MI5's ‘epic' China warning is being ignored
But though I did not realise it at the time, there was a similarly troubling political backdrop. That very day, a few streets away, Sadiq Khan was posing for photos with a man called Chu Ting Tang who, to all appearances, was just a regular diaspora bigwig who leads the London Chinatown Chinese Association. This, it turns out, is a bit like calling Captain Hook a cultural ambassador for amputees. What Tang actually is, according to a new report by the investigative charity UK China Transparency (UKCT), is an exceptionally senior official linked to the notorious Chinese propaganda and espionage department known as the United Front. (Neither he, nor the LCCA, responded to my queries.)
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The Independent
25 minutes ago
- The Independent
New NHS plan shows ‘future already looks better' under Labour
The 'future already looks better for the NHS' under Labour, Sir Keir Starmer has said, as he published a radical plan to transform the health service. The new 10-year plan for the NHS sets out a series of shifts to bring care much closer to people's homes, reducing the reliance on hospitals and A&E. Under the changes, there will be fewer staff working in the NHS than previous projections said were needed, with far more providing care closer to home and fewer working in hospitals. Key reforms include a greatly enhanced NHS app to give patients more control over their care and more data at their fingertips, new neighbourhood health centres open six days a week and at least 12 hours a day, and new laws on food and alcohol to prevent ill health. The Prime Minister was accompanied by Chancellor Rachel Reeves as he set out the plans on Thursday – she was making her first appearance since she was seen crying in the Commons on Wednesday. Speaking in east London, Sir Keir said: 'It's all down to the foundation we laid this year, all down to the path of renewal that we chose, the decisions made by the Chancellor, by Rachel Reeves, which mean we can invest record amounts in the NHS. 'Already over 6,000 mental health workers recruited, 1,700 new GPs, 170 community diagnostic centres – really important – already open. 'New surgical hubs, new mental health units, new ambulance sites. Record investment right across the system.' Sir Keir acknowledged improvements were needed in the NHS but said the situation was better than when Labour first took power. 'I'm not going to stand here and say everything is perfect now, we have a lot more work to do and we will do it,' he said. 'But let's be under no illusions: because of the fair choices we made, the tough Labour decisions we made, the future already looks better for our NHS. 'And that is the story of this Government in a nutshell.' Health Secretary Wes Streeting told NHS staff gathered at the event that Labour rejected the 'pessimism' which says the 'NHS is a burden, too expensive, inferior to the market'. Ms Reeves embraced Mr Streeting as he came away from the podium and told those at the launch event: 'Our 10-year plan will get the NHS back on its feet and make it fit for the future, led by our fantastic NHS staff, and a huge thank you to every single one of you.' Ms Reeves smiled and was upbeat as she added: 'I want to be clear, we are spending money on taxpayers' priorities, but that wouldn't have been possible without the measures that we took in the budget last year. 'We fixed the foundations and we've put our economy back on a strong footing.' The new health plan sets out how the NHS will move from analogue to digital, treatment to prevention, and from hospital to more community care. The 'status quo of hospital by default will end' and by 2035, the intention is that the majority of outpatient care will happen outside of hospitals. New neighbourhood health services will give people access to a full range of services, leaving hospitals to focus on the sickest. New services will also include debt advice, employment support and stop smoking or obesity services – all of which affect people's health. Community outreach, with people going door to door, could also reduce pressure on GPs and A&E. The plan sets out: – By 2028, the NHS app 'will be a full front door to the entire NHS' and act as a 'doctor in my pocket' for patients. A new part of the NHS app called My NHS GP will 'help patients better navigate the health service', powered by artificial intelligence (AI). Those who do not have an urgent or emergency need, but who are struggling to find an alternative to A&E, will be signposted to places they can get care. The app will use AI-algorithms to take a patient's symptoms, ask follow-up questions and provide guidance. The app will also help patients book a remote consultation if they need one, or a face-to-face appointment if they prefer. – Patients will be given more app support to book their own urgent appointments rather than facing long waits in A&E. Clinical professionals will also be able to triage patients in advance. – In order to make the move 'from bricks to clicks', the plan said people will have a single patient record combining their health records plus personalised information to help improve their health. – Patients will be able to use the app to choose their preferred provider, see whether it delivers the best outcomes, has the best feedback or is simply closer to home through a section called My Choices. The app will also show data on clinical teams and clinicians. – Wearable technology will become the 'standard in preventative, chronic and post-acute NHS treatment by 2035'. All NHS patients will have access to these technologies, which will be part of routine care. The NHS will provide devices for free in areas where health needs and deprivation are highest. – People will be able to use the My Consult area of the app to hold consultations, or book directly into tests where clinically appropriate through My Specialist. – My Medicines will help people with drugs and prescriptions, while My Vaccines will provide clear information of current jabs. – Parents can manage their children's health