‘Donnez-moi un break’: PM says France needs to ‘get a grip’ amid anger over submarine deal
Boris Johnson has said France should get over its anger at a partnership between the UK, US and Australia that saw the latter pull out of a major contract with Paris for submarines.
“What I want to say about that is I just think it’s time for some of our dearest friends around the world to prenez un grip [get a grip] about all this and donnez-moi un break [give me a break],” the prime minister said when asked about the continuing row over the AUKUS initiative.
“This is fundamentally a great step forward for global security. It’s three very like-minded allies standing shoulder to shoulder and creating a new partnership for the sharing of technology.
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‘AUKUS alliance will bring us closer than ever’
“It’s not exclusive, it’s not trying to shoulder anybody out. It is not adversarial towards China, for instance.
“It is there to intensify links and friendship between three countries in a way that I think will be beneficial for things that we believe in.”
The AUKUS deal saw the UK, Australia and the US form a trilateral security pact to develop and deploy nuclear-powered submarines, adding to the Western military presence in the Pacific region amid growing concern over China.
The initiative will focus initially on helping the Australian navy procure a multibillion-pound fleet of nuclear-powered submarines – a move that Beijing will likely see as aggressive.
Nuclear-powered submarines are superior to their diesel counterparts, as they can operate more quietly and stay underwater for longer.
But London, Canberra and Washington said they will also seek to collaborate in cyber, quantum technologies and artificial intelligence as well as other underwater capabilities – areas in which Western democracies are frantically racing their authoritarian rivals to dominate.
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China says AUKUS deal ‘intensifies arms race’
In a joint statement when AUKUS was announced, Mr Johnson, US President Joe Biden and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said: “The endeavour we launch today will help sustain peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region.
“For more than 70 years, Australia, the United Kingdom, and the US, have worked together, along with other important allies and partners, to protect our shared values and promote security and prosperity. Today, with the formation of AUKUS, we recommit ourselves to this vision.”
But responding to the news, China’s embassy in Washington said the countries needed to “shake off their Cold War mentality and ideological prejudice”.
France recalled its ambassadors to the United States and Australia in a backlash over the new security partnership, with foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian describing it as a “stab in the back”.
Politics
University tuition fee rise branded ‘morally wrong’ – as Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson defends increase
The education secretary has said no decision has been made on whether university tuition fees will increase with inflation each year.
Bridget Phillipson has announced the maximum cap on tuition fees in England will go up in line with inflation from April 2025.
The cost of tuition will increase by £285 to £9,535 next year – the first rise in eight years.
Politics latest: Big name comeback in new Tory shadow cabinet
There will also be a rise in maximum maintenance loans to increase in line with inflation, giving an increase of £414 a year to help students with living costs.
However, the education secretary did not say if the rise would continue after that.
Speaking to Sky News’ Politics Hub with Sophy Ridge, Ms Phillipson admitted she did not know what would happen with tuition fees after April 2026.
“We’re going to look at this and the maintenance support and the sector overall as part of the reform that we intend to set out in the months to come,” she said.
“So no decision, no decision has been taken on what happens beyond this.”
She said the government will be looking at “what is required… to get our universities on a more sustainable footing… but also to deliver a better deal for students as a part of that”.
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University tuition fees to increase
The minister said she also “intends to look at” uprating the threshold at which students need to start paying tuition fees back in line with inflation.
Jo Grady, general secretary of the University and College Union (UCU), said the tuition fee rise was “economically and morally wrong”.
She said: “Taking more money from debt-ridden students and handing it to overpaid underperforming vice-chancellors is ill conceived and won’t come close to addressing the sector’s core issues.”
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The National Union of Students (NUS) said students were being asked to “foot the bill” to keep the lights and heating on in their universities and to prevent their courses from closing down amid the “crisis”.
Alex Stanley, vice president for higher education of the NUS, said: “This is, and can only ever be, a sticking plaster.
“Universities cannot continue to be funded by an ever-increasing burden of debt on students.”
Universities have been making up for fees being frozen since 2017/18 by taking in international students who pay more.
However, student visa numbers have fallen after the previous government made it more difficult for them to come to the UK recently, so universities can no longer rely on the fees.
The US presidential race could determine the fate of more than half a dozen proposed crypto ETFs.
Dame Priti Patel has made a comeback as Kemi Badenoch has appointed her shadow foreign secretary, Sky News understands.
Ms Badenoch, who became Conservative leader on Saturday, started officially appointing her shadow cabinet on Sunday evening.
Politics latest: Reaction as Badenoch makes more shadow cabinet appointments
On Monday afternoon, the two biggest jobs were confirmed, with former home secretary Ms Patel being given the shadow foreign secretary role.
Former shadow work and pensions secretary Mel Stride, who ran in the Tory leadership race and is considered more of a moderate than Ms Badenoch, has been made shadow chancellor.
Robert Jenrick, who lost out to Ms Badenoch, is the new shadow justice secretary, sources told Sky News.
Earlier in the day, Laura Trott, who served as chief secretary to the Treasury under Rishi Sunak, was appointed shadow education secretary.
The new Tory leader made her first appointments on Sunday evening ahead of her new top team meeting for the first time on Tuesday.
Mel Stride was work and pensions secretary and stood to be Tory leader
Now the Conservatives are in opposition, the shadow cabinet’s role is to scrutinise the policies and actions of the government and to offer alternative policies.
Nigel Huddleston and Dominic Johnson, junior ministers under Mr Sunak, were appointed joint chairmen of the Conservative Party.
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The role involves overseeing the party’s headquarters, where staff and committee members have their offices.
Essex MP Dame Rebecca Harris was confirmed as chief whip after the interim chief whip Stuart Andrew said she was replacing him.
She will be responsible for ensuring Tory MPs attend and vote in parliament as the party leadership desires.
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Badenoch: ‘We let standards slip’
Former foreign secretary James Cleverly, who came third in the leadership race, said on Friday he would not be joining Ms Badenoch’s top team.
Ex-prime minister Mr Sunak, his former deputy Sir Oliver Dowden, ex-chancellor Jeremy Hunt and former Brexit, health, and environment secretary Steve Barclay have all said they will be joining him on the backbenches.
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