Exclusive: Welsh secretary will use conference speech to announce measure for elective treatment and outpatients
NHS patients in Wales will be allowed to travel to England to receive care for the first time ever under plans to be announced by the Welsh secretary on Monday.
Jo Stevens will tell the Labour conference in Liverpool that she is drawing up proposals to allow patients to travel between England and Wales to receive outpatient or elective treatment.
Continue reading...Deputy prime minister tells Labour conference she expects chancellor to make promise on building at spending review
Angela Rayner has given her strongest hint yet that Labour will announce a major package of social housebuilding in next month’s spending review, saying the party will have abandoned its “moral mission” if it fails to do so.
The deputy prime minister told an event at Labour conference on Sunday she expected the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, to make a promise on social housing next month, with the government under pressure to build hundreds of thousands more social homes.
Continue reading...Tributes paid to one of the UK’s foremost economics commentators who was also ambassador to Washington
Peter Jay, the former BBC economics journalist and diplomat, has died at the age of 87, his family has announced.
Colleagues in the political and media world paid tributes after he died “peacefully at home” on Sunday. Jay was one of the country’s foremost economics commentators of his time, spending time as the economics editor for the BBC and the Times.
Additional reporting by PA Media
Continue reading...Exclusive: £100bn-a-year cost of obesity to UK makes clear economic case for use of drugs such as Ozempic, says report
Spiralling healthcare costs and productivity losses from the global obesity crisis far outstrip the cost of new weight-loss drugs, according to a report, which also calls on governments to prioritise prevention by promoting a healthy diet and exercise.
In the UK, Germany and the Netherlands, there is a clear economic case for these medications, the report says, as the annual cost of the diabetes drug Ozempic is lower than the cost of additional healthcare needed by people with obesity. The cost of the weight-loss injection Wegovy is higher, but still dwarfed by the overall economic cost to society of obesity, according to the research by ING Bank, shared with the Guardian.
Continue reading...Sister of headteacher Ruth Perry, who killed herself last year, joins call for ‘complete reset’ of schools inspectorate
Education unions are to warn that Ofsted cannot be trusted to reform itself, as headteachers continue to report that school inspections are leaving their staff feeling distressed.
Prof Julia Waters, sister of the Reading headteacher Ruth Perry, who killed herself last year after an inspection downgraded her school from outstanding to inadequate, will call on the government to make deeper reforms of the inspectorate at the Labour party conference on Sunday. While welcoming the government’s recent confirmation that Ofsted’s single-word judgments will be scrapped, Waters, along with all four teaching unions, said the inspector still operated with a culture of “fear and terror”.
Continue reading...Phillippa Kaufmann KC, who helped black cab rapist’s victims sue the Metropolitan police, is helping examine whether the force should have done more to bring Harrods boss to justice
The lawyer who helped victims sue the Metropolitan Police for failing to investigate John Worboys, the black cab rapist, is working with women allegedly attacked by Mohamed Al Fayed.
Phillippa Kaufmann KC has joined the legal team examining whether police had a duty to do more to bring Fayed to justice when allegations were made against him.
Continue reading...Labour wants to see apartment blocks built in more densely populated cities to achieve its housing targets
A radical scheme to speed up the building of more apartment blocks in towns and cities – as opposed to individual houses and bungalows – has been announced by the prime minister on the eve of the Labour party conference.
Keir Starmer told the Observer in an exclusive interview that the new system of “planning passports” would be a “game-changer” as the government strives to build 1.5m new homes within five years.
Continue reading...Thirty-two-year-old in custody after attack on man, 25, on Stapleton Road in the east of the city
A man has been arrested on suspicion of murder after the death of a 25-year-old man in Bristol, police have said.
Avon and Somerset police arrested a 32-year-old man in the Eastville area of the city at about 5.45pm on Saturday. He remains in custody.
Continue reading...Police warn unauthorised drone users could be prosecuted as restrictions are in place for conference week
Drones have been seized by police after they were flown in breach of airspace restrictions during the Labour party conference in Liverpool.
Merseyside police said they seized three drones on Saturday after a temporary airspace restriction covering much of Liverpool city centre was put in place.
Continue reading...Opinium poll for the Observer finds a 45-point drop in the prime minister’s approval rating since he won the election
Keir Starmer has suffered a precipitous fall in his personal ratings since winning the election, according to a new poll for the Observer that comes before his first Labour conference as prime minister.
The latest Opinium poll reveals that Starmer’s approval rating has plunged below that of the Tory leader Rishi Sunak, suffering a huge 45-point drop since July. While 24% of voters approve of the job he is doing, 50% disapprove, giving him a net rating of -26%. Sunak’s net rating is one point better.
