NHS needs £25bn in emergency cash, Theresa May told

Staff reporter(wp):

NHS leaders are urging Theresa May to give the health service an emergency cash injection of £25bn before 2020 or risk a decline in the quality of care for patients and lengthening delays for treatment.

An influential group representing NHS trusts says that the care provided by hospitals and GP surgeries will suffer over the next few years unless the prime minister provides an £5bn a year for the next three years – and a further £10bn of capital for modernising equipment and buildings.

NHS Providers is preparing to release its own manifesto next week, calling on the Conservatives and Labour to end what it calls the austerity funding of the health service. Saffron Cordery, the director of policy and strategy , said its analysis showed that there was a “revenue gap” of £4.5bn-£5bn a year in 2017-18 and “each of the subsequent two years as well”.

Hospitals needed that sum, said Cordery, to get rid of their deficits of £800m-£900m a year, fulfil new NHS commitments on cancer and mental health and improve their performance against key waiting time targets.

The NHS also needed a further £10bn for capital spending on building and repairing premises, buying new equipment and modernising how care is provided, she added. That is the sum which a recent report commissioned by the Department of Health said the service needed for those purposes.

May inherited a pledge from David Cameron and George Osborne to provide a £10bn real-terms increase between April 2014 and April 2021. So far in the election campaign, the prime minister has refused to be drawn on how she might fund the health service, telling journalists that they would have to wait for the publication of the party’s manifesto.

A second group, the NHS Confederation, which represents hospitals and ambulance and mental health services, urged May to commit to giving the NHS £8bn-a-year annual budget increases after 2020-21, when the current funding settlement expires. The DH’s budget is due to reach £133.1bn by March 2021.

Niall Dickson, its chief executive, said NHS services were so stretched that it would have to go back to getting at least the 4%-a-year budget increases it enjoyed historically between its creation in 1948 and 2010. After that, the coalition government limited rises to 1% annually.

“It’s quite unsustainable for the shackles to remain on the health and care system and for society to expect the levels of need that will arrive over the next 10-15 years to be met unless it is willing to fund them,” Dickson said. “If we aren’t ready to put significant extra resources into the NHS then difficult choices will need to be made about things that we are going to do.”

Prof John Appleby, the chief economist of the Nuffield Trust thinktank, said that returning to 4% a year rises “would require a cash increase of around £8bn in 2021-22”.

While Tory backing for such large sums was unlikely, “this could change if the NHS continues to miss its headline performance targets and the concern the public are starting to express about the NHS continues to rise”, he added.

The two interventions put pressure on May on an issue that some polls show is top of voters’ list of priorities in the general election, even ahead of Brexit.

Jeremy Hunt, the health secretary, has said several times that the NHS budget will need to rise by a significant amount after the current funding schedule ends in March 2021. For example, last October he told the Commons health select committee: “It is a given that over coming decades we will need to put more into the health and social care system … if we want a high quality healthcare service, yes, we need to continue investing more.”

Simon Stevens, the chief executive of NHS England, has voiced concern that per capita health funding will decline in 2018-19 and 2019-20. It is due to fall from its current level of £2,223 a head this year by £16 next year and £7 in 2019.

Anita Charlesworth, the director of research at the Health Foundation thinktank, said the NHS could no longer make ends meet by holding down pay and reducing investment in equipment and facilities. “Cracks are evident – access to new drugs is being restricted, waiting times have increased and recruitment and retention are growing problems across the NHS. The health service can always be more efficient but it cannot bridge the gap between pressures rising at 4% and funding at 1% for much longer without quality and access suffering,” she said.

A Conservative spokesman said: “A strong NHS needs a strong economy. Only Theresa May and the Conservatives offer the strong and stable leadership we need to secure our growing economy in future and with it funding for the NHS and its dedicated staff.

“We’ve protected and increased the NHS budget and got thousands more staff in hospitals – but we know that progress is on the ballot paper at this election.”

Tory MP's aide denies parliament rape charges

Political reporter(wp):

A Conservative MP’s aide has denied raping a woman in the Houses of Parliament.

Sam Armstrong, who has been suspended as chief of staff to the South Thanet MP, Craig Mackinlay, pleaded not guilty at Southwark crown court on Friday to four charges including two counts of rape, one count of sexual assault by penetration and one count of sexual assault.

The 23-year-old, from Danbury, Essex, is accused of raping and sexually assaulting the woman in an office in the Norman Shaw North building on the parliamentary estate on 14 October 2016.

