Katy Balls

As MPs return to parliament after the Christmas break, Rishi Sunak is under pressure both on the NHS and strikes. Union leaders have been invited for talks with ministers today in a bid to find a landing zone (though there still seems to be a rather large gap between the two sides). Yet while aides in Downing Street worry about domestic issues, it's another story that had MPs animated over the weekend: the prospect of a Boris Johnson comeback. Key Johnson ally Nadine Dorries penned a piece for the Mail on Sunday declaring the Tories 'must bring back Boris or die'.

There’s a new rule for members of Keir Starmer’s team on their WhatsApp group: no messages linking to opinion polls. It’s not because the Labour leader dislikes the figures. Labour polls consistently on about 45 per cent and the Tories on 25 per cent, which is landslide victory territory. The fear is that too much focus on such numbers will breed complacency. ‘We are a party scarred by its losses,’ says a member of Starmer’s office. Yet with the election expected next year, Labour and Tory MPs are talking less about whether Rishi Sunak can turn things around and more about the scale of Starmer’s victory. Will Labour have a majority of 20 or 200? It’s rare to find any MP, on any bench, who believes the Tories will win a fifth term.

Is the UK government gearing up for a court battle with the Scottish parliament over gender self-ID? This afternoon, Holyrood passed the gender recognition bill by 86 votes to 39. This makes Scotland the first part of the UK to give the green light to a process of self-identification for legally changing gender. The controversial legislation has so far seen one Scottish government minister resign and more SNP politicians speak out to voice concern. When the outcome of the vote was read out, it was met with a mix of cheers and jeers from the public gallery, with opponents of the bills shouting 'shame on you'. What's more, the bill could still be open to challenge. It's no great secret that ministers in Rishi Sunak's government harbour concerns over the legislation.

The winter of discontent continues as nurses across England, Wales and Northern Ireland embark on a second day of strike action, with the threat of more to follow in the new year if an agreement can’t be found on pay. Adding to the government’s problems, tomorrow ambulance workers are set to walk out. While it’s the practical ramifications of the ambulance strike that worries senior figures in government the most, it’s all adding up to a big political headache for Rishi Sunak. In an interview with the Daily Mail, Sunak has insisted he won’t give in to pay demands – arguing it would be damaging to the economy and therefore the wrong thing to do: ‘I’m going to do what I think is right for the long-term interests of the country – combating inflation.

The government’s plan to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda is lawful. That’s according to a ruling from the High Court this morning following a legal challenge against the scheme. The Home Office victory comes in response to the application from aid groups and asylum seekers to stop the government enacting its deportation agreement with the African country. These challenges meant that the first deportation flight – scheduled to depart on 14 June – was grounded. Since then, no flight has been allowed to take off – and not one asylum seeker has been sent to Rwanda.

After Rishi Sunak lost the summer Tory leadership contest, he started on Plan B: to be selected for the Kirby Sigston cricket team in his Yorkshire constituency. He had hoped to play for the club when he was first elected as an MP seven years ago, but politics got in the way. Suddenly with more time on his hands, he began to enquire about this ‘friendly, sociable and inclusive’ team – only to find out that its inclusivity had its limits. ‘They told me that I shouldn’t assume I could make the starting XI, because they’d won their league for two years in a row. They said I might have to go and play for the next village down.’ Sunak started practising, but did not in the end try out.