Streeting urges closer trading ties with Europe to grow UK economy
A deeper trading relationship with the EU would be the best way of growing Britain’s economy, which has an “uncomfortable” level of tax, Wes Streeting has said.The health secretary said it would not be possible for any partnership with the EU to “return to freedom of movement”, but his comments appeared to leave the door open to the idea of a customs union.His remarks on the EU appear to go further than the government’s position, which has ruled out a customs union as it seeks deeper trading relations with Brussels.Some in the cabinet would like No 10 to go further in its ambitions in order to improve the UK economy.Streeting spoke out about the EU, the economy and his own ambitions in a wide-ranging interview with the Observer, while stressing that he was not after Keir Starmer’s job.
He said a deeper economic partnership with Europe would be the best way of increasing growth, and suggested he would like to go further than the current reset with the EU, which he described as a “good start”.“We’ve taken a massive economic hit leaving the European Union.I’m really uncomfortable with the level of taxation in this country.We’re asking a lot of individual taxpayers, we’re asking a lot of businesses.We’ve got a level of indebtedness that we need to take very seriously,” he said.
“The best way for us to get more growth into our economy is a deeper trading relationship with the EU,“The reason why leaving the EU hit us so hard as a country is because of the enormous economic benefits that came with being in the single market and the customs union,This is a country and a government that wants a closer trading relationship with Europe,“The challenge is any economic partnership we have can’t lead to a return to freedom of movement,”On his own brief, Streeting said the NHS was “coping” with resident doctors’ strikes, but he was worried about its recovery as the industrial action enters its final day.
The health secretary told the Observer that the NHS was managing to get through the five-day action by the British Medical Association doctors in England, but he was concerned about the period afterwards as the health service struggles with flu cases,Streeting has taken a tough stance on strikes,He offered resident doctors a deal that involved more training places but no extra money, which was refused,His position has been criticised by Andrea Egan, the incoming general secretary of Unison, as an “unacceptable” approach to striking workers,Streeting said: “I think the NHS is coping.
The period that worries me more is the post-strike period when we have to try and recover the service.That now falls at a time of year which is the NHS’s busiest.“I don’t think that doctors are selfish and don’t care about nurses and other healthcare professionals, but the BMA’s position can be quite hardline and uncompromising.”Streeting, who is considered a top contender to be the next Labour leader, described recent media briefings by allies of Starmer several weeks ago – amid speculation he was preparing to replace the prime minister – as a “bizarre drive-by” and questioned why anyone would want the top job.However, he appeared careful not to rule himself out, saying: “I’m diplomatically ducking the question to avoid any more of the silly soap opera we’ve had in the last few months.
” Pressed on whether he thought Britain would be prepared to vote for a gay prime minister, he said: “Yes, but I want to make it explicitly clear that this is not a pitch or a job application,The prime minister’s got my absolute support,”Anna Turley, the chair of the Labour party, was pressed on Sky News’s Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips about Starmer’s low approval ratings and she insisted he would still be prime minister next Christmas,She said it was “nonsense” that he may have to resign if local election results are bad for Labour in May and said the whole team was “united behind him”,Streeting said he and the former deputy prime minister Angela Rayner had joked about rumours that they had struck a deal to make a joint bid if there were to be a vacancy, and insisted it bore no resemblance to reality.
“The last time I had a conversation with Angela was when I went up to her in the voting lobby and said, ‘I hear you’re putting together a new cabinet, I’ve always liked the idea of the Foreign Office so count me in’ and she turned around and snapped back as quick as a flash ‘oh no you’re behind the times haven’t you heard I’m going on I’m a Celebrity?’,” he says,“We had a good laugh about it because there’s so much idle gossip and tittle-tattle,”He also hinted that he held a different position on banning social media for under 16s than some others in the cabinet, including the prime minister,“We need to think much more radically about how we support young people to navigate this new online world,” he said,“[It] has been a place of bullying, intimidation, sometimes misogyny, even radicalisation.
