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Rishi Sunak argued the government’s approach to dealing with people crossing the Channel was fairer for the taxpayer than putting asylum seekers up in hotels, as he defended the government’s decision to accommodate migrants on the Bibby Stockholm barge. He said: “What has happened here is it is right that we go through all the checks and procedures to ensure the wellbeing and health of the people being housed on the barge. But taking a step back, what is this about? This is about fairness. It is about the unfairness, in fact, of British taxpayers forking out £5m or £6m a day to house illegal migrants in hotels up and down the country, with all the pressure that puts on local communities. We’ve got to find alternatives to that.”
Health minister Will Quince said asylum seekers could return to the Bibby Stockholm barge within days, describing the discovery of legionella bacteria on the vessel as “a teething issue”. The mayor of Portland has said the Home Office should accept responsibility for failing to immediately remove asylum seekers from the barge after the detection of dangerous bacteria.
The EU has rejected reports that it is not open to a new deal with the UK on returning people who have crossed the Channel, after a leak of purported discussions between London and Brussels. A leaked copy of a memo on discussions with the UK’s national security adviser, Sir Tim Barrow, was reported to have included mention of an aide to the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, ruling out a post-Brexit “returns agreement”.
The shadow health secretary Wes Streeting accused the government of offering the NHS a “sticking plaster”, with the announcement that £250m was to be set aside to boost capacity before winter. Streeting said the NHS had “huge backlogs, unacceptable waiting times and an annual winter crisis”, adding “Now Rishi Sunak is offering a sticking plaster, which comes nowhere near the 12,000 beds the Conservatives have cut over the last 13 years.”
On a visit to a hospital in Milton Keynes, Sunak blamed striking workers for halting progress on reducing waiting lists, saying: “Unfortunately, the progress that we were making has stalled because of the industrial action.” He added that he wanted junior doctors to accept the pay deal on offer so “we can all get back to treating patients and getting those waiting lists down”. The government earlier ruled out any further discussion on pay with junior doctors.
The Royal College of Nursing general secretary and chief executive, Pat Cullen, was also critical of the government’s plans, pointing out there were more than 40,000 vacant nursing posts in England.
Quince told Sky News that cancer targets would be merged, not scrapped, insisting: “This is an announcement due to be made following a consultation, this is not something that the government has led on, but it’s NHS England, oncologists, clinicians and, indeed, cancer charities have called for this change.”
Keir Starmer has attacked the UK government’s decision to block Scotland’s gender recognition reforms, accusing ministers in London of misusing their powers under devolution. The UK Labour leader said the power used by Westminster, which stopped Holyrood from enacting a law to allow people to change gender without medical tests, was designed to promote collaboration, not conflict, between the two parliaments.
Starmer said Labour would set up a powerful new UK-level council of the nations where leaders of the UK’s four governments would negotiate. The UK and Scottish Labour parties remain divided on how best to reform gender recognition legislation – a division the Scottish National party will exploit during the Rutherglen and Hamilton West byelection. Starmer’s new stance suggests he now accepts Scottish Labour has the right to pursue different policies and that Holyrood can diverge from the rest of the UK on this issue.
The Conservative party chair, Greg Hands, has been urged to launch an internal investigation into the Welsh secretary, David TC Davies, over “unacceptable” and “racist” comments against the Traveller community. The Labour peer Janet Whitaker, and Mary Kelly Foy, the Labour MP for Durham City, who are the co-chairs of the all-party parliamentary group for Gypsies, Travellers and Roma, have urged Hands to work with them to ensure that “whipping up concern and opposition” about the GRT community does not happen again.
A coalition of charities and health experts has called for an overhaul of the UK’s “broken” sick pay system, as the number of people prevented from working by long-term sickness reached a record high.
Next year’s rise in English rail fares will be below inflation, the government has announced.
