Keir Starmer suspends seven Labour MPs after rebellion over two-child benefit cap in crunch vote – live

Zarah Sultana, one in every of seven Labour MPs suspended for backing an SNP movement to scrap the two-child benefit cap, stated she slept properly after the vote.

“I slept well knowing that I took a stand against child poverty that is affecting 4.3 million people in this country and it is the right thing to do and I am glad I did it,” she advised ITV’s Good Morning Britain.

She stated she noticed the e-mail on the way in which dwelling from the vote final evening saying she had had the whip eliminated.

Speaking to ITV’s Good Morning Britain, she stated: “I look ahead to many payments that can be coming ahead in this Government together with nationalising rail, the brand new deal for working folks, however I used to be additionally very sincere that we must always go additional, we are able to make an actual distinction to folks’s lives.

“And once you’ve received anti-charity campaigners, assume tanks, commerce unions saying that the important thing driver for baby poverty in this nation – which is the sixth largest economic system in the world – is the Tories’ two-child benefit cap, then it’s a ethical crucial on the Labour Party to scrap that and do all the things that they will to guarantee that not a single baby has to live in pointless hardship and poverty.”

A primary-of-its-form set of pointers for the care of transgender folks earlier than and after normal surgical procedure has really helpful gender-inclusive language and consideration of whether or not a affected person ought to be accommodated in a single room relatively than on a ward.

The steering, created independently of the NHS, is alleged to have been put collectively amid a “dearth of knowledge and confidence amongst anaesthetists when caring for transgender and gender-diverse patients”.

Published in Anaesthesia – the journal of the Association of Anaesthetists – it was produced by a working group of specialists together with these from the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh and the University of Cambridge, and units out 15 suggestions.

It states there’s “currently no existing guidance covering the scope and focus of this document”, and that it covers “the specific clinical care required for this cohort of patients when attending for either elective or emergency surgery or anaesthetic care”.

The suggestions embrace confirming and utilizing a affected person’s most well-liked identify and pronouns, with a suggestion that digital pre-evaluation questionnaires can enable the particular person to “privately and safely disclose both their sex at birth and gender”.

The pointers advise that somebody’s transgender id “need only be shared with the patient’s consent and if it is deemed important for the safety of their care”, and ought to be given the identical stage of confidentiality as “any other sensitive personal information”.

Transgender and gender-numerous sufferers ought to be cared for in an surroundings that “respects their gender identity”, the rules state, including that “in some circumstances, this may involve providing a single room”.

Sir Keir Starmer faces a Commons grilling in his first Prime Minister’s Questions amid backbench unease over a vote on the two-child benefit cap that noticed him droop seven Labour MPs.

The PM can be quizzed from the Government benches by MPs for the primary time since getting into Number 10 after stripping Labour rebels of the whip for backing an SNP movement to scrap the welfare measure.

Former shadow chancellor John McDonnell, ex-enterprise secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey, Apsana Begum, Richard Burgon, Ian Byrne, Imran Hussain and Zarah Sultana have been suspended from the parliamentary social gathering.

Although the rebellion was small and the movement comfortably defeated by Government, opposition to the cap inside Labour shouldn’t be restricted to the seven who misplaced the whip.

The House of Commons voted 363 to 103, majority 260, to reject the modification tabled in the identify of SNP Westminster chief Stephen Flynn.

More than 40 Labour MPs recorded no vote, with a few of these listed noticed in the chamber all through the day, whereas others may have had permission to overlook the vote.

The choice to take away the whip from the seven who defied the Government over the modification is an early present of ruthlessness from the brand new administration, and sends a message that dissent is not going to be taken flippantly.

Ahead of the vote, Sir Keir had stated there’s “no silver bullet” to finish baby poverty however acknowledged the “passion” of MPs who have been contemplating opposing the continuation of the Tory measure.

Children are being failed in “dual crises of poverty and mental health”, in accordance with charities which have ramped up requires the Government to scrap the two-child benefit restrict.

The teams stated cash and psychological well being are “inextricably linked” and that these youngsters rising up in households dealing with monetary hardship face a knock-on influence all through their lives.

The report from the Centre for Mental Health, Save the Children UK and the Children and Young People’s Mental Health Coalition really helpful the brand new Labour Government ought to scrap each the two-child restrict and the benefit cap “to ensure all children receive their benefit entitlements”.

The cap, launched in 2013 underneath the then-Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition authorities as a means of “restoring fairness to the welfare state”, sees the quantity of advantages a family receives diminished to make sure claimants don’t obtain greater than the cap restrict.

The Government hopes to agree a pay take care of junior medical doctors that “the country can afford,” the Health Secretary has stated as official talks started to attempt to convey the lengthy-operating dispute to a detailed.

Wes Streeting stated that junior medical doctors made a “reasonable case” that their pay had not stored up in line with inflation, however stated that their request for a 35% uplift was not inexpensive.

But addressing the Commons, Mr Streeting insisted that the Government was negotiating with medics from the British Medical Association (BMA) “in good faith”.

Formal negotiations between the brand new Government and the BMA’s Junior Doctors Committee started on Tuesday with a view to finish the lengthy-operating dispute over pay.

Dr Vivek Trivedi and Dr Robert Laurenson, co-chairmen of the Committee, refused to reply questions from reporters as they arrived on the Department for Health and Social Care on Tuesday morning.