Armstrong entered not guilty pleas and spoke to confirm his name. The judge, Deborah Taylor, scheduled the trial for 11 December at the same court.

Jonathan Polnay, prosecuting, did not object to Armstrong being released on bail. The accused was released on condition that he did not enter the Palace of Westminster or contact the alleged victim.

Air pollution plan cannot be delayed, high court tells government

Law&Justice reporter(wp):

The government has been ordered to publish tough new plans to tackle air pollution after the high court rejected attempts by ministers to keep the policy under wraps until after the general election.

In the latest defeat for ministers over their continued failure to tackle the UK’s air pollution crisis, which is believed to be responsible for 40,000 premature deaths a year,, Mr Justice Garnham said the secretary of state, Andrea Leadsom, was in breach of a court order to take action in the shortest possible time and that any further delays would constitute a further breach.

He said it was essential to publish draft plans to cut air pollution immediately to safeguard public health. The judge rejected a government application to appeal, saying that ministers would have to go to the appeal court if they wanted to seek permission to challenge his ruling.

The judgment came after ministers applied to court to keep their plans secret until after the general election, saying it was necessary to “comply with pre-election propriety rules”. The new measures are likely to include the imposition of multiple clean-air zones across the country, where drivers will face fines if their vehicles do not pass roadside emissions tests.

Garnham on Thursday ordered ministers to publish their draft plan within two weeks – on 9 May, after local elections on 4 May – and said the government must comply with his original order and release their final policy on tackling the air crisis by 31 July.

“These steps are necessary in order to safeguard public health,” said the judge. “The continued failure of the government to comply with directives and regulations constitutes a significant threat to public health.”

The judge said the government’s own figures showed that nitrogen dioxide pollution – primarily from diesel traffic – is linked to the premature deaths of 23,500 people a year in the UK. “That is more than 64 deaths each day,” Garnham said.

The court decided that the threat to public health constituted “exceptional circumstances”, which meant purdah guidelines in the runup to a general election could be waived. “Immediate publication [of the policy] is essential,” he said.

Dr Penny Woods, chief executive of the British Lung Foundation, said common sense had prevailed. “The nation’s dirty air is one of the most important public health issues in recent times. The high court’s decision recognises the need to urgently tackle this crisis.”

Last November, ministers were taken to court by the environmental group ClientEarth over their failure to take measures to reduce air pollution, which put them in breach of EU law and domestic regulations.

The judge found for ClientEarth and said the government’s original plans were so poor as to be unlawful. The plans included five clean-air zones where diesel drivers faced charges if their cars did not pass emissions tests. The judge gave ministers until 24 April at 4pm to come up with a new draft policy to tackle air pollution from diesel traffic.

On Thursday the government was called to court by Garnham to explain why it had made a last-minute application late last Friday to delay publication of a draft policy to tackle air pollution until after the general election.

James Eadie QC, representing the government, said the new policy was ready to be published, but that it would be controversial and should therefore be withheld until after the election.

“If you publish a draft plan, it drops all the issues of controversy into the election … like dropping a controversial bomb,” he said, adding that this could risk breaching rules about civil service neutrality and could lead to the policy being labelled a Tory plan.

But Garnham said in his judgment that purdah was not a principle of law and the exceptional circumstances of the threat to public health that meant its rules could be overridden.

“It does not give ministers a defence to the principles of private and public law … It is not binding on the courts. It provides no immediate right for an extension of time to comply with an order of the court. It is not a trump card,” he said.

The judge said the court had in November ordered Leadsom to publish the draft plan to tackle illegal levels of air pollution across the country and that she had still failed to do so.

“In November 2016, I found the secretary of state was in breach of directives and regulations. The secretary of state remains in breach. She is obliged to comply as soon as possible.” Garnham added that any further delay would constitute a further breach.

James Thornton, CEO of ClientEarth, welcomed the ruling. He said: “The government has never stopped delaying when it comes to cleaning up our air. I would urge them not to appeal and to get on with it. Enough dithering. The judge was extremely clear.”

Sue Hayman, the shadow environment secretary, said it was the third time the government had lost in court over the issue.

“The government must publish their air quality plan without delay. A Labour government would bring forward a new Clean Air Act setting out how we would tackle air pollution.”

Liberal Democrat Ed Davey, former secretary of state for energy and climate change, said: “This is a dramatic defeat for the Conservative government. Ministers have used taxpayer money to try to hide proof of their environmental failures. And they have even failed there, too.

“With scientists showing the health impact of air pollution being far worse than we thought, it is disgraceful for the Conservatives to try to bury the truth from voters.” 