through My Children, or co-ordinate the care of a loved one or relative through My Carer. – New mental health emergency departments will be created so people do not end up in A&E. Over the next five years around 85 will be established – close to or inside half of major A&Es. – Over time, hospitals will get less of the NHS budget as it is redirected to community care, which means 'less acute space, fewer emergency staff based in hospitals and fewer outpatient departments in future'. The process of booking appointments will become automatic rather than involving lots of staff. – An end to the 8am scramble for GP appointments by training thousands more GPs and building online advice into the NHS app. AI will be used for notes and letters to free up GPs' time. – A new 'moonshot to end the obesity epidemic'. The Government will restrict junk food advertising targeted at children, ban the sale of high-caffeine energy drinks to under 16-year-olds, and reform the soft drinks industry levy. It will introduce mandatory health food sales reporting for all large companies in the food sector and introduce a 'mandatory requirement for alcoholic drinks to display consistent nutritional information and health warning messages'. More support will be given to the no and low-alcohol market. – Dentists could be forced to work for the NHS for at least three years if they have been trained at taxpayer expense. – Hospital patients will not be booked in by default for follow-ups, with 'patient-initiated follow-up a standard approach for all clinically appropriate pathways by 2026'. – A new campaign will motivate millions of people to move more on a regular basis. – Expansion of mental health support, including in schools. – Lung cancer screening for those with a history of smoking will be fully rolled out across England. – An end to the 'disgraceful spectacle of corridor care' and ensuring 95% of people wait no longer than 18 weeks for routine care. – Higher standards will be set for NHS leaders to reward good performance and penalise poor work. – Patients to be given more say on whether the full payment for the costs of their care should be released to the provider. – Efforts to cut the NHS sickness absence rate and more power to managers 'to reward high performing staff, and to act decisively where they identify underperformance'. – Priority given to UK medical graduates and an ambition to reduce international recruitment to less than 10% by 2035. Nuffield Trust chief executive Thea Stein said she did not agree with the 'prophecy of extinction' in the report, which says the NHS is at an 'existential brink'. She added: 'This plan contains a litany of initiatives and the belief that they will be the NHS's saviour, with little detail on how the ailing health service is to deliver these changes.' Sarah Woolnough, chief executive of the King's Fund, said: 'There are more than 150 pages of a vision of how things could be different in the NHS by 2035, but nowhere near enough detail about how it will be implemented.' Royal College of Nursing (RCN) general secretary, Professor Nicola Ranger, said: 'Nursing staff are crying out for change and we stand ready to get behind this plan. 'Modernising services, bringing care closer to home and helping people to lead healthier lives couldn't be more necessary… 'Nursing staff are identified today as the expert leaders to deliver a neighbourhood health service and that should be truly empowering. As the professionals delivering the vast majority of care, we know what keeps patients safe and well.'
The Independent
25 minutes ago
- The Independent
Rural councils to get extra money because they're more remote, Rayner announces
Angela Rayner has announced plans to slash red tape for local authorities, as well as giving rural councils more money to pay for the cost of being in remote areas. It comes after countryside authorities raised concerns that they would lose out in local authority spending plans. Giving a speech at the Local Government Assocation conference, the housing secretary said that 'travel time' for services such as bin collection, transport and homecare visits would be taken into account under the government's plans. Ms Rayner, who is also the local government secretary, announced proposals last week for councils in deprived areas to receive a greater share of funding as part of changes to allocation rules. The government said the overhaul would account for 'remoteness', but some rural authorities claimed the plans could 'overcompensate' for deprivation and see them lose out to the tune of hundreds of millions of pounds. But on Thursday, Ms Rayner said the new approach would help 'every part of the country' to manage 'their unique pressures'. 'We will replace the decade-old data, and for the first time, properly take into account factors such as deprivation and poverty, the cost of remoteness faced by rural communities, meaning bus drivers and refuse collectors have to travel miles to serve their communities,' she said. 'We will take into account the varying ability to raise tax locally, with lower house prices impacting on councils' budgets, temporary accommodation and the impact of daytime visitors on major cities and coastal towns alike.' Local government minister Jim McMahon said both deprivation and remoteness had been factored into the plans as he faced questions from the audience about how funding for rural areas would be decided. 'If you're a rural area, you will see that we've taken into account remoteness, so that travel time, as Angela Rayner said, in terms of appointments, emptying bins, homecare visits, and the like,' he said. 'And there's an extra cost as part of that.' He said under new plans, data would also be taken from 'clusters of households' to catch 'pockets of deprivation' that may have gone undetected under the old system. He added that the process was a consultation, so that between now and a provisional settlement councils would have a chance to feed back what works and 'maybe where we could do a bit more'. Councils get about half their funding from central government, allocated on the basis of a complex set of formulas that seek to determine levels of need and cost for different services. Labour has said it will replace the 'outdated' system with 'place-based, focused formulas'. But the County Councils Network, which represents a group of largely rural authorities, had responded by suggesting the government may have 'overcompensated for deprivation in distributing non-social care funding'. 