Mel Stride turns into fourth Tory MP to announce management bid – UK politics stay

The SNP is heading in the direction of the opposition benches at Holyrood if it doesn’t deal with the inner “culture of hate”, Joanna Cherry has mentioned, in line with the PA information company.

The previous SNP MP, who misplaced her Edinburgh South West seat to Labour on the basic election, mentioned she might be stepping away from frontline politics to “reflect” on the way forward for her occasion.

Writing in The Nationwide, she issued a warning to SNP chief John Swinney: “The enormity of what happened to the SNP vote at the general election must not be ignored.”

The KC was one in every of 39 SNP politicians who misplaced their seat on 4 July, with simply 9 occasion MPs elected to Westminster.

She mentioned:

The SNP want urgently to deal with what has gone flawed and what led to this big drop in our vote, or we are going to undergo one other rout on the 2026 Holyrood election.

I don’t sense any nice urge for food on the a part of the management of the occasion to do that correctly.”

She mentioned she is just not at the moment contemplating a Holyrood run herself, and warned: “Opposition is where the SNP are heading at present.”

Cherry has been one of many loudest inside critics of her occasion’s management in recent times, clashing with former first minister Nicola Sturgeon over gender reform legal guidelines particularly.

The PA information company reviews that in her ultimate column for the pro-independence newspaper, Cherry mentioned she’s going to stay a member of the SNP however will achieve this from the background till the occasion addresses it “culture of hate”.

She mentioned:

Sadly, a tradition of hate in opposition to those that dare to disagree has been allowed to flourish within the SNP with out anybody in authority having the braveness to deal with it and it has poisoned our discourse and prevented correct debate.”

She mentioned it’s “profoundly depressing” to see the place the occasion, and the pro-independence motion, has landed virtually a decade after the Scottish referendum.

“The positivity is gone and some people within our movement feel they have licence to attack those with whom they disagree in the most unpleasant terms,” she mentioned. “No wonder we are putting voters off.”

Cherry added:

Again in 2014 had I foreseen the extent of abuse and harassment I must endure as an SNP MP, merely for daring to query the path the occasion was taking, I’d by no means have left my authorized profession to enter elected politics.”

Nonetheless, she went on to say she didn’t “regret having done so for a moment”.

Power minister Michael Shanks mentioned “it’s not good enough to bury your head in the sand” in relation to declining jobs in North Sea oil and fuel.

He informed the Commons on Friday:

We have been very clear throughout the election that the way forward for the North Sea is extremely essential, that that future is a transition away from the oil and fuel industries that you just see for the time being.

And naturally, what the earlier authorities must recognise as properly is that the North Sea is a declining basin.

We’ve got misplaced 1000’s of jobs in that over the previous decade and that may proceed sooner or later until we speed up our transition within the North Sea to the clear power jobs of the long run.

It’s not adequate to simply bury your head within the sand and fake that this downside doesn’t exist. What we want is a plan to present individuals safe jobs for the long run in order that they’re long run and sustainable. Not this concept that we will simply stick with it as enterprise as traditional.”

He added:

The entire level of GB Power is to maneuver us away from over reliance on fuel. If we’re not counting on fuel costs, we take away that danger to payments from the shocks that we get from the worldwide markets of fuel costs however we solely try this if we spend money on the clear power of the long run.”

Wes Streeting mentioned that you will need to discuss in regards to the “enormous risks” of legalising assisted dying as parliament is because of debate the difficulty on Friday.

The well being secretary informed BBC Radio 4’s In the present day programme on Friday:

I believe this can find yourself being each an moral debate – is that this proper in precept? And it’ll additionally go to being a sensible debate – can this work in follow?”

He mentioned he had watched a few of his grandparents die “slowly and painfully” and that trying again:

I want that alternative had been out there to them of their terminal sickness however tempering that could be a reflection that there are monumental dangers.

He added:

Might somebody be coerced and never simply straight coerced, would somebody really feel that interior strain, that interior voice that claims, ‘I’m a burden to my household?’.

I’d by no means need somebody to decide on to finish their life by means of assisted dying feeling like they’re a burden on another person.

Is palliative care on this nation adequate in order that that alternative could be an actual alternative? Or would individuals finish their lives ahead of they need as a result of palliative care, finish of life care, isn’t pretty much as good because it might be?”

