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James Cleverly, the Home Secretary, said that all 92,000 ‘legacy’ applications for asylum (made before 28 June 2022) had been processed, but 4,500 were reclassified as ‘complex’ and 17,000 were withdrawn. Of 112,138 applications subject to an initial decision in 2023, 67 per cent were granted. The number of migrants to cross the Channel in small boats came to 29,437 in 2023, 36 per cent fewer than the 45,774 in 2022. Flooding in a tunnel under the Thames led to cancellation for a day of all Eurostar trains across the Channel. Doctors below the rank of consultant began a six-day strike. A surge in scabies was reported amid a shortage of the lotion used to treat it.

In the New Year honours, Michael Eavis, the founder of the Glastonbury Festival, and Tim Martin, the founder of Wetherspoons pubs, Alexander McCall Smith, the novelist, and Sajid Javid, the politician, were knighted, and Jilly Cooper, the novelist, was made a dame. The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Revd Justin Welby, was made a Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order for conducting the coronation service. Stuart Broad, the England fast bowler who retired after the Ashes, was appointed CBE, as was the novelist Kate Mosse. Dame Shirley Bassey, the singer, was appointed Companion of Honour. Of 1,227 honoured, 13.8 per cent were from an ethnic minority background. Liz Truss, prime minister for 49 days, nominated 11 in her resignation honours, including three peers. The Australian-born journalist John Pilger died aged 84. Camila Batmanghelidjh, the founder of Kids Company, which closed in disarray in 2015 after 19 years, died aged 61. The British Library remained incapacitated by a cyber attack on 31 October.

Ofgem raised the price cap on energy by 5 per cent. The annual rate of food inflation fell to 6.7 per cent. The Budget was announced for 6 March. Champagne will be legally sold in bottles of 568ml, otherwise known as a pint. Sir Jim Ratcliffe agreed to buy a 25 per cent stake in Manchester United for about £1.03 billion. A tornado blew roofs off houses in the outskirts of Manchester. Luke Littler, aged 16, made it to the finals of the World Darts Championship.

Abroad

Israel killed the deputy head of Hamas, Salah al-Arouri, in Beirut. The Israeli military said it expected war in Gaza to continue throughout the year. A resolution of the UN Security Council called for ‘extended humanitarian pauses and corridors throughout the Gaza Strip’. The UN said that 85 per cent of Gaza’s 2.4 million people had been displaced. Israel’s supreme court overturned a law limiting judicial powers; it was passed in 2023 in the face of huge public demonstrations. The US Navy destroyed three Houthi boats that had fired on the Maersk Hangzhou container ship in the Red Sea. Some companies decided to reroute their ships around the Cape, despite a US-led coalition against Houthi attacks (as part of which a British destroyer, HMS Diamond, shot down a drone in December). Britain sent HMS Trent, an offshore patrol vessel, to support Guyana after Venezuela claimed two-thirds of its territory.

Ukraine destroyed the large landing ship Novocherkassk at Feodosiya in Russian-occupied Crimea with a Storm Shadow cruise missile supplied by Britain. Ukraine said it had shot down three Russian Su-34 fighter bombers. In its biggest missile bombardment of the war, Russia hit Kyiv, Odessa, Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv and Lviv. Ukraine attacked Belgorod in Russia with 79 drones. Under the Montreux Convention, Turkey refused to let two minesweepers donated to Ukraine by Britain pass through the Bosphorus. Maine followed Colorado in disqualifying Donald Trump from running as a presidential candidate. Dr Claudine Gay resigned as president of Harvard. China appointed a new defence minister, Dong Jun. All 379 aboard a Japan Airlines plane escaped when it burst into flames on landing at Haneda Airport, Tokyo. It had collided on the runway with a coastguard plane, in which five crew died; the smaller plane was taking aid to victims of an earthquake that shook the Noto peninsula, killing dozens.

Queen Margrethe of Denmark, aged 83, announced her abdication on 14 January, the 52nd anniversary of her accession; Crown Prince Frederik will become King. Gaston Glock, the Austrian who invented the Glock handgun, died aged 94. Jacques Delors, president of the European Commission 1985-95, who prepared the ground for a single currency, died aged 98. The Eiffel Tower was closed by a strike on the centenary of the death of Gustave Eiffel.         CSH