The challenge of social media is that it’s increasingly antisocial media,That’s why I think what Australia’s doing is interesting and we should follow the results closely and see if that’s something we should consider doing here,”
UK aid cuts take 40% from funds to counter Russian threat in western Balkans
Keir Starmer’s raid on overseas aid has led to a 40% cut in funds for countering Russian aggression and misinformation in a region of Europe described by the prime minister as vital to the UK’s national security.British funding committed to bolstering the western Balkans, where Russia has been accused of sowing division and creating destabilisation, has been cut from £40m last year to £24m for 2025-26.The Integrated Security Fund (ISF) is designed to tackle the highest priority threats to the UK’s national security at home and overseas.Starmer recently described the western Balkans region, encompassing Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia, as “Europe’s crucible – the place where the security of our continent is put to the test”.Last year’s ISF funds were used in part to counter and respond to malicious cyber-attacks in the region and to bolster democratic institutions and independent media
‘It’s rather rude’: Truss accused of trying to poach members of rival Tory club
For Tory grandees licking their wounds and plotting their return after their disastrous 2024 general election performance, the opulent, fire-lit rooms of the exclusive club 5 Hertford Street are a sanctuary.But in recent weeks, their long lunches have been rudely interrupted by Liz Truss, who has been accused of wandering the premises in search of members to poach for her own rival operation, just one street away, which asks “founding members” for an eye-watering £500,000.The former prime minister’s alleged headhunting is understood to have irritated those who run the Mayfair club, including its owner, Robin Birley, the entrepreneur and son of Annabel Goldsmith and the nightclub owner Mark Birley. A friend of his said: “It is rather rude, but at £500k, we are rather better value.” Membership of 5 Hertford Street is a relative snip at less than £2,000 a year
UK politics: ‘Not clear’ who was behind FCDO hack, says minister, amid reports of China link – as it happened
Good morning.The UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office was hacked in October, according to trade minister Chris Bryant.Details of the hack emerged on Friday in a report by the Sun that claimed a Chinese hacker group was behind the cyber-attack.The Sun named Storm 1849 as the Chinese cyber gang responsible for the breach, which it said was understood to possibly include tens of thousands of visa details.The group has been “accused of targeting politicians and groups critical of the Chinese government”, the newspaper said
UK Foreign Office victim of cyber-attack in October, says Chris Bryant
The UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office was hacked in October, a minister has said.Chris Bryant, a trade minister in Keir Starmer’s government, told Sky News there was a low risk to “any individual” from the cyber-attack.Details of the hack emerged on Friday in a report by the Sun that claimed a Chinese hacking group was behind it.But Bryant told broadcasters it was “not clear” who perpetrated the attack and cautioned against speculation. “There certainly has been a hack at the FCDO and we’ve been aware of that since October,” Bryant told Sky News
Society of Editors decries Starmer’s plan to reduce media scrutiny of No 10
The Society of Editors has raised concerns about Keir Starmer’s plan to reduce scrutiny of No 10 by political journalists, saying it risks weakening transparency.The body, which represents news organisations, said regular, open and robust questioning was a cornerstone of democracy and that the plan to reduce briefings was deeply concerning.Downing Street’s director of communications, Tim Allan, unveiled the plan on Thursday without consulting the group of political journalists known as the lobby who traditionally attend briefings twice a day to question the prime minister’s spokesperson.Allan said the government would be reducing the briefings to one a day, and would sometimes replace the single briefing with a press conference.Held at 9 Downing Street, lobby briefings are on the record but not broadcast
Reform-run Kent council accused of blocking scrutiny of claim it saved £40m
Reform-run Kent council has been accused of trying to block scrutiny after it refused, for more than five months, to produce evidence that it had saved more than £40m by cancelling two environmental projects that did not exist yet.Polly Billington, a Labour MP in Kent, first requested background to the claim via a freedom of information (FoI) request in July. She said the subsequent delay had not been explained and seemed to show the council was embarrassed at what the documents would show.Kent county council said it rejected any suggestion of a cover-up, and that it planned to release the information to Billington, the East Thanet MP, later this week.The saga began when the Kent leader, Linden Kemkaran, told a council meeting on 10 July that the authority had saved £32m by scrapping a programme to make properties more environmentally friendly, and £7
Christmas burnout: why stressed parents find it ‘harder to be emotionally honest with children’
Labour admits 60% of parents wrongly targeted in HMRC child benefit fraud crackdown
‘We’ve got more in common than what divides us’: a Muslim-Jewish kitchen in Nottingham counters hate and hunger
NHS to trial potentially life-saving treatment for deadly liver disease
US plan for $1.6m hepatitis B vaccine study in Africa called ‘highly unethical’
Young people will suffer most from UK’s ageing population, Lords say