Continue reading...Ex-director of public prosecutions in England and Wales says that of 27 cases he considered for potential charges only one met the threshold
The former director of public prosecutions Sir Max Hill has said a review of assisted dying laws should consider how bereaved suspects are forced to endure long waits before being told whether they face prosecution.
During his time as DPP for England and Wales, from 2018 to 2023, Hill said he considered 27 cases for potential charges involving assisted suicide. He considered only one met the evidential and public interest threshold for a prosecution.
Continue reading...Steven Wilson was attacked after risk assessment failed to stop convicted murderer working in kitchen with access to knives
A career burglar has been awarded more than £5m in damages by a high court judge due to “life-changing” injuries he sustained after being stabbed in prison.
Steven Wilson, 36, sued the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) after a convicted murderer stabbed him multiple times with a 9-in knife in July 2018 while working in the canteen at HMP Chelmsford.
Continue reading...Lisa Nandy says Labour government will stop accepting gifted clothes as they don’t want voters to believe they are ‘living very different lives’
The prime minister and Labour ministers will stop accepting clothing donations because they don’t want voters to believe they are “living very different lives” to people who are “really struggling” in the country, the culture secretary, Lisa Nandy, has said.
Speaking before the opening of the Labour conference tomorrow, Nandy told the BBC the government wants to demonstrate that its priorities are “the country’s priorities”, after it emerged Keir Starmer, his wife Victoria, Rachel Reeves and Angela Rayner have all decided to stop accepting free gifts of clothes from Labour party donors.
Continue reading...Woman says store’s former owner told her he was her ‘boyfriend’ and kissed her on the forehead
A former Harrods worker has criticised Harrods for the way it handled the alleged misconduct of the store’s former owner Mohamed Al Fayed.
Five women have alleged they were raped by Fayed, who died last year at the age of 94, and a number of others have alleged sexual misconduct.
Continue reading...Gloomy segmented head of famed playwright fails to convey his wit and brilliance, says Merlin Holland
A huge sculpture of Oscar Wilde’s head lying on its side, his face sliced into segments, has been condemned as “absolutely hideous” by the playwright’s grandson.
Merlin Holland, an expert on Wilde’s life and works, has criticised a 2ft-high black bronze sculpture by Sir Eduardo Paolozzi that is to be unveiled in a public garden in Chelsea, south-west London, near Wilde’s former home.
Continue reading...Anxiety is the most common reason why parents choose to take pupils out of school
Steve Bladon has been a headteacher for a decade. Yet when he found himself temporarily home educating his 11-year-old daughter, who had such severe anxiety that she couldn’t leave the house, he admits he felt “absolutely lost”.
“Initially we had no idea what to do,” he said. “All we knew was that she needed time and space, so we weren’t compounding her anxiety.”
Continue reading...Performer was first black actor to land leading role at National Theatre and to be cast in regular role on UK soap opera
The “trailblazing” actor Cleo Sylvestre has died aged 79, her agent has confirmed.
Sylvestre, also known as Cleopatra Palmer, had been a feature of film, stage, television and music since the 1960s, and played Melanie Harper, Meg Richardson’s adopted daughter, in ITV’s Crossroads – making her the first black actor to have a regular leading role in a UK soap opera. She was also the first black actor to land a leading role at the National Theatre.
Continue reading...Jamar Powell says PC Connor Jones should be sacked rather than receiving written warning over traumatising action
A Metropolitan police officer who put a Taser to the neck of an innocent black child after he had been forced to kneel in the street has been found guilty of gross misconduct but allowed to keep his job.
Jamar Powell told the Guardian he had feared he might die during the incident in September 2020, was left traumatised and would struggle to ever trust the police again, having been stopped and searched more than 30 times with nothing ever being found.
Continue reading...Protesters in Liverpool to call on government to implement full arms embargo against Israel over Gaza war
The UK’s first pro-Palestine national march to be staged outside London is expected by organisers to attract tens of thousands of people on the periphery of the Labour party conference in Liverpool.
The 19th “national march for Palestine” will start at midday on Saturday near Lime Street railway station and end near King’s Dock, where Keir Starmer’s party is gathering this weekend.
Continue reading...Ipsos survey asked people in 31 countries what they thought of their health and healthcare
Mental health has overtaken cancer and obesity as the health problem most Britons worry about, a global survey has revealed.
Experts said the shift in the public’s perception reflected the sharp rise in recent years in mental ill-health caused by the Covid pandemic, the cost of living crisis and male violence against women.
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