Andy Burnham has called for the country to have an “honest discussion” about returning to free movement with the European Union.
While he has pledged to “never move ahead of the British public when it comes to Brexit”, his comments have split his own MPs and been heavily criticised by opposition politicians.
But how could a return to free movement impact UK jobs and workers?
Channel 4 to bring its shows to Disney+ – what we know
Channel 4 and the Walt Disney Company have struck a deal that will bring the British broadcaster’s shows to Disney+ in the UK and Ireland next year.
What you need to know
The agreement includes multiple Channel 4 shows being made available on-demand each year on Disney+, at the same time as their release on the station.
These include drama starring Bella Ramsey, comedy featuring Denise Welch, and reality show Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins – along with Channel 4’s main TV channel and additional on-demand content.
How will it work?
When can you watch?
From 2027, Disney+ customers will be able to watch Channel 4’s linear HD channel, plus scripted and unscripted content at no extra cost.
What will be featured?
Channel 4 shows available “day and date” on Disney+, and access to new Channel 4 shows each year.
Where can you find it?
There will be a dedicated Channel 4-branded section intergrated into Disney +.
Why Putin will welcome Trump’s post-midterms mayhem
Even while Vladimir Putin does what he can to help Donald Trump salvage something from this month’s midterm elections, the Russian President is working on the assumption that the Republicans will lose badly.
The Kremlin’s goal
The Kremlin’s goal is to see the West paralysed by internal division and dispute, and it sees a humiliated Trump as a disruptive one.
Mired in a badly conceived and legally questionable war in the Gulf, with petrol and other prices rising and his erratic personal style increasingly counting against him, Trump has looked to Moscow for help.
Putin’s token efforts to aid Trump
- 1Trump’s deal to buy Russian diesel gave Putin the opportunity to pit Kyiv against the White House.
- 2Last week, Putin also freed Stephen Hubbard, a 74-year-old US citizen who had been given seven years in prison on charges of being a mercenary fighting for Ukraine.
- 3The Kremlin has also made much of the fact that a ceasefire it has agreed with Kyiv to allow residents of the beleaguered town of Oleshky to receive aid or simply flee the fighting, was driven by the First Lady, Melania.
Why Russia doesn’t care about Trump’s losses
Russians themselves have long regarded Trump as periodically useful, but never reliable.
“We’ve always known that [Trump] was self-indulgent and self-destructive,” a Russian political commentator told The i Paper. “The only question was when he was going to sink his own ship.”
- Moscow has had to see its Venezuelan client toppled and seen European countries ramp up their defence spending at Trump’s behest.
- Trump may press for a peace process as a last chance to secure his legacy and the Nobel Peace Prize.
All the supermarket staples having import tariffs removed
The Chancellor will soon cut tariffs among other cuts to give families “breathing space”.
Budget announcements
Making higher tax-free mileage rates permanent and removing import taxes on some food items are among the measures being announced ahead of Wednesday’s Budget.
The announcements are part of Chancellor John Healey’s pledge to give families what he is calling “breathing space” with the cost of living.
Which foods will have their tariffs cut?
Citrus jams, marmalades and pastes (20% + £19 per 100kg)
Cough drops, boiled sweets, toffees and caramels (8%)
Baked beans (16%)
Other measures announced
- A 55p per mile tax-free mileage rate for those driving up to 10,000 miles for work, with the rate rising from 25p per mile
- Allowing carers to earn more than an existing earnings limit without losing their entire allowance
- Giving two weeks of paternity pay to self-employed fathers
- Rolling out hundreds of additional Post Office drop boxes to make sending parcels easier
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A minimum wage rise
Healey will also announce the new National Minimum Wage for 18 to 20-year-olds on Wednesday as well as the National Living Wage for those aged 21 and over.
has reported that the National Minimum Wage is likely to rise by 3.9% from £10.85 an hour to around £11.27.
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Why Jimmy Carr thinks comedy should be taught in school
Stand up comedian Jimmy Carr has said comedy should be taught in schools.
Here is everything we know.
Comedy is a ‘teachable skill’
54-year-old Carr is known for hosting 8 Out Of 10 Cats and as well as performing his own stand-up comedy shows.
Carr said he thinks no one is born funny and that comedy is a “teachable skill” that can help young people find their “authentic voice”.
Comedy is a ‘valuable skill’
Speaking on the podcast, he said: “I think comedy should be taught in schools, well drama more generally, but comedy specifically.
“It is a teachable skill. Is it an innate ability? Are you born funny? I don’t think so.
He added: “You will write down and order your thoughts. You’ll learn to communicate them and you will speak in your own authentic voice.
“It’s a valuable skill to learn.”
Everything you need to know about Israel’s election
Today, Israel is due to hold its first elections since the 7 October Hamas attacks in 2023.
What you need to know
Many Israelis have described the upcoming election as the most important one in their country’s history.
Polls show current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu trailing in the race behind his main challenger, former military chief Gadi Eisenkot.
However, it may take weeks or months before it’s clear who will be designated the winner.
More about the key players
Netanyahu has led Israel for 19 of the last 30 years at the head of a far-right coalition. He is currently on trial for corruption, so losing power could risk jail time for him.
Gadi Eisenkot is the former head of the Israeli military. He’s positioned himself as the opposite of Netanyahu, naming his party Yashar, or “Honesty”.
What are the polls saying?
Netanyahu in decline
Most polls show Netanyahu’s Likud and his current coalition parters losing their majority.
Anti-Netanyahu majority
Polls also show a clear anti-Netanyahu majority, but opposition seats are divided.
Palestine parties
Palestinian politicians have indicated they might support a minority government to unseat Netanyahu.
Voters disenfranchised
In the occupied West Bank, more than 500,000 Israeli settlers can vote.
