Lord Frost says he and Boris Johnson "always hoped" Northern Ireland protocol would eventually collapse Lord Frost has said that, when he and Boris Johnson negotiated the Northern Ireland protocol ahead of Brexit, they “always hoped” it would eventually collapse. It is not the first time that he has said they regarded the agreement as less than ideal, and not likely to last, but never before has been been quite this explicit, revealing that the Johnson administration wanted the protocol to fail. Frost made the comment yesterday in a debate in the House of Lords on the protocol and the Windsor framework – the new version negotiated by Rishi Sunak intended to minimise problems it was causing in Northern Ireland. The protocol was necessary because Johnson wanted a version of Brexit that would take the UK out of the EU’s single market and customs union, but without controls on goods having to be introduced on the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland. The solution (the original protocol) involved checks and conditions being imposed on some goods going from Great Britain to Northern Ireland. Unionists hated it, but the deal broke the deadlock with Brussels and enabled Johnson to go into the 2019 election claiming to have an “oven-ready” Brexit agreement ready to so. Within weeks of his victory, the UK had formally left the EU. Frost, who was Johnson’s Brexit negotiator before becoming Brexit minister, told peers yesterday that the Johnson government never wanted the protocol to work. He said: The Johnson government, of which I was part, always took the view – many criticised us for taking it – that the protocol was unsatisfactory and temporary. We always hoped that, ultimately, divergence by GB would produce the collapse of the protocol arrangements, whether consensually through a vote, a further negotiation or otherwise. We always wanted something better. At the time Johnson strongly defended the protocol, falsely claiming during the 2019 election campaign that it would not require traders in Northern Ireland to fill in new paperwork. In a speech to Policy Exchange last year Frost said that the protocol was not perfect but that he and Johnson agreed it assuming “we could sort out the detail later”. He also said in the same speech that, when the protocol was agreed, he assumed relations with the EU would improve after Brexit and that they would find a way of making the protocol “workable”. At the time he also assumed the protocol would last until 2024, he said, by which time there would be “so much domestic reform and change within Great Britain … that it would be self-evidently attractive to Northern Ireland to end the protocol and put some other arrangements in place”. Early evening summary Angela Rayner has given a “cast iron guarantee” that Labour would bring in a new bill to ban zero-hours contracts and repeal anti-strike laws within 100 days of a new government. The former Conservative leader William Hague has said it is time to ditch the triple lock on pensions – as figures showed the policy meant the state pension was likely to rise by 8.5% in April. Lord Frost has said that, when he and Boris Johnson negotiated the Northern Ireland protocol ahead of Brexit, they “always hoped” it would eventually collapse. (See 4.02pm.) Suella Braverman’s plan to clamp down on police officers who dance at Pride or wear badges could open the door to discrimination against marginalised communities, a senior police officer has claimed. The government and regulators may have broken the law by failing to stem raw sewage dumping into rivers by water companies in England, the new independent environmental watchdog has said. Two in five people admitted to hospital for planned care in England last year had their health worsen while they were on the NHS waiting list, a major survey reveals. This is from Dominic Cummings, Boris Johnson’s former chief adviser, on hints that the Tories might drop their commitment to the triple lock for pensions at the next election. “PM, between Boris, Truss & you there’s only 1 part of the Vote Leave coalition we haven’t totally screwed: pensioners.” Sunak: Mmm I know, abolish the triple lock! Forsyth: Brilliant PM, shows you take unpopular decisions, totally on brand! Social mobility should not be judged just by how many people access top jobs, says Social Mobility Commission It is wrong to assess social mobility just by how many working class people move into “top professional jobs”, according to the Social Mobility Commission. The commission, which was originally set up as the Child Poverty Commission under a law passed in the final weeks of the last Labour government, made the comment in an annual report in which it argued traditional definitions of social mobility were too narrow. It said: Conventional approaches to social mobility have been too narrow, tending to define ‘the social mobility problem’ as one of equal access to professional and managerial occupations. This analysis has serious weaknesses, which are illustrated by the findings from this report and outlined below. The traditional approach focuses too much on the university route, pathways to professional careers, and long leaps in social mobility. But we need a wider focus. Thinking only about access to top professional jobs neglects far too many of those at the bottom. There are many people who cannot, or simply do not want to, take this route. Some do not want to move to a big city to get a top professional job. Some are not in a position to achieve that kind of long-upwards mobility – they may have left school without basic levels of reading or maths. For people in these positions, offers of internships at a top London law firm may be missing the point. Good, accessible, local jobs must be part of our mobility picture. The report does not prevent an overall, simple verdict on whether social mobility is getting better or worse. It says relative social mobility has remained stable. But it also says there have been “some concerning changes in absolute mobility”, and it says it has become harder for people to buy a home if their parents aren’t or weren’t homeowners. It says: On housing mobility, we have found a significant tightening of the link between parental home ownership and children’s home ownership. Worryingly, your parents’ ownership of their home has become a much better predictor of whether or not you will own yours. Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary, has said that a survey by the Care Quality Commission showing that a quarter of patients on hospital waiting lists get worse while waiting for treatment (see 11.43am) is an indictment of the NHS. He says: After 13 years of Conservative rule, NHS waiting times are through the roof. Patients are being left for months or even years, and their conditions are worsening as a result. This is bad for their health, and it increases the overall bill for their care to the taxpayer. Labour will restore the NHS to good health, so it is there for us when we need it once again. We will train the doctors and nurses needed to treat patients on time again, and reform the service to make it fit for the future. Lord Frost says he and Boris Johnson "always hoped" Northern Ireland protocol would eventually collapse Lord Frost has said that, when he and Boris Johnson negotiated the Northern Ireland protocol ahead of Brexit, they “always hoped” it would eventually collapse. It is not the first time that he has said they regarded the agreement as less than ideal, and not likely to last, but never before has been been quite this explicit, revealing that the Johnson administration wanted the protocol to fail. Frost made the comment yesterday in a debate in the House of Lords on the protocol and the Windsor framework – the new version negotiated by Rishi Sunak intended to minimise problems it was causing in Northern Ireland. The protocol was necessary because Johnson wanted a version of Brexit that would take the UK out of the EU’s single market and customs union, but without controls on goods having to be introduced on the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland. The solution (the original protocol) involved checks and conditions being imposed on some goods going from Great Britain to Northern Ireland. Unionists hated it, but the deal broke the deadlock with Brussels and enabled Johnson to go into the 2019 election claiming to have an “oven-ready” Brexit agreement ready to so. Within weeks of his victory, the UK had formally left the EU. Frost, who was Johnson’s Brexit negotiator before becoming Brexit minister, told peers yesterday that the Johnson government never wanted the protocol to work. He said: The Johnson government, of which I was part, always took the view – many criticised us for taking it – that the protocol was unsatisfactory and temporary. We always hoped that, ultimately, divergence by GB would produce the collapse of the protocol arrangements, whether consensually through a vote, a further negotiation or otherwise. We always wanted something better. At the time Johnson strongly defended the protocol, falsely claiming during the 2019 election campaign that it would not require traders in Northern Ireland to fill in new paperwork. In a speech to Policy Exchange last year Frost said that the protocol was not perfect but that he and Johnson agreed it assuming “we could sort out the detail later”. He also said in the same speech that, when the protocol was agreed, he assumed relations with the EU would improve after Brexit and that they would find a way of making the protocol “workable”. At the time he also assumed the protocol would last until 2024, he said, by which time there would be “so much domestic reform and change within Great Britain … that it would be self-evidently attractive to Northern Ireland to end the protocol and put some other arrangements in place”. At the end of last week Sharon Graham, the Unite general secretary, used an article in the Sunday Times to suggest that Labour under Keir Starmer was too Blairite. Today, in a statement issued in response to Angela Rayner’s speech, Graham was more positive. While reserving the right to be critical, she said Labour would be a clear improvement on the Tories. She said: The country clearly would be better off with a Labour government. There is no doubt. That said, as the general secretary of Unite, my job is to fight for workers and ensure Labour commits to making the lives of working people better. As with all things the devil will be in the detail and the words on the page. There can be no backtracking on the agreed workers’ rights. Britain is hurting and Labour needs to be bold. Other union leaders were less equivocal. Paul Nowak, the TUC general secretary, said: Angela Rayner set out a vision for a Britain that delivers for working people. Labour’s transformative new deal for working people stands in stark contrast to the Tories’ dire record on workers’ rights and pay … Make no mistake. Implementing the new deal would be the biggest upgrade in workers’ rights in a generation. Christina McAnea, the Unison general secretary, said: Labour in government would dramatically improve the lives of working people and their families. It’s much needed after 13 years of the Conservatives trashing the economy, harming public services and letting living standards slide. Ofsted says schools affected by Raac will not be inspected this term Ofsted has announced that it will not inspect schools, nurseries or colleges affected by the reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac) crisis in England. It said: This term we will avoid inspecting any education setting that is on the Department for Education’s published list of education settings affected by Raac. These settings will be