Shropshire Council’s social media team is getting into the Christmas spirit by imagining a rom-com love story in the constituency featuring a big-shot reporter and a farmer.

In announcing that the ballot boxes have arrived for the count, the council tweeted: “Some of the major television news channels are broadcasting right now as we await the arrival of the first ballot boxes.

“I’m almost certain you could make a low-budget, straight-to-Channel 5 Christmas movie out of tonight.

“You know the drill, a fancy big city media star gets stranded in North Shropshire just a week before Christmas.

“Her camera truck probably gets stuck in a field.

“A handsome young farmer from Wem helps free her and she’s intrigued by his charms…until his tractor accidentally sprays her with mud.

“Sadly the truck needs a new wheel or something and she will have to spend Christmas in the county.

“Soon realising her life in London is hollow, she falls for the charms of both the Wem farmer and North Shropshire in general and she opens a Christmas gift shop in snowy Market Drayton.

Less than an hour ago, polls closed in the North Shropshire by-election and the counting of votes has started.

The result is expected to be announced in the early hours of tomorrow (Friday) morning.

Some Brexit news now. DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson has said he will warn European Commission vice president Maros Sefcovic that it is decision time over the Northern Ireland Protocol.

The pair are due to meet later on Thursday.

In a statement ahead of the meeting, Sir Jeffrey said he will make it clear that his party’s continued participation in the Stormont Assembly is “not sustainable in the absence of action to remove the Irish Sea border”.

“I have shown respect and goodwill by giving space for the current talks to succeed, but regrettably this has not been reciprocated,” he said ahead of the talks.

Sir Jeffrey continued with a warning: “If the European Union wish to protect the political institutions in Northern Ireland, then they must seize this opportunity. Failure to do so, will lead to the inevitable consequences which I outlined on 9 September.

“It is now decision time for the EU. The time for talking is now over. Matters must now be brought to a head.”

Transport secretary Grant Shapps has refused to out a 3.1 per cent hike to rail fares when challenged by Labour in the Commons.

Shadow transport secretary Louise Haigh said such an increase would be “brutal”.

The Labour MP said: “Ahead of a tough Christmas, people across this country are paying the price of Tory inflation.”

Shapps responded: “She’s right about inflation of course, but it is a global post-pandemic issue, rather than specific to this country, and that’s why the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced a series of measures, including a big uplift in the living wage of 6.6 per cent, outclassing even inflation.”

Tory MPs have attacked Chris Whitty’s call for people to cut back on Christmas partying as an adviser “running the show” – despite no Commons vote to impose restrictions.

Ex-ministers Steve Brine and Steve Baker laid into the chief medical officer after he urged the public not to mix at festive events unless they “really matter to them”.

Our deputy politics editor Rob Merrick has the story:

The Queen has cancelled her traditional pre-Christmas family lunch next week.

It is understood the decision was a precaution amid the rapid spread of the new variant of Covid-19.

ITV’s royal correspondent Chris Ship has suggested it could put too many people’s Christmas arrangements at risk if it went ahead.

My colleague Kate Ng has more details below:

In a clip for broadcasters to be published later, Boris Johnson denied that he has introduced lockdown by stealth.

He said: “What we have is the additional protection of the vaccines, and the ability to test.

“So if you want to do something, if you want to go to an event or a party, then the sensible thing to do, if that’s a priority, the sensible thing to do is to get a test and to make sure that you’re being cautious.

“But we’re not saying that we want to cancel stuff, we’re not locking stuff down, and the fastest route back to normality is to get boosted.”

The Conservative candidate in the North Shropshire by-election admitted that reports of lockdown-busting parties in Westminster came up on the doorstep while he was canvassing for votes.

Although people were predominantly concerned with local issues, they reacted with a mix of “upset and anger” to allegations Tory staff held gathering during Covid lockdowns, Neil Shastri-Hurst told The Times yesterday.

According to the paper Lesley Fisher, a retired school teacher who lives in Oswestry, said Boris Johnson has “lost the confidence of the people”.

Meanwhile in Whitchurch Brian Ashley, 70, a van driver, says PM is “brainy man” and his advisers have been “snitching” on him.

Labour is demanding an apology after a Conservative MP said that chief medical officer Chris Whitty should “defer” to Boris Johnson over advice on Covid precautions over the Christmas period.

Joy Morrissey, who is a parliamentary aide in the Ministry of Justice, hit out after Prof Whitty said people should “deprioritise” unnecessary social gatherings, at a time when the prime minister insists he is not ordering the cancellation of Christmas parties.

Our politics editor Andrew Woodcock reports: