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1. SNP brand Boris a ‘dictator’ over Indyref2
Scottish constitutional relations secretary Mike Russell says Boris Johnson is behaving like a ‘dictator’ by not giving Nicola Sturgeon the power to hold another independence referendum – and the Scottish government has ‘many options’ it could use to get the power. At PMQs, Boris said Sturgeon and Alex Salmond promised at the time of the 2014 referendum that it was a ‘‘‘once in a generation” event’ and asked: ‘why have they changed their mind?’
2. Boris to personally head up crime fighting task force
Boris Johnson will lead a ministerial task force to combat ‘county line criminal gangs’, the Times reports. Boris told cabinet yesterday that he wants to ‘return to clarity [on crime]’ and ‘address the concerns of the British public’. The task force will include Home Secretary Priti Patel, Justice Secretary Robert Buckland, Attorney-General Geoffrey Cox, Chancellor Sajid Javid and a ‘rolling cast list’ of other ministers. Patel said the team plans to ‘cut the head off the snake’ of criminal gangs.
3. Hancock mulls replacing A&E targets with ‘clinically appropriate’ figures
Health Secretary Matt Hancock has told 5 Live that he wants to replace four-hour waiting time targets in A&Es across England with more ‘clinically appropriate’ figures. He says ‘the problem with that target is that increasingly people are treated on the day and are able to go home. It’s much better for the patient and also better for the NHS and yet the way that’s counted in the target doesn’t work.’ In December, the proportion of A&E patients seen within four hours hit an all-time low of 67 per cent, against a target of 95 per cent.
4. Inflation fall stokes expectation of a rate cut
CPI inflation fell to 1.3 per cent over the year to December 2019, from 1.5 per cent the previous month, ONS figures show. Lower inflation gives the Bank of England more scope to cut the interest rate to stimulate slowing economic growth while meeting its two per cent inflation target. At the last Monetary Policy Committee meeting in December, two out of nine members voted for a cut; the rest voted to hold the rate at 0.75 per cent. The next decision will be announced on 30 January.
5. Boris considers moving CCHQ out of London
Boris Johnson is considering moving CCHQ out of Westminster, Conservative Home reports. No. 10 has said there ‘will be a small office.. up by King’s Cross’ with the new location ‘somewhere reasonably close to a university with goods maths and physics departments [for a data team], good train links and well placed in political terms’.
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