Evening summary
Here is a round-up of the day’s stories:
Rishi Sunak has set a new goal of bringing immigration numbers down below the level he “inherited”, which was about 500,000 net arrivals a year when he became prime minister. He redefined his target on immigration after earlier in the week backing away from the Conservatives’ 2019 manifesto promise to reduce it below the level then of about 220,000. Sunak said he would not put a number on the level of net immigration he would like to see, but that he wanted it to come down below what it was when he took over. Figures released in November show net immigration was 500,000 for the year to June 2022.
Rishi Sunak works “incredibly closely” with the home secretary, Suella Braverman, on immigration policy, Downing Street has said. A No 10 spokesperson added that the prime minister would not “put a number” on his ambition to bring overall immigration down, but that he would “take stock” of official net immigration figures due to be released later this month.
Immigration could increase in the “short term” under a Labour government, the party’s chair has suggested, but would ultimately be reduced by addressing the domestic skills shortage. Anneliese Dodds indicated Labour would focus less on a target-based approach to the number of people entering the country, and more on training within the UK. As an examples, she pointed to the party’s pledge to double the number of medical school places and to train 10,000 more nurses and midwives each year.
The BBC board has commissioned a review of the broadcaster’s coverage of immigration, including small boats crossing the Channel, to “consider whether due impartiality is being delivered”, the corporation has said. The review would be jointly chaired by Madeleine Sumption, the director of the Migration Observatory based at the University of Oxford, and Samir Shah, the chief executive of the independent television and radio production company Juniper, PA Media reported. It would also assess the coverage of topics such as the government’s policy of sending asylum seekers to Rwanda, the impact of immigration on communities in the UK, and the admission of refugees from Ukraine.
More than 200 BBC journalists in Northern Ireland are on a 24-hour strike to protest against cuts to jobs and programming. The National Union of Journalists’ strike, which started at 12.15am on Friday, resulted in BBC Radio Ulster replacing its usual Friday fare – Good Morning Ulster, the Nolan Show, TalkBack – with content from Radio 5 Live. The station still broadcast hourly news bulletins. The action coincided with the counting of votes from the local government election held on Thursday.
Peers have supported moves to give employees the right to request flexible working from their first day in a job, PA Media reports. The employment relations (flexible working) bill is a “very welcome starting point and not an end point” for changing working conditions, according to Labour. The measures are supported by the government and received an unopposed second reading in the House of Lords.
Plans to shake up the railway network may be watered down, with legislation to give powers to a proposed new public sector body facing possible delay, it has been reported. The creation of Great British Railways (GBR), announced in 2021 by the then prime minister, Boris Johnson, as a way to simplify the rail network and improve services for passengers, might not be brought forward in this year’s king’s speech, the Times said, citing officials at the Department for Transport.
Rishi Sunak’s personal family fortune has fallen by more than £200m over the last year. Sunak, a former hedge fund manager and reputedly the UK’s wealthiest ever prime minister, and his wife, the businesswoman Akshata Murty, have an estimated worth of about £529m, according to the latest Sunday Times rich list, a fall from £730m in 2022.
Sinn Féin appears to have made a strong start as the first results of Northern Ireland local government elections emerge. By 3pm on Friday, the party was leading the way with 29 councillors elected, ahead of the DUP with 18 seats, the Alliance party with eight seats, the UUP with four and the SDLP with one seat. The elections use the single transferable vote system where voters rank candidates in order of preference.
Carers will be able to take unpaid leave from their jobs after a Scottish Liberal Democrat MP’s bill passed in Westminster. North East Fife MP Wendy Chamberlain’s carer’s leave bill will become law after it passed its final stage in the House of Lords on Friday, PA Media reported. It will take effect next year once it is given royal assent.
Rishi Sunak has talked up Ben Wallace as a potential Nato secretary general, after the defence secretary confirmed his interest in the job. The prime minister praised Wallace as “widely respected” among his international counterparts when asked about his cabinet minister touting himself to succeed Jens Stoltenberg next year. Wallace has long been tipped as a contender, owing to his role in supporting Ukraine after Russia’s invasion, despite the secretary general job often going to more senior politicians, such as former prime ministers.
Updated
