Plans shelved include earlier cancer diagnosis, boosting women’s health and expanding access to dental care
NHS England is scrapping plans to diagnose more cancers early, boost women’s health and ramp up childhood vaccinations after ministers told it to prioritise cutting waiting times.
The health service is also abandoning pledges to expand access to dental treatment, give more people drugs to prevent strokes and enhance care for those with learning disabilities.
Continue reading...Bill could mean asylum seekers crossing the Channel who refuse rescue may face five years in prison
Keir Starmer’s planned people-smuggling laws risk “criminalising” hundreds of asylum seekers, refugee charities have said, after it emerged that people who refuse to be rescued by the French authorities could be jailed for five years.
Some parents who bring their children to the UK in small boats could also face prosecution, which could ultimately split their families, a human rights assessment of the border security, asylum and immigration bill has concluded.
Continue reading...Research shows voters losing faith in traditional centre-left and centre-right to deliver meaningful change
Voters in western democracies are turning away from mainstream political parties and towards populists because they are losing faith in their ability to implement meaningful change, a major report based on surveys of 12,000 voters has found.
The popularity of traditional centre-left and centre-right parties across major democratic countries has plummeted from 73% in 2000 to 51% today, according to research by the Tony Blair Institute.
Continue reading...Alaa Abd el-Fattah’s family reveal letters showing his despair after initial hopes David Lammy could get him freed from Cairo jail
Alaa Abd el-Fattah, the British-Egyptian political dissident held in a Cairo jail for more than five years, has reached such a state of despair over the UK’s inability to secure his release that he has contemplated renouncing both his British and Egyptian citizenship, his letters reveal.
His family have given permission for some of his private letters to be published to show his situation and his concern for his 68-year-old mother, Laila Soueif, on hunger strike seeking his release.
Continue reading...Chancellor says she has support of cabinet as climate minister Ed Miliband reported to be sceptical over Heathrow plans
Richard Madeley goes next.
Q: The Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary says you are wrong, and the third runway won’t be built until you are 70. You are 45 now. Why is he wrong?
We’re signing off decisions on wind farms, on solar farms, a commitment to a new stadium at Old Trafford. We are upgrading the Transpennine route to make journey times easier between York and Manchester via Leeds and Huddersfield. Those things are happening right now.
Continue reading...UK foreign secretary issues direct warning during phone call with Rwandan president after escalation of conflict
Rwanda has put $1bn of global aid under threat by taking part in the invasion of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the UK foreign secretary, David Lammy, has said.
He made the direct warning in a phone call to the Rwandan president, Paul Kagame, on Sunday after also speaking to the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, about the crisis.
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Reeves says the supply side of the economy has been held back.
Politicians have lacked the courage to confront the factors holding back growth.
They have accepted the status quo. They have been the barrier, not the enablers, of change.
Without economic growth, we cannot improve the living standards of ordinary working people, because growth isn’t simply about lines on a graph. It’s about the pounds in people’s pockets, the vibrancy of our high streets and the thriving businesses that create wealth, jobs and new opportunities for us, for our children and grandchildren.
We will have succeeded in our mission when working people are better off.
Continue reading...Union describe reductions as ‘cruel’ as university says it will run out of money without changes
Cardiff University has announced plans to shed 400 academic staff – almost 10% of its total – and cut subjects including nursing, music and modern languages, saying it will run out of money in four years if no changes are made.
Academics, union representatives and students expressed shock and dismay at the scale of the cuts, which were announced at staff meetings at the Russell Group university on Tuesday.
A reduction of academic headcount by about 400 full-time equivalent (7% of total workforce), using compulsory redundancy only if absolutely necessary.
Ceasing subjects and programmes in ancient history, modern languages and translation, music, nursing, and religion and theology.
Increasing student-to-staff ratios across the university.
Bringing “complementary” disciplines together through school mergers. For example, the creation of the school of natural sciences (merging chemistry, Earth sciences and physics) and school of global humanities (merging English, communication and philosophy, Welsh, and remaining elements of history, archaeology and religion and modern languages).
Continue reading...MP for Hayes and Harlington, whose constituency includes Heathrow, says homes will either be unliveable or need to be demolished
Q: Are doctors able to recognise depression? And can they decide if that affects someone’s capacity to make a decision about their health?
Whitty says doctors can identify depression. But he says it is harder for them to assess if that is affecting capacity.
That’s where help from colleagues from psychiatry, mental health more widely, is going to be useful. But that should be good medical practice, in my view, under all circumstances.
Certainly what I wouldn’t want is to be in a situation where the existence of the fact that someone who has a terminal diagnosis has some degree of low mood in itself just rules them out from any kind of medical intervention, this or any other. That shouldn’t be the case.
Continue reading...Downing Street says PM’s call with Trump was ‘warm’ and did not include tariffs, Greenland, defence-spending or Ukraine
The hearing has stopped for a short break. Heather Hallett, the chair, tells Badenoch that her evidence will be finished by lunchtime.
Keith is now asking Badenoch about the fourth report produced by the Race Disparity Unit. It was produced in December 2021.
Relevant health departments and agencies should review and action existing requests for health data, and undertake an independent strategic review of the dissemination of healthcare data and the publication of statistics and analysis.
Government is not necessarily great at delivering these systems. They tend to be big boondoggles for the private sector, but there are private sector companies that can deliver this. There need to be caveats around that.
Continue reading...Decision to change name of new submarine to HMS Achilles is ‘craven political correctness’, says ex-navy officer
Downing Street has defended the government’s decision to change the name of a new attack submarine from HMS Agincourt to HMS Achilles, after critics accused ministers of trying not to upset the French.