The personal data of more than 1,000 people, including victims of crime, was included in FoI responses issued by Norfolk and Suffolk constabularies, the forces have said. The data included personal identifiable information on victims, witnesses and suspects relating to a range of offences including sexual offences, domestic incidents, assaults, hate crime and thefts.
The DUP leader, Jeffrey Donaldson, said the PSNI data leak in Northern Ireland could undermine the ability of the police and security services to keep tabs on dissident republicans, while the Alliance party leader, Naomi Long, expressed concern about its long-term impact on retention and recruitment into roles that “already face an extraordinary level of threat”.
That is it from me today, we will be closing the blog shortly. Thank you for all your comments. I will be back with you tomorrow.Updated at 17.10 BSTYoungMinds has said England is facing a mental health emergency, and called on the government to take action on the “rapidly escalating” situation.Analysis of NHS England data by the charity found there were 3,732 urgent referrals to mental health services for under-18s at the end of May.It is more than triple the 1,322 urgent referrals recorded for that age group in May 2019.PA Media reports that Laura Bunt, the chief executive of YoungMinds, said the statistics “should sound the alarm”.“They are indicative of a system that is broken and a government that has refused to listen to young people demanding change,” she added. “We are now in a mental health emergency and the government must get a grip on the scale of this crisis.”Updated at 16.32 BSTBen QuinnMy colleague Ben Quinn has our news wrap on Rishi Sunak’s comments today:Rishi Sunak has insisted that his government is committed to its controversial plans to house asylum seekers on a barge after a series of setbacks which have frustrated a flagship “stop the boats” policy.In his first comments since people due to be housed on the Bibby Stockholm were removed from the vessel when traces of legionella bacteria were found in the water supply, he argued that the approach was fairer for the taxpayer than putting up asylum seekers in hotels.However, the prime minister avoided a question about whether he was personally warned about potential health risks for asylum seekers onboard the barge.Read more here: Sunak ‘committed’ to housing asylum seekers on Bibby StockholmAletha AduOur political correspondent Aletha Adu reports:The Conservative party chair, Greg Hands, has been urged to launch an internal investigation into the Welsh secretary, David TC Davies, over “unacceptable” and “racist” comments against the Traveller community.This month Davies circulated a leaflet telling voters: “Gypsy and Traveller site coming to your area soon!” and asking them: “Would you like to see a Traveller site next to your house?”After Davies was accused of creating a “hostile environment”, the deputy prime minister, Oliver Dowden, defended his colleague, saying he was highlighting failings of the local Labour council.Davies has denied accusations that he was, in one Labour MP’s words, “abetting anti-GRT [Gypsy, Roma and Traveller] racism”.While Gwent police have decided to take no further action in relation to the leaflet, Labour and charities that support the Traveller community fear his comments have endangered the safety of the minority group and say the remarks should be condemned by the Conservative party.The Labour peer Janet Whitaker and Mary Kelly Foy, the Labour MP for Durham City, who are the co-chairs of the all-party parliamentary group for Gypsies, Travellers and Roma, have urged Hands to work with them to ensure that “whipping up concern and opposition” about the GRT community does not happen again.Read more here: MPs call on Tory party to investigate Welsh secretary’s ‘racist’ leaflet about TravellersUpdated at 16.20 BSTJunior doctor members of the union representing hospital doctors have voted to accept a Scottish government pay deal.The deal made by ministers last month won the support of 67.5% of members in the HCSA Scotland ballot, on a turnout of just over 74%. Along with the pay increase, PA Media reports that the Scottish government also committed to a new pay review mechanism.Earlier today the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, blamed industrial action for a failure to make progress on cutting NHS waiting times in England. The government said it had ruled out further talks with junior doctors in England over pay, insisting the current offer was final.Updated at 16.31 BSTIt is the 25th anniversary of the Omagh bombing today, and a private memorial service has been held. Some bereaved family members laid single white roses and then said prayers at the glass obelisk which marks the spot where the attack occurred on 15 August 1998. About 100 people lined the street, PA Media reports. It follows a public service which took place at the Omagh memorial garden on Sunday.Caroline Martin, the sister of Esther Gibson, who died in the Omagh bombing, lays flowers at the site of the atrocity to mark the 25th anniversary. Photograph: Liam McBurney/PAThe president of Ireland, Michael D Higgins, earlier called for the facts around the 1998 bombing to be established “fully and fairly”.He said: “In remembering the 31 victims, including children, on that tragic day, along with those who suffered injuries, we realise how important the quest for the truth as to what happened is to all those relatives who were affected. In offering our support for the relatives’ quest for the truth as to what happened on that day, I am acutely aware of how long they have waited.”He said he wished to “pay special tribute” to those whose “extraordinary patience, courage and coming together have shaped a path towards peace and reconciliation”.Our Ireland correspondent, Rory Carroll, wrote earlier this year that the UK government’s decision in February this year to hold an inquiry into the bombing was the result of a long, lonely campaign by some of the injured and bereaved for truth and justice. He wrote:
The Real IRA, a dissident republican group, admitted responsibility. But police in Ireland and Northern Ireland struggled to gather enough evidence to convict suspects.
