| Asylum claims and the influx of small boats are, we hear, one of the big issues raised on the doorsteps of Tory MPs in the North as the country faces a backlog of more than 143,000 asylum seekers waiting for a decision on their claims. And setting out a five-point plan in a bid to grip the migrant crisis in the Commons yesterday, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said "unless we act now, and decisively, this will only get worse". Among a raft of new measures unveiled to curb Channel crossings, he told MPs the country would hire more caseworkers and overhaul the system for processing applications. The plan was welcomed by Northern Tories like Barrow and Furness's Simon Fell and former Levelling Up Secretary Simon Clarke, the latter saying: "This is the key issue on the doorstep in my [Middlesbrough] constituency. It is something voters care about very deeply." David Davis, MP for Haltemprice and Howden in East Yorkshre, said: "I strongly welcome the seriousness with which the Prime Minister addresses this issue, particularly his focus on stopping the Albanian gangs." But he sounded a warning to the Home Office, who he said "attempted to introduce a dispersal centre in my constituency, it ignored the local authority's concerns about healthcare, public services and children's services. It then also ignored the existing level of Albanian organised crime in Hull and did not even consult the local police chief before it moved on the matter". He added: "If we continue in this mode, the Home Office will face judicial review after judicial review and the policy will not work. Can we please see a radical improvement in decision making in the Home Office in this process?" 
 A new poll by Savanta and MRP survey maps voting intention by constituency
Perhaps on the mind of Northern Tories is this polling which suggests the Conservatives are on course to be wiped out in our region at the next General Election. A new poll by Savanta and MRP survey, which maps voting intention by constituency, says Labour would win a 314-seat majority if a General Election was held today, with senior Tories including Mr Sunak losing their seats.
Our NHS is in dire straits - how did we get to this point?  Chris Grant, the Medical Director for North West Ambulance Service in an urgent address to the public
Stood outside on a freezing cold December night earlier this week, Chris Grant, the Medical Director for North West Ambulance Service made a desperate plea as he stared into the camera of a mobile phone. As he apologised for the delay patients across Greater Manchester faced, some 600 people were left stranded without help, as temperatures dropped well below freezing. Since then, as Helena Vesty and Joseph Timan report for the Manchester Evening News, the crisis continues for the local NHS, with hundreds of patients still waiting for ambulances and hundreds of vehicles stuck outside hospitals, unable to get back out onto the road. In a full explainer about how we got to this point, they write that among the reasons the ambulance service is struggling to meet demand is staffing. Ambulance service workers tell the M.E.N. that staff recruitment and retention is one of the biggest challenges they face, and without staff, patients are at serious risk. They add: "Another thread to the knotty problem is that the decline in staffing comes as demand on the service has never been higher. "An ageing population requires more from its health and care system, renewed social mixing after immune systems dropped during lockdowns has brought more virulent illnesses, people were waiting longer for treatment during the pandemic and their problems became increasingly serious. More people are more sick - but there's not enough staff to go round."
One Greater Manchester NHS trust blamed its staffing challenges after it emerged it had shelled out more than £5,200 for a locum doctor to cover a single shift. One in three hospital trusts paid an agency more than £3,000 for just one doctor's shift last year, Labour figures reveal, while three-quarters spent more than £2,000. The most expensive bill was £5,234, paid for one shift by the Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust. The trust, which runs hospitals in Salford, Oldham, Rochdale and Bury, spent a total of £21million on agency doctors last year alone. Nicky Clarke, Chief of People at the trust, said: "The NHS continues to face challenges around staffing levels and like other Trusts, we work with agencies to ensure that we have the necessary staffing levels to deliver safe care for our patients and service users. "The payment of £5,234 was for a medical professional who carried out 48 hours' of work over a six-day period."
Nothing's changed, except I've been driven out of the country, says Azeem Rafiq  Former Yorkshire County Cricket Club cricketer Azeem Rafiq in front of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee at the House of Commons
There was more dramatic testimony from former Yorkshire cricketer Azeem Rafiq yesterday, as he told MPs the only thing which has changed in the 13 months since he first gave harrowing evidence of the racism he faced in cricket is that he and his family have been driven out of the country. The 31-year-old, who initially blew the whistle on the discrimination he faced at Yorkshire when he appeared before the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport select committee in 2021, cited the Yorkshire Post newspaper's coverage of his case as one of the main reasons his family had been driven out when he gave evidence to the same committee. Read a full report of the hearing here. Journalist George Dobell, who has covered Rafiq's case closely since he first alleged he had been the victim of racist abuse and bullying in the summer of 2020, told the MPs the Yorkshire Post - where your Northern Agenda editor used to work - had been "the voice of the racist" and had "intimidated and bullied" Rafiq. Yorkshire Post editor James Mitchinson rejected the allegations made at the hearing by Rafiq and Dobell, and said his newspaper had "repeatedly acknowledged the racism suffered by Mr Rafiq" and had been "scrupulously objective, impartial and professional" in its reporting of the story. Rafiq, who moved with his immediate family to Pakistan last month, recounted incidents of abuse to the committee, including a man defecating outside his parents' house. "I would love to come here and tell you how much cricket has changed, but unfortunately what it feels like is that cricket is very much in denial," he said. "There are still a group of people out there who feel like cricket is the victim in this."
