No 10 says Starmer won’t offer reparations or apology over Britain’s role in slavery at Commonwealth summit – UK politics live

Most voters will back a rise in employers’ national insurance contributions if the money goes towards the NHS, according to polling commissioned by a Labour thinktank.

The YouGov polling suggests that, when people are just asked if they approve or disapprove of a rise in employers’ NICs, they disapprove by 40% to 30%.

But when people are asked if they would approve this tax going up to fund healthcare and the NHS, they are in favour by 69% to 18%.

People who voted Labour at the election are even more supportive, with 85% of them approving of the idea, the polling suggests. And people who voted Labour in the 2024 election having voted Conservative in 2019 are also 82% in favour.

Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, has strongly hinted that employers’ NICs will go up in the budget. She has said that this tax was not covered by the Labour manifesto promise not to put up national insurance generally.

The polling was commissioned by Labour Together, a thintank and campaign group partly set up by Morgan McSweeney, who is now Keir Starmer’s chief of staff. It is focused on prompting policies that will help the party to carry on winning elections.

YouGov also explored what other reasons might make people support a rise in employers’ NICs. Extra money for health was by far the most powerful motivator, but people would also back employers’ NICs going up if told the money would be used for education, for tax cuts or for the police.

But if told the money was going on defence, on cutting the national debt or on giving public sectors a pay rise, they were not in favour.

Matt Upton, director of policy at Labour Together, said:

Time and time again in polls and focus groups, voters across the country have told us that Labour must deliver on their key priorities: the NHS and cost of living. If it doesn’t, it faces prompt dismissal at the next election.

This polling shows that voters are overwhelmingly willing to back a potential tax rise like this on business, if the money is spent on the things they care most about.

Crucially for Labour strategists, support for this is even higher among those who switched from the Tories in 2019 to Labour in 2024.

This group, though small in number, were decisive at this election and will be again at the next one if Labour is to win a second term.

Ex-council chief executive who had to apologise for anti-monarchy comment becomes SNP’s acting chief executive

Severin Carrell

A former council chief executive who had to apologise for attacking monarchists as bigots and xenophobes has been appointed the Scottish National party’s acting chief executive.

Carol Beattie, the former chief executive at Stirling council, was given the post by the SNP national executive on Saturday less than a day after Murray Foote, suddenly quit as the party’s chief executive.

Beattie sparked controversy after criticising an article about Kate Middleton’s return to public duties following her cancer diagnosis by claiming “intelligent people don’t support the monarchy”. Those that do, she added, “use them as symbols of their bigotry or xenophobic values”.

Her tweets emerged last month after Beattie stood as the SNP’s candidate for a byelection in Falkirk, which was held last week, only six months after she stood down as Stirling council’s lead official. The SNP has consistently stayed clear of republicanism, to avoid alienating pro-monarchy votes.

She said: “I apologise for any offence caused by the language I used and have removed the tweets.”

Keith Brown, the SNP’s deputy leader, said:

She brings considerable experience to the role and her appointment will continue the work, under John Swinney’s leadership, to ensure a professional, modern, dynamic election-winning organisation.

The SNP remains the dominant political force in Scotland, and Carol Beattie’s appointment will ensure we remain equipped for the tasks ahead.

Beattie narrowly lost the Falkirk South byelection to Labour’s Claire Aitken last Thursday. It had been called after the incumbent, Euan Stainbank, was elected as a Labour MP in July – the party’s youngest Scottish MP at 24.

Scotland uses proportional voting in council elections. In a signal that Labour support is being hit by the winter fuel payment cuts and the controversies over Keir Starmer’s clothes and glasses donations, Beattie gained the most votes in the first round of voting, 1,043 – 29 votes more than Aitken. Aitken took the seat in the seventh round of voting.

Craig Hoy, the Scottish Conservative chair, said:

The murky appointment of Carol Beattie highlights the level of chaos unfolding within the scandal-ridden SNP. Despite saying he would stay on until a permanent replacement was found, Murray Foote obviously couldn’t leave fast enough from the turmoil of the SNP.

Wes Streeting, the health secretary, has revived claims that some patients are receiving a “death sentence” because of the problems with the NHS.

Speaking at a health centre in east London, where he was launching the consultation on the future of the NHS (see 9.13am) alongside Keir Starmer, Streeting said:

There couldn’t be a more important time for us to have this conversation.

The NHS is going through what is objectively the worst crisis in its history, whether it’s people struggling to get access to their GP, dialling 999 and an ambulance not arriving in time, turning up to A&E departments and waiting far too long, sometimes on trolleys in corridors, or going through the ordeal of knowing that you’re waiting for a diagnosis that could be the difference between life and death.

Worse still, receiving a prognosis that amounts to a death sentence that could have been avoided because the NHS didn’t reach you in time.

That is, I’m afraid, the daily reality in the NHS today.

Streeting also said the consultation was important because the best ideas for NHS reform would not come from Whitehall. He said:

We feel really strongly that the best ideas aren’t going to come from politicians in Whitehall.

They’re going to come from staff working right across the country and, crucially, patients, because our experiences as patients are also really important to understanding what the future of the NHS needs to be and what it could be with the right ideas.

