Defence secretary accuses Tory and Reform MPs of ‘unpatriotic’ behaviour
The defence secretary, John Healey, has accused opposition politicians of deliberately undermining the UK’s relationship with Donald Trump, saying it was “unpatriotic” for MPs to seek to turn the US against Keir Starmer.Healey, speaking to the Guardian at RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus, which was hit by a drone strike over the weekend, said he had been shocked at the way politicians like Nigel Farage had sought to “undermine” the UK’s relationship with the US.The Conservatives and Reform UK have criticised the British decision not to allow the US to use UK bases for offensive strikes against Iranian targets, though they will be used to help defend UK interests and allies in the region from Iranian retaliatory attacks.But Healey said he had been shocked by the extent to which senior MPs had sought to curry favour with the US president by undermining the position of the UK government – not just on the Iran attacks but also over the Chagos Islands deal.Kemi Badenoch, the Tory leader, and Farage, have both praised Trump for his opposition – albeit fluctuating – to the government’s Chagos plan, which the US president criticised when apparently frustrated with the UK over other issues.
“For an elected British politician from the House of Commons, from Reform or from the Conservatives, to be going over to America … calling on President Trump to disown the deal we’d agreed and worked through to protect for the next 100 years our sovereign base and ability to operate out of Diego Garcia – it is unpatriotic, it undermines Britain and it is not the sort of leadership that British people should expect from elected politicians,” said Healey.“It looks like to me their intent is to undermine the British relationship with the US.That seems to be their intent, unpatriotic, unacceptable and not what people should expect of people who are elected to speak up in parliament and represent this country.”British allies in the Gulf and Cyprus have criticised the government for not doing enough to protect the region, and UK citizens stuck there, from Iranian missile strikes.Healey travelled to Cyprus to calm the diplomatic fallout over a drone that evaded detection and hit a hangar at RAF Akrotiri containing spy planes, with little damage, which prompted fury from local ministers.
The Cypriot high commissioner in the UK, Kyriacos Kouros, said the country was “disappointed” with British failures to warn people on the island of the impending strike,Healey met the Cypriot defence minister, Vasilis Palmas, to discuss how the UK was reinforcing air defences,An additional 400 UK personnel are supporting air defence activities across the UK’s bases in Cyprus,After Keir Starmer was unable to say whether he was confident Trump had a plan for the next stage of the conflict, Healey declined to say if he had faith in the US’s endgame – or if he trusted whether the administration had a coherent plan for the aftermath,“It’s for the US to set out – our focus now, my focus as defence secretary – is making sure I do everything I can in a period where the Iranian threats and the Iranian strikes are increasingly indiscriminate [to] protect British people, military serving on bases like this, to protect allies and protect this island,” he said.
“We can respond to the requests we are getting from allies and step up and help their defence,We’ll do that in a coordinated way and we’ll do that as we’ve done from day one with Britain playing that leading role,“We are doing what we need to do now to reduce the risk and do our best to protect British people, British bases, British allies,”Healey said he did not accept the UK was underprepared for the initial strikes or the scale of the Iranian retaliation,On Thursday, the government announced it was sending four more Typhoon fighter jets and two attack helicopters to the region, although a Royal Navy destroyer remains in Portsmouth.
“We had already, weeks ahead of this conflict, already strengthened air defences here on the island of Cyprus.Not just to defend this base and our British forces personnel but the island of Cyprus and neighbouring allied countries,” said Healey.“We put extra air defences and fast jets into Qatar as well to do the same thing.So we are leading a coordinated regional defensive operation that we expected would be needed and that we’ve flown and helped lead from day one of this conflict.”The defence secretary suggested the UK was unlikely to step up operations further in the short term, saying the country was “playing the role that we can best play”.
