The Times reported last night that Government ministers are considering a plan to allow Europeans under 30-years-old to live and work in the UK as part of Labour’s crusade to “reset” post-Brexit relations with Brussels. Meanwhile, net migration is still four times higher than in 2019, even without this proposed scheme in place. Whilst free movement for young people itself isn’t such a terrible idea, it’s just another sign of Labour’s intentions to cosy up to the EU. This could just be the beginning of further cross-border movement talks…

Labour have denied the reports, slippery stating they have “no plans” (yet?) to agree a youth mobility scheme, though government sources say something has to give on free movement if Labour are set on redrawing agreements on trade, defence and immigration. As Guido has said before, give and take means give and take…

A mixed bag overall for Murdoch’s UK print media empire. The latest accounts for Times Media, publisher of The Times and The Sunday Times, show profits doubled to £73.2 million last year, up from £34 million the year before. They also gained 70,000 digital-only subscribers, bringing their online total to 438,000, or 641,000 including print.

The Sun, meanwhile, more than doubled its pre-tax losses to £127 million in the same period – thanks largely to the £99.8m set aside for “damages and claimant’s legal expenses relating to phone hacking” and “future costs“. Revenues rose slightly from £318.6 million to £320.5 million following growth in their online business. 

Today marks three years since Keir Starmer won the Labour leadership, and the Times has published new YouGov polling to reflect how the public think he’s doing. The good news is more voters now think he’s changed the party for the better in the last 18 months, going from 20% to 33%. The bad news is nearly half still don’t know what he stands for, with 47% saying he’s done a bad job of setting out a vision since becoming Labour leader.

The latter figure is an improvement on September 2021 data – when 60% said he had not laid out a clear agenda – possibly because he changes his agenda to whatever polls better. The dilemma facing swing voters after 3 years is they don’t really know what Keir really believes, whether it is nationalisation or trans identity issues. Whilst 22% public said Starmer had been “a great or a good leader of Labour”, that’s less than the 28% who say he’d been “poor or terrible“. 41% also felt he had “not made any real difference” to the party since taking over…

Starmer himself tells the Times he will be “completely ruthless” in his pursuit of power, and that has required making some tough calls, like having to “take a decision” on Corbyn. A decision which involved pretending he’d “never” called Jeremy a friend… 

Hancock faced an uphill struggle of a media round this morning, having to explain the new law announced last night that social gatherings cannot exceed six people, while also defending the government’s ability to break international law following yesterday’s furore. TimesRadio’s Stig Abell combined both stories in one question…

The social gathering rules, announced last night, will ban gatherings of more than six people in England from Monday – down from the current 30. The rule applies to all spaces indoors and outdoors, public and private; with schools, workplaces, funerals, weddings and Covid-secure sport teams exempt from the rule. To add confusion, if your household “support” bubble is greater than six, you’re also exempt.

On the second part of TimesRadio’s question to the health secretary, expect the much hyped Internal Markets bill to be published in a few hours.