Health secretary says Reform are ‘definitely a real threat’
The health secretary Wes Streeting has said that Reform is “definitely a real threat” for Labour and one they are taking seriously.
Speaking on Sky News on Sunday morning, Streeting said: “I think there’s clearly, on the right of British politics, a realignment taking place. It’s not yet clear at the next general election whether it will be Reform or the Conservatives that are Labour’s main challengers.”
In other developments:
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Reform’s chairman, Zia Yusuf, has said his party would erect statues of “Great British figures” and “end all this woke nonsense” within the first few months of government if they were to win power. Speaking to the Sunday Times, Yusuf also criticised Keir Starmer’s decision not to visit Runcorn in the run-up to the Thursday byelection that Reform won. In contrast, he said Nigel Farage visited the constituency three or four times and walked “50,000 steps” knocking doors on polling day.
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Donald Trump’s tariffs tsar has accused Britain of being a “compliant servant of communist China” at risk of having its “blood sucked” dry by Beijing. In comments to the Telegraph, Peter Navarro, the president’s trade adviser, said the Government must resist “string-laden gifts” from Beijing and avoid becoming a “dumping ground” for goods that China can no longer sell to the US.
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Kemi Badenoch has apologised for the “bloodbath” of the local elections after the Tories lost 674 councillors. The Conservative leader will appear on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg this morning alongside Streeting and Yusuf.
Key events
Health secretary Wes Streeting said he has “sympathy” for NHS workers seeking higher pay as the government faces the potential headache of public sector strikes, PA reports.
“What I’d say to resident doctors who are currently balloting is they’ll see and receive in the coming weeks the recommendation of the pay review body,” Streeting said during his appearance on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg this morning.
“So I’d urge them to kind of wait and see the figure that’s recommended and how Government takes that forward, same as the rest of the NHS workforce.
“I do understand, we’ve got a lot of sympathy with the arguments that are being made, particularly by the lower-paid members of the NHS workforce.”
Streeting said he wants to make sure people are paid fairly and asked them to “judge us on our record”.
Resident doctors in England – the new term for junior doctors – will be balloted on strike action over pay later this month, the British Medical Association announced last week.
Kemi Badenoch also said the Conservatives are going to “come out fighting” to try to regain public support
She told Laura Kuenssberg that protest voting has been a factor in recent results, adding: “I do think it is protest but that doesn’t mean we sit back. We are going to come out fighting.
“We are going to come out with the policies that people want to see, but what we are not going to do is rush out and tell the public things that are not true just so we can win votes.
“This is not about winning elections; this is about fixing our country. Yes, of course, you need to win elections to do that, but you also need a credible plan.”
Here’s some more from Kemi Badenonch’s appearance on Laura Kuenssberg earlier this morning.
Asked whether Nigel Farage could be the next prime minister, the Conversative leader said anything is feasible, but “my job is to make sure he does not become prime minister, because he does not have the answers to the problems the country is facing.”
Badenoch continued:
How do we increase productivity? What is the plan to improve our environment while dealing with climate change? How do we make sure we can deal with an ageing society? People not having enough children.
“Immigration – a big issue. His answer is to have another minister. We have two ministers who are dealing with that. Those are not serious solutions.”
Asked whether she thinks people should be having more children, Badenoch replied: “I do, but that’s a personal choice. We have to look at the demographics of our country. We cannot solve it with immigration. It is making things worse.”
Photograph: Jeff Overs/BBC/Reuters
Reform leader Nigel Farage is “trying to be all things to all men”, Conservative co-chairman Nigel Huddleston said.
Questioned on Sky News’s Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips programme about Reform’s success in the local elections, Huddleston suggested the party may not be able to deliver on their promises long-term.
He said: “The one thing about Nigel Farage is, and we’re seeing this again and again and again, he is a populist – he is increasingly saying everything that anybody wants to hear.
“Nigel Farage is saying everything to anybody in order to get their votes at the moment, and it’s an incredibly effective political strategy in the short term but you cannot be a party of going around the world trying to get right-wing votes, promising low tax, and then to other people saying you want nationalisations and high spending, that’s not correct long-term.”
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has successfully tapped into the frustration of voters, Kemi Badenoch said, PA reports.
