Javid’s GP rescue plan will fail to ‘turn the tide’, says former Tory health secretary Jeremy Hunt – live updates
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Version 11 of 13. Chair of Commons health committee joins Labour’s shadow health secretary in calling Sajid Javid’s plans inadequate The leader of Britain’s GPs has condemned ministers’ “malicious criticism” and “vilification” of family doctors amid a furious backlash from the profession at government demands for them to increase face-to-face appointments. Jeremy Hunt, the Conservative former health secretary and chair of the Commons health committee, has said the £250m plan to improve GP services announced today will fail to “turn the tide”. (See 1.05pm.) Prof Chris Whitty, the government’s chief medical adviser, has said the NHS will face an “exceptionally difficult” winter even without a spike in Covid cases. (See 10.34pm.) The number of people waiting for hospital treatment in England has hit a record high of 5.7 million, as the NHS struggles to clear the growing backlog of care worsened by the pandemic. Sajid Javid, the health secretary, has said he is sorry for the losses that have occurred due to the Covid-19 pandemic, but fell short of apologising for the government’s decision to delay lockdown last March. He also claimed it was too early to know what lessons could be learnt from the Covid pandemic. (See 9.28am.) Boris Johnson gave personal assurances to the Northern Ireland MP Ian Paisley that he would commit to “tearing up” the Brexit protocol that is now the centre of a major row between the UK and the EU, it has been claimed. A Conservative police commissioner accused of victim blaming in the wake of the murder of Sarah Everard has resigned after being told there was a “catastrophic lack of confidence” in his position. Micheál Martin, the taoiseach (Irish PM), has described the EU plans to change the Northern Ireland protocol announced yesterday as “very significant”. He also said Maroš Šefčovič, the European Commission vice president who drew up the plans, had to get them agreed in the face of internal EU opposition. Martin said: In a good analysis for the Irish Times, Naomi O’Leary quotes a diplomat saying there was “blood on the floor” at the commission because the rows about the package were so brutal. “The commission is pushing at the very edge of what is accepted by member states,” the diplomat told O’Leary. At a news conference, Martin also implied he was surprised that the UK government is now making a big issue of European court of justice oversight of the protocol. Previously Boris Johnson seemed most concerned about sausages, Martin said. He explained: Martin also said he hoped the UK would be “in solution mode” too. This is from Sky’s Stephen Murphy. Here is my colleague Josh Halliday’s story about the resignation of Philip Allott. And here is an extract about the meeting of the North Yorkshire’s police, fire and crime panel which passed a vote of no confidence in Philip Allott earlier. Philip Allott has resigned as North Yorkshire police, fire and crime commissioner in response to the outcry caused by his comment after Sarah Everard’s murder that women needed to be “streetwise”, PA Media reports. Earlier he told a meeting, in which local councillors passed a vote of no confidence in him, that he would not be resigning. (See 2.54pm.) An announcement on temporary visas to tackle an acute shortage of butchers and abattoir workers that has led to a crisis in the pig industry is “imminent”, peers have been told. Richard Benyon, a peer and environment minister, said an announcement was “imminent” in response to a question in the House of Lords earlier. Maggie Jones, a Labour peer, asked: In response, Benyon said: Sir Keir Starmer has been speaking to the media on a visit to a steel plant in Sheffield. Here are the main points he has been making. Starmer said the plan to improve GP services announced today would not deal with the shortage of doctors. He said: He urged the government to help the steel industry cope with soaring gas prices. It would be “unforgivable” if a short-term price hike led to long-term job losses, he said. He said: Kwasi Kwarteng, the business secretary, has asked the Treasury to help energy intensive industries like steel, but the Treasury has not responded yet. Starmer said the government should have had a plan months ago to deal with the supply chain shortages. He said: The Conservative police commissioner whose comments following the murder of Sarah Everard caused a national outcry has received a formal, but non-binding, vote of no confidence from local politicians, PA Media reports. PA says: Sajid Javid, the health secretary, has claimed that his package of support for GPs will “make a real difference”. Speaking to broadcasters, he said: Jeremy Hunt, one of his Conservative predecessors, disagrees. (See 1.05pm.) The gap between poorer students and their more affluent peers attending university has widened to the largest gap for 14 years, PA Media reports. PA says: The Northern Ireland secretary, Brandon Lewis, has failed to uphold his duties to provide full abortion services in the region, a high court judge has ruled. My colleague Alexandra Topping has the story. Sajid Javid, the health secretary, won’t be surprised that Labour is criticising his £250m plan to improve GP services in England (see 12.31pm), but Jeremy Hunt, the former Conservative health secretary who now chairs the Commons health committee, has also described the measures as inadequate. Hunt wants an OBR-style independent body to take charge of advising the government on how many doctors it needs to train. He suggests that would be the best way to address workforce shortages in the NHS in the long run. He has set out his case on Twitter. Labour says Sajid Javid’s plan to ensure more GPs see their patients face-to-face is “unravelling” aleady. In a statement, Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow health secretary, said: Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, the DUP leader, had an online meeting this morning with Maroš Šefčovič, the European commissioner dealing with Brexit who yesterday published the EU’s plans for reform of the Northern Ireland protocol. In a statement issued afterwards Donaldson said they had a “useful and honest discussion” but he said the plans fell short of what the DUP wanted. He said: In his statement, which was less confrontational than the one he issued last night, Donaldson also did not directly mention European court of justice oversight of the protocol, which is now one of the main points of dispute between the UK and the EU. |