Rishi Sunak claims Rwanda policy is ‘common sense’ and backed by ‘vast majority of public’ – UK politics live

Good morning. We’re in the final week before Christmas, and the strikes affecting public services are set to get even more serious. Last week’s strike by the Royal College of Nursing was unprecedented, because the RCN had never called a strike before, but ministers fear that a strike by ambulance staff in England and Wales on Wednesday could be even more serious because of the impact it will have on patients needing emergency care.

As Jessica Elgot and Andrew Gregory report in their overnight story, Steve Barclay, the health secretary, has signalled that he is open to further talks in the hope of averting this week’s strike.

But this morning the leaders of Britain’s two biggest unions, Unison and Unite, which represent ambulance staff, have played down the prospect of any meaningful talks happening, saying the government’s refusal to discuss pay is making discussion pointless.

In an interview with the Daily Mirror, Sharon Graham, the Unite general secretary, said it was Barclay himself who was holding the country to ransom. She said:

Look at Scotland. The government there came back to the negotiating table, made a new offer and the strikes were cancelled. Yet in England they refuse to negotiate a new deal with the unions or go back to the pay review body.

It’s Steve Barclay who is holding the country to ransom. He will have to carry the can if patients suffer because he thinks this is his Thatcher moment.

And on the Today programme this morning Christina McAnea, the Unison general secretary, said ministers were being impossible. She said:

The government has been completely intransigent here. We’ve been calling on them for weeks and weeks to talk to us about this, to actually sit down and have a proper discussion before we try and resolve this dispute, and they have adamantly refused to do that.

I don’t know how much stronger myself, or Pat Cullen [the RCN general secretary] or Gary Smith of the GMB [need to be] – all of us are saying the same thing, we are prepared to talk to you, but they will not talk to us about the elephant in the room, which is pay.

McAnea said she last met Barclay herself five weeks ago, for about 15 minutes. She said there was “no trust left” between unions and the government and that, for Wednesday’s ambulance strike to be called off, ministers would have to promise to open negotiations on pay. She said:

It has be a very firm commitment. There is no trust left between us and the government. They would have to come up with something more that was more than just ‘Let’s talk about this’ for us to call off the strike on Wednesday.

Of course, the ambulance strike is not the only public service strike coming this week. Here is the advent calendar of strikes for this month.

Here is the agenda for the day.

10.30am: The high court delivers judgments in legal challenges to the government’s Rwanda deportation policy.

Morning: Rishi Sunak arrives in Riga, Latvia, for a meeting of leaders of the Joint Expeditionary Force, the UK-led defence group mostly made up of Nordic and Baltic countries. Later he will go to Estonia to meet British troops stationed there.

11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.

2.30pm: Suella Braverman, the home secretary, takes questions in the Commons.

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