Key events
Hospital waiting lists in England at lowest levels for more than two years, figures show
The waiting list for routine hospital treatment in England has fallen for the second month in a row and is now at its lowest level for more than two years, PA Media reports. PA says:
An estimated 7.36 million treatments were waiting to be carried out at the end of May, relating to just under 6.23 million patients – down from 7.39 million treatments and just over 6.23 million patients at the end of April.
These are the lowest figures since March 2023 for treatments and April 2023 for patients.
The list hit a record high in September 2023, with 7.77 million treatments and 6.50 million patients.
And this is what NHS England is saying about the figures in its own press release.
Monthly NHS data shows the overall waiting list dropped by nearly 30,000 in May to 7.36 million – the lowest total since March 2023 – with 60.9% waiting 18 weeks or less for planned care (the highest proportion since July 2022).
Staff carried out an average of 75,009 planned treatments each working day in May – the highest number on record – with a total of 1.5 million treatments across the month, which is up on 1.45 million in April and higher than 1,437,914 pre-pandemic (May 2019).
It was the busiest May ever for the number of tests and checks, with 2.5 million (2,465,184) carried out, up 23% on pre-pandemic (1,996,365 in May 2019), with community diagnostic centres seeing patients closer to their homes.
The new figures show June was the busiest month ever for A&Es with average daily attendances of over 78,300 – with last month seeing 14 days covered by heat health alerts, and another heatwave set to hit in the coming days. Despite this, the highest proportion of patients were seen within 4 hours since August 2024 (75.5%) and it was the best June performance since 2021.
Last Tory government helped to ‘wreck country’, says former party chair Jake Berry as he defects to Reform UK
As Jessica Elgot and Nadeem Badshah report, Jake Berry, the former Tory minister, has defected to Reform UK. This is more significant than most other Tory-to-Reform defections because Berry was chairman of the party – albeit only for a few weeks, when Liz Truss was PM.
It is also significant because Berry has written an article for the Sun saying that the last Conservative government wrecked the country. He says:
Let’s not kid ourselves. Britain is broken. Our streets are completely lawless. Migration is out of control.
Taxes are going through the roof. And day after day, I hear from people in my community and beyond who say the same thing — “This isn’t the Britain I grew up in.” And they’re right.
It didn’t start with Labour. The Conservative governments I was part of share the blame.
We now have a tax system that punishes hard work and ambition.
We face seeing record numbers of our brightest and best people leaving Britain because they can’t see a future here.
At the same time, our benefits system is pulling in the world’s poor with no plan for integration and no control over who comes in.
No leadership. No direction. No backbone.
If you were deliberately trying to wreck the country, you’d be hard-pressed to do a better job than the last two decades of Labour and Tory rule.
Berry is trying to be even-handed, but over the last two decades Labour has been in power for six of those years, and the Conservatives for 14 years (but governing in coalition with the Lib Dems for five of those). Berry was an MP for that entire 14-year period.
If he thought at the time that the government he was supporting was wrecking the country, he does not seem to have said so publicly.
Emmanuel Macron, the French president, is arriving at Downing Street.
Photograph: Isabel Infantes/Reuters
Britain and France agree use of their nuclear weapons could be coordinated in defence of Europe
John Healey, the defence secretary, was doing an interview round this morning primarily to talk about an Anglo-French defence agreement announced overnight. “The UK and France are stepping up together to meet today’s threats and tomorrow’s challenges,” he said.
The deal includes an agreement to order a new generation of anti-ship cruise missiles, to replace Storm Shadow. And there is an agreement that use of British and French nuclear deterrents could be coordinated. The Ministry of Defence says:
In an important step forward for the UK-France nuclear partnership – a newly signed declaration will state for the first time that the respective deterrents of both countries are independent but can be coordinated, and that there is no extreme threat to Europe that would not prompt a response by both nations.
As such, any adversary threatening the vital interests of Britain or France could be confronted by the strength of the nuclear forces of both nations. Co-operation between both countries on nuclear research will also deepen, while working together to uphold the international non-proliferation architecture.
The UK and France are Europe’s only nuclear powers, with deterrents that contribute significantly to the overall security of NATO and the Euro-Atlantic.
President Macron is due to arrive at Downing Street soon. The red carpet is out.
Tories claim ‘one in, one out’ migration deal with France ‘will not deter anyone’
Good morning. Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron, the French president, will mark the end of the three-day state visit with a press conference this afternoon where they will explain what has been agreed. And it is now clear that Starmer has got some sort of ‘one in, one out’ returns deal for small boat migrants. In our story this morning Kiran Stacey says:
Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron will announce a “one in, one out” migration deal on Thursday that will involve the UK accepting some cross-Channel asylum seekers but returning others to France.
The two leaders are expected to cap the French president’s three-day state visit to the UK with a press conference in London at which they will announce the new plan to tackle small boat crossings.
Officials were still in talks over the details of the plan on Thursday morning, including when it would begin, but other hurdles such as the opposition of other European countries are understood to have been cleared.
For Starmer, this is a big win. It is something that the last Conservative goverment never managed to negotiate (if anything, they managed the opposite, because they implemented Brexit, which halted returns under the Dublin agreement), and it means that Labour can respond more easily to claims that only an effective deterrent will stop the small boat crossings.
But … the scheme that is being set up seems to be relatively small, and already there are doubts about whether it will be effective. This is how Andrew McDonald and Bethany Dawson sum it up in their London Playbook briefing for Politico.
17 in, one out: The pair are expected to announce a limited trial of a one in, one out returns deal. And it is limited. Le Monde first reported that 50 migrants will be sent back to France per week from the end of next month. With an average of 843 arriving every week since Labour took power, that would equate to one in 17 if arrivals continue at that rate (and they’ve generally been rising).
This is how the Sun is summing it up on its front page this morning.
And this is what Chris Philp, shadow home secretary, told the Times for its report on the deal.
This deal will mean that 94 per cent of illegal migrants crossing the Channel will get to stay. That is pathetic and will not deter anyone. By contrast, the Rwanda deterrent would have seen 100 per cent of illegal migrants removed and that would have worked to deter people crossing the Channel. Keir Starmer’s failure continues.
Obviously, the Sun, and Chris Philp, are about the last sources you would turn to for a fair, objective assessment of a Labour immigration policy. But there are other people who are doubtful too. The government has not confirmed what has actually been agreed yet and John Healey, the defence secretary, was sidestepping questions about it when doing the interview round this morning. But the Today programme also interviewed Mike Tapp, the Labour MP for Dover. Tapp told the programme he was encouraged by the announcement. If migrants in Calais, who pay up to £6,000 to cross the channel, start to think they might be sent back immediately, then that “starts to break the smuggling gang model”, he said.
But, asked if just 50 people a week being returned would be enough, he replied:
I can’t comment on the exact numbers, because obviously these negotiations haven’t finalised. We’ll hear more in the very near future.
Asked again if 50 was enough, he replied:
I’m going to be completely honest with you, I don’t know until it happens.
Here is the agenda for the day.
Morning: Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron hold a UK-France summit in Downing Street. They are expected to speak to the media at about 9.45am, but they won’t be holding a press conference until the afternoon, after a military-themed visit.
9.30am: NHS England publishes its latest monthly peformance figures.
9.30am: The Department for Work and Pensions publishes figures on the impact of the two-child benefit cap.
10.30am: The intelligence and security committee publishes a report on the threat posed by Iran.
12.30pm: Kemi Badenoch gives a speech on welfare.
Lunchtime: Chris Philp, shadow home secretary, speaks at a press gallery lunch in Westminster.
3.30pm: Starmer and Macron hold a press conference.
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