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Greens urge Streeting to ‘get serious’ about concerns of resident doctors who are on strike
The Green party is backing resident doctors who are on strike. This morning the party issued a statement on the dispute from its co-deputy leader, Mothin Ali, saying:
Rather than shifting goalposts or arm twisting resident doctors with threats over training places, Wes Streeting needs to get serious about resolving resident doctors long term concerns over pay, training and working conditions. The government’s 10-year plan for the NHS will go nowhere if the workforce feels unappreciated, devalued and demotivated.
Key events
At the Reform UK press conference (see 12.58am), Siobhan Whyte was asked what could be done to prevent further crimes like the murder of her daughter Rhiannon. She replied:
You’ve to stop [people arriving in the UK illegally], send them straight back. Or if they have to come in, vet them, do not let them out. Do not let them walk our streets until we know that they’re not going to commit some kind of crime and [have] no diseases, because it came out in court that this guy had Aids. So we don’t we don’t know what’s going on behind this.
No 10 signals UK would not allow US to use its bases for attacks on Iran’s power plants – without criticising Trump’s threats
Downing Street has signalled that the UK will not allow the US to use British bases for American air attacks against Iran targeting infrastracture like bridges or power stations.
Given that it is widely acknowledged that such attacks, which Donald Trump is threatening, would be count a war crimes, and that Keir Starmer has made compliance with international law a priority for UK foreign policy, the No 10 briefing is not surprising.
But the issue has become more and more pertinent in the light of Trump’s most recent threats. And, while giving a clear indication of its stance, No 10 has also refused to comment in detail on how the UK would respond if the president carries out his threat to obliterate power plants and bridges in Iran.
At the Downing Street lobby briefing this morning the PM’s spokesperson was asked about a report for the i saying “Britain will refuse to allow Donald Trump to use RAF bases for any strikes on Iranian bridges or power plants”.
The spokesperson said No 10 would not provide a “running commentary” on what the US was doing, including its use of British bases.
But the spokesperson then went on:
Just to point out, our position on this hasn’t changed. The agreement in place for the US to use UK bases for collective self-defence of the region, including US defensive operations to degrade missile sites and capabilities used to attack ships in the Strait of Hormuz …
The basis for the use of bases is clear. And we have published a summary of the legal advice behind it.
The spokesperson declined to give details of how they government ensured that UK bases were only used by the Americans for attacks that would be deemed “defensive operations”.
And, when asked to confirm that US attacks on power plants would count as war crimes, the spokesperson said he would not comment on hypotheticals and repeated his point about not wanting to give a running commentary on the war – despite journalists pointing out that the government has described Russian attacks on Ukrainians power plants as war crimes.
Asked about Trump’s most recent threats towards Iran, the spokesperson also declined to comment on them explicity. He just said that Keir Starmer’s message has been consistent. (Starmer has repeatedly called for de-escalation.)
Farage claims government to blame for death of woman killed by asylum seeker at press conference with victim’s mother
Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, is holding a press conference now in Warwickshire. He is talking about illegal immigration, and he opened by claiming that almost every week there are cases of serious crime being committed by people who have arrived in the UK on small boats.
There is a live feed here.
He said one of the most shocking cases was the murder of Rhiannon Whyte. Here is Matthew Weaver’s story about the conviction of her killer, a Sudanese asylum seeker.
Farage introduced Rhiannon’s mother, Siobhan Whyte.
In a short speech, Whyte denounced the way “these scumbags that were allowed into this country illegally” and said that, because of what happened, she had been left without a daughter, her children had been left without their sister, and Rhiannon’s little boy had been left without a mum.
Farage then said Rhiannon’s death was “wholly unnecessary in every way”. He also said that he personally blamed the government.
Severin Carrell
Severin Carrell is the Guardian’s Scotland editor.
The Campaign Against Antisemitism has criticised John Swinney’s comments this morning about Kanye West. (See 11.50am.) A spokesperson for the campaign said>>
John Swinney just announced a task force to address surging antisemitism, so it’s jarring to see him brush off Kanye West so casually.
