Sajid Javid: Ex-health secretary issues warning over NHS as he admits odds stacked against Tories at next election
Former health secretary Sajid Javid has warned that the NHS “won’t survive many more years” without “fundamental reforms”, urging the country to have an “honest debate” about the service.
In his only broadcast interview since announcing he would stand down at the next general election, the MP told the Beth Rigby Interviews programme that tackling the NHS was his unfinished business in politics.
And he admitted the Conservatives faced a “tough” battle to stay in power at the general election, adding: “The odds are stacked against us.”
Politics live: Downing Street defends pay offer as nurses go on strike
Mr Javid ran the Department of Health between June 2021 and July 2022, having replaced Matt Hancock after his resignation for breaking COVID guidance.
But he quit himself over the summer, having lost confidence in the then-prime minister Boris Johnson – leading to a wave of resignations that ultimately resulted in the leader’s downfall.
Speaking to Beth Rigby, Mr Javid said he would have “liked to have more time” as health secretary to look at the reforms he believes it so desperately needs.
“I don’t think the model of the NHS as it was set up some 70 years ago is sustainable for the future,” he said.
“You know that the world has changed and the NHS has not moved on with that.”
Read more: New-found freedom allows Javid to talk honestly about NHS big picture – Beth Rigby analysis
The ex-minister said “a starting point” for reform would be to look at the universal health care systems in other large European countries.
He added: “If you speak to any German you might know or French person, Italian, they have good health care systems that were also challenged by the pandemic, but they seem to all be doing better than we are.
“They are mostly funded by the taxpayer but they also have some different models.”
Sajid Javid was health secretary for just over a year, but told Beth Rigby he would have liked more time in the role
Mr Javid would not go as far to say he backed a particular model, like health insurance or those who can paying more for their care, but he welcomed “having that kind of discussion, because we need to have this honest debate as a country”.
“The moment a politician of any party says something that is obviously correct about the NHS and the challenges it faces, someone else will just jump down their throat and turn it into something else, you know, turn into the big negative,” he added.
“We all want the NHS to be there. I rely on the NHS, my family, all our loved ones, your loved ones, your viewers.
“The pressures are so immense, and the pandemic has made it doubly so, that if we as a country, if we neglect this debate now, I am afraid in my opinion after the experience I’ve had I don’t think the NHS will survive many more years on what it says on paper it has to deliver unless we start making fundamental reforms.”
‘Odds are stacked against us’
In a wide-ranging interview, the former cabinet minister also reflected on how recent political turmoil had hurt the Conservatives.
He said external issues like the war in Ukraine and the pandemic would be challenging for any government to come through.
But he also pointed to the revelations over COVID lockdown parties in Number 10, saying: “The rules were broken in Downing Street and people didn’t like that, and rightly they didn’t like that, and it hurt Boris Johnson in particular but it hurt the government at the time”.
Sajid Javid was the first minister to resign in a wave of exits that led to the downfall of Boris Johnson
“If you look at the current polling it is obvious the odds are stacked against us,” added Mr Javid. ” I think anyone would admit that, it looks tough.”
However, despite not initially backing Rishi Sunak to replace Mr Johnson – instead getting behind Liz Truss – he said Mr Sunak offered the Tories the best chance at the ballot box.
“We’ve got a fantastic prime minister in place that really gets it, is one of the smartest people, one of the most capable I have ever come across,” said Mr Javid.
“We’ve now come out with the right result and amongst all Conservative MPs we have the best possible leader we could have right now.
“[At the next election] it will be a choice between Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer, and I think when the country is presented with that choice, people will come to the conclusion that Rishi Sunak is the right person to take us forward.”
‘Truss wasn’t up to the job’
So why did he back Ms Truss first time round?
The former chancellor said he wanted to see tax cuts, but claimed “what she actually did and how she did it were very different” to what he expected.
“I think it was obvious right from the start really she wasn’t going to be up to the job,” he said.
“The biggest challenge was the economy and if you look back… in the run up to that mini-budget the sort of fighting that was going on behind the scenes with the Bank of England I think was completely wrong.”
Sajid Javid served alongside Liz Truss in Boris Johnson’s cabinet, but tells Beth Rigby it was a ‘mistake’ to back her in the leadership contest
Mr Javid also said it was “completely wrong” to sideline the Office for Budget Responsibility when it came to her economic plans, and to fire the permanent secretary to the Treasury as soon as she took office.