In occupied East Jerusalem more than 230,000 Israelis with voting rights live among 350,000 Palestinians who cannot vote.
Two million Palestinians in Gaza, who live under Israeli military occupation, according to the international court of justice, also have no vote.
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What the result could mean
Neither Netanyahu nor Eisenkot supports the establishment of a Palestinian state in the foreseeable future. Their most significant differences concern democratic institutions, the West Bank and Israel’s relationship with the rest of the world.
- Netanyahu has governed with ultra-Orthodox parties that support settlement expansion in the West Bank. Eisenkot presents himself as a more pragmatic alternative. He has also taken a tougher position against violence by Israeli settlers.
The key detail Spotify is asking family plan users to prove
Spotify has outlined a new verification process for family plan users to prove they live in the same household.
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The process
What has changed?
Spotify will now ask family plan users to verify their address using a QR code.
How will it work?
The plan manager opens the QR code which needs to be scanned. All users on the plan need to be in the same place to scan.
What if you don’t?
If verification isn’t completed in seven days, the member can’t join a different Family or Duo plan for 12 months.
As part of our ongoing efforts to improve the quality and value of Premium we implement measures to ensure appropriate use of Spotify accounts. This includes reviewing Household Plans to ensure they are used only by primary account holders and those living at the same address, as stated in our terms and conditions.
a spotify spokesperson told sky news
The sectors that would be able to fill shortages
Freedom of movement is a core principle of the European Union. It allows citizens of EU member states – as well as citizens of European Economic Area countries such as Iceland and Norway – to travel, live, work and study in any other participating country without needing a work permit.
While the UK voted to leave the EU in 2016, access to freedom of movement officially ended in 2020 with the introduction of the Immigration Bill.
The largest decline in EU employment was in London, which saw a 10 per cent drop from June 2019 and June 2021, a report from the Migration Observatory found.
The drop in hospitality workers in the capital was just under 30 per cent, according to the independent research project, run by the University of Oxford.
Ben Brindle, a senior researcher at the Migration Observatory, told The i Paper industries where “low-skilled jobs make up a bigger share in the sector” would benefit the most under a return to free movement. This is because they would have a bigger labour market to recruit from.
“For instance, hospitality and transport before Brexit were able to recruit EU citizens, but when the post-Brexit system came in, it took a route out for low-skilled EU migration and we saw the hiring in those jobs fall,” he said.
Naomi Smith, CEO of Best for Britain – a campaign group formed to stop Brexit – added that workers in the creative sectors, who had seen their “opportunities curtailed drastically”, would also “see a disproportionate gain”.
“We often hear about people mentioning touring musicians and touring artists, but actually that conceals the extent of that network,” she said.
“If you’re putting on a performance, you have your crew, make-up artists, fashion stylists. So, everything from catwalk shows through to major productions and orchestras being able to travel.”
The workers that could see wages squeezed
But Robert Armstrong, head of finance and research fellow at the right-wing Institute of Economic Affairs think-tank, said increased immigration “keeps wages lower by increasing labour supply”.
He said that “entry-level service sector jobs” could be most impacted. Such jobs include hospitality, food and shop workers.
Despite widespread shortages after Brexit, companies did not significantly increase wages to attract staff, a 2023 report from the Migration Advisory Committee, an independent body that advises government, found.
However, they did improve working conditions and change recruitment strategies to focus on UK-born workers – meaning progress in these areas could stall if freedom of movement returned.
But Brindle said the “evidence suggests there shouldn’t be much of an impact on UK workers. Because the number of jobs in the economy isn’t fixed, if you have more migration of a certain type of worker, it can increase the competition but it can also increase demand because migrants are consumers themselves”.
Smith added that since Brexit, the minimum wage has also risen, with more employers now paying the living wage.
The jobs that could be harder to get
Job vacancies are now at their lowest level for five years this year, with a big drop-off in roles for young people.
Small firms blamed rising labour costs as a key reason in scaling back their hiring, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) found.
This means any increased competition for UK jobs could make it harder for young people to get their first job or the unemployed to find work.
Almost one million 16- to 24-year-olds in the UK are currently not in education, employment or training (Neet).
ONS data from June showed the professional services, retail and hospitality all saw large drop in vacancies.
Armstrong said there “clearly isn’t a lack of low-skilled labour in the UK. Our main problem is employing that labour. Employment costs on businesses are too high and so are personal taxes which is driving higher unemployment”.
He also said the UK’s “high level of unemployment and high level of taxation on both employer and employee, [means] it is conceivable that few Europeans are tempted to the UK in the short term”.
“The more [that] come, the more competition young Brits will face for their first job. If the PM wants to help young Brits he should make it cheaper to hire them by removing taxes, not seek to bring someone cheaper in from abroad.”
But Smith added that return of freedom of movement would “grow the economy because we won’t lose out on opportunities for people to cross the border to work and study”.
“Once we have more growth in the economy and we have more certainty for businesses, you will also see investment begin to increase within the UK economy as well,” she said.
The workers who could leave the UK
Brindle said “we know very little about UK emigration”, but said there is still “normally a higher earnings potential in the UK”.
But Smith pointed out the “economies of countries like Spain and Poland are growing far faster than the UK’s at the moment” – meaning they may be more attractive to Brits looking for better job opportunities abroad.
Smith said: “It’s not just one door opening for Britain, it’s 27 doors opening for young Brits. There are potentially those who may be unemployed here and they will have the opportunity to work on a project in Spain, France, Italy, Germany or wherever.”
She added service jobs “outweigh manufacturing so hugely within our advanced economy, that having the ability to send your teams to work for offices in and around the EU will be huge.
“We’re talking about things like architecture, accountancy, business consulting, banking. They will find this absolute mana from heaven.”