Mr West is possibly the biggest promoter of antisemitic tropes in the world, so feting him in the UK is hardly going to help turn the tide against anti-Jewish racism.
Yes, people have a right to listen to whatever music they want, but one would hope our politicians would discourage them from singing along to ‘Heil Hitler’, one of Mr West’s most recent releases.
Diageo is one of a number of brands that has dropped Wireless over Mr West’s invitation. They have shown more principle than the festival, and more sense than Mr Swinney.
Campaigners give qualified welcome to student loans interest rates cap, but call for bigger changes to make system fairer
Sally Weale
Sally Weale is the Guardian’s education correspondent.
The National Union of Students has welcomed the government’s decision to cap the interest paid on some students loans at 6% – although the NUS, and other campaigners, have said that wider reform of the student loan system is still urgently needed.
Commenting on today’s announcement (see 11.16am), the NUS president, Amira Campbell, said that this was a “huge win”, but that the government needed to go further. She explained:
This government have woken up to the unfairness of student loans, and are taking action to prevent our debts from spiralling further out of control.
For too many years, we’ve been forced to weather these economic shocks, and finally a government have listened to our concerns. This is a huge win, for the over 5 million people on plan 2 loans, the NUS and students’ unions across the country.
But this change cannot come alone. For most graduates, the impact on their day to day lives is felt through the repayment thresholds, which are being frozen for three years and will get very close to the minimum wage by 2030.
We still need to see the chancellor stick by the terms we signed at 17 years old, and raise the threshold in line with our incomes. The government have said they will look into the unfairness of the student loan system, and we will continue to hold them to that.
Nick Hillman, director of the Higher Education Policy Institute thinktank, said the cap would provide some certainty for graduates but the move was little more than a stopgap. He went on:
Each year’s student loan repayments are generally based on inflation in the March of the preceding year. So, until we know the inflation rate for March 2026 [which will be announced on 22 April], we do not know how significant a change this really is.
The maximum current interest rate [based on inflation in March 2025] is 6.2% so, even after this announcement, interest in 2026/27 will actually be very similar to the unpopular level it has been in 2025/26.
Current undergraduate students will not benefit as they are on plan 5 rather than plan 2. Moreover, the higher interest rates – the portion above RPI inflation – is not levied on poorer graduates, so [depending on what inflation was in March 2026] this announcement is unlikely to affect them at all.
No one is likely to oppose this new policy but it just a stopgap. It is unlikely to assuage the recently expressed deep concerns of many 20-something and 30-something graduates. So it is no accident the new policy has been made in a quiet week at Westminster, nor that it has been accompanied by a clear signal that there might be more help to come in future.
Oliver Gardner, founder of Rethink Repayment grassroots campaign for student loan reforms, said the cap announced today was not a solution to the student loans crisis. He said:
It is merely a stopgap to help protect graduates with plan 2 and plan 3 loans from some of the most egregious aspects of the system – in particular, the maximum interest rate of up to RPI + 3% that can be charged on these loans.
In contrast, Rethink Repayment is calling for “a fairer student loan system that works for young people and gives them a realistic chance of paying back what they initially borrowed, rather than watching their balances soar despite making significant monthly repayments.”
Tom Allingham, student loans expert at Save the Student, a student money website, welcomed the cap, but said the announcement was short on detail and called for more radical reform to the system. He said:
Amid the ongoing student loan inquiry [announced last month by the Commons Treasury committee] and growing cries from students and graduates for reform, we’re calling on the government to announce far more substantial changes that create a truly fair system.
Greens urge Streeting to ‘get serious’ about concerns of resident doctors who are on strike
The Green party is backing resident doctors who are on strike. This morning the party issued a statement on the dispute from its co-deputy leader, Mothin Ali, saying:
Rather than shifting goalposts or arm twisting resident doctors with threats over training places, Wes Streeting needs to get serious about resolving resident doctors long term concerns over pay, training and working conditions. The government’s 10-year plan for the NHS will go nowhere if the workforce feels unappreciated, devalued and demotivated.
Swinney refuses to back calls for Kanye West to dropped from Wireless festival
Severin Carrell
Severin Carrell is the Guardian’s Scotland editor.
