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Unions are close to organising co-ordinated strike action “very soon” following the “horror story” of the past few weeks, a union boss has told Sky News.

Sharon Graham, general secretary of Unite, accused the government of “aiding and abetting” employers earning millions in profits but not handing that to workers.

She confirmed Unite, the UK’s second biggest union after Unison, has been in talks with other unions after the RMT and Unison have also been talking about strike action.

Cut to basic rate of income tax could be delayed – follow live politics updates

Ms Graham told Sky News’ Sophy Ridge on Sunday programme: “I think there could be up to a million people on strike very, very soon.

“What we’re seeing – and I think we just have to take this back as to why people go on strike – is that they [the government] can put in all the anti-trade union they want, they can pretend it is union barons pressing big red buttons but this is about anger, anger in workplaces, both in the public sector and in the private sector.”

Asked if the UK could see a general strike, where multiple sectors organise strikes at the same time, this winter, Ms Graham said: “We could see multiple strikes this winter but what people call it is really up to them.

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“There will be multiple strikes and I know in my own union there have been 450 strikes in less than a year, 90,000 Unite members have been out on strike, £200m has been won back in the pockets of those workers.

“That is the job of trade unions, that’s what we should be doing and that’s what we’re doing more and more of, so I can see that that will escalate.”

Many of Unite’s members work for the NHS and Ms Graham said doctors and nurses going on strike is “a very real option that is now being looked at”.

She also criticised new Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, who faced multiple NHS strikes when he was health secretary under David Cameron and Theresa May over junior doctor contracts.

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‘It was a mistake to fly blind’

“I don’t know what his plans are for this country as chancellor but anything towards privatising the NHS or anything that is going to make poor people poorer, that really is a difficulty,” Ms Graham said.

She added: “I think that we are witnessing a horror story, to be honest.

“It’s like watching a film behind your hands and every time you look there’s something worse happening and I think that we’ve got a real problem on our hands.

“Jeremy Hunt is not the answer to what is happening here.

“Jeremy Hunt, if you heard him yesterday, was talking about a second round of austerity and I think what people will not put up with, after the 2008 financial crash this country went through 10 years of austerity, 10 years of pain, 10 years of struggle, workers and their families – and they did that because of a financial crash.”

Read more:

Hunt warns of difficult decisions ahead on spending and tax
Joe Biden labels Liz Truss’ economic plan a ‘mistake’ – and hints others think so too

Junior doctors protest outside the Department of Health
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Junior doctors protest outside the Department of Health while Jeremy Hunt was health secretary

Ms Graham said there now needs to be a “change of government” but admitted she thinks Ms Truss and the Tory government will be “clinging on right to the very end”.

She said Labour has a real opportunity to win an election now but warned it is not a “moment to play safe”.

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“This is not a moment to say okay, they’re doing so badly we just have to sit on the sidelines here,” she said.

“This is the moment to take this by the scruff of the neck, to say this is what we need to do, to come up with a solution to these problems and to really lay out what Labour’s stall is.

“Get some mettle, lay out your stall and say what people should vote for not just what they should vote against.”

To register your interest and share your story, please email TheGreatDebate@sky.uk

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‘You feel so violated and vulnerable’: Single mum ‘sexually assaulted’ in ambulance by paramedic

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'You feel so violated and vulnerable': Single mum 'sexually assaulted' in ambulance by paramedic

WARNING: This article contains language and content some readers may find distressing

As a single mum, Lucy* looked forward to her rare nights out. A few years ago, during after-work drinks at a local pub, she started feeling unwell. When she collapsed and passed out, a bouncer called an ambulance. Lucy’s drink had been spiked.

The ambulance was crewed by two paramedics, a man and a woman. Still unconscious, Lucy was placed on a stretcher, strapped on to the bed, and driven towards the hospital.

After a scary episode, Lucy’s friends must have breathed a sigh of relief. She was safe, and being looked after. But, as the female ambulance driver looked in her rear-view mirror to check on Lucy, she says she saw the unimaginable – her male colleague sexually assaulting his patient.

Lucy still doesn’t remember what happened, but she has the police report and crime scene pictures of the inside of the ambulance.

Pointing to a photo of where she was strapped down, she says almost matter-of-factly: “He put my legs up, so my knees were up, and put his hand inside my groin area – possibly touching my vagina.”

When she regained consciousness, she was told what had happened to her. Years later, she is still struggling to process it.

The paramedic denied the charges and was found not guilty at trial, but later struck off by the paramedics’ regulator, the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC).

They have a lower standard of proof than the criminal courts, and found against him, calling him a “serious threat to patient safety”.