'Most worryingly for many of our councils, this consultation proposes a full council tax equalisation, and this could mean hundreds of millions of pounds of additional funding being redistributed from county area,' chairman Tim Oliver said last week. Elsewhere in her speech, Ms Rayner announced 'reorganisation' plans aimed at slashing red tape and reforming accountability at a local level. 'We must cut out this needless duplication. We must take the brilliant leadership shown by district and county councillors and move it to a simpler structure with more resources for the frontline and clearer accountability for residents,' she said. 'Alongside our new outcomes framework, we'll be launching a comprehensive review to ensure unnecessary regulations and needless asks from Government aren't getting in the way of you serving your communities.' She said the new framework would focus on 'outcomes' rather than 'micromanagement'. As part of the overhaul the government will introduce a 'public interest test' aimed at reducing 'costly dependence on eternal providers,' she said. 'We are working to undo the ideological presumption of outsourcing as default as part of our plan to make work pay. 'The truth is we have become hooked on short-term solutions, creating a costly dependence on external providers which can fail to deliver, particularly for vulnerable people, young and old.' The proposals will be put to consultation with councils and local authorities from Thursday before a final framework is published, with the government aiming to implement it by April 2026. Responding to Ms Rayner's speech on Thursday, the County Councils Network said the announcement was a 'positive step' towards streamlining funding pots. It added: 'The key now will be to ensure that these funds are distributed to the places most in need, with county areas having untapped economic potential but requiring the funds for the schemes to unlock this.'
The Independent
25 minutes ago
- The Independent
You can't fix the NHS without fixing social care, Streeting warned
MPs have warned the Health Secretary that 'you can't fix the NHS without fixing social care' following the launch of the Government's 10-year health plan. Social care was described as a 'very significant question' hanging over the blueprint by the shadow health secretary. Speaking in Commons on Thursday, Edward Argar warned Wes Streeting he risks failing to 'seize the genuine opportunity' presented by the plan if social care is not also reformed. There were also calls to bring forward the end date of the Casey Commission, which aims to set out a plan to implement a national care service, in order to go 'further and faster' on social care. Mr Argar said: 'Unless we move faster to adjust the challenges of social care and put it on a sustainable footing, these reforms risk failing to seize the genuine opportunity presented.' Mr Streeting said: 'We're not waiting for Casey. The Spending Review gave an additional £4 billion to social care, and we're delivering the biggest expansion of carers allowance since the 1970s, significant increase in the disabled facilities grant. 'And the deputy prime minister and I will shortly be setting out how we will deliver the first ever fair pay agreements for the care workforce, building a real social care progression.' The Casey Commission launched earlier this year, with the first phase expected to report in 2026, although recommendations from the initial probe will be implemented in phases over the course of 10 years. Social care leaders have raised concerns over the potential timeline of 2036 for some reforms to be introduced. The second phase of the commission, setting out longer-term reforms, is due to report by 2028. Mr Streeting said social care 'has to be part' of neighbourhood health, adding: 'In the context of this plan, social care features because it has a role to play on admission avoidance and speeding up delayed discharges.' Helen Morgan, Liberal Democrat MP for North Shropshire, said a plan for the future of the NHS is 'welcome' but sought reassurance on social care. 'In 143 pages of the 10-year plan, there is only a passing reference to social care,' she said. 'Everyone knows that you can't fix the NHS without fixing social care. 'With so many people unable to return home from hospital to get the care they need, solving the crisis in social care is a huge part of moving care out of hospital and into the community.' Mr Streeting said: 'I hope the house is reassured by the action we've already taken on social care, that's greater funding, the expansion of carers allowance, increasing the disabled facilities grant, the Fair Pay agreements, and the role and the partnership that we will see with social care to deliver better neighbourhood health services. 'And I should also say, especially in the context of what we've been describing about the importance of data and digital connections and better systems, in some parts of the country the social care system is actually ahead of the NHS, making better use of data, joining up systems in a more effective and efficient way. 'And there's lots that the NHS can learn from social care as well as the other way around.' The chief executive of Care England, Professor Martin Green, also warned that the NHS 'cannot deliver this vision alone'. 'If adult social care is not put at the centre of delivery – not just as a partner, but as a leader – this plan will falter,' he added. 'The plan speaks to a future we've already been building. But vision alone isn't enough. Providers need clarity, investment, and status. 'Without a clear role for adult social care, this plan will leave a gap between policy and reality.'