John Swinney has refused to back calls for Kanye West’s concert in London to be cancelled, saying people “we live in a free country … Let’s just let people listen to the music they want to.”
The first minister was questioned about the intensifying backlash after the rapper’s booking to headline the Wireless festival despite his repeated anti-semitism and his admiration for Adolf Hitler, including offering a swastika-emblazoned tee shirt on his website.
Legally known as Ye, the rapper insists he has recanted, blamed bipolar disorder, and has offered to meet Jewish representatives in London. Wes Streeting, the health secretary, had objected to his appearance, while the Home Office is investigating a ban.
Talking to reporters at a Holyrood election campaign event in Edinburgh, Swinney was asked whether Ye should be allowed to perform in the UK or whether he’d be welcomed to appear at a Scottish festival.
He told LBC:
I think I’m going to stay out of the selection of music by different bands. We live in a free country; people are going to say things. Let’s just let people listen to the music they want to.
Swinney indicated he was reluctant to comment after coming under fire after demanding last year that the Northern Irish band Kneecap should be banned from a Scottish festival after appearing to sanction the murder of Tory MPs. Swinney indicated on Tuesday he now feels he should not have intervened in that controversy.
Pressed by reporters about that stance, he said:
People should choose their music and they don’t really they need advice from John Swinney unless they want to listen to The Jam or Amy McDonald.
Noting Ye had recorded songs praising Hitler and the prospect of a UK government ban, a Record reporter asked again: “You’re telling us that people should just be allowed to hear the music?”
Swinney replied:
Well, the government should go on and take their decisions within their powers, but I’m not going to give a running commentary on music taste.
John Swinney denounces Trump’s threats to Iran as ‘unconscionable’
Donald Trump’s comments about Iran have becoming increasingly extreme and unhinged. Lucy Campbell has more on that here.
Speaking to reporters at a campaign event this morning, John Swinney, the SNP leader and Scottish first minister, said that the threats being made by Trump against Iran were “unconscionable”. He said:
The entire conflict in Iran should not be taking place.
This is an unwarranted and illegal intervention by the United States and Israel and what has been started by President Trump, very clearly, cannot be concluded by Donald Trump.
The threats that are now being made, of the language and of the nature of what has been suggested in recent days, is unconscionable and it will cause enormous, enormous hardship and suffering for people who are already suffering under the Iranian regime.
The need for de-escalation, for a solution that avoids any further military activity in Iran is absolutely essential, and the international community, other governments, have got to work to encourage and to enable such an approach to be taken.
DfE caps student loans interest rate at 6% to protect students and graduates from impact of potential Iran war inflation spike
The Department for Education has announced that that it will cap the interest paid on plan 2 and plan 3 student loans at 6% for the 2026/27 academic years. This will protect students and graduates from England and Wales with these loans from a potential inflation spike caused by the Iran war.
In a news release, the DfE says:
Graduates will not pay the price for a war which the UK has no direct involvement in.
This reform removes the risk of any temporary increase in inflation causing loan balances to compound at an unsustainable rate and is in line with actions taken in the past to secure stability in the student finance system.
Graduates with Plan 2 loans currently pay interest rates of between RPI and RPI plus 3%, depending on their earnings. Current students on Plan 2 and Plan 3 also attract an interest rate of RPI +3% while they are studying.
Interest on Plan 2 and 3 student loans will be capped at 6% instead of RPI+3% to protect borrowers. This will ensure no Plan 2 or Plan 3 borrower faces an interest rate of above 6%, protecting them from any short-term increase in RPI due to global shocks, such as temporary spikes in oil prices, outside the government’s control. The government is clear this is not our war and the UK will not be dragged into conflict, but the impacts will affect the future of our country.
There is further coverage here.
There are five types of student loan repayment plan in operation in the UK, and they vary depending on where in the UK people are from, when they started studing, and what sort of degree they were or are doing. There is a good guide to all five plans here.
Streeting says inviting Kanye West to perform at Wireless was ‘very bad error of judgment’
In his interviews this morning, Wes Streeting also joined those criticising Wireless festival for its decision to invite Kanye West to peform.