In 2002 a Dublin court convicted a dissident republican, Colm Murphy, of plotting the bombing, only for the conviction to be later quashed. In 2003 Michael McKevitt, a Real IRA leader, was found guilty of directing terrorism but not charged with Omagh.
In 2009, some victims’ relatives won a civil case: McKevitt and three other men were found liable for the bomb and ordered to pay £1.6m in damages. It was a symbolic victory because the four suspects remained free and did not pay a penny. McKevitt died of cancer in 2021.
Omagh families waged a separate battle to scrutinise security services’ action – or lack of action – before and after the attack. Eleven days before the bomb the Royal Ulster Constabulary was warned of a planned attack in Omagh on 15 August.
Updated at 16.40 BSTLibby BrooksLibby Brooks, our Scotland correspondent, writes:Men in positions of power must take the lead in tackling toxic masculinity, which is a root cause of gender-based abuse, Scotland’s first minister has said.Writing for the Guardian, Humza Yousaf said: “It is simply not good enough to say ‘it is not all men’ and wash our hands of the problem we have collectively created; every single man can, and should, play his role in making change.”Yousaf said his growing awareness had caused him to reflect on his own behaviour. “Without doubt, in my younger years I will have told a misogynistic joke at the expense of women, or not challenged behaviour that was demeaning to women.”Yousaf, who has faced a series of challenges since he replaced Nicola Sturgeon as SNP leader in March, including the continuing investigation into party finances in which Sturgeon was arrested, a toxic confrontation with Westminster over gender recognition changes, a byelection in Rutherglen against a resurgent Scottish Labour and a festering row among MSPs about their governing alliance with the Scottish Greens, said he wanted Scotland to show “global leadership”.He has pledged to continue the work of the Barack Obama-inspired National Council for Women and Girls set up by his predecessor and appointed a gender-balanced cabinet, as Sturgeon did.“There is a great opportunity for all men in positions of influence to demonstrate real leadership on this hugely important issue,” he said. “Whether in politics, in the office, on the work site, in school, the pub or our own living rooms, we can all do more as men to challenge problematic behaviour among our friends, colleagues and family members.”You can read Humza Yousaf’s piece in full here: Misogynists like Andrew Tate hold sway over thousands of men and boys. Male leaders like me must address thatUpdated at 16.43 BSTHere is a bit of response on the news that rail fares in England will not be going up as much as inflation next year. [See 13.00 BST]Pressure group Campaign for Better Transport called for fares to be unchanged “in recognition of the burden high fares place on rail passengers”.Chief executive Paul Tuohy said: “The government should freeze rail fares – as they have done with fuel duty – until the long-promised ticketing reform takes place.”PA Media reports Anthony Smith, chief executive of watchdog Transport Focus, said: “Nobody likes their fare going up, but after a year where many journeys have been blighted by disruption due to industrial action and patchy performance, passengers will be relieved to hear that fares will be capped below the retail prices index and any increases will be delayed until March next year.”The Scottish and Welsh governments have not announced their policies towards rail fares changes next year.Starmer attacks UK government over decision to block Scotland’s gender recognition reformsSeverin CarrellOur Scotland editor, Severin Carrell, has been in Rutherglen during the UK Labour leader’s visit today:Keir Starmer has attacked the UK government’s decision to block Scotland’s gender recognition reforms, accusing ministers in London of misusing their powers under devolution.The UK Labour leader said the power used by Westminster, which stopped Holyrood from enacting a law to allow people to change gender without medical