Rishi Sunak under pressure from backbench MPs to declare China a ‘threat’ – UK politics live

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More than 70,000 staff at 150 universities have walked out on strike today, in the first of three successive days of industrial action this week.

The University and College Union confirmed that it is reballoting members, to enable strike action to continue throughout the rest of the academic year, in line with legislation which requires that industrial action mandates are renewed every six months.

Meanwhile, talks which began yesterday will continue with employers, who are represented by the University and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA) via the Acas conciliation service.

University staff have already taken six days of strike action this academic year in their dispute over pay, pensions, job security and working conditions. After this week, if there is no breakthrough, staff are set to walk out for a further 10 days.

UCU general secretary Jo Grady said:

University staff are preparing once again to vote yes in an industrial action ballot which could see the rest of the academic year impacted by strikes. That we have ended up in this place is entirely the fault of university bosses who refuse to use the sector’s over ?40bn reserves to meet staff demands.

Staff are striking because they are sick of being denied a decent pay rise, secure employment, and proper pensions. And students are standing with us because they know that staff working conditions are their learning conditions.

Our union is determined to reach a negotiated settlement which allows staff to get back to work and students to continue their studies uninterrupted. But that can only happen if vice-chancellors come out of hiding and use a fraction of the sector’s vast wealth to make serious, well-rounded offers to staff.

Raj Jethwa, UCEA’s chief executive, said:

It is disappointing that UCU has confirmed it will re-ballot on the day that these Acas talks have started.

It is saddening if even a single student is impacted by the 18 days of strike action that UCU has already asked its member to take, and we hope that these Acas talks will help to resolve this dispute.

On Wednesday, teaching unions are due to meet education secretary Gillian Keegan for talks to avert further planned strike action in schools in February and March.

Negotiations over the Northern Ireland protocol are in the crucial final phase with a potential deal as early as next week, according to UK government sources.

Rishi Sunak is expected to spend the latter half of the parliamentary recess this week looking at the shape of the deal, with calls pencilled in with EU leaders. However, UK sources stressed talks were at a delicate phase and there was no guarantee of a final agreement.

Any deal would mean the UK agreeing to drop the Northern Ireland protocol bill, the use of which would unilaterally override the current agreement and prompt legal action from Brussels. The bill is in the House of Lords but its progress has been frozen.

The announcement of any deal will depend on time to square off any concerns from EU member states and most crucially parties in Northern Ireland, including the Democratic Unionist party (DUP), which is blocking the formation of a power-sharing government at Stormont.

Millions of households face further cost of living pressures after research suggested three-quarters of councils will hike tax by 5% from April.

The County Councils Network (CCN) has found 84 councils out of 114 who provide social care and have published their 2023-24 budget proposals plan to raise council tax by the maximum permitted which is 4.99%.

The Labour vice-chair of CCN, and leader of Cheshire East Council, Sam Corcoran, said local authorities had “little choice” but to propose increasing council tax. He said:

With inflation reaching levels not seen for over 40 years and with demand-led pressures for care services showing no sign of abating, local authority leaders are setting their budgets in the most difficult circumstances in decades.

We all recognise the cost-of-living crisis is impacting on every household in the country and disproportionally on low incomes, but we have little choice but to propose council tax rises again next year, with many local authorities reluctantly opting for maximum rises.

With councils facing multimillion funding deficits next year, the alternative to council tax rises would be drastic cuts to frontline services at a time when people at the sharp end of the cost-of-living crisis need us to be there for them. With the financial situation for councils looking extremely tough for the next few years, we will be calling on the Chancellor for further help in the March budget.

Despite widespread concerns over the cost of living crisis, about 75% of the largest authorities have opted so far for the full 4.99% rise, with all but one of the remainder increasing council tax by at least 2%.

Three councils facing major financial difficulties after going effectively bankrupt have been given special dispensation by ministers to increase council tax bills beyond the 4.99% limit. Croydon’s bill will go up by 15%, while Thurrock and Slough councils will each raise bills by 10%.

A former British ambassador to the US and national security adviser has questioned whether the UK has a “watertight capability” to deal with suspected Chinese spy balloons.

Asked if Rishi Sunak is right to suggest the UK has a “watertight rapid response to intercept these kind of things”, Kim Darroch told Times Radio he is not totally confident this is the case.

He said:

I’m not, to be honest, but I wouldn’t want listeners to get very worried about that.

I’m not because I think we have underinvested in defence for the last couple of decades – one might argue ever since the end of the cold war – and we don’t have all the kit and equipment that we really need and there are gaps around in the technology our armed forces have.

So, we will have some capability; whether we have a watertight capability as the prime minister says, I’m not so sure.

But we have enough capability, I think, that people can certainly sleep easy in their beds about.

He added:

It’s still, I think, unless we discover something new, it’s still well-known technology and it’s still basically surveillance, still basically spying, and the reality is an awful lot of that goes on everywhere.

Good morning and welcome to the UK politics live blog.

Prime minister Rishi Sunak finds himself under pressure today to follow in his predecessor’s footsteps and label China a “threat” as part of the government’s integrated review of global security. In October, Liz Truss formally designated China “the most serious long-term threat to our values and way of life”.

With concerns mounting over the UK’s capability to deal with suspected Chinese spy balloons, Sunak is being urged by his backbench MPs to be just as hawkish when it comes to his own review, which is due to take place on 7 March.

In November, Sunak signalled the end of the “golden era” of relations between Britain and China, using his first major foreign policy speech to warn of the creeping authoritarianism of Xi Jinping’s regime. But he is under pressure to go further this time around.

It comes as Tory grandee Iain Duncan Smith accused the Chinese governor of Xinjiang of murder as he joined Uyghur activists protesting against his reported visit to Britain.

Demonstrators gathered outside the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) on Monday after it emerged that Erkin Tuniyaz, the chair of the Xinjiang Uyghur autonomous region, could meet UK officials, a scenario Duncan Smith branded “unacceptable”.

Tuniyaz was expected to come to the UK this week, according to the reports, with some speculating he has already arrived.

The Commons is currently in recess. I’m Tom Ambrose, covering the blog for Andrew Sparrow this week, and I’ll be bringing you all the latest news and stories from Westminster throughout the day.