removed from our scheduling and will not be selected for inspection during the term. Ofsted also said that schools affected indirectly, such as those hosting pupils from other schools temporarily exiled because of Raac, will be able to defer inspections, but emergency inspections involving safeguarding concerns could still go ahead if necessary. The announcement will come as a relief for headteachers at schools affected, who faced the potential headache of preparing for an Ofsted inspection while trying to ensure that their buildings wouldn’t collapse. Rail fares in England set to rise by almost 8% if tied to wage growth Rail fares in England will rise by almost 8% if the government uses the same formula as this year to calculate the 2024 increase, campaigners have said, pushing up the cost of many season tickets to more than £5,000 a year. Gwyn Topham has the story. Triple lock for pensions "not sustainable" in very long term, says work and pensions secretary Mel Stride, the work and pensions secretary, has said that the triple lock for pensions is not sustainable in the very long term. In an interview on the World at One, he stressed that the government remains committed to it for now. But he conceded that eventually it would prove too expensive. He told the programme: This argument has been around for a long time, and understandably so because the Office for Budget Responsibility, the main independent forecaster, comes forward with the fiscal sustainability report on an annual basis. And it casts out 50 years, and it looks at the impact of the increase in the state pension on the triple lock, amongst other issues, and what that does to the parent finances. So we’ve known for a long time, that in the very, very long term, you’re absolutely right, it is not sustainable. But of course, what I’m dealing with is now and where we stand at the moment, is we remain committed to the triple lock. And that’s the path that we will be taking. But as to the future, and after future general elections, and so on and so forth, who knows. But that’s the position we’re in at present. Stride’s comment will revive speculation that the Conservatives may not commit to keeping the triple lock in their election manifesto. The former Tory leader, William Hague, has used his column in the Times today to argue that both main parties should accept that promising to keep it would be reckless. (See 10.49am.) In his interview, echoing the line used by No 10 (see 12.50pm), Stride refused to categorically rule out the government revising the earnings inflation figure used in the triple lock calculation so as to exclude bonuses. This is not policy – and sources have implied it is not being seriously considered as an option – but if the government were to apply this approach, pensions might go up next year by 7.8%, not 8.5%. Asked if the government would do this, Stride replied: These are all decisions that I have to take with the chancellor as part of a very clear process, a statutory process actually, that I go through in the autumn. So I didn’t want me to get into the weeds of exactly how I’m going to go about that. But the overarching point about the triple lock is that we remain committed to it. Police leader questions Braverman clampdown on officers’ impartiality Suella Braverman’s plan to clamp down on police officers who dance at Pride or wear badges could open the door to discrimination against marginalised communities, Paul Fotheringham, the president of the Police Superintendents’ Association (PSA), has claimed. Rajeev Syal has the story here. No 10 insists government remains committed to triple lock, implying state pensions set to rise by 8.5% next year At the Downing Street lobby briefing the PM’s spokesperson insisted that the government remains committed to the triple lock, implying state pensions are likely to rise by 8.5% next year. As the Institute for Fiscal Studies says, today’s average earnings figures mean it is “very likely” that the state pension will rise by 8.5% next year under the triple lock, which says pensions have to rise in line with earnings, price inflation or by 2.5% – whichever is highest. Today’s figures put the earnings measure at 8.5%, and it will only be trumped if the inflation figure used for the triple lock calculation (the rate for September) comes out higher. There are reports that the Treasury may try to push down the 8.5% figure by using the figure for wage inflation excluding bonuses. In the Times Jack Barnett reports: Treasury officials have suggested that the government may commit to uprating the lock in line with earnings growth excluding bonuses, to reduce the strain on the public finances ahead of Jeremy Hunt’s autumn statement on 22 November. The average weekly figure excluding bonuses was 7.8% in the three months to July, according to the Office for National Statistics. Asked about this option, the PM’s spokesperson said that the triple lock policy (which says the earnings figure should include bonuses) remains in place. But, when asked whether today’s figures mean that the state pension will definitely rise at least by 8.5% next year, as the triple lock formula implies it should, he said that would have to be confirmed later. He explained: You know there’s a formal process for this when it comes to uprating but we remain committed to the triple lock which has seen 200,000 pensioners lifted out of absolute poverty after housing costs are taken into account. The spokesperson, who is a civil servant answering questions on behalf of the government, said he could not comment on what the Conservatives might say about the triple lock in their election manifesto. Tories claim Labour pledge to repeal anti-union legislation would lead to "more strikes" The Conservatives say a Labour government would mean “more strikes”. Greg Hands, the Tory chair, put out this statement in response to Angela Rayner’s