tests, was designed to promote collaboration, not conflict, between the two parliaments.The Tory government’s decision to use their powers under section 35 of the Scotland Act 1998 for the first time has provoked a constitutional battle with the Scottish government.Ministers in Edinburgh are going to court next month to ask Scottish judges to rule that the section 35 order is an unlawful interference with Holyrood’s powers to decide policy in Scotland. The UK government insists the Scottish bill interferes with UK laws, and therefore goes beyond Holyrood’s jurisdiction.During a campaigning event in Rutherglen on Tuesday in advance of a forthcoming Westminster byelection there, Starmer said the dispute was a “classic example” of the Tories and SNP wanting to fuel constitutional conflicts rather than constructively solving policy disputes.Starmer said: “If you look at the theory behind the framework, it was intended not to empower the Westminster government to block in a muscular way things that the Scottish parliament wanted to do. That wasn’t the intention.“The intention was to deliver a mechanism so that whatever the Scottish parliament wanted could be adjusted within a framework that has been agreed by everybody, to enable provisions, not to block provisions.”Keir Starmer and the Scottish Labour leader, Anas Sarwar, holding an ‘In Conversation’ event in Glasgow earlier today. Photograph: Andrew Milligan/PAHe said Labour would set up a powerful new UK-level council of the nations where leaders of the UK’s four governments would negotiate.The UK and Scottish Labour parties remain divided on how best to reform gender recognition legislation – a division the Scottish National party will exploit during the Rutherglen and Hamilton West byelection.Starmer wants to retain the rule requiring medical tests in England and Wales, and does not believe self-identification “is the right way forward”.Starmer’s new stance suggests he now accepts Scottish Labour has the right to pursue different policies and that Holyrood can diverge from the rest of the UK on this issue.Scottish Labour voted for the Scottish government reforms, although it tried to water down some clauses, including on age bars and its interaction with the UK Equality Act. Mark Drakeford, the Welsh first minister and Welsh Labour leader, supports Scotland’s reforms, but Cardiff does not yet have the powers to initiate a similar change.Updated at 14.03 BSTBen QuinnA coalition of charities and health experts has called for an overhaul of the UK’s “broken” sick pay system, as the number of people prevented from working by long-term sickness reached a record high.The health secretary, Steve Barclay, was urged in a letter to support changes that the campaign says would not just address widening health inequalities but also benefit the economy.Figures released on Tuesday morning by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed the number of people across the UK who are economically inactive because of long-term sickness is a record 2.5 million, up 400,000 since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.It would be difficult to achieve the aims of the government’s recent “back to work” budget without a healthy workforce who were supported when they got ill, Barclay was told in the letter, coordinated by the Safe Sick Pay campaign.“Our sick pay system lags behind the rest of Europe,” says the letter, whose signatories included the chief executives of Mind, the Centre for Mental Health, the Business Disability Forum and Prof Jim McManus, the president of the Association of Directors of Public Health.For the UK to come into line with international standards, they call for changes including the abolition of the earnings threshold for statutory sick pay (SSP) – a change that would help those including workers with a number of jobs – along with making SSP payable from the first day of sickness and increasing it to be in line with a worker’s wages up to the “real living wage”.Read more here: Charities and experts call for overhaul of ‘broken’ UK sick pay systemUpdated at 13.50 BST