David Lammy met his Chinese language counterpart throughout his go to to Laos, the Overseas Workplace mentioned.

“They had a constructive first discussion and the foreign secretary outlined this government’s vision for a long-term, consistent and strategic approach to UK-China relations,” the division mentioned.

He set out that the federal government would cooperate the place we will, compete the place wanted and problem the place we should. He made clear the UK would at all times stand agency in prioritising our nationwide safety, in addition to supporting human rights.

The international secretary welcomed the chance to work with a fellow member of the UN safety council and the world’s second largest economic system to fight international challenges like local weather change.”

It added that Lammy had “underlined the UK’s ironclad commitment to Ukraine and urged China to prevent its companies supporting Russia’s military industrial complex which poses a material threat to international security and prosperity.”

“Both sides agreed to work towards building long-term communication channels.”

The price of England’s 4 greatest killer ailments may rise to £86bn a 12 months by 2050, prompting requires a crackdown on alcohol, junk meals and smoking.

The ageing inhabitants means the annual price of most cancers, coronary heart illness, dementia and stroke mixed will go from the £51.9bn recorded in 2018 to £85.6bn in 2050 – an increase of 61%.

The 4 situations collectively account for 59% of all deaths and lead to 5.1m years of life misplaced.

Specialists say the findings, printed in the Lancet Wholesome Longevity journal, present that the brand new authorities should take decided motion to enhance the inhabitants’s well being with a view to cease the prices of ill-health changing into overwhelming.

Martin McKee, a professor of European public well being on the London Faculty of Hygiene & Tropical Drugs, mentioned: “These projected costs should terrify the Treasury.”

Because the variety of over-65s will increase within the coming years, the price of dementia alone will double to £23.5bn, and the monetary affect of strokes would rise by 85% to £16bn, the analysis discovered.

Equally, the price of coronary heart illness would improve by 54% to £19.6bn and that of most cancers – which is the most costly of the 4 situations – by 40% to £26.5bn.

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Rachel Reeves ought to apologise for “misleading voters”, the chief of the SNP in Westminster has mentioned because the chancellor is predicted to announce there’s a £20bn black gap within the public funds.

Stephen Flynn claimed the SNP had warned Labour’s plans would lead to round £18bn in cuts or tax rises and that voters have been “due a refund”.

“At minimum, you should apologise for misleading voters. If Labour’s election campaign was a product in a shop, voters would be due a refund for false advertising,” he mentioned in a letter to the chancellor.

Flynn mentioned:

Extra importantly, you have to now come clear on the place the axe will fall underneath your plans and whether or not you plan to chop public companies, increase taxes or each – having beforehand denied you’ll do both.”

He added:

The justifications at the moment being lined-up will set alarm bells ringing that the Labour authorities plans to proceed Tory cuts and public companies might be starved of the money they want – simply as we’ve got seen with the failure to scrap the two-child profit cap this week.

The SNP is prepared and prepared to work in cooperation with the Labour authorities to ship the change voters in Scotland have been promised – however we even have an obligation to face up for Scotland’s pursuits and maintain the Labour authorities to account the place actual change isn’t forthcoming.”

Wes Streeting mentioned the UK is a “long way” from fixing the NHS with GPs “really struggling”.

“We’ve got unemployed GPs in our country at the moment, at the same time as people are struggling to access a GP,” the well being secretary informed BBC Breakfast.

“GPs are really struggling. They are struggling and patients are struggling to find and access GPs.”

He added:

It’s about ensuring we repair the entrance door of the NHS so that individuals can see a GP once they want one they usually get the precise care in the precise place on the proper time. And we’re a good distance from that state of affairs at the moment.”

Contaminated blood victims’ households can apply for interim compensation from autumn

Peter Walker

Individuals who misplaced family from the contaminated blood scandal will have the ability to apply for interim compensation funds from the autumn, a minister has informed the Commons, additionally reiterating the federal government’s dedication to enacting the findings of the report into what occurred.

Nick Thomas-Symonds, who as paymaster basic is a senior minister within the Cupboard Workplace, which is chargeable for the compensation scheme, mentioned this could assist family who had not but been in a position to obtain assist.

The plan was for interim funds of £100,000 to the estates of those that died on account of being contaminated with contaminated blood or blood merchandise, and whose deaths haven’t but been recognised, he informed MPs in an announcement.