Lucy still wouldn’t feel safe getting into an ambulance today. “It’s awful, you feel so violated and vulnerable,” she says.

Rebecca Hendin illustration for Rachael Venables piece

“It’s a shock to think someone in that position would do that, when they’re supposed to be there to look after you.”

Her story is horrific, but Lucy is not alone. It forms part of a year-long Sky News investigation into sexual misconduct in the ambulance service, which has revealed a culture where abuse and harassment among staff are rife and patients are sexualised.

A senior ambulance boss admits the service has “let victims down”, while stressing that perpetrators are the “minority”.

Jason Killens, head of the Welsh Ambulance Service and the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives, says he expects “a steady increase” in the number of cases, with more paramedics being sacked for sexually inappropriate behaviour over the coming years, because of the work his organisation is doing to change the culture.

Data shared with Sky News shows one in five of the sexual misconduct complaints made against paramedics to their regulator, the Health and Care Professions Council, in 2023 were for acts against patients or members of the public.

While fewer than 1% of all HCPC members had concerns raised against them last year, in sexual misconduct cases, paramedics were hugely over-represented.

They make up just 11% of the HCPC register, but account for 64% of all investigations into sexual harassment against colleagues. The regulator’s chair, Christine Elliot, thinks the sexual misconduct cases are “just the tip of the iceberg”.

Rebecca Hendin illustration for Rachael Venables piece

“This is all about patient safety,” she says. “Patients need to know when they see a practitioner, they can rely on them giving the best care possible with the best behaviour possible.”

‘Totally unnecessary breast examinations’

Cases like Lucy’s are rare but several whistleblowers across multiple trusts have spoken up about a culture in which “banter” or jokes about groping patients are commonplace.

Current and former paramedics claim to have heard patients, particularly young women, being sexualised by the men who had helped to treat or even save them.

One former paramedic revealed the phrase “totally unnecessary breast examinations” (or TUBEs), and said she had heard paramedics talking about “TUBEing” young, drunk women. She also claims to have seen a colleague grope another colleague’s breasts, telling her: “I just TUBEed you.”

A second woman said the same phenomenon was called “jazz hands” in her trust. Both said these were widely understood phrases which referred to colleagues accidentally, or deliberately, touching a woman’s breast during treatment.

A third paramedic told us she’d heard colleagues talk about patients in an explicitly sexual manner, saying things like: “She had nice tits” or “those were silicone”, while bragging about getting a patient’s number and having a “good feel”.

“That is assault. That is sexual assault,” she says.

Rebecca Hendin illustration for Rachael Venables piece

‘It will be fun. Your career will progress’

“One of my biggest fears was that I wouldn’t be believed because of where I worked. It was the ambulance service and he was the man in charge,” says Ellie*, whose first job was as a call handler in an ambulance control room.

She loved the camaraderie and the idea that she was making a difference. Until one day, the manager called her into his office and invited her to a conference with him. At first, she was flattered and a little confused.

“He explained that he’d taken a liking to me and then he reached out and touched my leg.” Shocked, Ellie froze. “I was in my early 20s and didn’t know what his intention was. I was a bit naive, probably.” As he carried on talking, her boss slid his hand “as far up my thigh as it could go”.

Horrified, she shot back in her chair and asked him what he was doing.

“If you come, we’ll share a room. It will be fun. Your career will progress,” her boss replied.

“No,” she exclaimed, rushing out the room in a panic. Back at her desk, she carried on taking 999 calls while he watched over her.

Then she claims the messages started: “They were photos of his private parts, as well as messages suggesting meeting in the car park for sex and saying he wanted to kiss me. A whole manner of very descriptive sexual actions that he said he wanted to do with me.”

The messages carried on “for months”, she says, despite her pleading with him to stop. She was left dreading going to work for fear of seeing him, and avoided going to the toilet in case she ran into him in the corridor.

Venables paramedics piece

Eventually she showed the messages to HR, she says, but claims they suggested moving her to a different office. He wouldn’t be punished.

“It was sexual harassment,” Ellie says, caught between anger and despair. “They didn’t do anything. There was no investigation. No meeting with him that I’m aware of. No statement from me. Nothing. I was the problem.”

She eventually quit the service, but alleges he still works there to this day, an injustice that “makes me feel sick” she says.

An NHS England spokesperson said new national guidance and training has been recently introduced “to stamp out this awful behaviour”.

“Any abuse or violence directed at NHS staff is totally unacceptable and will not be tolerated, and the NHS is committed to tackling unwanted, inappropriate or harmful sexual behaviour in the workplace. We have recently introduced new national guidance and training that will help staff recognise, report and act on sexual misconduct at work to stamp out this awful behaviour,” they said.

