POLITICO Sunday Crunch: Zaghari-Ratcliffe freed — Back for good? — Budget backlash

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By ANNABELLE DICKSON

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Good Sunday Afternoon. This is Annabelle Dickson. I’m back from maternity leave and will now be sitting in the Sunday Crunch hot seat every weekend. Please do get in touch with any stories and suggestions at [email protected]

6 THINGS TO KNOW

1. ZAGHARI-RATCLIFFE FREED: Iran has released British-Iranian aid worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, according to her lawyer Hojjat Kermani. Her MP Tulip Siddiq said Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s ankle tag had been removed but that she had been summoned back to court next Sunday.

Raab reacts: “We welcome the removal of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s ankle tag, but Iran’s continued treatment of her is intolerable,” Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said. “She must be allowed to return to the UK as soon as possible to be reunited with her family.”

The Labour line: Raab’s Labour opposite number Lisa Nandy hailed the move as “welcome progress” but warned that the “agony” for Zaghari-Ratcliffe and her family continues. The Foreign Office “must now step up efforts” to bring Zaghari-Ratcliffe home “without delay,” she added.

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2. BACK TO SCHOOL FOR GOOD? Home schooling should be a thing of the past for most parents from tomorrow as politicians and health officials made clear there is no intention to reverse the return to the classroom from lockdown.

“The reason we are taking this cautious approach is so that the steps that we take are steps that will never be reversed,” Education Secretary Gavin Williamson told Times Radio this morning. Even if the reproduction rate of the virus climbs above one, the point at which the number of COVID cases keeps increasing, there should be no pause in the return to school, Public Health England’s Susan Hopkins told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show. The relationship between hospitalizations and deaths should change this time around with the impact of vaccination, she pointed out.

Making up for lost time: Ministers are meanwhile considering a five-term school year and longer school days as part of what Williamson told Sky’s Sophy Ridge would be a “transformative” 1940s-style education reform. Ofsted chief Amanda Spielman immediately urged caution. “I think one of the really important things is to learn from the experiments that have happened in the past,” she told Ridge. “There’s no point adding time here, or moving time there, if you don’t get a groundswell of support.”

3. BUDGET BACKLASH: The backlash over the government’s proposed 1 percent pay rise for England’s nurses next year continues to dominate the political agenda. A poll in this morning’s Observer does not make pretty reading for No. 10. It suggests the vast majority of voters believe the increase is too low, including a clear majority of the Conservatives’ own supporters.

Labour runs with it: Labour’s Shadow Health Secretary Jonathan Ashworth went in hard on the issue, wielding the government’s own NHS long-term plan which he said had budgeted for a 2.1 percent pay rise. A Labour government would honor the recommendation of the independent pay review body, he promised.

U-turn coming? Asked whether nurses deserve more than 1 percent, Williamson told Marr the government had put forward a proposal it believed it could afford but it was “part of a process that would be looked at.” Boris Johnson also left the government plenty of wiggle room today. In a just-released broadcast clip, he said of nurses: “What we’ve done is tried to give them as much as we can at the present time. The independent pay review body will obviously look at what we’ve proposed and come back.”

Going viral alert: Watch this awkward moment when Gavin Williamson is asked a zinger of a question by Sky’s Sophy Ridge about whether it’s a good look for nurses to face pay restraint while the prime minister considers (what is widely reported to be a very pricey) refurbishment of the Downing Street flat. It underlines the perils of sticking rigidly to a script.

In more Downing Street spending news: The prime minister has gone all West Wing and is building a “White House-style situation room” costing more than £9 million, according to the Sunday Times. Meanwhile the Press Association revealed on Saturday that the government spent more than £2.6m converting No. 9 Downing Street into a media suite to host White House-style briefings.

4. FROSTY RECEPTION: As tensions between London and Brussels over grace periods for Irish Sea border checks continue to rise, self-proclaimed “minister for the benefits of Brexit” David Frost has a punchy op-ed in the Sunday Telegraph this morning urging Brussels to “shake off any remaining ill will” toward the U.K. for Brexit.”

The front page declares that Frost has told the EU to “stop sulking at Brexit.” His comments are unlikely to ease the stand-off over the unilateral U.K. decision to exempt British firms from some bureaucracy when shipping food to Northern Ireland, a move the EU says breaches the Brexit divorce deal.

Trade stand-off: The Mail on Sunday meanwhile says ministers are to “step up” their war with the EU Commissioner known as “Calamity Kyriakides” by blocking imports of fashionable mineral waters such as San Pellegrino and Perrier in response to its ban on supplies of shellfish from the U.K.

5. WAR ON WOKE PEOPLE MOVES: Nigel Farage is (sort of) leaving politics …again. He has told the Telegraph’s Chris Hope he is standing down as leader of the Reform Party. He won’t be retiring from public life (obvs) and will be trying to influence the national debate on China’s influence in the U.K. and the battles over the so-called culture wars. Fellow anti-political correctness campaigner, the actor and commentator Laurence Fox tells the Sunday Telegraph he is standing to be London Mayor on an anti-lockdown ticket.

