Inside Politics: The gift of Brexit past

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

NHS workers are to be offered a fast-tracked pay deal next year, according to reports this morning. Elsewhere, Brexit is still not working for many businesses across the UK.

Parliament returns on 9 January.

Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, was on BBC Radio 4 at 7.50am.

Sources close to Steve Barclay, the health secretary, say NHS workers will be offered a fast-tracked pay deal next year as ministers try to break the deadlock in an ongoing row over pay and conditions.

Barclay’s aides have told The Daily Telegraph that the health secretary is keen to “speed up the process” of giving NHS staff a pay rise. As the paper notes, the process of setting pay recommendations for next year is already under way. Usually, NHS workers wait until August to receive a backdated rise, even though recommendations are made by an independent review body in April.

Barclay said he recognised that NHS staff are “feeling the pinch” and would demand action to get extra money in salaries “at the earliest opportunity”, a source said. Whether this offer is enough to prevent more strikes next year remains to be seen.

Meanwhile, NHS bosses are expecting a wave of patients to hit hospitals today as the knock-on effect of two consecutive strikes by frontline workers combines with rising winter pressures to cause chaos across the health service today.

Senior health figures have said the “fallout from strike action is likely to spill over into the coming days” with high levels of emergency demand from patients who have delayed seeking care.

open image in gallery

Unlock unlimited, ad-free reading on the website and in The Independent app when you subscribe – plus, benefit from our welcome offer when you join today.

We may be edging ever closer to the big day, but plenty of businesses across the UK might not be feeling the festive cheer as they continue struggling to trade with EU countries following Brexit.

That’s the verdict of research carried out by the British Chambers of Commerce, which found that more than three-quarters of firms trading with the Continent find the existing Brexit deal no help when it comes to increasing sales or growing their business.

The business organisation is calling on the government to look again at how trade with Europe can be improved, two years on from the deal agreed by Boris Johnson.

See all of The Independent’s daily cartoons here

open image in gallery

Suella Braverman, the home secretary, on High Court ruling that Brexti rules for millions of EU citizens living in UK are unlawful.

“EU citizens are our friends and neighbours, and we take our obligations to securing their rights in the UK very seriously. The EU Settlement Scheme goes above and beyond our obligations under the withdrawal agreement, protecting EU citizens’ rights and giving them a route to settlement in the UK. We are disappointed by this judgment, which we intend to appeal.”

Paul Waugh, i chief politics commentator, on NHS strikes.

“Ministers who suggest NHS strikers have blood on their hands only expose the blood that’s already on theirs.”

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