‘We failed those individuals… I’m sorry’

Ellie’s story is simply “not right”, says ambulance boss Mr Killens.

“We failed those individuals,” he admits, saying “I’m sorry” to both staff and patients who have “been subject to poor behaviour from our people”.

What should the NHS do if a serious complaint of sexual abuse is made about a paramedic?

Anyone can raise a concern about a paramedic’s fitness to practise including patients, colleagues, police or members of the public.

Where the complaint is serious the NHS is expected to directly raise a concern with the regulator, the Health and Care Professions Council.

What happens when a paramedic is referred to the HCPC for a complaint of sexual abuse?

If the concern is very serious they can apply for an interim order to prevent someone from practising or to place conditions on how they can work until the case has been closed.

The claim is investigated and eventually considered by an independent tribunal panel who can impose a number of sanctions.

They can strike someone off the register or impose a temporary suspension; place a condition of practice or a caution order; or decide no further action is necessary.

How long does it take?

In 2023/24 it was around 160 weeks from receipt of a complaint to reaching the final decision

Why does it take so long?

Last year, there were a total of 2,226 concerns raised, a 26% increase from the previous year.

The HCPC say they face external pressures, like delays from NHS trusts, complex investigations, or having to run alongside the criminal justice system.

They also say “archaic” laws mean they have to take a huge amount of cases to a full tribunal, even when the preference might be to drop the case sooner and want legislative change.

Work is being done, he says, to tackle this kind of behaviour, citing it as his, and his organisation’s, top priority.

That will involve rooting out the perpetrators, but also playing the “long game” to change the culture “so that we can begin to tackle low level misconduct or inappropriate behaviour early, rather than let it fester and get worse,” he says.

According to the HCPC’s chair, cultural change is needed from leadership down. Sexual harassment, Elliot says, needs to be treated as high a priority as “waiting times and crumbling hospitals”.

Read more from this investigation:
Life as a female paramedic
‘Toxic’ culture of harassment revealed

But many of the victims we have spoken to say the HCPC takes too long (an average of three years) to investigate misconduct allegations.

Elliot agrees that isn’t good enough, but says they are running initiatives to speed things up, and wants to see legislative change to give her organisation more power to speed up investigations.

They have also created a sexual safety hub for both victims and witnesses of inappropriate behaviour.

It can be hard to hear allegations like Lucy and Ellie’s, contrasting their stories with a service in which the majority of people are dedicated to saving lives.

But it’s also clear that for far too long, abusers and those who commit sexually inappropriate behaviour have operated with impunity in the ambulance service. Some were perhaps protected by allegiances or cover-ups, many others simply hid behind the veneer of “banter”.

Ambulance and NHS bosses have made it clear to Sky News they are determined to root out not just the perpetrators of serious sexual violence, but also to stamp out the culture that breeds this behaviour.

But in the meantime women like Lucy, Ellie and countless others won’t hear an ambulance siren and feel safe, telling us they would even struggle to dial 999 in the case of a medical emergency.

*names have been changed

Illustrations by Rebecca Hendin

Anyone feeling emotionally distressed or suicidal can call Samaritans for help on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org in the UK. In the US, call the Samaritans branch in your area or 1 (800) 273-TALK

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Apple sued by Which? over iCloud use – with potential payout for 40 million UK customers

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Apple sued by Which? over iCloud use - with potential payout for 40 million UK customers

Consumer rights group Which? is suing Apple for £3bn over the way it deploys the iCloud.

If the lawsuit succeeds, around 40 million Apple customers in the UK could be entitled to a payout.

The lawsuit claims Apple, which controls iOS operating systems, has breached UK competition law by giving its iCloud storage preferential treatment, effectively “trapping” customers with Apple devices into using it.

It also claims the company overcharged those customers by stifling competition.

The rights group alleges Apple encouraged users to sign up to iCloud for storage of photos, videos and other data while simultaneously making it difficult to use alternative providers.

Which? says Apple doesn’t allow customers to store or back-up all of their phone’s data with a third-party provider, arguing this violates competition law.

The consumer rights group says once iOS users have signed up to iCloud, they then have to pay for the service once their photos, notes, messages and other data go over the free 5GB limit.

More on Apple

“By bringing this claim, Which? is showing big corporations like Apple that they cannot rip off UK consumers without facing repercussions,” said Which?’s chief executive Anabel Hoult.

“Taking this legal action means we can help consumers to get the redress that they are owed, deter similar behaviour in the future and create a better, more competitive market.”

