Starmer calls on Sunak to stand up to ERG and ‘Brexit purity cult’– as it happened | Politics

• The Labour leader, Keir Starmer, has confirmed he would repeal the controversial Northern Ireland legacy bill if he becomes prime minister. Speaking at an event at Queen’s University Belfast on the second day of his visit to NI, Starmer said it was time for Rishi Sunak to face down hardline Brexiters in the Tory European Research Group (ERG) if they try to block a deal.

• The UK government is to further delay calling an election in Northern Ireland to give Brexit talks a chance. Senior EU sources said “slow progress” was being made in talks between the UK and Brussels, dampening hopes of a breakthrough by the end of January on the protracted dispute over the Northern Ireland protocol.

• Scotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, has said there was “no indication” from the PM that there would be any additional funding to avert strike action within the NHS. The pair held talks on Thursday evening which she described as “perfectly constructive and cordial”. Sunak said there was “record funding” already going into the NHS, adding that “more is coming”.

• Sunak has said he is “concerned” about aspects of Holyrood’s gender recognition reform (GRR) bill, which would allow trans people to obtain a gender recognition certificate without the need for a medical diagnosis. The PM declined to say whether Westminster could block the legislation, saying the government is taking advice on the issue “as is completely standard practice”.

• Inverness and Cromarty Firth green freeport and Forth green freeport have been jointly selected to become Scotland’s first green freeports. Downing Street said the green freeports, backed by up to £52m in government funding, will bring new, high-skilled jobs to Inverness and Cromarty Firth and the Firth of Forth.

• Downing Street has warned health ministers they will have to find savings from their own budget if they want to offer NHS workers more money in an effort to end the growing wave of strikes. No 10 said there would be no increase in the health department’s budget as ministers look for a way to resolve the protracted industrial dispute.

• The warning came after the Guardian reported Steve Barclay, the health secretary, had privately conceded he would have to increase the pay offer to NHS staff to get an agreement with health unions. Unions and government officials said this week’s talks were much more positive than those held last year, sparking hope that a resolution can soon be found.

• The UK culture secretary has said she is “not ruling out” changing the online safety bill to allow regulators to prosecute social media bosses who are found not to have protected children’s safety. Michele Donelan told the BBC she was open to making changes that have been demanded by dozens of Conservative MPs, saying she would take a “sensible approach” to their ideas.

• Ukraine is confident Britain will announce it plans to send about 10 Challenger 2 tanks to Kyiv shortly. A formal announcement is anticipated on Monday but Ukrainian sources indicated they understood that Britain had already decided in favour.

• Boris Johnson has received a donation of £1m from a Thai-based British businessman who had previously given millions of pounds to Nigel Farage’s Brexit party, the newly released register of MPs’ interests has shown. The size of the donation, one of the biggest recorded to an individual UK politician rather than a party, and from a strong Brexit supporter, will increase speculation that Johnson could be planning some sort of comeback.

• Boris Johnson could agree not to challenge Rishi Sunak in exchange for the promise of a safe seat at the next election, the Times has reported, citing friends of Johnson. Johnson could seek to use “leverage” over Sunak if the Tories fare badly in the May local elections, the paper writes, under plans being discussed by a group of Johnson supporters.

Ukraine confident UK will send Challenger 2 tanks

Dan Sabbagh

Ukraine is confident Britain will announce it plans to send about 10 Challenger 2 tanks to Kyiv shortly, a move it hopes will help Germany finally allow its Leopard 2s to be re-exported to the embattled country.

A formal announcement is anticipated on Monday but Ukrainian sources indicated they understood that Britain had already decided in favour, as pressure mounts on Berlin ahead of a meeting of western defence ministers next Friday.

Earlier this week, it emerged that Britain was considering supplying Ukraine with the tanks, following months of requests from Kyiv – with a final decision in the hands of the prime minister, Rishi Sunak.

A handful of Challenger 2s, taken from the UK’s existing fleet of 227, would not in itself make much difference on the battlefield, but it would be the first time any western country has agreed to send its own heavy armour to Ukraine.

Kyiv hopes this will pave the way for Germany to follow. There are more than 2,000 Leopard 2s in Europe, held by armies in 13 countries, but under sale agreements Berlin’s consent is required before any of the Germany-made kit can be re-exported to Ukraine.

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Heather Stewart

While Brexit may have been chased out of the headlines in recent months by the cost of living crisis and the chaos in Westminster, the tectonic plates of public opinion on this deeply divisive issue have been quietly shifting.

The opposition parties have shied away from blaming Brexit for the UK’s woes, but voters’ scepticism about the project has increased through the past 18 months, as the economic outlook has darkened.

As the elections expert Prof John Curtice put it in a blogpost last week, “rather than looking like an unchallenged ‘fait accompli’, Brexit now appears to be a subject on which a significant body of voters has had second thoughts”.

Crucially, his analysis shows that the shift has been mainly driven not by changes in the makeup of the electorate – with younger voters coming of age, for example – but by leavers changing their minds.

By the autumn of 2022, as Liz Truss’s disastrous premiership exacerbated concerns about the state of the economy, support for rejoining the EU had increased to 57%, against 43% preferring to stay out, according to a poll of polls by NatCen social research.

That marked a significant turnaround from mid-2021, when 52% wanted to stay outside and 48% to rejoin – the same margin as in the referendum five years earlier.

Nevertheless, many political analysts say Keir Starmer and the Lib Dem leader, Ed Davey, have good reason for not placing Brexit’s shortcomings front and centre.

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UK to further delay calling Northern Ireland election

Lisa O’Carroll

The UK government is to further delay calling an election in Northern Ireland to give Brexit talks a chance.

Senior EU sources said “slow progress” was being made in talks between the UK and Brussels, dampening hopes of a breakthrough by the end of January on the protracted dispute over the Northern Ireland protocol.

The foreign secretary, James Cleverly, and the European Commission vice-president Maroš Šefčovič are to meet on Monday for a “stock take” of progress so far, but sources say significant differences remain on both sides despite the growing momentum.

Under legislation passed by parliament in December, if a new Stormont executive is not formed by 19 January, the government has a legal responsibility to call a snap assembly election by 13 April.

However, it is understood the Northern Ireland secretary, Chris Heaton-Harris, will delay calling the ballot for some weeks as parties advise him an election will not deliver a devolved government until a protocol deal amenable to the Democratic Unionist party (DUP) is struck.

Political leaders including Cleverly, the Irish prime minister and his deputy and the Labour leader, Keir Starmer, descended on Belfast this week to build on momentum and growing optimism about an end to the dispute.

But the DUP and a senior member of the European Research Group of Tory MPs made clear on Thursday major hurdles remained.

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