The Tory leader told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme: “He is expressing the feeling of frustration that a lot of people around the country are feeling, but he also doesn’t have a record in government like the two main parties do.
“Now he is going to be running some councils – we’ll see how that goes – but he is expressing a feeling of frustration (and) that is not my job.
Badenoch said her role is to come up with answers and solutions, adding of the voting public: “We understand why they were angry with us. We understand why they removed us from office. They’re not going to come rushing back just because Labour was bad.
“They are looking at the two parties as parties that haven’t delivered
“I need to come up with a plan that will deliver. Easy announcements and easy slogans are not a plan.”
Lib Dems on track to overtake Tories at next election – Ed Davey
Ed Davey has claimed the Liberal Democrats are “on track” to overtake the Conservatives at the next general election, saying they were the only party that “stood up” to Reform UK, PA reports.
On Sky News’s Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips programme, the Lib Dem leader said: “I think Labour and the Conservatives made a mistake with Reform. The Conservatives have been copying Reform policies, Labour is sounding more and more like Reform.
“I think the way you defeat Nigel Farage is by calling him out.
“Look what happened in Canada with Mark Carney, who was faced with another hard-right opponent, or Anthony Albanese just now in Australia, faced with a hard-right candidate – both of whom were supporting (Donald) Trump, just like Nigel Farage does.
“I think we need to call Nigel Farage out for that. The Liberal Democrats have been the only party doing that.
“I think the British people don’t want Trump policies here. They don’t want hard-right Farage policies here.”
Tories will make ‘slow and steady’ comeback from poor local election showing
The Conservatives will come back from their poor results in the local elections but it will have to be a “slow and steady” effort, party leader Kemi Badenoch has said, PA reports.
She told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme: “I am sorry to all of those councillors who’ve lost their seat”.
The Tory leader added: “Four years ago Keir Starmer had his worst result, he is prime minister now with a landslide majority
“We live in politically volatile times and what I have been saying is that we are going to take a slow and steady way.
“There will be bumps along (the way) but we can do this, and we will do it in four years, not 18 years, 14 years, 13 years like the previous oppositions.”
“Your new mayor in Greater Lincolnshire, Dame Andrea Jenkyns, said asylum seekers should go in tents, is that now the party policy?” Laura Kuenssberg asks Reform chairman Zia Yusuf.
“That’s what France does, do you think that’s unreasonable?” he replied. “People risk their lives to cross the English channel because we’re a soft touch Laura.”
Pushed on whether this would be Reform policy, Yusuf replied: “We held a press conference around ten days ago, where we announced we will be publishing a plan to deport everybody who is currently in this country illegally in our first term of government.”
Laura Kuenssberg quizzed Zia Yusuf about figures in his party claiming they will reject migrants going to council areas under Reform control.
Kuenssberg said it would not be feasible as migrants are housed in hotels through contracts between the home office and private companies – with break clauses not due until 2029.
Yusuf replied: “We’re realistic about the fact that, yes we won an overwhelming victory. But the levers of power at local level pale in comparison to the levers of power in Westminster. That’s why this is part of journey to make Nigel [Farage] the prime minister with Reform.”
“What our commitment is to our constituents and the people who voted for us, this is our mandate, those levers of power with all of our might.”
He cited judicial reviews, injunctions and planning laws as potential options on the table.
Wes Streeting has said although NHS waiting lists were coming down, he recognised millions were still waiting for their treatment.
He told Sky News’s Sunday With Trevor Phillips that although hundreds of thousands of people had been treated faster, not everyone could be helped as soon as they wanted.
“As I have done before and said, NHS waiting lists are falling. They’ve fallen six months in a row. The three million more appointments we promised, we delivered seven months early, we’re actually over three million, and we’ll be even higher by July,” he said.
“Well, for hundreds of thousands of people who have been seen faster and come off the waiting list, great news (but) if you’re one of seven million cases still on there, this is the point at which you start shouting at the telly, saying, ‘hang on a minute – you’re saying the NHS is improving. I’m still waiting’.
“Now both those things are true, the NHS is improving, but people are still waiting.”
“Does it wash away the cost-of-living crisis? No.”