“Work is progressing to ensure these payments are made as soon as we are able to, and I’m pleased to confirm to the house today that applications for these payments will open in October and we will set out further details of this in due course,” he mentioned.

So far, Thomas-Symonds mentioned, about £1bn had been paid in compensation, out of an estimated £12bn due in whole. Whereas some family have nervous ministers may hope to cut back the quantity paid out as a result of fiscal state of affairs, Thomas-Symonds mentioned the federal government was “committed to acting on the findings of the infected blood inquiry report to ensure swift resolution”.

He added: “We are also committed to working on a cross party basis and will work with others to deliver the compensation scheme and get final payments to victims as soon as possible.”

Rachel Reeves anticipated to disclose £20bn shortfall in public funds

Jessica Elgot

Rachel Reeves is predicted to disclose a £20bn gap in authorities spending for important public companies on Monday, paving the way in which for potential tax rises within the autumn price range.

Labour sources mentioned the blame lay with the Tory authorities, describing it as a “shocking inheritance” and accusing the previous chancellor of “presiding over a black hole and still campaigning for tax cuts”.

They pointed to spending issues on the asylum system, welfare, defence and prisons. Nonetheless, work remains to be being completed on the audit and the ultimate determine of £20bn may shift as officers look at the spending commitments of every division.

When Reeves units out the findings of her Treasury audit on Monday, she may also announce the date of the spending overview and the price range in October.

Specialists count on she might be pressured to announce tax adjustments within the price range, with choices together with capital good points or inheritance taxes and slashing different tax reliefs. Reeves has dominated out adjustments to earnings tax, VAT, nationwide insurance coverage and company tax – the most important income raisers.

The prime minister, Keir Starmer, informed enterprise leaders this week that the general public funds have been “in the worst place since the second world war”.

A Labour supply mentioned:

On Monday, the British public are lastly going to see the true scale of the injury the Conservatives have completed to the general public funds.

They spent taxpayers’ cash like no tomorrow as a result of they knew another person must choose up the invoice. It now falls to Labour to repair the foundations of our economic system and that work has already begun.”

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Assisted dying invoice to be launched into Home of Lords

Harriet Sherwood

Keir Starmer is underneath strain to fulfil a promise to permit a parliamentary vote on legalising assisted dying as a invoice is to be launched into the Home of Lords on Friday.

Lord Falconer, who was lord chancellor in Tony Blair’s authorities, will suggest a personal member’s invoice to permit assisted dying for terminally ailing adults after coming second in a poll of friends final week.

In March, Starmer mentioned he was in favour of adjusting the regulation. He promised Esther Rantzen, the tv presenter who has terminal most cancers and is campaigning for assisted dying, that if he turned prime minister he would guarantee parliamentary time to debate the difficulty and permit a free vote. He repeated the pledge after successful the overall election.

However some advocates for a change within the regulation concern that the prime minister might determine to attend for a personal member’s invoice to be launched within the Commons. A poll of MPs is because of be held in September.

Starmer was dedicated to making sure parliamentary time for a invoice on assisted dying, mentioned Falconer. However a Commons invoice was a “much more certain route” than a invoice originating within the Lords.

There have been “a number of MPs who are keen to take this issue forward” in the event that they have been profitable in a poll, he informed the Guardian. “It’s a significant social reform and it has a really good chance of success. It would be a bill for which an MP would be remembered. It might not be my bill, but I just want to get this through. And there is a sense now that the stars are aligned and a bill will get through one way or another.”

Falconer’s invoice would permit terminally ailing, mentally competent adults to have the choice of assisted dying alongside entry to high-quality end-of-life care. The person would wish to satisfy strict eligibility standards, be assessed by two impartial medical doctors, and self-administer the remedy if their request was authorised.

You may learn the complete piece right here:

Wes Streeting’s warning (see 9.49am BST) got here after an interim report by the general public care physician Penny Sprint discovered the Care High quality Fee (CQC) was affected by low ranges of bodily inspections, a scarcity of consistency in assessments and issues with a faltering IT system.

Streeting has promised to “grip the crisis” on the CQC by taking quick motion to extend oversight of the physique and provides sufferers extra confidence of their care.

He mentioned:

How are you going to tolerate a state of affairs the place one in 5 of your well being and care suppliers has not acquired a score? How are you going to tolerate rankings being reached on the idea of solely a partial inspection of the organisation, melded in with inspection reviews courting again over various years?”

