Politics

Lord Frost, Boris Johnson’s Brexit minister, is reportedly considering allowing “lighter touch” controls on imports from 1 April.

A clear majority of Tory voters believe the pay proposition is too low, a new poll found.

Party analysis indicates that the cumulative effect of an immediate council tax rise, an effective pay cut and a looming freeze to income tax thresholds will leave a newly qualified nurse with £307 less in their pocket by 2023.

“For me, this is, from a moral perspective, the wrong time to be applying pay restraint," MP Dr Dan Poulter said.

NHS Providers is challenging the government over its defence of the recommendation for health workers to receive a one per cent increase, which Labour says is a “real-terms cut” to wages.

Labour questioned the prime minister’s priorities for shelling out millions on “vanity projects” while “picking the pockets” of NHS workers.

Labour said the reported cuts would “cause devastation” to some of the world’s most vulnerable people.

Johnson reportedly had boxes of luxury organic food “smuggled in” to Downing Street for him and partner Carrie Symonds.

“It’s very unfortunate that having spent 20 years building really good relations between Belfast and Dublin, between Dublin and London, we’ve thrown all that away in the context of Brexit and this latest row has made it a whole lot worse.”