Mick Lynch says meeting with transport secretary "positive", but RMT no closer to calling off rail strikes Mick Lynch, the RMT general secretary, has been speaking to the media after his meeting with Mark Harper, the transport secretary. He said that it was a “positive meeting” and that Harper said he would set out in writing what steps might be taken towards a resolution of the dispute behind the rail strikes. He said one issue was that it has not been clear what scope the Rail Delivery Group had to negotiate. Harper said he would clarify that, he said. Lynch said he hoped that would lead to a new negotiating mandate. But asked if he was closer to calling off the dispute, Lynch said that was not the case. He said they would not be closer to an end of the dispute until a reasonable offer was on the table. This is from the Mirror’s Ashley Cowburn. Afternoon summary Mick Lynch, the RMT general secretary, has said his union is no closer to calling off its rail strikes, despite a meeting with Mark Harper, the new transport secretary, that he described as “positive”. (See 2.02pm.) After the meeting, Harper said he thought there was “a deal to be done”. (See 3.03pm.) Michael Gove is facing mounting pressure to fully explain his role in the government’s award of large PPE contracts to a company that was first recommended to him by the Tory peer Michelle Mone. Net migration to the UK has reached a record level of 504,000 after the arrival of Ukrainians and Hongkongers under government schemes and a jump in the number of international students. The cost to the government of shielding households from soaring energy bills is expected to double in the new year to up to £5bn a month, as ministers prepare to push the button on a public information campaign to reduce usage. Today’s asylum figures (see 12.49pm) show the system “in serious peril”, according to the IPPR thinktank. In a briefing , Marley Morris, the IPPR’s associate director for migration, trade and communities, said: The new migration statistics today tell two stories about immigration to the UK. On the one hand, higher net migration is driven in large part by rising student numbers and the new Ukraine humanitarian routes – reflecting the generosity of the British public in opening their homes in exceptional numbers to welcome Ukrainians escaping the Russian invasion. On the other hand, the figures also show an asylum system in serious peril, with the backlog of claims growing further. Urgent action is needed to tackle the backlog and to work with local authorities to find suitable accommodation for asylum applicants. Nicola Sturgeon told MSPs at first minister’s questions that unionist politicians at Westminister were blocking a second independence referendum because they were afraid of the result. She said: Unionist Westminster politicians want to silence Scotland’s voice because they are scared of what Scotland might say. It is quite simple … Any politician who was confident of their case and confident of being able to persuade others of their case would not be trying to block democracy, they would be embracing democracy. Dowden bans use of surveillance cameras made by Chinese firms from sensitive government locations Government departments have been ordered to stop installing surveillance cameras made by Chinese firms on “sensitive sites” due to security concerns, PA Media reports. PA says: The order applies to “visual surveillance systems” made by firms subject to China’s national security law, which requires companies to cooperate with Beijing’s security services. Whitehall ministries have been told existing equipment should not be connected to departmental core networks and consideration should be given to removing it entirely. The shift in policy was announced by Oliver Dowden, the Cabinet Office minister. In a written ministerial statement he said: The Government Security Group has undertaken a review of the current and future possible security risks associated with the installation of visual surveillance systems on the government estate. The review has concluded that, in light of the threat to the UK and the increasing capability and connectivity of these systems, additional controls are required. Departments have therefore been instructed to cease deployment of such equipment on to sensitive sites, where it is produced by companies subject to the national intelligence law of the People’s Republic of China. Since security considerations are always paramount around these sites, we are taking action now to prevent any security risks materialising. Chris Heaton-Harris, the Northern Ireland secretary, has announced that he has set a budget for Northern Ireland for 2022-23. No budget was set earlier this year, because the power-sharing executive was not operating because of the DUP boycott over the Northern Ireland protocol, and Heaton-Harris said the ministers who were in office from May to October 2022 “left Northern Ireland’s public finances with a black hole of some £660m”. He has set out details of the budget in a written ministerial statement, and he says legislation will be passed to give it legal force. Commenting on today’s immigration figures, Sunder Katwala, director of British Future, a thinktank focusing on race, identity and immigration issues, said: Despite these exceptionally high numbers, inflated by new arrivals from Ukraine and Hong Kong, our research finds public support for immigration as high as it’s ever been. Neither Rishi Sunak nor Keir Starmer plans to make significant cuts to immigration because of the social and economic benefits it brings to Britain. So political leaders should now be setting out a vision for how we make this work well for all of us in the UK, focusing on integration, citizenship and training up the UK workforce to fill skills gaps. Making vague promises to reduce numbers, without any plan or policy to make it happen, will only damage public trust. Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, claims the rise in net migration to a record figure is partly explained by the government’s failure to address the skills shortage. In a comment on the figures, she said: Whilst there are unique circumstances behind today’s figures including the support the UK has rightly given to Ukraine, Hong Kong and Afghanistan, they also show serious problems with Conservative mismanagement of the immigration and asylum systems where they have completely failed to get a grip. Despite their promises to stop dangerous Channel crossings, they’ve failed to tackle the criminal gangs, and asylum decision making has collapsed - with only 2% of people who arrived in small boats over the last year having had their cases decided. Work visas have also substantially increased as a result of major skills shortages in the UK - yet the Conservatives are not taking any serious action to address skills shortages here at home. The Northern Ireland minister, Steve Baker, is proposing reopening the Brexit trade agreement David Frost struck with the EU as a means of fixing the problems caused by the Northern Ireland protocol, my colleague Lisa O’Carroll reports. Harper says there is "deal to be done" to end rail dispute The Department for Transport has now sent out a news release with a statement from Mark Harper about his meeting with Mick Lynch, the RMT general secretary. It mostly echoes what he told the BBC (see 2.32pm), but it includes a line saying he thinks “there is a deal to be done”. He says: We have common ground - we both want the dispute to end and we both want a thriving railway which delivers for passengers and workers alike. To achieve this though, we need to work together, across the entire industry to ensure our railway industry thrives. There is a deal to be done, and I believe we will get there – I want to facilitate the RMT and the employers to reach an agreement and end the dispute for the benefit of the travelling public. Unfortunately there’s a typo in the DfT’s press release. Transport secretary Mark Harper says meeting with RMT"s Mick Lynch "productive" Mark Harper, the transport secretary, has said his meeting with Mick Lynch, the RMT general secretary, was productive. In a clip for broadcasters, he adopted a consensual tone, stressing the “shared” objectives of both sides, but did not offer commitments on substance. He said: [Lynch] and I both agreed that this was a productive meeting. It was the first one that that we’ve had. I think it struck the right tone. I think there was a shared agreement in the meeting. We both want to have a thriving railway that is sustainable for the future, that serves passengers, that serves the country and also provides good, well-paid jobs for the people that he represents. I think there’s a lot of shared agreement there. But we need to have the two sides, the trade unions and the employers, sit down, agree on the detail, so that we can bring this dispute to an end. I think that’s where we both have a shared interest. 77% asylum application success rate shows Braverman peddling "lies" about economic migrants, says SNP The SNP says today’s asylum figures (see 12.49pm) show that Suella Braverman, the home secretary, has been peddling “dangerous lies” about asylum seekers. In a statement, Stuart McDonald, the party’s home affairs spokesperson, said: These latest figures must serve as a wake-up call for the Home Office to ditch its hostile approach and the peddling of dangerous lies about those fleeing conflict and hardship. The home secretary’s claims over ‘economic migrants’ have been utterly exposed with the official ONS stats revealing that just over three-quarters (77%) of the initial decisions on asylum applications in the year ending September 2022 were ‘grants of refugee status, humanitarian protection or alternative forms of leave’. Appeals against refusals are also historically high, at 52%. However, the backlog of cases also jumped yet again to nearly 120,000 cases, with growing numbers having to wait months and years waiting for a decision, not allowed to work, and on poverty support levels. Today the Guardian reported on statistics from Surfers Against Sewage, which found water companies are routinely spilling human waste into rivers and beaches when it isn’t even raining. They are only supposed to do so during “exceptional weather conditions”. The Liberal Democrat MP Richard Foord has raised the report in parliament, highlighting how his son became sick after swimming in a river in Devon. Lynch says he hopes Harper will end "surreal" situation where none of rail bodies authorised to negotiate end to strike Here is a full summary of what Mick Lynch, the RMT general secretary, said when he spoke to journalists after his meeting with Mark Harper, the transport secretary. Lynch said the meeting with Mark Harper was “positive”. He said: I would say it was a positive meeting in the sense that we’ve got rid of the bellicose nonsense that we used to have from Grant Shapps and his cohort, in his era, and we are now starting to get a dialogue. But he said the RMT was no closer to calling off the strikes scheduled for December and January. He said that would not happen until a reasonable offer was on the table. He said: If we call off the strikes, we’ll never get a settlement. We did that two weeks ago. We’ve changed our dates in response to public opinion. When the Queen passed, when we had the poppy day, we’ve done other things. We have not had a strike for seven weeks, and nothing has happened. So anyone that’s been involved in industrial relations knows that