Streeting told the Today programme that, given West’s history of antisemitic and pro-Hitler comments, the decision was inexplicable.
I cannot for the life of me understand why Wireless still have him as a headliner.
There are plenty of other talented artists in this country, let alone internationally, who would benefit from the exposure and who in turn would help drive ticket sales.
To provide this kind of platform and opportunity to Kanye West against this backdrop of behaviour I think is a very bad error of judgment.
Streeting also said that for West to blame what he had done on his mental health was also appalling.
When Kanye West uses bipolar disorder to justify his actions, I think that is equally appalling, by the way.
I would ask people to consider, does using bipolar disorder as an excuse to write and release a song called Heil Hitler and plaster it across T-shirts, does bipolar disorder really justify that? Or is it an excuse to justify rotten behaviour?
Streeting says resident doctors’ strike will leave some patients in pain for ‘longer than is necessary’
Here are some more lines from Wes Streeting’s interviews this morning about the resident doctors’ strike.
We don’t want strike action to put people off from coming forward if they need medical attention if they need it – emergency services are running. We’ve managed to maintain we think about 95% of planned care due to take place today, so things like tests and scans, surgeries, procedures.
But I’m not going to pretend that there aren’t consequences to this disruption, if you’re someone who’s waited for your test or scan or your operation, chances are you’ve been waiting a lot longer than I would like you to, and so psyching yourself up for that moment and then getting the cancellation can be both bitterly disappointing, and in some cases, will leave people waiting in pain or anxiety longer than is necessary.
I have never closed the door to the BMA and their representatives.
In fact, last Friday, Good Friday morning, I met with the resident doctors committee officers and asked them directly: ‘What would it take to end these strikes? You’ve rejected the offer we’ve put to you, what is your counter proposal?’ And they didn’t have one.
Resident doctors are, by a country mile, the standout winners of the entire public sector workforce when it comes to the pay rises they have received from this Government, and this was a good deal, they have rejected it.
The day they rejected it, they rushed straight to six days of strike action, which will cost the NHS £300m.
And in that context of the whopping pay rise they received when we came in and the generous deal that they have rejected. I’ll leave your viewers to decide who in this dispute has been most unreasonable.
There aren’t fewer jobs as a result of this, because what we were doing is converting locally employed doctor posts into training places.
The reason why resident doctors will be disappointed, and many of them are, is because those training places come with more pay and career progression opportunities for those doctors.
I have not had NHS leaders banging on my door demanding more of these places, the reason why we negotiated these training places is because I recognised there were bottlenecks affecting resident doctors.
I haven’t taken those places away. The BMA rejected them.
Labour dismisses Reform UK’s slavery reparations announcement as ‘desperate gimmick’
The Labour party has described Reform UK’s reparations announcement (see 9.56am) as “a desperate gimmick”. A Labour spokesperson said:
This is a desperate gimmick from Reform that would do nothing to restore order and control to Britain’s borders.
That’s this Labour government’s focus and that’s why we are taking decisive action to tackle surges in asylum claims by imposing an emergency brake on study and work visas from countries abusing the system, slashing £1bn from the asylum support bill, and halving the length of refugee protection to 30 months.
Nobody will take Nigel Farage seriously on this when his party is full of opportunistic Tories who failed on immigration when they were in government.
Reform UK would stop visas for people from countries seeking slavery reparations
Eric Williams, who wrote a landmark history of the slave trade and who subsequently became the first prime minister of Trindad and Tobago after indepndence, once famously wrote:
British historians write almost as if Britain had introduced Negro slavery merely for the satisfaction of abolishing it.
He died in 1981 but he might have been gratified to learn that, more than 40 years on, his insight remains as valid as ever – at least judging by what Reform UK is up to today.
Slavery reparations are not a pressing issue in UK politics; given that none of the mainstream parties as ever proposed paying reparations, they should not even make the top 100 as a matter of pressing political dispute. But they are powerful ammunition for the right in the culture wars, and fail-safe clickbait, and today Reform UK is announcing that, if it were in government, it would refuse to issue visa to countries demaning reparations from the UK. Jamie Grierson has the details.
