Inside Politics: Brexit fishing war with France escalates and Sunak’s Budget ‘hammers young’

An escalation in the fishing wars between France and Britain and the fall out from Rishi Sunak’s Budget dominate the news agenda this morning. Boris Johnson’s government has summoned the French ambassador after a UK vessel was detained in French waters. Economists have warned that the chancellor’s spending plans will hit the youngest hardest, while other reports point to rising interest rates and the increasing tax burden. Elsewhere, Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner has apologised for comments she made at her party’s conference when she called Tories “scum”.

Commons business starts at 9.30am with debates on several private members’ bills, including a second reading of the Menopause (Support and Services) Bill from Labour’s Carolyn Harris.

Coming up:

– Environment secretary George Eustice on ITV GMB at 8.30am

– Welsh first minister Mark Drakeford on LBC at 10.45am

HOOKED: Boris Johnson’s government has summoned the French ambassador as Britain’s seemingly never-ending fishing row with its European neighbours escalated in dramatic fashion last night. The Foreign Office has demanded that Catherine Colonna comes in for talks after Brexit minister Lord David Frost held a crisis meeting of senior cabinet colleagues on Thursday. It came after a British trawling vessel was detained in French waters, sparking outrage in London. The two sides have been are embroiled in a major row over post-Brexit fishing licences after the UK earlier this year approved just a handful when the French had applied for scores of permits. London insists it is following the terms of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement. A government spokesperson said: “The proposed French actions are unjustified and do not appear to be compatible on the EU’s part with the Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) or wider international law. “We regret the confrontational language that has been consistently used by the French government on this issue, which makes this situation no easier to resolve.”

‘REAL PAIN’: Rishi Sunak’s Budget – and the impact it will have on the UK’s different demographics – is still getting plenty of coverage two days after the chancellor set out his spending plans to MPs in the Commons, with the story making the front of several news outlets this morning. Children and young people – who face stagnant pay packets – are at risk of becoming a lost generation due to rising education inequality, high taxes and climbing house prices, leading economists have warned. Analysis shows that, despite spending touted in Rishi Sunak’s Budget on education and childcare, those in further education over the next three years will face funding that is still 10 per cent lower than it was in 2010. Kate Green, the shadow education secretary, told The Independent: “The chancellor has got the wrong priorities and young people are paying the price for it.” Meanwhile, economists have warned that millions of people will be worse off due to rising costs and tax increases as the chancellor’s Budget came under intense scrutiny. The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said the poorest face “real pain” and middle earners will lose out. Other reports point out that interest and mortgage rates are likely to rise.

SORRY: Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner has “unreservedly” apologised for remarks at the party’s annual conference when she described Conservatives as “scum”. Rayner said she had “reflected” on the tone of political debate in the wake of the murder of Conservative MP Sir David Amess and would no longer use such language. The apology came as two men were arrested and another was charged and pleaded guilty in relation to alleged threatening and abusive phone calls, letters and email messages directed at Rayner in recent weeks. Rayner, who has been away from parliament on compassionate leave after a bereavement, said that threats against her life had had a “devastating” effect on her. Elsewhere, a Labour MP has described how she and her family were forced to flee her home in the middle of the night following what she feared was “an immediate firearms threat”. Naz Shah was speaking after Sundas Alam, 30, admitted a number of charges at York Crown Court on Thursday relating to sending death threats to the Bradford West MP. She said she had had many death threats before, but this was the first time she had dialled 999 because “I really genuinely felt it was an immediate firearms threat”.

DEATH SPIKE: The rate of Covid-19 hospital admissions in England has risen to its highest level since February, new figures show. The number of people dying from the virus is also up 16 per cent compared with the previous week, according to government data, although cases are falling. In the week to 24 October, the level of coronavirus admissions stood at 8.4 per 100,000 people, UK Health Security Agency (HSA) figures showed. That was up from 7.5 the previous week, according to the HSA’s weekly Covid surveillance report. It is the highest rate of admission since the week to 21 February, when the UK was struggling with a Covid wave that was killing around 500 people a day.

“Now we need to speak the language of strength since that seems to be the only thing this British government understands.”

France European affairs minister Clement Beaune on detained vessel.

“The banal truth is that spending and taxes are going up in most Western countries because of ageing populations.”

The New Statesman’s George Eaton on taxes and spending.

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