Week in politics: Rishi Sunak's mini-milestone, reaction to asylum plan & more
The first milestone for a premiership is normally 100 days in office - but Liz Truss never even reached halfway.
This week, Rishi Sunak surpassed his predecessor's 49 days in Downing Street.
He had little reason for cheer, though, as an opinion poll predicted a huge Labour majority of 314 seats.
The model from Savanta and Electoral Calculus said Mr Sunak would lose his own constituency in Richmond, North Yorkshire - where he won by more than 27,000 votes in 2019.
It said, if a general election was held tomorrow, the Conservatives would be wiped out in our region, and win just 69 seats overall.
Just about nobody believes things will play out quite as dramatically in reality, but perhaps it serves to illustrate a worst case scenario for the Tories.
On Tuesday, the Prime Minister set out his new plan to tackle an issue that has vexed successive governments - illegal migration, particularly via small boat crossings.
It included an agreement with Albania to send back illegal arrivals, and more staff to speed up the processing of asylum claims.
Middlesbrough South & East Cleveland Conservative MP Simon Clarke said: "I warmly welcome the package of measures announced today, because this is the key issue on the doorstep in my constituency."
Stockton North Labour MP Alex Cunningham said his team is "working with many asylum seekers who have been waiting for years and years for their asylum applications to be processed", and asked how many people can expect decisions in the next few months.
Mr Sunak replied: "with our new plan we will cut the initial asylum backlog by the end of next year."
Chi Onwurah asked the Prime Minister to apply his asylum policy to her family.
I wrote last week about Therese Coffey being questioned by the Environment, Food & Rural Affairs Committee about the deaths of thousands of shellfish on our region's coastline.This week the committee wrote to the Environment Secretary, criticising a "lack of transparency and communication" around the expert panel the government has set up to review different theories over the die-off.
The MPs asked the government to publish the panel's terms of reference, membership and ways of working.
DEFRA said they would respond in due course, but "recognise fishing communities in the North East want as thorough an assessment as possible."
On Thursday, protesters called for the dredging of the River Tees to be paused.
In response, a spokesperson for South Tees Development Corporation said: “We continue to operate to the highest standards in line with all our licences from the MMO, and in line with regulations and guidance from Government agencies.
“The first phase of dredging, which started on September 1, 2022, 11 months after the crustacean die off, was completed safely on 9 November with no issues being reported by Defra or the MMO in relation to the work carried out.”
The Commons will finish for Christmas on Tuesday - after Rishi Sunak is grilled on various subjects by the liaison committee, which is made up of select committee chairs.The Lords will rise on Wednesday, with both houses due to return on Monday 9 January.
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