Mr Streeting was requested in regards to the negotiations throughout his first Oral Health Questions in the House of Commons.

Shadow well being secretary Victoria Atkins stated: “In opposition, (Mr Streeting) described the 35% pay rise demand by the junior medical doctors committee as cheap. What he didn’t inform the general public was that this single commerce union demand would value an extra £3 billion, not to mention the influence on different public-sector staff.

“So, will he ask the Chancellor to boost taxes or will she ask him to chop affected person providers to pay for it?”

Mr Streeting, in his reply, stated: “What I stated was that the medical doctors have been making an inexpensive case that their pay hadn’t stored up in line with inflation, however we have been clear earlier than the election that 35% was not a determine we might afford.

“We are negotiating with the junior medical doctors in good religion to agree on a settlement that we are able to ship and the nation can afford.”

A evaluate of plans for 40 new hospitals might delay initiatives, a shadow well being minister warned, as the brand new Health Secretary vowed to not give sufferers “false hope” about after they can anticipate extra up-to-date services.

Wes Streeting confronted questions in the Commons in regards to the Conservatives’ £20 billion New Hospital Programme – for brand spanking new and refurbished hospitals by 2030 – and advised MPs he has ordered a evaluate into the scheme’s funding and timetable.

He stated: “It’s painfully clear that the earlier authorities’s New Hospital Programme, that stated they’d ship 40 new hospitals by 2030, shouldn’t be deliverable in that timeframe.

“I need to see the New Hospital Programme accomplished however I’m not ready to supply folks false hope about how quickly they are going to benefit from the services that they deserve.

“That’s why I’ve requested officers as a matter of urgency to report back to me on the diploma to which the programme is funded, together with a sensible timetable for supply.”

In May 2023, the Department of Health and Social Care claimed “the Government is on track to deliver the manifesto commitment to build 40 new hospitals in England by 2030”, in line with a flagship Tory manifesto pledge made in 2019, earlier than former prime minister Boris Johnson led his social gathering to an 80-seat majority.

Britain’s military shouldn’t be as sturdy appropriately due to “historic underinvestment”, the top of the army has admitted, with “deficiencies in people, equipment, stockpiles, training and technology”.

Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, the chief of defence employees, stated there was a necessity for “humility” to recognise the constraints and “near-term financial challenges” confronted by our armed forces.

But he stated Russia, the primary adversary of the West, has been massively broken by brutal losses in Ukraine and can take a decade or extra to rebuild its army energy to the extent it had on the time of Vladimir Putin’s invasion and rectify the shortcomings uncovered. Our world affairs editor Kim Sengupta has the complete story:

Councils are dealing with “unsustainable financial pressure” in coping with document ranges of homelessness, the general public spending watchdog has stated because it known as for an extended-time period and cross-Government technique to deal with the issue.

England stays an outlier in the UK as the one one of many 4 nations with out a technique or goal for statutory homelessness, which the National Audit Office (NAO) famous is the case regardless of its advice for one seven years in the past.

The NAO report, revealed on Tuesday, is its first since 2017 on the problem, which covers folks thought-about homeless as they’re in non permanent lodging supplied by their native authority, relatively than these tough sleeping.

The report acknowledged the tough sleeping technique underneath the earlier Conservative authorities, however stated no such technique had been formulated to deal with statutory homelessness – one thing every of the opposite UK devolved administrations has an overarching technique or motion plan for.

Funding for native authorities to fulfill their obligations underneath the 2017 Homelessness Reduction Act, extending native authorities’ statutory duties to incorporate prevention and reduction, is a serious concern amid rising want, the NAO stated.

The report said: “Funding stays fragmented and usually brief-time period, inhibiting homelessness prevention work and limiting funding in good-high quality non permanent lodging or different types of housing.

“Until these components are addressed throughout authorities, DLUHC (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities) will be unable to show that it’s delivering optimum worth for cash from its efforts to deal with homelessness.”

An rising variety of NHS our bodies have been unable to interrupt even, in accordance with a brand new report on the monetary administration and sustainability of the well being service.

NHS England is dealing with challenges on an “unprecedented” scale, the National Audit Office (NAO) warned, with its sustainability hinging on how properly it manages future demand.

Concerns have additionally been raised that the well being service “may be working at the limits of a system which might break before it is again able to provide patients with care that meets standards for timeliness and accessibility”.

The report is the ninth of its form by the NAO, and the primary to be revealed since February 2020. Experts stated its findings depict “a picture of systemic failures and inefficient decision-making”. It warned that NHS England’s monetary place is “worsening” on account of a “combination of long-standing and recent issues, including failure to invest in the estate, inflationary pressures, and the cost of post-pandemic recovery”.

According to the NAO, NHS England is anticipated to spend £153 billion in 2023/24. It stated “many NHS bodies failed to break even” through the interval and in the earlier 12 months, though the NHS calculates it underspent in opposition to its general finances by about £30 million final yr after more money from Government and reallocation of central funding.

The mixed deficit of the 42 built-in care techniques (ICSs) – which have been launched in 2022 to convey collectively the NHS, councils and voluntary sector to create providers primarily based on native wants – was £1.4 billion, the NAO stated.

This deficit was initially deliberate to be £720 million for the yr.