Month: March 2024

Shadow cabinet talk with Whitehall officials after Keir Starmer meets head of civil service

All members of Keir Starmer’s shadow cabinet are to meet top civil servants in Whitehall departments before Easter as Labour steps up preparations to form the next government, according to senior party sources.

The Observer has been told that Starmer recently held a first round of so-called “access talks” with the cabinet secretary Simon Case, the head of the civil service, at a “neutral venue” in London, to kick off an exchange of information between the official opposition and Whitehall in advance of a potential handover of power. Continue reading…
http://dlvr.it/T3rfx2

UK News: Economists say making the policy an election pledge could cost £40bn, which is badly needed for health, education and elsewhere

Rishi Sunak has been warned against fighting an election on an unfunded plan to abolish employee national insurance amid projections the move could blow a £40bn hole in the public finances.

As the pre-election battle on the economy between the Conservatives and Labour intensified, the prime minister was on Thursday under mounting pressure to explain how the measure could be afforded while public services were crumbling. Continue reading…
http://dlvr.it/T3pfRc

Campaigners say health service can’t provide care quickly because of underinvestment, which is allowing firms to ‘make a killing’

* Private healthcare could become ‘a new normal’ as NHS grows weaker
* ‘My GP suggested it’: Britons explain why they went private for surgery

Private hospitals are doing one in 10 of all planned NHS operations amid patients’ frustration at long delays for NHS care and political pressure to cut waiting times.

The new figures seen by the Guardian prompted campaigners to warn that the NHS is “allowing the private sector to make a killing” and is seeing more and more of its services “cannibalised” because years of underinvestment mean it can no longer provide care quickly. Continue reading…
http://dlvr.it/T3pf4V

UK News: Headline cut to national insurance rate echoes measure taken in autumn statement, which made little impact on voters

Jeremy Hunt has spent weeks managing expectations over potential tax cuts in his spring budget, with Tory MPs desperately searching for ways to avoid election defeat as household finances buckle under a record tax bill and the cost of living crisis.

As the chancellor’s fiscal headroom shrank in the run-up to the budget, so did his plans for spending in areas such as housing and defence, as he promised he would not “take any risks” with the British economy despite all the political pressure. Continue reading…
http://dlvr.it/T3m3Rn

Economists say making the policy an election pledge could cost £40bn, which is badly needed for health, education and elsewhere

Rishi Sunak has been warned against fighting an election on an unfunded plan to abolish employee national insurance amid projections the move could blow a £40bn hole in the public finances.

As the pre-election battle on the economy between the Conservatives and Labour intensified, the prime minister was on Thursday under mounting pressure to explain how the measure could be afforded while public services were crumbling. Continue reading…
http://dlvr.it/T3m31V