On Monday, Parliament will return from recess and debate the Taxation (Cross-Border trade) Bill. This sets the ground to pull the UK out of the existing Customs Union.

Labour’s leadership has published a typically vague amendment against taking the Bill to a second reading and does not tackle the Conservatives’ pursuit of a hard Brexit.

Almost 2,350 academics from the EU have resigned from UK universities in the past year, research by the Liberal Democrats has revealed. That’s up 19% from 1,975 two years ago (i.e. before the Brexit vote), and up 10% from 1,938 last year.

There are over 25,400 academics at UK universities from elsewhere in the EU. Of these 6,633 are employed by departments working on ‘STEM’ subjects such as engineering, maths and computing, where the UK faces serious skills shortages.

Another 4,922 work on health sciences, nursing or medicine, and 1,307 on business.

Today, Lord Saatchi backed called for a Royal Commission on the NHS. His call is very welcome.

MPs on the Environmental Audit Committee have published a report backing Liberal Democrat calls for a charge on disposable coffee cups.

The Committee has called on the Government to introduce a 25p levy on disposable coffee cups and a target to ensure they are all recycled by 2023.

The NHS crisis is worsening.

The latest figures show that hospitals are facing the highest pressures so far this winter.