Jonathan Bartley, Green party co-leader, said the government’s attempt to delay publishing its policy showed “disdain for public health and a complete failure to grasp the extent of the emergency facing the UK”.

The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said he was pleased that ministers now had to face up to their responsibilities. “Ministers were dragged kicking and screaming to face the huge scale of this health crisis but rather than take action, they used the election as a smokescreen to hold back their plan.”

London bank customers to have faces tracked and mood assessed

Banking&finance reporter(wp/es):

Customers popping into a London bank branch from today will have their face tracked and their mood assessed when they leave it.

Clydesdale and Yorkshire Bank has installed an Apple Store-inspired “lab” in its Kensington High Street branch with new technology, which includes being able to check bank balances using Amazon’s Alexa voice recognition system.

The project, named Studio B,  features a polished steel portal with a digital display which reacts to  people as they walk in, plus a huge animated video wall and computer games. Facial recognition technology tracks a customer’s journey around the branch and assesses whether they are smiling or frowning when they leave.

Workshops hosted at the new branch will include one educating  children about the future repercussions of impulse buying.

Helen Page, the bank group’s  innovation and marketing director, said: “It doesn’t look anything like a branch or feel like a bank ... people initially thought it was an Apple Store or we were selling phones.

“We want to put the fun back into finance and help customers find practical solutions to the challenges they face.” Asked about privacy  concerns over facial tracking, she said there were still private areas for customers to meet staff.

Celebrities' horror as young man stabbed to death 'on their doorstep'

Crime reporter(wp/es):

Celebrities have today expressed their horror after a 24-year-old man was knifed to death “on their doorstep” in a leafy, south London enclave.

Model Imogen Thomas revealed she was “petrified” to sleep in her home after the victim was stabbed in the neck as he tried to escape an argument that broke out in the heart of ‘Nappy Valley’ in Wandsworth Common.

A passing Au Pair performed first aid on him but he was declared dead at the scene outside Wandsworth Preparatory School which costs £13,000 a year to attend at 7.30pm on Tuesday night.

Forensics were still sweeping the scene last night digging up drains and cutting down bushes as they gathered more evidence.

Former Big Brother contestent Imogen Thomas told of her shock of the killing as her home was cordoned off by police as part of the crime scene.

She said on Twitter: “[The murder was] literally on my door step. So sad. I was petrified sleeping last night. Thoughts are with the victim’s family. RIP.”

Ready Steady Cook star Ainsley Harriott lives in a house overlooking the murder scene and said the killing had a “devastating” impact on his community.

He told the Weastar Times: “It’s devastating for us around here. We are a very close community and this is a shock to us all. There were police cars and emergency services all over the place.

“This knife crime has to stop, I don’t know what can be done. Where do you start?

“If you stop kids carrying knives that may well not put an end to the violence. There are other weapons people can turn to. It’s about education that’s where it must start.

“Wherever you live you have to stop and think, there seems to be another murder every day. We are all talking about this around here. We are very close knit, we are dog walkers and care about our community. This is just awful, awful, awful.”

A TV journalist, who didn’t want to be named, said from his £2.5million house: “Life really is cheap sometimes.

“It’s shocking, I was upstairs when it happened and was waiting for it to be on the news. It’s worrying you don’t wish something like that on your worst enemy. We had that poor kid in Battersea nearby who was killed as well. It just seems never-ending at the moment.

“The emergency services were excellent, I must say. Their response was phenomenal but sadly nothing could be done. It was upsetting to see him go in the ambulance with no-one with him.

“It’s a sad reality but we just hope the killer is brought to justice.”

The murder comes days after Mohammed Hasan, 17, was hacked to death by a machete-wielding gang less than a mile away in a Battersea estate. The Met said it was too soon to make any link between the two deaths.

Nobody has been arrested in connection with the attack in Wandsworth.

Amazon creates 1,200 jobs at warehouse equipped with advanced robotics

Business reporter(wp):

Amazon is to create 1,200 new permanent jobs as it opens a new warehouse in Warrington where staff will work alongside the online retail giant’s robots.

The US group said the new fulfilment centre, part of a significant expansion across the UK, will take its workforce in Britain to 24,000 by the end of this year.

Amazon will be hiring for a range of new roles including operations managers, engineers, human resources and IT specialists. The Warrington site will be one of two, along with Tilbury, due to open this autumn, which will be equipped with advanced Amazon robotics technology. 