UK’s private dentistry market faces review after price jumps of more than 23%
The UK’s competition watchdog has launched a review into the £8bn private dentistry market after the price of a consultation increased by nearly 25% over a two-year period.One in five people in Great Britain sought private dental care in 2024 in part because they could not access NHS treatment. Announcing its investigation, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said it wanted to make sure the market was “working well for UK consumers”.The CMA said dentistry played “a critical role in people’s health and wellbeing” and that demand for private services had risen sharply in recent years. Against this backdrop the regulator pointed to independent price data that showed average prices had “increased significantly”
‘A space of their own’: how cancer centres designed by top architects can offer hope
Maggie Keswick Jencks received her weekly breast cancer treatment in a windowless neon-lit room in Edinburgh’s Western general hospital. Her husband, the renowned landscape designer Charles, later described it as a kind of “architectural aversion therapy”.It was then, in the early 1990s, that the Scottish artist and garden designer imagined her own blueprint that would allow cancer patients “a space of their own” within the alienating, clinical confines of the hospital estate, one where they might “not lose the joy of living in the fear of dying”.The first Maggie’s Centre opened in Edinburgh in 1996, a year after her death, designed by Richard Murphy and housed in a converted stable block in the Western general grounds.Three decades on, there are more than 30 of these hospital-adjacent cancer support centres across the UK and overseas, and this legacy of conscious design is celebrated in a free exhibition at the V&A Dundee from Friday
UK government ‘effectively allowed’ child sexual abuse, campaigners say
Campaigners have accused the UK government of in effect allowing child abuse to continue by having an “inconsistent and arbitrary” approach to implementing recommendations from a seven-year statutory inquiry.The claim was made at the high court in London, where a judge said a legal action against the Home Office could continue.The Maggie Oliver Foundation is taking action over the government’s alleged failure to adopt all the changes recommended by the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse (IICSA), which conducted investigations between 2015 and 2022.At a hearing on Thursday, Mr Justice Kimblin allowed the legal action to continue, saying it was arguable that the foundation had a “legitimate expectation” that the government would implement the recommendations. The Home Office is defending the claim
Circumcision classed as potentially harmful practice in new CPS guidance
Circumcision has been classed as a potentially harmful practice in new official guidance for criminal prosecutors in England and Wales, but controversial plans to class it as possible child abuse have been dropped.The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) decided against including circumcision alongside dowry abuse, witchcraft and female genital mutilation in its new guidance on honour-based abuse, after objections from Jewish and Muslim groups when the plans were revealed by the Guardian.Instead it has included a similar section on circumcision in updated guidance on offences against the person. It says: “In certain circumstances, such as the procedure being carried out by those falsely claiming to be suitably qualified practitioners or carried out in non-sterile conditions, it can cross the line into a harmful practice.”Prosecutors are advised to consider child cruelty offences under the Children and Young Persons Act 1933 or assault offences under the Offences against the Person Act 1861
Scientists laud potentially life-changing drug for children with resistant form of epilepsy
Scientists have hailed a potentially life-changing drug for children with a hard to treat form of epilepsy, after promising early clinical trial results.Dravet syndrome is a genetic disorder which causes treatment resistant epilepsy and is often accompanied by speech and developmental delays. About 3,000 people are thought to have the condition in the UK. Current treatments aim to control the number and severity of seizures, but often do not work.These preliminary trials, led by UCL and Great Ormond Street hospital (GOSH), found that the drug appeared to be safe and well tolerated by the 81 children taking part
More than 220m children will be obese by 2040 without drastic action, report warns
Without drastic action more than 220 million children could have obesity by 2040, an international report has warned.Globally, in 2025 about 180 million children were obese. But new figures from the World Obesity Federation suggest that by 2040, about 227 million of all five- to 19-year-olds will have obesity and more than half a billion will be overweight.According to the federation’s 2026 world obesity atlas, that would mean that at least 120 million school-age children would have early signs of chronic disease caused by their high body mass index (BMI).Someone is classed as obese if their BMI is 30 or above, and overweight if it is above 25
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