Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves said: As families and pensioners worry about how they will pay their bills, Tory leadership candidates are touring the country announcing unworkable policies that will not help people get through this crisis. Labor would help households right now by removing tax breaks subsidizing oil and gas producers and using that money to help people now, including by cutting VAT on energy bills. (3/4) — Rachel Reeves (@RachelReevesMP) August 4, 2022 Updated at 12.58 BST Important events BETA filters Key Facts (5) Liz Truss (10) Rishi Sunak (8) Boris Johnson (4) Sajid Javid (3) Mel Stride (2) Dennis Campbell NHS leaders have accused Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak of offering “soundbite, gimmicks and political rhetoric” to the health service instead of proper solutions to its growing crisis. The NHS Confederation made that criticism today when it published letters it had sent to the two candidates in the Conservative leadership race to become the next UK prime minister. He urged the secretary of state and former chancellor to be much more honest about the depth of the problems affecting the NHS and the scale and cost of policies needed to tackle them. Her intervention comes after Sunak was ridiculed for proposing £10 fines for people who failed to attend their GP appointments. The Trust has faced questions about how its pledge to scrap the rise in national insurance and cut taxes more generally would affect NHS funding. Danny Mortimer, the confederation’s deputy chief executive, said that as the Conservative leadership race entered its final weeks “healthcare leaders are approaching the winter with a real sense of foreboding”. Mortimer said: They also urge the remaining candidates to imbue their public debate with a sense of urgency and show a real understanding of the enormous pressures the NHS and social care are under. Now is not the time for sound bites, gimmicks and political rhetoric. The NHS needs the new leader of government to set out a realistic reset for health and social care. He added: We need both Mr Sunak and Ms Truss to show a big dose of realism about the state of the NHS and the promise of an open, frank and honest debate about what that means. The confederation is an important NHS body because it represents hospitals and other NHS care providers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In an appeal to candidates, Mortimer urged them to repudiate Boris Johnson’s repeated insistence – unsupported by evidence – that the crumbling social care system has been “fixed”. He added: To really get even with the public, they need to recognize that this means dilapidated buildings and ill-equipped out-of-date estates, 105,000 NHS staff and 165,000 social care vacancies at the last count, and a social care system that is in desperate need of repair and is far from repaired. , as the current prime minister would have us believe. NHS bosses want the next prime minister to propose three major policies to help ease the huge pressure it is under: a program of capital investment to upgrade and replace aging facilities; a detailed plan to address the agency’s chronic workforce shortages; and emergency help for social care. Updated at 12.57 BST In response to the Bank of England’s rate hike, Rishi Sunak said he would “prioritise inflation, growing the economy and then cutting taxes”. The former chancellor said it was “imperative that any future government tackles inflation, not makes it worse”. Sunak added: Rising borrowing will put upward pressure on interest rates, which will mean higher mortgage payments for citizens. It will also make high inflation and high prices last longer, making everyone poorer.
Labor says rate hikes ‘further proof Tories have lost control of economy’
The Bank of England’s decision to raise interest rates by 0.5 percentage points is “further evidence” that the Conservative party has lost control of the economy, Labor said. Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves said: As families and pensioners worry about how they will pay their bills, Tory leadership candidates are touring the country announcing unworkable policies that will not help people get through this crisis. Labor would help households right now by removing tax breaks subsidizing oil and gas producers and using that money to help people now, including by cutting VAT on energy bills. (3/4) — Rachel Reeves (@RachelReevesMP) August 4, 2022 Updated at 12.58 BST Philip Inman The Bank of England raised interest rates by 0.5 percentage points to tackle the rising cost of living, despite concerns that the economy is heading for recession. In the biggest rate hike in 27 years, policymakers at the central bank voted to raise the key rate for a sixth straight time to 1.75%, in line with City economists’ expectations. The decision takes UK interest rates to their highest level since late 2008. The Bank’s monetary policy committee (MPC) has been raising borrowing costs since December in response to rising inflation rates, exacerbated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which sent gas costs soaring to record highs. Inflation rose to 9.4% in the year to June and is expected to rise further in the coming months. Follow our Business live blog here: Updated at 12.59 BST The NHS was “absent” from the Conservative leadership contest, former health secretary Jeremy Hunt said, at a time when “staff shortages and morale have never been worse” in the health service. Hunt, who is backing Sunak in the race, warned that “after the energy bills the biggest issue facing the new prime minister will be a looming winter crisis”. This winter “will be the toughest ever”, judging by the state of ambulances and A&E services over the summer, he wrote in a series of tweets. He said: If the NHS continues this downward spiral with ambulances, A&Es & GP surgeries all in severe crisis, we will see preventable deaths rise this winter. Staff know there is no silver bullet, but they need to know there is a plan. Here are my suggestions. 1/ A massive overseas recruitment drive for doctors and nurses as a temporary, short-term lever – allowing perpetrators from countries with good medical education systems like Canada and Germany to be greenlisted so they don’t additional tests need to remain unnecessary — Jeremy Hunt (@Jeremy_Hunt) August 4, 2022 Hunt also called for an immediate exemption for doctors from public sector pension rules “which currently force them to retire in their fifties in alarming numbers”. He added: Make flexible working automatic across the NHS so we don’t drive staff with young families to become local or nurses, which is often the only way they can balance work and home life. 4/ Forget the Stalinist centralization that has given the NHS more targets than any healthcare system in the world: replace national targets with easily accessible data that allows everyone to compare performance (CQC Ofsted style reviews work well). — Jeremy Hunt (@Jeremy_Hunt) August 4, 2022 Hunt added: Go back to the system where everyone has their own doctor instead of just being attached to a surgery. One study showed a 25% reduction in mortality and a 30% reduction in hospital visits for people who saw the same doctor (keeping our promise to recruit 6000 more GPs will help achieve this). 6/ Hospitals are full of people who cannot be discharged due to social care problems, mainly staff shortages. Local authorities need help now to boost the pay of care workers as they are currently losing out massively in the retail and hospitality sectors. — Jeremy Hunt (@Jeremy_Hunt) August 4, 2022 Updated at 13:00 BST
Liz Truss to review Bank of England mandate, Tory ally says
Jessica Elgott Liz Truss will review whether the Bank of England’s mandate is “fit for purpose”, a Cabinet supporter has said, suggesting she will consider its “sole independence on interest rates” as the Bank prepares for a recession decision of interest rates. Attorney-General Suella Braverman told Sky News that the Tory leadership front-runner would review the Bank’s powers. “Interest rates should have been raised a long time ago and the Bank of England has been very slow in that regard,” he said. She added: Liz Truss has made it clear that she wants to review the mandate that the Bank of England has, so she will look in detail at exactly what the Bank of England is doing and see if it is actually fit for purpose in terms of its full foreclosure independence. above interest rates. It came hours before the Bank was expected to raise interest rates by half a percentage point – the biggest rise since 1995. The energy price cap will also change quarterly instead of every six months, Ofgem said on Thursday. Truss told Conservatives on Wednesday night that he would change the Bank’s mandate because of the changing economic picture. The best way to deal with inflation is monetary policy, and what I have said is that I want to change the Bank of England’s mandate to make sure that in future it matches some of the most effective central banks in the world in controlling inflation. The mandate was last reviewed in 1997 under Gordon Brown. Things are very, very different now. Read the full article here. Attorney-general Suella Braverman has backed Liz Truss’ plan to scrap diversity and inclusion roles in the civil service, claiming it is “patronising” and “divisive”. Braverman, who ran for the leadership role before endorsing Truss, said she was…