speech, and in particular to her declaration that Labour would repeal the Trade Union Act 2016 and the Strikes Act within its first 100 days in office. (See 11.02am.) Hands said: The mask has slipped. Despite Keir Starmer’s short-term promises to be pro-business, his deputy leader is committing to Labour’s union paymasters that they will have more control over Britain’s economy. Reversing anti-strike laws will mean more strikes, damaging the economy and disrupting the lives of hardworking people. Rayner uses speech to TUC to set out Labour policies that would benefit unions and workers In her speech to the TUC, Angela Rayner, the deputy Labour leader, urged delegates to “get the word out” about what the party is promising for workers. Here is the passage in her speech where she summed up what Labour is proposing. It came immediately after the passage in the speech where she set out five measures the party would take on blacklisting. (See 11.09am.) Rayner said: We will give trade unions a new legal, reasonable right to access workplaces like your sister unions have in Australia, New Zealand, the Nordic states, and more. This will be underpinned by a regulated legal framework. There will be clear responsibilities and rules for all sides to follow allowing you to meet, represent, recruit and organise members, so that you can get on with your jobs to build stronger, happier and more productive workplaces without threat or menace from rogue employers. As we’ve seen with Amazon, a small minority of employers are taking advantage of the lack of regulations to frustrate the process. This is neither fair to workers nor productive for our wider economy, and it only frustrates disputes, making it harder to come to a resolution. So we will also simplify the statutory recognition process to ensure that gig economy and remote workers can meaningfully organise through trade unions. And we’ll level up the rules to allow trade unions to use secure and private electronic balloting when engaging, communicating with and polling their members, including for workplace ballots. And that’s still not all. We’ll boost collective bargaining both at the firm level and sectorally, starting with a fair pay agreement in adult social care. We will empower workers, the trade unions that represent them and employers in this sector to negotiate fair pay, terms and conditions - like training, in-staff benefits and more. As a former social care worker, I cannot overstate the difference this will make, not only to these low-paid and far too often overlooked workers, but also to our entire health care system, weighed down by years of Tory neglect. We’ll also protect existing sector-wide deals like the fire and rescue services’ national joint council and support workers to meaningfully organise together to improve their terms and conditions. This is because we agree with the OECD that collective bargaining isn’t just good for workers, but it can also be key to helping companies and their staff adapt to technological and societal change. And there’s even more. Day one basic rights. A ban on zero-hour contracts. An end to fire and rehire. Family-friendly working. Strengthen sick pay, making it available to all workers, including the lowest earners, and from day one of sickness. We’ll go faster and quicker to end the gender pay gap. Address unequal pay. Tackle sexual harassment at work. Put mental health on a par with physical health. And we’ll bring in a proper living wage that people can actually live on. Ministers may have broken law over sewage dumping in England, says watchdog The government and regulators may have broken the law by failing to stem raw sewage dumping into rivers by water companies in England, the new independent environmental watchdog has said. As Sandra Laville reports, the Office for Environmental Protection, which was set up after Brexit to replace the enforcement powers of the European Commission, said an investigation suggested the government, the Environment Agency and Ofwat may be failing to comply with environmental law and allowing raw sewage to be discharged by water companies more frequently than the law allows. The full story is here. Four in 10 people admitted for planned hospital treatment in England say their health got worse while on the NHS waiting list, a large patient survey has found. As PA Media reports, 24% of people on the list – which currently stands at 7.6 million patients – said their health got a bit worse while waiting for treatment, and a further 17% said it got much worse. The annual survey of hospital inpatients published by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) also found 39% of people surveyed in 2022 would have liked to have been admitted sooner, up on the 35% the previous year, PA says. Ed Miliband, the shadow secretary for climate and net zero, has been granted an urgent question at 12.30pm on the failure of any company to bid to set up a new offshore windfarms in the latest government rights auction. Rayner ended her speech by saying that the Labour movement had to “come together” to win the next election. And she urged delegates to “get the word out” about the new deal for working people. In rhetorical terms, it was all a bit underwhelming – more routine, than barmstorming. But what matters is the substance, and Rayner was outlining a chunky package of measures on employment rights that would make a real difference to unions and their members. As Tom Harwood from GB News reports, she got a standing ovation. Rayner confirms that Labour will allow unions to ballot their members electronically over strike action. Under the current rules, unions have to ballot their members by post, which is more time consuming and expensive. Critics point out that the government has imposed this rule on unions even though the Conservative party uses electronic voting for its own leadership elections.