Streeting has used the term “death sentence” before in relation to patients’ experience of the NHS (normally in relation to cancer, because some cancer survival rates are worse than in comparable countries). It has been reported that some NHS leaders don’t like this language because they worry it will deter patients and undermine staff morale. But in his speeech to Labour’s conference Streeting doubled down, claiming it was important to tell the truth because otherwise he would be “killing [the NHS] with kindness”.

Robert Jenrick, who is seen as the underdog behind Kemi Badenoch in the Tory leadership contest, has said that if he wins, Conservative candidiates at the next election will have to support his plan for Britain to leave the European convention on human rights.

In an interview on Radio 4’s Westminster Hour last night, he said:

If we were lucky enough to win the next general election, then this would be part of our manifesto. So yes, it would be Conservative party policy, and those choosing to stand at the election would have to support it, as they do any other important policy that’s part of the manifesto.

Jenrick has already said Tory MPs would have to back the policy if they wanted to take a post in his shadow cabinet. Requiring candidates at the next election to declare in favour of ECHR withdrawal goes even further, and would probably be a step too far for some current Conservative MPs.

In his Westminster Hour interview, Jenrick also criticised Badenoch’s decision not to announce policy plans at this point. Badenoch says that there is no point announcing policy so far ahead of the next general election, and that it is more important for the party to decide its values and principles. (This has not stopped her saying she would reverse Labour’s imposition of VAT on private school fees.)

Commenting on Badenoch’s approach, Jenrick said:

I think it’s disrespectful to the members and the public to ask for their votes without saying where you stand on the big issues facing our country today.

A plan today is what I offer. A promise of a plan at some point in the future is what my opponent offers, and I don’t think that’s the way to rebuild the public’s trust and confidence in us.

Keir Starmer has defended plans to digitalise records in the NHS.

Speaking at an event in east London to launch the consultation on the future of the NHS (see 9.13am), he said:

There are some obvious things that I think we do need to do. We need to go from analogue to digital, we need to use much better technology, whether that is in the ambulance service, in our hospitals, in our neighbourhoods, making much more use of technology.

He also said NHS workers had a “once-in-a-generation opportunity” to reshape the service for the future.

Addressing claims that the government should be starting NHS reform now, instead of consulting, Starmer told health staff:

We want to hear from you and from as wide a number of people as possible, both in the NHS and people who are using the NHS, because this needs to be the once-in-a-generation opportunity for you to put your fingerprints on the future – literally to craft the service that you are working for.

This is a really important conversation to create that NHS of the future, a moment in our history.

Andy Street, the Conservative former West Midlands mayor, has hinted that he may decline to vote for either of the two candidates left in the Tory leadership contest.

Kemi Badenoch, who is seen as the favourite, and Robert Jenrick are both now firmly on the right of the party. Street, who was West Midlands mayor for seven years until he was narrowly defeated by Labour in May, is on the opposite wing of the party, and is seen as a “moderate” or “centrist”.

In an interview on the Today programme, asked if he would say who he was backing in the leadership contest, Street replied:

I’ve got my ballot paper. But you’re not going to get me to do that, I’m afraid.

I was clear before the previous two rounds that I wanted a candidate from the centre, the moderate part of the party. I backed Tom Tugendhat publicly. I’m not going to back anyone publicly now.

Asked if he would be backing either of the two candidates privately (ie, voting for one of them), Street replied:

I will decide that myself. The answer to that is private.

Asked if he thought either Badenoch or Jenrick could represent the future of the party, he replied: “Maybe.”

If Street does boycott the contest, he won’t be alone. As Jessica Elgot reported last week, polling suggests 15% of Conservative councillors won’t vote in the contest because they do not like the choice on offer.

Acting Alba party leader says no decision yet taken over whether Sturgeon will be invited to Salmond’s memorial service

Severin Carrell

Claims that Nicola Sturgeon has been banned from attending Alex Salmond’s memorial service have been rejected as “premature” by Kenny MacAskill, the acting leader of Alba, the former first minister’s nationalist party.

The Sunday Mail reported at the weekend an Alba source saying there was “not a chance in hell” that Sturgeon would be invited, given the pair’s incendiary split over the allegations of sexual misconduct against Salmond.

Sturgeon and Salmond have not spoken since the allegations emerged following a Scottish government inquiry in 2018. Salmond had repeatedly accused her aides of orchestrating a smear campaign against him – claims Sturgeon has consistently dismissed.

In a statement rejecting the Sunday Mail’s claims, MacAskill said:

Now is the time for Alex’s family to be given the privacy and time to grieve the loss of a beloved husband, brother and uncle.

An announcement will be made in the coming days about arrangements for a private funeral to be attended by his family and close friends.

There will be time in the coming weeks to celebrate his life and commemorate his achievements in a memorial service, the family have yet to make any arrangements for that. All other speculation is premature.

Salmond’s family are expecting to hold a private funeral for the former first minister in his home village of Strichen, Aberdeenshire, next week, where he will also be buried. No date has yet been fixed for a memorial service, though some allies have suggested St Andrew’s Day on 30 November.