“The Amazon teams are dedicated to innovating in our fulfilment centres to increase efficiency of delivery while enabling greater selection at lower costs for our customers,” said Stefano Perego, director of UK customer fulfilment at Amazon UK.

“The introduction of Amazon robotics in Warrington and Tilbury is the latest example of our commitment to invention in logistics on behalf of our employees and our customers.”

The company, which will have 15 fulfilment centres across the UK by the end of this year, said that it is offering “competitive wages and comprehensive benefits” to new staff.

Fufilment centre staff will start on £7.65 an hour minimum, rising to at least £8.15 over their first two years of employment. Employees also receive grants of Amazon shares and a company pension.

“We are thrilled to begin recruitment for 1,200 new permanent roles in Warrington with competitive wages and comprehensive benefits starting on day one,” said Perego.

The company has already opened one new fulfilment centre this year, Daventry in February, with centres at Doncaster, Warrington and Tilbury to begin operation in the autumn. The Daventry, Doncaster and and Tilbury sites created more than 2,300 new jobs.

Amazon is also opening its first dedicated “receive centre” in Coventry next year, which will act as a central hub to receive and sort millions of products sold by its UK site each year. Recruitment for Coventry, which will create 1,650 jobs, will begin next year.

Angela Merkel attacks British 'illusion' of keeping benefits of EU

Political reporter(wp):

Angela Merkel has said British politicians are still living under the “illusion” that the UK will retain most of its rights and privileges once it leaves the European Union.

Addressing her parliament ahead of this weekend’s EU summit at which European leaders will formally adopt Brexit negotiation guidelines, the German chancellor said: “Countries with a third country status – and that’s what Great Britain will be – cannot and will not have the same or even more rights as a member of the European Union. All 27 member states and the European institutions agree on this.”

“Ladies and gentlemen,” she continued, “you may think that all this is self-evident. But I have to put this so clearly because I get the impression that some in Great Britain still have illusions about this, and that is a waste of time.”

Merkel also said it made “no sense” to negotiate a future UK-EU relationship without agreement on the UK’s financial commitment to the EU, while also hinting that parallel discussions could be possible once questions about budget contributions had been satisfied.

“We can only make a deal about Britain’s future relationship to the EU once all questions about the terms of its exit can be clarified to a satisfying degree.

“That means the sooner the British government is prepared to find constructive solutions, the sooner we can engage with their desire to already talk during the exit negotiations about the future relationship between the United Kingdom and the European Union. But first we need to know how Great Britain sees its future relationship with us.”

Merkel said all 27 members agreed that this could be the only order in which the talks could proceed.

Merkel’s speech is a stern rebuke for Britain, which had been hoping there was some ambiguity in the EU position on whether trade talks could run in parallel with negotiations on separation terms before a financial settlement.

Minutes before the chancellor spoke, the UK foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, was pressed in a BBC interview about whether trade would have to wait until the divorce bill was settled and responded: “We’ll see.”

Merkel said talks about the UK’s financial contributions to the EU budget could not wait until the end of the negotiations but had to be part of the talks from the start. Crucially, the German chancellor said that the financial commitments Britain had entered into would “extend into the period after Britain’s exit” from the bloc.

Her demand for a more constructive approach from Britain reflects growing irritation at the blithe assurances of UK ministers that they can bend the EU27 to their will when talks start. But it is her attack on the “illusions” of the British position on access to the single market that may cause the biggest ripples in Westminster – both for Conservatives and Labour.

The Labour Brexit spokesman, Keir Starmer, and the government are united in believing they can persuade the EU to provide the benefits of the single market and customs union without agreeing to freedom of movement. With Merkel facing an election of her own later this year against an opponent who says it is inconceivable that lorries and money should be able to cross borders freely, but not people, the German chancellor appears to be making clear she has her own political red lines.

In a speech met with supportive applause by the assembled Bundestag, Merkel also identified the need to protect rights of an estimated 100,000 German citizens living in the UK as her government’s first priority. In return, she added, Germany would be prepared to make a “fair offer” to British citizens living in Germany.

The importance of Merkel’s statement that parallel negotiations made “no sense” lies in British hopes that there was a chink of light on the matter in draft EU negotiating proposals. These suggested that there needed to be only broad agreement that Britain would pay a settlement before talks on trade could begin. But it is increasingly clear that this will leave little room for future haggling in the eyes of Europe’s most powerful leader.

Theresa May, who is already facing calls from British business leaders not to let the divorce bill stand in the way of more valuable trade ties, could find herself having to explain how she had committed the UK to pay tens of billions of euros before she had anything to show for it.