326 attendances at A&E in October - the highest number for the month since current records began in 2010. It is 1.6% more than October last year .
The number of people arrested for terror-related offences has reached a record level in the last year, the Press Association reports.
The number of terror suspects being detained has reached a record level, driven by dramatic rises in arrests of women and children.
Home Office figures showed there were 315 terrorism-related arrests in the year ending September 2015, an increase of a third on the previous year.
Arrests of females more than doubled on the previous year to 50, while the number of under-18s jumped from eight to 15.
There was also a 31% increase in arrests for international-related terrorism.
The details are in this Home Office report.
This is the key chart.
And this chart shows what happens to people who are arrested. As you can see, many are released without charge.
And this chart shows what happened to the 111 people charged with terror-related offences in the year up to September 2015.
Here is more from what Beata Syzdlo, the Polish prime minister, said at her news conference with David Cameron. She said they did not see “eye to eye” on EU rules relating to benefits.
There are also discussions and issues about which we do not see eye to eye today. But I believe that these issues will be further discussed by us. We will be talking about them, we will try to solve them together in consensus.
She confirmed that her reservations relations related to Cameron’s proposals on “the welfare system and child benefits”.
But she did say that there was a “common direction” and she that was hopeful there could be a solution that would keep the UK in the EU.
According to Reuters, Beata Szydlo, the Polish prime minister, also said that she hoped Poland could reach an agreement with the Uk over EU benefits. She said:
There are issues where we do not have a full agreement, but I think we will discuss them further ....
We will talk about them, we will try to resolve them ... I’m talking about welfare and benefits.
Here is the start of the Press Association story from David Cameron’s press conference in Poland.
David Cameron has failed to win over his Polish counterpart in his bid to reform welfare rules in the European Union following late night talks in Warsaw.
The prime minister described the discussions with Beata Szydlo as “excellent” and said they had agreed to work together to find a solution on the thorny issue of when migrants can claim benefits.
But the Polish prime minister told reporters she did not “see eye to eye” with Cameron on the proposals.
David Cameron is in Poland where he has been giving a press conference with the Polish prime minister, Beata Szydlo. He is been visiting Poland and Romania as part of his attempt to drum up support amongst EU leaders for his EU renegotiation proposals.
As the Daily Telegraph reports, Cameron has told the Spectator that he thinks the immigration crisis could make British voters want to leave the EU. He told the magazine.
I think with both the eurozone crisis and the migration crisis, the short term impact is for people to think, ‘oh Christ, push Europe away from me, it’s bringing me problems’.
But he went on in interview:
I think the longer term reaction might actually be, well if they are going to have a single currency and they are on our doorstep and they are going to try and make it work, let’s make sure our relationship with them works and then we have safeguards, not least for our vital financial services industry so that the system doesn’t work against us.
Thursday's Telegraph front page - PM warns EU migrant crisis may force Brexit #tomorrowspaperstoday #bbcpapers pic.twitter.com/rxL4rCygOO
— Nick Sutton (@suttonnick) December 9, 2015
Other EU leaders are opposed to Cameron’s call for the UK to be allowed to stop EU migrants claiming inwork benefits for four years when they come to Britain, and in Poland the government feels very strongly about this. This morning Szydlo told him that she did not support this proposal.
Polish PM says does not see "eye to eye" with David Cameron over benefit curbs on EU migrants
— norman smith (@BBCNormanS) December 10, 2015
But Cameron claimed a solution could be found.
Even on the most difficult issue of welfare we have agreed to work together to find a solution. I support the principle of free movement and I greatly value the contribution that many Poles and other Europeans make to Britain. The challenge is the scale of the vast movement of people we’ve seen across Europe over the last decade, and the pressure that that can put on public services. That is the problem we need to address, and I believe with the type of political will I’ve seen here in Poland we can find a way.
This may be a hint that he is willing to compromise.
I will post more from the press conference soon.
Here is the agenda for the day.
9.30am: The Department for Education publishes primary school performance data for England.
9.30am: Figures for NHS hospital waiting times and A&E admissions are published.
Around 11.30am: MPs begin a backbench debate on TTIP (the transatlantic trade and investment partnership, the EU/US free trade deal).
As usual, I will also be covering breaking political news as it happens, as well as bringing you the best reaction, comment and analysis from the web. I will post a summary at lunchtime and another in the afternoon.
If you want to follow me or contact me on Twitter, I’m on@AndrewSparrow.