'Let's build on Manchester's potential with a new city innovation district'  Much of the innovation in Manchester centres round the city's Oxford Road area
In last month's Autumn Statement Chancellor Jeremy Hunt announced plans to make Britain the "world's next Silicon Valley" with ambitions to "build clusters for new growth industries". And today the Centre for Cities think-tank says the Government should seize the opportunities of Manchester's growing technology sector by investing to build a new innovation district in the city. In a report with HSBC UK called 'At the Frontier: The geography of the UK's new economy', Centre for Cities calls on the Government to prioritise building high-tech clusters in Manchester, Birmingham, and Glasgow. Ministers should create a £14.5 billion growth package for these three cities over ten years, the report says, which would be mostly made up of existing earmarked spending and go towards funding infrastructure upgrades, improving public transport, and boosting research and development. It says Manchester shows great potential as an innovation hub and is already home to around 42% of the 3,332 new economy firms in the North West. But Centre for Cities Chief Executive Andrew Carter said: "Given its size, Manchester should be playing a larger role in the national economy than it currently does. "The Government should therefore build on Manchester's great potential and deliver the investments it needs in skills, regeneration, and infrastructure to attract more cutting-edge businesses and reclaim its historic place as a city at the forefront of innovation."
The inspiring Northern women helping to drive change  Clockwise starting top-left, Jill Scott, Afiya Amesu, Jane Turner and Sharon Amesu. Graphic by Carly Holds
She's the CEO and founder of the Northern Power Women movement, backed by more than 90,000 people and dedicated to accelerating gender equality and social mobility from the North of England. And so when The Northern Agenda podcast asked Simone Roche to highlight the work of just three inspiring Northern women helping to drive change she described it as the "hardest homework in the world". Listen to the full episode here. One of her three, "gritty, funny" Sunderland-born ex-footballer Jill Scott, is on the way to becoming a household name after becoming 'Queen of the Jungle' on I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! But perhaps a little less well-known are "an amazing mother and daughter team called Sharon and Afiya Amesu", who set up She Leads For Legacy to "reduce the barriers faced by Black female professionals aspiring for senior leadership and board level positions". Her final nomination is Professor Jane Turner, the former Pro Vice Chancellor of Teesside University and business leader who died last year and whose influence was so great that Northern Power Women named their Disruptor for Good Award after her. Ms Roche said: "When I reflected on the podcasts that we spoke on together, it was all about that disruption, it was all not keeping still and keeping moving. And for me, it's almost synonymous with that Northern power women community, how do we keep moving, how do we keep changing?" 
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Northern Stories  Kim McGuinness, Northumbria Police & Crime Commissioner, with incoming Northumbria Police Chief Constable Vanessa Jardine
- Northumbria Police's next chief constable has vowed to be a "visible" presence and put more resources into combating crime in rural areas. Vanessa Jardine has been officially confirmed as Winton Keenen's successor in the top job after her appointment was signed off by a panel of councillors yesterday. She is due to take up the role in March and joins from West Midlands Police, where she is currently the deputy chief constable. At a special hearing before the Northumbria Police and Crime Panel, Ms Jardine promised she would be a "visible" chief.
- Southport pier has been closed to the public over safety fears after cold weather caused "significant damage." Sefton Council has issued the closure notice effective immediately as a result of the extreme weather. According to a statement released by Sefton Council as well as "significant and unavoidable damage" to decking boards of the pier created by the cold conditions, ice from coastal winds has built up on the surface of the pier making conditions "treacherous" and slippery. A series of inspections were carried out by the council and contractors during the past two days which ultimately led to the decision to close the pier until further notice.
- Every housing association property will be checked for issues such as damp and mould and any problems fixed, a national body representing social housing providers has pledged following a review. The Better Social Housing Review called for housing associations to conduct and publish a "thorough audit" of all social homes across England. It follows the death of two-year-old Awaab Ishak in December 2020 from a respiratory condition caused by mould in a one-bedroom housing association flat in Rochdale, Greater Manchester.
- Sheffield councillors have asked their officers what went wrong in the 'shambles' of the Fargate Container Park project which has been hit by problems and delays. A special meeting of the council's strategy and resources policy committee heard Yorkshire Water complained about the park being sited over sewers, whereas it raised no objections to the far heavier Sheffield Eye big wheel on the same spot. The container park is running using a diesel generator costing £10,000 a month because a utility company disconnected the electricity supply also used for markets and events to do emergency repairs without telling the council – which was still paying for it.
- A long-standing Tory councillor in Bury has been suspended from his party and will now sit as an independent. Iain Gartside, who was first elected in 2004, has become the second Tottington ward councillor to leave the Conservative group on Bury Council this year. Opposition leader Russell Bernstein said he had suspended Cllr Gartside from the party while he conducted an investigation into 'issues which have been brought to my attention'. Details of the issues have not been disclosed. His suspension came less than a day after he failed to vote with his party on a Radcliffe First motion demanding a review of school meal arrangements in the borough.
- Blackburn's billionaire Issa brothers are eyeing building a brand new dentists' practice for the town. The proposal is to construct a new two-storey complex with 10 consulting rooms on the site of the former St Peters Church on the corner of Wainwright Way and Freckleton Street. Cllr Damian Talbot, Blackburn with Darwen Council's public health boss, said: "There is a shortage of NHS dental places in the borough. This sounds like a step in the right direction. I hope any new practice would accept NHS patients."
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