6. TEAM QUEEN VS THE SUSSEXES: Williamson insisted the government does not comment on matters in the Royal family but declared on Times Radio that the “whole nation stands up for the Queen,” ahead of tonight’s blockbuster Oprah Winfrey interview with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. Johnson told reporters it was “unlikely” he will set the Sky Plus box to watch Harry and Megs.

MEDIA ROUND

Ridge on Sunday (Sky News): Education Secretary Gavin Williamson; Shadow Foreign Secretary Lisa Nandy; Ofsted Chief Inspector Amanda Spielman; SNP MP Mhairi Black; U.N. Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka. Listen to the Ridge on Sunday podcast here.

The Andrew Marr Show (BBC One): Education Secretary Gavin Williamson; Shadow Health Secretary Jonathan Ashworth; Public Health England’s Susan Hopkins. Reviewing the papers: Money Saving Expert Martin Lewis and BBC Scotland Editor Sarah Smith. Transcript.

G&T: Education Secretary Gavin Williamson; Shadow Foreign Secretary Lisa Nandy;  Commons Speaker Lindsay Hoyle; Slovakian MEP Michal Šimečka; Tory MP Michael Fabricant; pollster Joe Twyman; Ofsted Chief Inspector Amanda Spielman; National Education Union Joint General Secretary Kevin Courtney; Labour MP Alex Jones; Journalist Jenni Murray; The FT’s Jim Pickard and Evening Standard’s Emily Sheffield.

Swarbrick on Sunday (LBC): General Secretary of UNISON Christina McAnea; Education Secretary Gavin Williamson; Chief Medical Adviser for NHS Test and Trace Susan Hopkins; SAGE member Calum Semple; Shadow Foreign Secretary Lisa Nandy; First Minister of Northern Ireland Arlene Foster. 

Westminster Hour (BBC Radio 4, Sunday 10 p.m.).: Carolyn Quinn will be talking to COVID Recovery Group Chairman Mark Harper … Shadow Policing Minister Sarah Jones … Former DExEU mandarin Philip Rycroft … and the Spectator’s Katy Balls (BBC Radio 4, Sunday 10 p.m.).

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WEEK AHEAD

MONDAY

International Women’s Day.

Commons: Sits from 2:30 p.m. with work and pensions questions. The budget debate continues.

Economics:  Public accounts committee session on environmental tax measures with HMRC, Treasury officials, 2:30 p.m.

Budget:  Treasury committee session with the Office for Budget Responsiblity, 3 p.m.

Royalty: The Duke and Duchess of Sussex interview with Oprah Winfrey will be aired in the U.K., ITV 9 p.m.

TUESDAY

Commons: Sits from 11.30 a.m. with Treasury questions. The budget debate concludes.

Social care: The health and social care committee will quiz NHS boss Simon Stevens on the health and social care white paper, 9 a.m.

Coronavirus: The science and technology committee will question Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty and Chief Scientific Officer Patrick Vallance on pandemic preparedness, 9.30 a.m.

Sport: DCMS committee to hold evidence session on concussion in sport, 10 a.m.

WEDNESDAY

Coronavirus: ONS to publish stats on the different effects of coronavirus on men and women in the U.K., 9.30 a.m.

Immigration: Northern Ireland affairs committee session on citizenship and passport processes in Northern Ireland, 9.30 a.m.

Commons: Sits from 11.30 a.m. for Scotland questions, followed by prime minister’s questions.

Budget: Treasury committee to questions the Institute for Fiscal Studies, Resolution Foundation and the Confederation of British Industry, 2.30 p.m.

Coronavirus: Kemi Badenoch and Nadhim Zahawi at Women and Equalities Committee session on take up of the COVID-19 vaccines in BAME communities and women, 2.30 p.m.

THURSDAY

Commons: Sits from 9.30 a.m. with transport questions followed by the business statement. There will also be a general International Women’s Day debate.

Environment: Alok Sharma to appear at the Environmental Audit Committee to give evidence on COP 26 preparations, 10.30 a.m.

Budget: Chancellor Rishi Sunak to give evidence to the treasury committee, 2.30 p.m.

FRIDAY

Trade: U.K. Trade statistics to be published, 7 a.m.

Commons: A series of private members’ bills will have their remaining stages.

RECOMMENDED READS

POLITICO’s Cristina Gallardo has spoken to Gibraltar’s Health Minister Samantha Sacramento as the territory looks set to win Europe’s vaccine race and offer a jab to every resident over 16 within the next two weeks.

The Observer takes the temperature on Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s budget in the market town of Richmond, in his North Yorkshire constituency.

Sunday Crunch is compiled by Annabelle Dickson. I’d love to hear what you think. Drop me a note at [email protected]

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