Reform will introduce taskforces to audit spending in councils it controls
Reform UK will introduce a taskforce to audit spending in the councils where it has won control, the the party’s chairman Zia Yusuf has said.
“If you take Lincolnshire County Council, yes, they do not currently have somebody with the job title ‘DEI officer’ (but) they do spend considerable money on DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) initiatives”, he told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme.
“And they have other people who have basically that same job, but under a different title, partly in response to the fact that they’ve been inundated by think tanks and activists putting in FOIs (freedom of information requests).”
He said Reform would send “teams” into councils, adding: “We’ll be opening up application shortly. We want the brightest and the best. “If you’ve got experience in audit, if you’ve got experience in fixing potholes, if you’re a software engineer.
“We’re going to bring taskforces in. We’re now going to have access to the contract, access to the numbers, access to payroll, and we’re going to make these changes.”
Nigel Huddleston, the shadow Treasury financial secretary, has said Lucy Powell’s comments on grooming gangs were “completely inappropriate”.
Speaking on Sky News’s Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips, Huddleston, who took part in the Radio 4 debate on Saturday during which Powwell referred to grooming gangs as a “dog whistle”, said: “This is a really serious issue and to kind of belittle … it is completely inappropriate.”
“I think that shows that, unfortunately, Wes Streeting and the Labour Party have underestimated how big an issue this is, how it resonates with the public and how they are angry about what they perceive as this government’s lack of action here.”
The head of Unite, the UK’s biggest union, has urged staff at Reform UK-controlled councils to join them after Nigel Farage warned employees working on diversity or climate change initiatives to seek “alternative careers”.
Read our full report below:
Unison general secretary Christina McAnea says the local election results are a “wake up call” for the Labour government.
Speaking on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, McAnea said: “Just talking in soundbites and rhetoric won’t work anymore. People expect more from a Labour party, especially those who voted for them, obviously, and they’re not getting it at the moment. They need to feel better about the world and about their own lives, sadly that’s not been delivered so far.”
McAnea said Labour could look at relaxing fiscal rules. “That would give them a bit more flexibility in terms of where they could spend money.”
Wes Streeting has said Lucy Powell’s comments that appeared to describe a question about grooming gangs as a “dog whistle” were not interpreted as his cabinet colleague had intended, PA reports.
Asked if he and his Labour colleagues see the grooming gangs scandal as a dog-whistle issue or a “coded signal to racists”, the health secretary said: “No and I don’t think that’s what Lucy intended to imply in a heated debate on Radio 4, and that’s why she’s apologised for what she said.
“I don’t think for a moment she would have meant or wanted to imply that raising these issues, talking about these issues, is dog whistle.”
“We all make mistakes” and the important thing is that “we own it”, Streeting told Sky News’s Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips. Asked if Powell’s job as leader of the House of Commons was safe, he said: “I think she’s made a genuine mistake, she’s owned up to it she’s said sorry and we’ll move on.”
Health secretary says Reform are ‘definitely a real threat’
The health secretary Wes Streeting has said that Reform is “definitely a real threat” for Labour and one they are taking seriously.
Speaking on Sky News on Sunday morning, Streeting said: “I think there’s clearly, on the right of British politics, a realignment taking place. It’s not yet clear at the next general election whether it will be Reform or the Conservatives that are Labour’s main challengers.”
In other developments:
-
Reform’s chairman, Zia Yusuf, has said his party would erect statues of “Great British figures” and “end all this woke nonsense” within the first few months of government if they were to win power. Speaking to the Sunday Times, Yusuf also criticised Keir Starmer’s decision not to visit Runcorn in the run-up to the Thursday byelection that Reform won. In contrast, he said Nigel Farage visited the constituency three or four times and walked “50,000 steps” knocking doors on polling day.
-
Donald Trump’s tariffs tsar has accused Britain of being a “compliant servant of communist China” at risk of having its “blood sucked” dry by Beijing. In comments to the Telegraph, Peter Navarro, the president’s trade adviser, said the Government must resist “string-laden gifts” from Beijing and avoid becoming a “dumping ground” for goods that China can no longer sell to the US.
-
Kemi Badenoch has apologised for the “bloodbath” of the local elections after the Tories lost 674 councillors. The Conservative leader will appear on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg this morning alongside Streeting and Yusuf.
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