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Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, flew to Brussels for an EU summit, sought a ‘reset’ of relations and had celeriac soup and sea bream for dinner. AstraZeneca dropped plans to invest £450 million in a vaccine manufacturing plant in Speke, Liverpool, blaming the government’s ‘final offer compared to the previous government’s proposal’. Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, said that she supported the expansion of Leeds Bradford Airport; she had already backed a third runway at Heathrow and the reopening of Doncaster Sheffield airport. Water bills in England and Wales will rise to an average of £603. Some councils will be allowed to raise their tax by more than 5 per cent – Bradford by 10 per cent. Barclays sent a memo to many employees requiring them to work in the office three days a week instead of two. The company was hit by computing malfunctions for a couple of days, and then Halifax and Lloyds were affected. Crime rose by 12 per cent in England and Wales in the year to September; incidents of shoplifting reported by retailers rose by 3.7 million to 20.4 million. A YouGov poll put Reform UK at 25 per cent, Labour at 24 and the Conservatives at 21.
Endangering lives at sea is to be a crime under new laws to counter people-smuggling, the Home Office said. In the week to 3 February, 246 migrants arrived in small boats. Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary, observed in a speech: ‘Sometimes there are some really daft things being done in the name of equality, diversity and inclusion.’ Daniel Khalife, aged 23, was sentenced to 14 years for spying for Iran and escaping from Wandsworth prison.
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