While the mainstream parties do not back reparations, the Green party is in favour. After the UN general assembly passed a resolution last month condemning slavery as a crime against humanity, the Green party issued a statement saying:
Many Green party activists have over the years been working hard towards establishing Reparative Justice in the UK and this United Nations motion will go a long way in supporting the global reparations movement.
It is not just problematic, but deeply sad that the countries most involved in the trans-Atlantic trafficking of African people were the countries to either vote against, or abstain from the motion, giving underhanded, loophole excuses to fight against accountability.
Streeting accuses BMA of hypocrisy, saying it’s giving its staff pay rise well below what resident doctors offered
In his interviews this morning Wes Streeting, the health secretary, accused the BMA of hypocrisy over pay because the organisation is offering its own staff far less than the resident doctors are demanding.
He told BBC Breakfast:
And here’s the real kicker; having rejected this deal because the pay offer apparently wasn’t good enough at 4.9%, the BMA are offering their own staff 2.75% on affordability grounds.
Why does the BMA think they can get away with telling their own staff they only get 2.75% because that’s all they can afford, whilst rejecting a 4.9% offer because that’s all the government can afford.
It seems to me, the BMA aren’t willing to put their hands in their own pockets to pay their own staff, but they’re very happy to try and fleece your viewers, asking them to pay even more in tax than I think this country can afford.
He made the same point in an interview on Today, explaining what the BMA was doing and adding: “There’s a word for that.”
In a separate interview on the Today programme, Jack Fletcher, chair of its resident doctors committee, said that he was not responsible for what the BMA paid its staff and that he supported their right to go on strike.
Wes Streeting says strikes by resident doctors have cost country £3bn over past 3 years as fresh walkout starts
Good morning. Resident doctors in English hospitals started a six-day strike at 7am this morning. Many of them will continue to work, but there will be enough of them joining the strike to have a significant impact on the care hospitals can deliver. It is the 15th resident doctors (who used to be known as junior doctors) have been on stage since they launched a campaign in 2023 to get their pay back to the equivalent level it used to be before austerity kicked in after the financial crash.
This morning Wes Streeting, the health secretary, deployed a new statistic in his PR battle against the BMA, the doctors’ union organised the strikes. He confirmed a figure highlighted in the Daily Mail’s splash saying strikes by resident doctors have now cost the country £3bn.
In an interview with the Today programme, asked if that was an official government figure, Streeting replied:
We think that strikes cost £50m a day. And so that is, an accurate reflection of the cost of these strikes.
But, when it was put to him the BMA is saying that £3bn is about what it would have cost to give the resident doctors the pay rise they are demaning, Streeting would not accept this. He replied:
What is true is that in order to deliver a full pay restoration back to 2008 levels, using the RPI account of inflation, it would cost in the order of £3bn a year.
Let’s then assume that other NHS staff would understandably demand the same. Then that cost would be more like £30bn a year. That is more than the entire cost of the Ministry of Justice’s entire budget for running the criminal justice system.
Now, this goes to the heart of the intransigence of the BMA. Despite being the biggest winner by a country mile of public sector pay increases – since this government came in, 28.9% is what they got from us – within weeks of taking office, they still went out on strike.
Andrew Gregory and Peter Walker have more from what Streeting has been saying about the strike here.
I will post more from Streeting’s broadcast interviews this morning shortly.
Here is the agenda for the day.
7am: Resident doctors started a six-day strike in England. (Rather, some of them did – in the past, many doctors have chosen to work rather than to join the BMA strike.)
9.15am: John Swinney, SNP leader and Scottish first minister, holds a campaign event focused on fuel prices. Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, is holding a campaign event focused on pothole policy (at 9.30am), and Russell Findlay, the Scottish Conservative leader, is launching his manifesto (at 2pm).
Morning: Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, is campaigning in Newcastle.
Noon: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
12.30pm: Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, is holding a press conference in Warwickshire.
Afternoon: Military planners from around 35 countries interested in plans to keep the strait of Hormuz open after the Iran war ends meet to discuss options at the UK’s Permanent Joint Headquarters in Northwood, north-west London.
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