Apple ‘rejects’ claims and will defend itself

Apple “rejects” the idea its customers are tied to using iCloud and told Sky News it would “vigorously” defend itself.

“Apple believes in providing our customers with choices,” a spokesperson said.

“Our users are not required to use iCloud, and many rely on a wide range of third-party alternatives for data storage. In addition, we work hard to make data transfer as easy as possible – whether it’s to iCloud or another service.

“We reject any suggestion that our iCloud practices are anti-competitive and will vigorously defend against any legal claim otherwise.”

It also said nearly half of its customers don’t use iCloud and its pricing is inline with other cloud storage providers.

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How much could UK Apple customers receive if lawsuit succeeds?

The lawsuit will represent all UK Apple customers that have used iCloud services since 1 October 2015 – any that don’t want to be included will need to opt out.

However, if consumers live abroad but are otherwise eligible – for example because they lived in UK and used the iCloud but then moved away – they can also opt in.

The consumer rights group estimates that individual consumers could be owed an average of £70, depending on how long they have been paying for the services during that period.

Apple is facing a similar lawsuit in the US, where the US Department of Justice is accusing the company of locking down its iPhone ecosystem to build a monopoly.

Apple said the lawsuit is “wrong on the facts and the law” and that it will vigorously defend against it.

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Big tech’s battles

This is the latest in a line of challenges big tech companies like Apple, Google and Samsung have faced around anti-competitive practices.

Most notably, a landmark case in the US earlier this year saw a judge rule that Google holds an illegal monopoly over the internet search market.

The company is now facing a second antitrust lawsuit, and may be forced to break up parts of its business.

Read more: Google faces threat of being broken up

FILE PHOTO: The logo for Google LLC is seen at their office in Manhattan, New York City, New York, U.S., November 17, 2021. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly/File Photo
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File pic: Reuters

And in December last year, a judge declared Google’s Android app store a monopoly in a case brought by a private gaming company.

“Now that five companies control the whole of the internet economy, there’s a real need for people to fight back and to really put pressure on the government,” William Fitzgerald, from tech campaigning organisation The Worker Agency, told Sky News.

William Fitzgerald at Lisbon's Web Summit, where he spoke to Sky News
Image:
William Fitzgerald at Lisbon’s Web Summit, where he spoke to Sky News

“That’s why we have governments; to hold corporations accountable, to actually enforce laws.”

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Referees’ body taking ‘very seriously’ video that appears to show David Coote snorting white powder

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Referees' body taking 'very seriously' video that appears to show David Coote snorting white powder

A video appearing to show a Premier League referee snorting white powder is being taken “very seriously” by the referees’ body.

Professional Game Match Officials Ltd (PGMOL) suspended David Coote on Monday over derogatory comments he allegedly made about ex-Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp and the club in previous footage.

PGMOL and the Football Association are investigating Coote who, it is alleged, used an expletive to describe Klopp and called Liverpool FC “shit”.

Now it has emerged the UEFA Referees Committee also suspended Coote until further notice on Monday, ahead of the upcoming round of UEFA matches “when it became aware of his inappropriate behaviour”, it said.

On Wednesday evening, another video appeared on The Sun’s website which it said showed Coote snorting white powder during this summer’s Euros in Germany, where he was officiating.

A PGMOL spokesperson said: “We are aware of the allegations and are taking them very seriously. David Coote remains suspended pending a full investigation.

“David’s welfare continues to be of utmost importance to us and we are committed to providing him with the ongoing necessary support he needs through this period. We are not in a position to comment further at this stage.”

More on Jürgen Klopp

The Sun said the video was filmed on 6 July, the day after the Euro 2024 quarter-final clash between Portugal and France, for which Coote was an assistant VAR.

A statement from UEFA said: “The UEFA Referees Committee immediately suspended David Coote until further notice on 11 November – in advance of the upcoming round of UEFA matches – when it became aware of his inappropriate behaviour.”

David Coote. File pic: PA
Image:
David Coote. File pic: PA

The previous video footage, appearing to show Coote making derogatory remarks about Klopp and the Anfield club, began circulating online on Monday.

He was subsequently suspended by PGMOL pending a full investigation, and the FA then said it was also investigating the matter.

Coote officiated Liverpool’s most recent Premier League game – a 2-0 win over Aston Villa on Saturday night.

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He was criticised by some fans after Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah was brought down by Aston Villa player Leon Bailey.

Liverpool forward Darwin Nunez went on to score after play wasn’t stopped – but a replay showed Coote had chosen not to stop the game because he believed the challenge on Salah wasn’t a foul rather than because he wanted the Reds to keep their advantage.

The PA news agency has approached the FA for comment regarding the Sun’s story.

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