Afternoon briefing Monday 1st December

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0:45Rachel Reeves is accused of not being clear she'd received more positive economic forecasts in the weeks before her budget. There was no misleading. And I simply don't accept, and I was receiving the numbers, that being told that the OPR productivity review means you've got£16 billion less than you would otherwise have had, shows that you've got an easy starting point. Yes, of course all the other figures have to be taken into account, but we started the process with significantly less than we would otherwise have had. The Chancellor insists that the figures improved later on in the process. The Conservative leader, Kemi Badenok, says Ms Reeves should resign and accuses her of giving false information.

1:26The Labour MP, Tulip Siddique, says she's the victim of a kangaroo court after being sentenced to two years in prison in Bangladesh. The former anti-corruption minister has been found guilty of corruption charges linked to her aunt, Bangladesh's deposed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. She was tried in absentia. The Labour Party says it wasn't a fair trial and says it doesn't recognise the judgement and there's no extradition treaty with Bangladesh, as the Times' politics newsletter editor Stefan Boshar explains. Rully there's been a lot of support from the establishment. I think Keir Starmer stuck by the whole way.

1:57There was a letter just the other day written by Dominic Greed, the former Attorney General and several other big political names saying that this is all politically motivated witch hunt and that it seems that her position is safe because it is no question of the UK trying to send her back to Bangladesh. Only 153 small boat migrants have been returned to France under the government's one-in, one-out returns deal. The main hold-up is believed to be finding suitable candidates to be brought into the UK from France as part of that swap. Almost 14 ,000 people have arrived across the English Channel since the deal was signed in August, meaning only one in 90 have been removed.

2:35Agency workers brought in to cover for striking bin workers in Birmingham are now themselves on strike. The union Unite's national lead officer, Onay Kassab, says there are multiple problems. They are being bullied. They are being harassed. They are being threatened with blacklisting. They are also being told to work unsafely. They're not being given the equipment needed to do the job. That's the personal protective equipment. And they're also being overloaded. They are being asked to do more than what is reasonable within a day. Birmingham City Council strongly refutes claims of bullying. Former Conservative Education Minister Jonathan Gullis has defected to Reform UK.

3:13He was the MP for Stoke-on-Trent for five years until the last election and is now Mayor of Kidsgrove in North Staffordshire. Reform says former Conservative MPs Chris Green and Leah Nietzsche have also defected. And Virgin Media has been fined£23.8 million over how it treated vulnerable customers when it upgraded their landlines. The regulator Ofcom says the company didn't identify people who relied on telecare alarm systems before cutting off their phone lines. Don't forget you can subscribe to The Times News Briefing on Spotify or listen live to Times Radio online.

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