Rishi Sunak latest news: Braverman ‘looks at fast-track removal of migrants from safe countries’

China’s ambassador to the UK has been summoned to the foreign office amid a diplomatic row over the arrest and alleged beating of a BBC journalist covering Covid protests in Shanghai, according to a UK government source.

Zheng Zeguang has been called by foreign secretary James Cleverly over the treatment of cameraman Edward Lawrence, who the BBC said was “beaten and kicked” by police in the Chinese city.

A source from the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said: “The Chinese ambassador has been called to the FCDO.

“The BBC has been clear one of their journalists was detained and beaten by police when covering these protests.

“We have made it clear this behaviour by the Chinese authorities is completely unacceptable.”

Mr Cleverly on Monday described the incident as “deeply disturbing”, while No 10 condemned the “shocking and unacceptable” arrest and said journalists “must be able to do their jobs without fear of intimidation”.

Downing Street urged Chinese authorities to “respect those who decide to express their views about the current situation”, as citizens take to the streets to oppose the country’s draconian zero-Covid policy.

The BBC said Mr Lawrence was “arrested and handcuffed” while covering the protests in Shanghai.

“During his arrest he was beaten and kicked by police,” the broadcaster said. “This happened while he was working as an accredited journalist.”

China’s foreign ministry has reportedly contested the BBC statement, claiming Mr Lawrence did not identify himself as a journalist.

Former Labour cabinet minister David Miliband told LBC that the UK’s reputation has been “shredded” on the international stage.

Watch the full clip here:

Martin Lewis has shared his helpful tips for staying warm this winter without having to resort to putting the heating on.

The Money Saving Expert’s comments come as nine out of 10 UK adults report that their living costs have increased in the last three months due to rising energy bills and food prices.

In an episode of his ITV programme from November, The Martin Lewis Money Show, Lewis said his team had carried out research on ways to “heat the human and not the home”.

Read more from Saman Javed:

A total of 81.7 per cent of residents in England and Wales identified their ethnic group as white on the day of the 2021 census, down from 86.0 per cent a decade earlier, the Office for National Statistics said.

The second most common ethnic group was “Asian, Asian British or Asian Welsh” at 9.3 per cent, up from 7.5 per cent in 2011.

Around one in 10 households (2.5 million) contained members from at least two different ethnic groups last year, compared with 8.7 per cent in 2011, the ONS said.

Census deputy director Jon Wroth-Smith said: “Today’s data highlights the increasingly multi-cultural society we live in.”

Our race correspondent Nadine White has more:

Royal Mail workers will stage strikes this month and next in an escalating row over pay, jobs and conditions.

The Communications Workers Union (CWU) formally notified Royal Mail of the November strikes last month and confirmed six new strike dates in December on November 17.

The postal service apologised to customers, saying that though it “well-developed contingency plans” it is unable to “fully replace the daily efforts of our frontline workforce”.

“We’ll be doing what we can to keep services running, but we are sorry this planned strike action is likely to cause you some disruption,” the company said on the website.

Here’s everything you need to know about strikes by Royal Mail staff:

The Transport Secretary has made it clear his role is to “facilitate and support” a deal in the long-running rail dispute rather than get involved in negotiations.

Mark Harper wrote to the leader of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) following a meeting last week which the minister described as “constructive and positive”.

He wrote: “We both agree the industrial dispute on the railways has gone on too long.

“It’s bad for your members, losing out on pay and overtime, bad for businesses who depend on trains to bring them goods and customers and bad for people across our country who depend on the railways.

“Worse, disruption pushes more and more people away from using the railways, some of whom will never come back.

“We both want a long-term sustainable railway that provides both great service and rewarding jobs.

“Every day’s industrial action makes that harder to deliver.”

Culture secretary Michelle Donelan has said she expects Michael Gove to make an announcement on onshore wind plans in the coming days.

She said the government is “listening” to rebel Tory MPs who have backed an amendment in support of the onshore wind following Rishi Sunak’s dee facto ban on new developments.

Ms Donelan said “tweaks” are sometimes made to bills. “The government is listening to colleagues around this amendment and I’m sure that there will be some announcements made by the levelling up secretary in the days to come,” she told GB News.

Former Labour cabinet minister David Miliband has hinted that he could make a dramatic bid to return to parliament.

The ex-foreign secretary, defeated by his brother Ed Miliband for the Labour leadership in 2010, said a comeback had “not been decided yet”.

The senior figure – who quit as an MP in 2013 – refused to rule out the idea of returning to the Commons when pushed on the matter by LBC presenter Andrew Marr.

“That’s not been decided yet. That’s not done,” said Mr Miliband, after he was asked if he could stand at the next general election.

Over 40 per cent of British products previously exported to the EU have disappeared from European shelves since Brexit, “bleak” new figures show.

Trade economists trying to quantify the effects of Brexit warned in research published on Monday that new bureaucracy was putting off exporters on a grand scale.

And they said their research shows the export gap created by the policy has “widened rather than closed” in over a year of the new trade system being in effect.

The researchers, from the Centre for Business Prosperity at Aston University found that small businesses were the least likely to be able to deal with the government’s new red tape and to be most likely to simply give up selling abroad.

Our policy correspondent Jon Stone has more:

Culture secretary Michelle Donelan defended the decision to drop the “legal but harmful” duties from the bill – saying it was “confusing” and “could have stifled free speech”.

But she insisted that protections for children have been strengthened. Ms Donelan told Times Radio that she said the government was “in essence” introducing “legal but harmful for children” through other provisions in the bill.

The culture secretary claimed that the rest of the world is “watching and wating” for the UK to deliver its new online safety legislation, with politicians overseas keen to use it as a “blueprint” for their own“I’ve spoken to many ministers and counterparts across the globe who have said that they are interested in using our legislation as the blueprint for their own,” she told GB News.

“It’s been a long time coming. The writing is on the wall now.”