Streeting has introduced 4 quick steps the federal government and CQC will take to revive public confidence and provides sufferers a extra correct image, together with recruiting a senior most cancers physician to overview the physique’s assessments.

Sprint discovered that a couple of fifth of the places the CQC had the ability to examine had by no means acquired a score, whereas different organisations had not been reinspected for years. One inspection was a couple of decade previous.

There was a scarcity of expertise amongst inspectors, the report mentioned, a few of whom checked hospitals regardless of by no means having visited one earlier than. One other inspector of a care residence had by no means met an individual with dementia.

Sprint, who started her investigation in Might, additionally discovered that social care suppliers have been ready too lengthy for his or her registration and score to be up to date, with implications for native capability.

You may learn the complete piece by Kiran Stacey and Pippa Crerar right here:

Individuals ought to take what the Care High quality Fee (CQC) says “with a pinch of salt”, Wes Streeting has mentioned.

The well being secretary mentioned he was “brutally honest” with the general public earlier than the election that issues with the NHS would “take time to fix”, however he had not anticipated that the regulator would have “failed to such an extent”.

Streeting informed BBC Radio 5 Dwell:

I don’t assume we have to handle the general public’s expectations as a result of to be truthful to the general public, whether or not it’s on the economic system or the NHS or the opposite massive challenges we’ve inherited, individuals know that they’re going to take time to repair. We have been sincere with individuals forward of the election.”

He added: “I was brutally honest with people as the shadow health and social care secretary.”

On the issues confronted by the NHS, he mentioned: “It’s not going to be easy … things are worst than we expected.”

Requested whether or not he was saying that individuals ought to “not believe a word” of knowledge they learn on the CQC web site, he mentioned: “I’d say take it with a pinch of salt.”

Mel Stride has develop into the fourth Conservative MP to announce they’re becoming a member of the race for the occasion’s management.

He informed BBC Breakfast on Friday:

What we all know from the overall election is that we’re in a really, very troublesome place as a celebration, and I fear about that as a result of I care about my occasion and I care about my nation.

We’ve considerably misplaced the belief of the British individuals and we’ve misplaced our popularity for competence, and I consider that I’m in an excellent place to deal with these points going ahead.

By way of belief, I believe [the party] wants any person who’s going to have the ability to unite the occasion. Individuals are not going to vote for a celebration that’s at one another’s throats on a regular basis.

I’m revered, I believe, proper throughout the parliamentary occasion. I used to be chair of the Treasury choose committee, the chief of the Home of Commons, all of these issues are roles about bringing individuals collectively.”

Stride mentioned he was “politically well placed” to unite the Tory parliamentary occasion. “My background is growing companies from scratch,” he informed LBC. “I believe I have the right skills and approach to bring us to a point where we can get back into political contention.”

Stride retained his seat by simply 61 votes on the basic election.

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Good morning and welcome to the Guardian’s newest UK politics stay weblog. I’m Amy and I’ll be bringing you updates at the moment.

Mel Stride has develop into the fourth Conservative MP to announce they’re becoming a member of the race for the occasion’s management.

The previous work and pensions secretary informed BBC Breakfast on Friday he has been “fully nominated” as a candidate, becoming a member of Tom Tugendhat, James Cleverly and Robert Jenrick within the race to exchange Rishi Sunak as Tory chief.

Stride, the MP for Central Devon, mentioned he believed he was the precise particular person to “unite the party”.

Shadow communities secretary Kemi Badenoch, the bookmakers’ favorite to succeed Sunak, and former residence secretaries Suella Braverman and Priti Patel are anticipated to place themselves ahead earlier than nominations shut at 2.30pm on Monday.

In the meantime, the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, is predicted to share an replace on a spending audit she ordered Treasury officers to supply. Her replace will reveal “the true scale of the damage the Conservatives have done to the public finances”, a Labour supply mentioned, amid issues over a black gap within the public funds of round £20bn.

Within the Home of Commons at the moment, there might be a basic debate on making Britain a clear power superpower, whereas Keir Starmer is underneath strain to fulfil a promise to permit a parliamentary vote on legalising assisted dying as a invoice is to be launched into the Home of Lords on Friday.

Lord Falconer, who was lord chancellor in Tony Blair’s authorities, will suggest a personal member’s invoice to permit assisted dying for terminally ailing adults after coming second in a poll of friends final week.