It remains unclear whether Sturgeon would expect to be invited. Salmond told a BBC Scotland documentary which aired last month: “It’s a big regret that Nicola and I are no longer on speaking terms and I seriously doubt if it’s going to improve.”

Stephen Kinnock, the care minister, was giving interviews this morning on behalf of the government. He was promoting the consultation on the future of the NHS, but many of the questions he took were about the government’s plans for a digital “patient passport”, ensuring people’s medical records are all available in one place, through the NHS app. Pippa Crerar and Denis Campbell explain that here.

Kinnock sought to play down concerns that people’s data would be at risk. But, in an interview with Mishal Husain on the Today programme, he was could not give her firm assurances on this point.

When Husain asked if people’s patient records would be available to all 1.5 million NHS employees under the government’s plans, Kinnock said the protocols would be set out in the forthcoming data bill. He went on:

We’re absolutely committed to protecting data, and we need the cyber security in place. Of course, one of the problems is the NHS uses Excel XP which is not conducive to the most modern cyber security techniques. We’ve got to modernize the tech.

Husain said protecting data from cyber attacks was a diferent matter, and she again asked if all NHS employees would be able to access someone’s medical records. Kinnock replied:

What we’re proposing is no different to online banking apps. So this is definitely more NatWest than it is Star Trek. This is a system that is going to be based on common sense, on enabling a single patient record.

In the end, if we don’t modernise the NHS, make it more efficient and productive, you can have the best data protection rules in the world, but you not going to have a health and care system that actually works.

Husain tried twice more to get a clear answer about the restrictions on NHS staff accessing individuals’ records. Kinnock did not say in detail how the system would work, but he said ultimately it was a matter of balance.

You’ve got to have a system that works and that enables the hugely important interface between GPS, hospitals and patients, and to create that single patient record.

That has to be balanced against water tight data protection, and that is the balance that we’re going to strike.

But if you constantly just say, we can’t do this because of data protection concerns, you’re just going to have the status quo going on and on and on, and you’re going to have a system that doesn’t work.

Michael Gove has said that the most hurtful part of his political career was the attacks on his former wife, Sarah Vine, Peter Walker reports.

Good morning. When the Labour government came into power, Wes Streeting, the health secretary, declared on his first day in office “the policy of this department is that the NHS is broken”. The government is going to publish a 10-year health plan to fix it, and it is due to be published next spring.

Streeting has said the plan will involve three main elements: moving from analogue to digital; more focus on primary care, not hospital care; and more focus on prevention. Keir Starmer explained them in a speech on the NHS in September.

But today the government is asking people who work in the NHS and use it – the “entire nation”, as the Department of Health and Social Care puts it in its news release – to contribute to a consultation how health service should change. The DHSC explains:

Members of the public, as well as NHS staff and experts will be invited to share their experiences views and ideas for fixing the NHS via the online platform, change.nhs.uk, which will be live until the start of next year, and available via the NHS App.

The public engagement exercise will help shape the government’s 10 Year Health Plan which will be published in spring 2025 and will be underlined by three big shifts in healthcare – hospital to community, analogue to digital, and sickness to prevention …

Bold ambitions for the NHS can only be achieved by listening to the expertise and knowledge of its 1.54 million strong workforce. Their understanding of what’s holding them back from performing at their best will help us bring down waiting times and provide the world class care the public deserve.

The government has already taken immediate action to address challenges in the health service and deliver an NHS fit for the future. Whether that’s agreeing a deal with resident doctors within weeks, securing a funding increase for GP practices to manage rising pressures or hiring an extra 1,000 GPs into the NHS by the end of this year, there are both short- and long-term reforms working hand in hand.

Streeting has posted a link to the online consultation page on social media.

Governments launch consultations for various reasons. Clearly, when ministers are making big changes to large, important institutions, it makes sense to find out first what the public think, and occasionally these exercise throw up ideas overlooked by the thinktank, policy-making world. But that is not the only, or even the main, function of these initiatives like this. Ensuring people feel consulted can be just as important as finding out what they think.

More importantly, this is also about pitch-rolling – persuading people that an issue matters, and that change is needed. The public don’t need to be told that the NHS needs rescuing; it is regularly at or near the top of problems that people say matter to them most, according to polling. But we are less than two weeks away from a budget that is set to raise the tax burden by a record amount in cash terms (not necessarily as a proportion of GDP) and it is very, very important for the government to convince people that this is happening for reason (like fixing the broken NHS) and not just out of profligacy. Gordon Brown was the master of this; when he put up national insurance to raise money for the NHS, it turned out to be one of the most popular tax rises ever. Today’s NHS consultation is probably more about budget framing than about a scramble for ideas to pad out next year’s 10-year plan.

Here is the agenda for the day.

Morning: Keir Starmer and Wes Streeting, the health secretary, are visiting a health centre in London to launch their public consultation on the NHS’s future.

11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.

2.20pm: Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, takes questions in the Commons.

After 3.30pm: Angela Rayner, the deputy prime minister and housing secretary, opens the Commons debate on the second reading of the employment rights bill.

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