Ten Things You Need to Know Today: Thursday 7 Jun 2018

Brexit Secretary David Davies could possibly quit the role over
a dispute about putting a time limit on Theresa May’s EU “backstop”
plan, according to the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg. However, she added
that he is unlikely to do so at this stage. Davies wants to publish
a date at which the post-EU “temporary customs arrangement” will
end.

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt tells The Guardian today that
Theresa May has decided to give the NHS a “significant increase” in
budget to coincide with its 70th anniversary in July. Hunt said May
was “unbelievably committed” to the service and will ditch the
policy of allowing only a 1% annual increase in its budget, in
place since 2010.

The taxpayer will pay more than £150m for the collapse of
contractor Carillion, which held many government contracts, the
National Audit Office says. Accountants and lawyers handling the
firm’s collapse will earn £70m, prompting MPs to complain about a
lack of competition among the big four accountancy firms leading to
high fees.

Peter Stringfellow, the impresario known for using topless
dancers in his eponymous nightclubs, has died of cancer at the age
of 77. His publicist said Stringfellow had wanted to keep his
illness private and added that the Stringfellows nightclub in
London’s Covent Garden would continue to operate as usual. The club
opened in 1980.

Homes worth £1m or more are selling faster outside London,
according to property site Rightmove. Cambridge has the
fastest-selling £1m-plus properties in the UK, followed by
Edinburgh, Harpenden, Bristol and St Albans. A £1m-plus property
sells in an average of 45 days in Cambridge. Nationally, 16,119
such homes sold in 2017. 

Paul Dacre is leaving his job as editor of the Daily Mail after
26 years. He will become the newspaper’s editor-in-chief and
chairman of owner Associated Newspapers. His long stewardship of
Britain’s second-highest selling newspaper included an influential
campaign to bring the white racist killers of Stephen Lawrence to
justice.

Mary Wilson, the poet best known as wife of Labour prime
minister Harold Wilson, has died at the age of 102 after suffering
a stroke. Always a private person, she enjoyed a friendship with
poet laureate Sir John Betjeman, who wrote a poem for her. Jeremy
Corbyn led tributes, saying she was a “huge support” to her
husband’s election wins.

A court heard yesterday that a British Airways pilot was four
times over the legal alcohol limit as his 12-hour flight to
Mauritius prepared for take-off on 18 January this year. Julian
Monaghan, 49, was led from the aircraft in handcuffs. He pleaded
guilty to the offence in Crawley yesterday and has been warned he
faces a jail sentence.

A Texas man almost died when he was bitten by the severed head
of a rattlesnake. The un-named man was working in his garden when
he killed the four-foot snake by decapitating it. He picked up the
remains to dispose of them and was bitten. He was airlifted to
hospital, where he is still being treated one week later, with
weakened kidneys.

Transport Secretary Chris Grayling has confirmed the
government’s plans for a third runway at Heathrow, and MPs are
expected to vote on the proposal in the next three weeks.

A third runway at Heathrow “was given the green light in 2016,
but remains a controversial matter for nearby residents,
politicians from all parties, environmentalists and business
leaders”, says Sky News.