A No 10 spokesperson called the decision to change the planned name of the vessel “appropriate and fitting”, despite criticism that ministers were being “craven”. Officials say the name Achilles had been chosen in part to pay tribute to an earlier ship of the same name.
Continue reading...CBI says businesses plan to cut jobs and raise prices while debt charity says millions are ‘facing worries’
The government is under growing pressure to get momentum back into the economy amid warnings that businesses plan to cut jobs and raise prices, while millions of families believe their finances will worsen this year.
Before a major speech this week by the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, designed to restate Labour’s commitment to improving the economy, the CBI said private sector firms were urgently assessing their budgets to offset measures announced in last October’s budget.
Continue reading...Chancellor expected to unveil new building projects and revise planning rules to stimulate UK economy
Rachel Reeves has given her strongest hint yet that she will back a third runway at Heathrow airport, arguing that she is willing to make difficult decisions while pursuing economic growth.
The chancellor is poised to make a significant speech this week where she will outline her plans to boost the British economy by radically altering planning rules and accelerating building projects.
Continue reading...Source says purpose of Wang Yi’s visit is to hold first UK-China strategic dialogue since 2018
China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, is due to visit the UK next month for talks with the British foreign secretary, David Lammy, the Guardian has learned.
The Foreign Office (FCDO) is drawing up plans to host the Chinese foreign minister in mid-February, according to three people briefed on the plans. The FCDO declined to comment.
Continue reading...Labour’s James Frith and Conservative Caroline Nokes gifted tickets by Paddy Power worth up to £1,000 each
Two MPs received VIP tickets for the sold-out World Darts Championships courtesy of a betting company – weeks after a national outcry over politicians accepting freebies.
Labour MP James Frith, who has campaigned for safer gambling, and Conservative MP Caroline Nokes, the deputy speaker of the House of Commons, were gifted “platinum” hospitality tickets by Paddy Power worth up to £1,000 each.
Continue reading...Chancellor says runway would mean fewer planes circling London, and points to moves towards sustainable flying
Rachel Reeves has indicated her support for building a third runway at Heathrow airport, arguing that it would have environmental benefits such as fewer planes circling London.
Ahead of a major speech on economic growth this coming week, the chancellor made the case for Heathrow expansion and said there was “huge investment” in more sustainable aviation.
Continue reading...Steve Reed says plans for 1km curved structure to protect bats from high-speed railway are ‘batshit crazy’
A bat shelter costing more than £100m near HS2 has been described by the environment secretary as “batshit crazy”.
HS2 Ltd is spending the sum on the protection structure in Buckinghamshire, it emerged last year. All bats are legally protected in the UK.
The curved structure, which has been described by the HS2 Ltd chair, Sir Jon Thompson, as a “shed”, will run for about 1km alongside Sheephouse Wood to create a barrier allowing the creatures to cross above the high-speed railway without being affected by passing trains.
But Steve Reed has criticised the plans and told the Fabian Society’s new year conference: “I mean, (to spend) that vast amount of money on a tunnel for bats when there were so many other public services crying out for funding – it’s batshit crazy.
“And it happened because the previous government didn’t have a grip on the public finances, didn’t have a grip on infrastructure projects, and didn’t really have a grip on what was happening to nature either.”
Asked about the potential for tension between prioritising wildlife and the environment and pushing through planning projects, as the government has promised to do to boost economic growth, Reed said both could be achieved.
“It’s not either or, it’s not growth or nature or the environment. We can do the two together,” he said.
Reed also suggested any plans to build a third runway at Heathrow airport would be subject to a “proper consultation” to ensure “mitigations” were in place to make it work.
Asked about the prospect of expanding the airport, which reports suggest the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, will back, the MP for Streatham and Croydon North in London said: “Of course, it’s speculation that you’re talking about … but if there were any proposal like that, then there would be a proper consultation, hopefully not lasting decades as it has done previously, because you don’t have to take that amount of time to get to good decisions.
“But it would take into account all of those factors, mitigations, what we will need to do to make sure that it could work.
“Since you mentioned my voting record on that one, I voted against expanding Heathrow last time because I was in favour of expanding Gatwick because it would provide economic growth that would benefit south London, where my constituency is. So I see the link.”
Pressure growing on Labour to improve trade with EU as Rachel Reeves admits Brexit damaged UK
Keir Starmer is under growing pressure to forge closer economic links with Europe five years on from Brexit, as a major new poll shows voters clearly favour prioritising more trade with the EU over the US.
The MRP survey of almost 15,000 people by YouGov for the Best for Britain thinktank shows more people in every constituency in England, Scotland and Wales back closer arrangements with the EU rather than more transatlantic trade with Washington. MRP polls use large data samples to estimate opinion at a local level
Continue reading...Environmentalists say new course could be delayed until 2030 because it is viewed as Conservative party initiative
Leading environmentalists have called on the government to introduce a natural history GCSE immediately, amid fears it could be postponed until 2030.
The previous Conservative administration had supported creating the GCSE, which would teach pupils how to observe, identify and classify plants and animals.
Continue reading...As chancellor Rachel Reeves’ plan to expand London airports gains traction, the party is accused of back-pedalling on its green commitments
Labour is being warned it is hurtling towards a “powder keg” confrontation with environmentalists, green groups and a swathe of its own supporters in the next few weeks, amid its claims that “blockers” are standing in the way of economic growth.
A flurry of pro-growth measures have been announced by ministers in recent days as part of a government fightback against claims that the economy is stalling.
Continue reading...