Rishi Sunak’s government ‘considering Swiss-style relationship with EU’ – live

Michael Gove has called on councils to “urgently assess” their housing conditions following the death of two-year-old Awaab Ishak from prolonged mould exposure.

The Levelling Up Secretary wrote in a letter to council leaders and social housing providers that the case has “rightfully shocked people across the country” and called it “abhorrent that anyone should have to live in such conditions”.

Mr Gove said that councils should pay “particular focus on issues of damp and mould”.

The ruling assumption of politics has changed, writes John Rentoul. Keir Starmer has grown in confidence as people expect him to become prime minister. He is tempted to believe that the Conservatives have damaged their reputation for economic competence as fundamentally as they did when John Major’s exchange rate policy collapsed in 1992.

But I understand that privately, as well as publicly, his message is “no complacency”, and that he says he cannot be sure Rishi Sunak is down and out. Starmer is well aware that Labour starts from a much lower base than it did in 1992, when Major had a small majority (which had disappeared by the time of the 1997 election).

Sir Keir Starmer has reportedly vowed to abolish the House of Lords and replace it with an elected chamber if he becomes prime minister.

The Labour leader said he would enact this plan to “restore trust in politics”, according to The Observer.

He told his party’s peers at a meeting last week that he wants to transfer power from politicians to people by allowing them to vote on who to appoint to the upper chamber, the paper reported.

A recent report has claimed that Matt Hancock will be paid a fee of £400,000 to appear on I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!

The Conservative MP, who resigned as health secretary last year after he was caught kissing his aide Gina Coladangelo, is one of the most controversial contestants on the hit ITV reality show.

A report in The Sun quoted an inside source on the show as saying: “[Hancock’s] pay deal with I’m a Celebrity is around £400,000 which is one of the largest ever show fees to have been paid out.

“ITV were keen for viewers to think the deal was worth around £150,000 but in reality it’s over double that. They asked him to be on the show three times in a matter of weeks and the money definitely helped seal the deal.”

Opposition parties will next week try to delay government plans for a bonfire of nearly 4,000 EU laws and key workers’ rights from the UK’s statute books after Brexit.

Legal experts have described the government’s proposals as “reckless” and badly designed, warning that they would give ministers too much power in deciding which laws should stay or go.

Labour and the Scottish National Party will table a series of amendments to the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill, aimed at protecting workers’ rights, health and safety laws, and annual leave and maternity rights.

The UK kept thousands of EU laws after it officially left the bloc on 31 January 2022. The bill, dubbed the “Brexit Freedoms Bill”, would allow the government to overhaul this body of EU laws by the end of 2023, if passed in its current form.

But Brendan O’Hara, the SNP MP for Argyll and Bute, said scrapping the laws would “ride roughshod” over Scotland’s devolution settlement and “start a race to the bottom” on food and environment standards.

He told The Guardian his party had tabled 50 amendments so far and planned to put forward more as the bill makes its way through parliament. “As we promised we would do, SNP MPs are opposing this bill every step of the way,” he said.

Labour’s deputy leader has called for a general election in the wake of Jeremy Hunt’s “nightmare before Christmas” Budget.

Angela Rayner said it was clear that prime minister Rishi Sunak had no plan to grow the UK economy out of its current crisis.

“His only plan is to hike the taxes of working people to foot the bill the Tories left behind after 12 weeks of chaos and 12 years of economic failure,” she said.

“Britain simply can’t afford any more Conservative mismanagement. No one voted for this; we need a general election now.”

The West Suffolk MP was suspended from the party in November after announcing he would take part in the reality TV show I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!

The former health secretary’s decision to go to Australia with parliament still working sparked a backlash among his constituents and colleagues, including the prime minister.

Rishi Sunak said he was “disappointed” by Mr Hancock’s choice, adding that MPs “should be working hard for their constituents”.

Mr Hancock was suspended – or in political speak had the whip removed – by the Conservative Party on 1 November.

More than half of Britons have blamed the Conservative government over global factors for the cost of living crisis, a poll has revealed.

A nationally representative poll of more than 2,000 people from Find Out Now for Channel 4 News found that 51 per cent of people believe the government was largely culpable for the soaring cost of household bills, while 37 per cent hold international factors, such as the Covid pandemic and war in Ukraine, responsible.

In the wake of chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s explosive autumn Budget, 29 per cent of voters said they now trust Labour to run the economy. Meanwhile, just 19 per cent put their faith in the Conservative party on fiscal matters.

Rishi Sunak has reportedly put a stop to the daily grilling of ministers on morning television and radio shows.

Previously, under his predecessors, one minister was chosen by Downing Street every day to answer questions on programmes such as BBC’s Breakfast, ITV’s Good Morning Britain (GMB) and BBC Radio 4’s Today.

Now the prime minister, who succeeded Liz Truss less than a month ago, will cut the frequency of interviews to about three days a week, The Mirror reports.