Inside Politics: Snowed under

Ministers meet to plan how to minimise disruption ahead of wave of strike action, writes Matt Mathers

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Hello there, I’m Matt Mathers and welcome to The Independent’s Inside Politics newsletter.

Liz Truss is said to be considering setting up – or putting her name to – an economic think tank as she plots her political comeback. Yes, you did read that correctly. And no, it is not a joke.

Inside the bubble

Commons action gets underway at 2.30pm with defence questions, followed by any urgent questions or statements. The main business is the third reading of the bill which ratifies the New Zealand and Aussie trade deals. After that there is a short debate and vote on the government’s voter ID plans, before MPs debate the standards committee’s Code of Conduct recommendations. Tory MP Bob Seely has an adjournment debate on testing moles and skin tags for skin cancer.

Daily briefing

Frosty relations

Oliver Dowden, the Cabinet Office secretary, will this morning chair the first of two Cobra meetings this week as ministers plan how to minimise disruption ahead of a wave of strikes by public sector workers in the run-up to Christmas.

Royal Mail staff, nurses, paramedics, rail employees and Border Force officials are all set to walk out in rows over pay and conditions. Today’s meeting will be attended by transport, health, home office and defence ministers.

Ahead of the meeting, Dowden urged unions to call off the “damaging” strikes and argued that that the only way to stop the disruption completely “is for union bosses to get back round the table”.

But unions say it is the government who is refusing to negotiate. Ministers yesterday rejected an offer from nursing leaders to suspend Thursday’s action in return for pay talks with the health secretary.

Royal College of Nursing general secretary Pat Cullen, whose members are due to take part in unprecedented strike action on 15 December and 20 December, made the offer to pause the walkout in exchange for pay talks on Saturday night after earlier this week accusing health secretary Steve Barclay of deploying “bullyboy” tactics.

But on Sunday James Cleverly, the foreign secretary, who is set to give his first big speech in the role, robustly defended the independent review process that the government has said should determine pay increases, as he insisted Barclay was willing to meet with the RCN.

Wes Streeting, Labour’s shadow health secretary, accused the government of taking a “dangerous” approach to the strikes. “If only the government would be willing to talk and the fact that they are not taking that offer (from nursing leaders), I think it is dangerous,” he said.

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Bleak outlook

Office for National Statistics (ONS) data out earlier this morning shows the economy rebounded slightly in October –  but the overall picture remains as bleak as the temperature outside.

Gross domestic product grew by a bigger-than-expected 0.5 per cent between September and October in a bounce back from a 0.6 per cent contraction the previous month.

The rebound marked the biggest expansion since November 2021 and was more than the 0.4 per cent rise expected by most economists.

September was affected by the lower number of working days due to the additional bank holiday for the Queen’s state funeral, and experts said the bigger picture is still one of a shrinking economy amid the cost of living crisis, with the UK set to suffer a prolonged recession.

The ONS said the three months to October saw the economy drop by 0.3 per cent compared with the previous three months.

On the record

Wes Streeting, shadow health secretary, on government’s approach to strike action.

“If only the government would be willing to talk and the fact that they are not taking that offer (from nursing leaders), I think it is dangerous. I think it’s irresponsible. And I think it just serves to underline the fact that the government is spoiling for a fight with the unions.”

From the Twitterati

BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg on James Cleverly’s comments that it’s not government’s job to negotiate in industrial disputes.

“Independent pay review bodies make recommendations to ministers – it IS then up to the govt to decide what to do.”

Essential reading

• Keiran Pedley, The Independent: Rishi Sunak’s big problem is Britain is suffering from ‘Tory fatigue’
• John Harris, The Guardian: As Britain’s workers reach their limits, the government has no option but to negotiate
• Kate Andrews, The Spectator: Wes Streeting and the urgent need for NHS reform
• Borzou Daragahi, The Independent: Iran crossed a line

Inside Politics first appeared in our daily morning email. You can sign up via this link.