Labour says extra 900 beds for NHS just a ‘sticking plaster’ amid record waiting times – UK politics live | Politics

Ben Quinn

The EU has rejected reports that it is not open to a new deal with the UK on returning people who have crossed the Channel, after a leak of purported discussions between London and Brussels.

A leaked copy of a memo on discussions with the UK’s national security adviser, Sir Tim Barrow, was reported to have included mention of an aide to the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, ruling out a post-Brexit “returns agreement”.

Von der Leyen’s aide Bjoern Seibert reportedly said in the memo that “the commission is not open to a UK-EU readmissions agreement”.

However, a spokesperson for the commission denied Seibert had said what was attributed to him in the memo, which was reported by the Daily Mail and the Times. “We have checked and Mr Siebert did not say that,” the commission spokesperson said when asked about the memo.

While the UK has reached bilateral agreements – including a recent deal with Turkey to disrupt people-smuggling gangs and tackle illegal migration – the UK is no longer part of returns agreements between the EU and 24 other countries after Brexit.

Rishi Sunak has pushed for a bilateral returns agreement with France but Emmanuel Macron has said any deal must be at an EU level.

The French president made clear during a UK-France summit in March that any returns mechanism would not be “an agreement between the UK and France, but an agreement between the UK and the EU”.

Read more from my colleague Ben Quinn here: EU denies reports it has rejected UK deal to return people who cross Channel

If you haven’t popped down to your local newsagent yet, here are some of the front pages you would have seen on the racks.

The Guardian lead with the confirmation that dissident Republicans have obtained the sensitive data from the PSNI leak.

The government have been desperately trying to make this week “NHS week”, but not everybody got the memo, as last week’s chosen government topic – immigration – is still on the front pages.

The Times has an EU angle – that France is not playing ball with the UK government over its attempt to make a deal over migrant returns.

The Daily Express has, not for the first time, turned its ire on France.

The Telegraph has again put its focus on the Covid inquiry and how it is dealign with the impact of the pandemic and its response on children.

Metro picked up the story that NHS England might drop some cancer targets [See 10.00 BST], quoting a campaigner calling the change “ominous”.

The Daily Mail, meanwhile, has gone off-piste and splashed on TikTok.

Yesterday health secretary Steve Barclay refused to be drawn on reports that the NHS in England would be scrapping a target to see suspected cancer patients within two weeks. He said “the story relates to a leak, and ministers don’t comment on leaks.”

Health minister Will Quince has taken a different approach today, telling Sky News that targets would be merged, not scrapped. PA Media reports he told Sky News:

This is an announcement due to be made following a consultation, this is not something that the Government has led on, but it’s NHS England, oncologists, clinicians and, indeed, cancer charities have called for this change.

No targets are actually being scrapped – they’re being merged into three targets, which I think, and all of those experts and specialists are saying, is the right thing to do: focusing on outcomes and cutting out bureaucracy for clinicians.

NHS England and oncologists… actually think by moving to three targets, including the faster diagnosis standard, means that actually people get a faster diagnosis as a result.

This is not something where we’re leading on and actually this is something that the NHS in Wales did back in 2018.

The approving line that this is “something that the NHS in Wales did” is somewhat in contrast to the attacks on social media being run by the Conservatives about how the NHS is performing in Wales.

On the morning media round health minister Will Quince has insisted asylum seekers could return to the Bibby Stockholm barge within days, describing the discovery of legionella bacteria on the vessel as “a teething issue”.

PA Media reports he told LBC Radio: “Of course public health and safety is key, but we hope in the next few days we will be able to start getting people on to the Bibby Stockholm. It is absolutely the right thing to do but public health and safety is always our paramount concern.”

He told TalkTV the Government remains committed to the plan to use the barge and other vessels like it, adding: “I think with Bibby Stockholm there was certainly a teething issue there. But we are absolutely determined to stick to the plan because we know that deterrence is working.”

Quince did not specify how the government knew the policy was working as a “deterrence”.

On the political blame game that subsequently developed, he told viewers of Sky News “No doubt the Home Office, alongside their contractors, will want to look at the timeline … but what I do know, as soon as ministers were made aware an immediate decision to disembark was made on public health grounds. I know that there won’t be anyone going on to the Bibby Stockholm until it’s totally safe.”

Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting accused the Government of offering the NHS a ‘sticking plaster’, with the announcement that £250m was to be set aside to boost capacity before winter.

The move was announced as part of the government’s plan to make this week “NHS week” in the media. Yesterday the Conservative focus was on attacking the record of the health services in devolved areas of the UK.

Prime minister Rishi Sunak was quoting as saying: “Cutting waiting lists is one of my top five priorities, so this year the Government has started planning for winter earlier than ever before and the public can be reassured we are backing the NHS with the resources it needs.

“These 900 new beds will mean more people can be treated quickly, speeding up flow through hospitals and reducing frustratingly long waits for treatment.”

However, PA Media reports, the Labour response was to point out a raft of statistics they claimed showed mismanagement of the health service under the Conservatives.

Streeting said the NHS had “huge backlogs, unacceptable waiting times and an annual winter crisis”, adding “Now Rishi Sunak is offering a sticking plaster, which comes nowhere near the 12,000 beds the Conservatives have cut over the last 13 years.”

Good morning, welcome to politics live. The government is still very much trying to make this “NHS week”, and to that end have been making funding announcements. We can expect more recriminations from the evacuation of asylum seekers from the Bibby Stockholm last week, and Keir Starmer is in Scotland. Here are the headlines”

• The Government announced £250m to boost NHS capacity. It claimed the move will lead to the creation of 900 additional hospital beds, with Rishi Sunak quoted as saying “Cutting waiting lists is one of my top five priorities. These 900 new beds will mean more people can be treated quickly, speeding up flow through hospitals and reducing frustratingly long waits for treatment”. The current waiting list in England is 7.6 million people. Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting described it as “a sticking plaster”.

• After some considerable debate on who knew what and when, the mayor of Portland has said the Home Office should accept responsibility for failing to immediately remove asylum seekers from the Bibby Stockholm after the detection of a dangerous bacteria. Expect more rumblings about this today.

• The Institute for Fiscal Studies has said the method for allocating money to pay for public services is out of date, based on inadequate data and skewed in favour of the better-off south-east. It claims the government’s levelling up plans for England are being hampered by a funding system that is “not fit for purpose” and deprives the poorest areas of financial support to match their needs.

• On the economy front, the Bank of England is under renewed pressure to raise interest rates next month after wages jumped more than expected in June. A rise in borrowing costs is likely even though the latest figures for the labour market also showed employers had begun to shed workers in response to a slowdown in economic activity.

• Disabled people in England and Wales are missing out on an estimated £24m a month as record numbers wait for their personal independence payments (Pip) review, according to Citizens Advice. More than 430,000 people are awaiting a Pip review as the benefit backlog deepens.

• Yesterday the government’s ethics watchdog said ministers’ disparaging public attacks on civil servants have damaged staff retention and morale in Whitehall.

It is recess, so there is not much in the diary at all, however Labour’s UK and Scottish leaders, Keir Starmer and Anas Sarwar, are due to make a joint appearance at 10.30am.

Starmer is expected set out what a UK Labour government would mean for Scotland. Yesterday he said you’d have a “long, long search” to find any division between them. There will be a Q&A, where you suspect that any questions about Labour’s Westminster plans for benefit caps, gender self-ID and the balance of power – and funding – within the union might test that theory quite quickly.

I’m Martin Belam, and I am with you this week. You can reach me at martin.belam@theguardian.com.