there has got to leverage and pressure at the table from both sides. That will create the compromises and the resolutions that we’re all looking for. If I take these [strike] actions off without any outcome, my members won’t forgive me for doing that. And we know that the pressure will be off all the parties. He said Harper had committed to giving the RMT a letter setting out a process towards a resolution of the rail dispute. He said he wanted Harper to give the rail industry a fresh mandate to negotiate an end to the dispute. He said that although the RMT has been in talks with the Rail Delivery Group, which represents rail companies, it did not seem to have proper authority to negotiate. The individual companies were also saying they could not negotiate either, he said. He said he asked Harper to clarify who had authority to negotiate, and to set up a liaison group involving ministers. He went on: [Harper] has got a legal responsibility for industrial relations, and the responsibility to set their mandate, ie what they can say, what they can offer, and what they can negotiate on at that table. So I’m hoping he’s going to do that, hopefully today … He needs to clarify in writing where he stands and where the industry stands when they are transacting with us in those discussions. He said he did not expect Harper to be at the negotiating table with him. But he did expect ministers to be “engaged in the process”. He claimed the current negotiating situation was “surreal” because the employers did not have a mandate to negotiate a resolution. He said the Rail Delivery Group had told the RMT it was not able to engage in collective bargaining. And the individual rail companies said they could not engage in collective bargaining either, he said. He went on: So this is a completely strange and surreal situation. I’m responsible for my union, and I stand in front of you and take whatever you want to throw at me. Nobody from the employers is prepared to stand in front of me and take the responsibility for settling this dispute. That’s what we need. We need somebody of authority, which has to start with the secretary of state and the rail minister, who I want to work with positively, to take responsibility for settling this dispute. He said Harper had denied that the Department for Transport was the “blockage” preventing a solution to the dispute. Lynch said someone seemed to be blocking a solution, but he said it was not clearly exactly who it was. He said he had urged Harper to speed up negotiations. The talks have been running for six months already, he said. “And we have had not one document put across the table. That has to change,” he said. He said jobs, and terms and conditions, were more important to his members than pay levels. He said: My members are telling me you’ve got to secure me my job, and you’ve got to get me a set of terms and conditions that are acceptable, and then we can talk about what we’re getting paid. If you haven’t got a job, you don’t get a pay rise anyway. He said the train operators were “only interested in profit”. He said: They made profit throughout Covid and they made profit throughout these disputes, where they have been indemnified for every day of strike action. This lot in the Department of Transport have been paying all their costs while all the businesses in London and across this country have been suffering losses, while the train operators have had all of their revenue protected by this government. He said plans to cut 50% of maintenance inspections on the railway were not acceptable. He said he would urge passengers disrupted by the rail strikes to contact Tory MPs and urge them to “get these ministers to get us a settlement”. Mick Lynch says meeting with transport secretary "positive", but RMT no closer to calling off rail strikes Mick Lynch, the RMT general secretary, has been speaking to the media after his meeting with Mark Harper, the transport secretary. He said that it was a “positive meeting” and that Harper said he would set out in writing what steps might be taken towards a resolution of the dispute behind the rail strikes. He said one issue was that it has not been clear what scope the Rail Delivery Group had to negotiate. Harper said he would clarify that, he said. Lynch said he hoped that would lead to a new negotiating mandate. But asked if he was closer to calling off the dispute, Lynch said that was not the case. He said they would not be closer to an end of the dispute until a reasonable offer was on the table. This is from the Mirror’s Ashley Cowburn. Colin Yeo, an immigration lawyer, has posted an interesting thread on Twitter about the latest immigration and asylum statistics out today. It starts here. He points out that there has been a huge rise in the number of asylum seekers waiting to have their applications considered. And he says successful applications, and successful appeals, are at historically high levels. At the Downing Street lobby briefing this morning the PM’s spokesperson mostly refused to comment the BBC Newsnight report that former private secretaries who have worked with Dominic Raab are preparing to submit complaints about his conduct. The PM’s spokesperson said: The investigation is ongoing, I don’t intend to provide a running commentary on what is an independent and - rightly - confidential process. But the spokesperson confirmed that Rishi Sunak still had confidence in Raab. And he did address one aspect of the Newsnight report, saying that in some circumstances ministers can use a personal email account for government business. The spokesperson said: Ministers are able to use various forms of communication. As long as they take heed of that guidance, there is not a binary restriction on use of personal email addresses.