“This was the gentleman, Sir Tom Scholar, who had been serving the government for three decades,” he added.
“He was my permanent secretary, he is one of the best civil servants we have in this country, and I think just treating someone like that in that way was unacceptable.
“And that is before the mini-budget and then it just got worse and worse at that point. So I think it is something that was a very bad period for our country.”
But the MP said: “I don’t think that that period, that six-week period, is going to cost us the election.”
‘A personal toll’
Asked about why he was standing down at the next election, Mr Javid told Beth Rigby “there comes a time for everyone to move on”.
But, he added: “It feels like in the last decade that politics has been on some kind of fast forward, one crises after another, one international challenge after another.
“Politicians, I think cross-party, are trying their best in that but it does take a personal toll on you as well, as me as an individual, but of course also on my family.”
Watch Beth Rigby Interviews with Sajid Javid at 9pm tonight on Sky News.
World
Hamas responds to disarmament reports as health officials say 18 killed in Israeli fire – including people trying to access food
Hamas has said it will not disarm unless an independent Palestinian state is established with Jerusalem as its capital.
The militant group said it was issuing a statement “in response to media reports quoting US envoy Steve Witkoff, claiming [Hamas] has shown willingness to disarm”.
It continued: “We reaffirm that resistance and its arms are a legitimate national and legal right as long as the occupation continues.
“This right is recognised by international laws and norms, and it cannot be relinquished except through the full restoration of our national rights – first and foremost, the establishment of an independent, fully sovereign Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.”
Hamas also condemned Mr Witkoff’s visit to an aid distribution centre in Gaza on Friday as “nothing more than a premeditated staged show”.
Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy Mr Witkoff and Mike Huckabee, the US ambassador to Israel, visited a centre run by the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Trump envoy Witkoff visits Gaza
Hamas said the trip was “designed to mislead public opinion, polish the image of the occupation, and provide it with political cover for its starvation campaign and continued systematic killing of defenceless children and civilians in the Gaza Strip”.
Mr Witkoff said he spent “over five hours in Gaza”. In a post on X on Friday, he said: “The purpose of the visit was to give [President Trump] a clear understanding of the humanitarian situation and help craft a plan to deliver food and medical aid to the people of Gaza.”
Palestinians wait to receive food from a charity kitchen in Gaza City. Pic: Reuters
Elidalis Burges, a critical care nurse in Gaza, told Sky News she saw the US visit as a “PR stunt” and that the American officials were “just being shown a small portion of what is actually happening”.
“I think the visit to the GHF site was just a controlled visit dictated by the Israeli military,” she said. “If they really wanted people to see what is happening here, they would allow international journalists from around the world to enter.
“They would allow the leaders of the world to come here and see.”
Hamas releases hostage video
It comes as Hamas released a video showing Israeli man, Evyatar David, being held hostage in what appears to be a tunnel.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Video released of Israeli hostage
Mr David was taken from the Nova Music Festival on 7 October 2023.
His family have given permission for media outlets to show the video.
More than a dozen killed by Israeli fire
Gaza health officials have said 18 people, including eight who were trying to access food, were killed by Israeli fire on Saturday.
Witness Yahia Youssef told Reuters news agency he helped carry three people wounded by gunshots and saw others lying on the ground near a food distribution centre.
In response to questions about several eyewitness accounts of violence at one of its facilities, GHF said “nothing [happened] at or near our sites”.
Read more:
Doctor says colleague ‘followed and killed by drone’
‘Little confidence’ in US officials seeing full picture
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
The US and Israel-backed GHF has been marred by controversy and fatal shootings ever since it was set up earlier this year.
According to the United Nations’ human rights office, at least 859 people have been killed “in the vicinity” of GHF aid sites since late May.
Dr Tom Adamkiewicz, who is working at a hospital in Gaza, has said Palestinian children, women and men are “being shot at, basically like rabbits”.
It is a “level of barbarity I don’t think the world has seen”, he told Sky News.
The Israel Defence Forces has repeatedly said it “categorically rejects the claims of intentional harm to civilians” and has blamed Hamas militants for fomenting chaos and endangering civilians.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Gaza deaths increase when aid sites open
The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in an attack on Israel on 7 October 2023 and abducted 251 others. Of those, they still hold around 50, with 20 believed to be alive, after most of the others were released in ceasefires or other deals.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 60,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, which does not differentiate between militants and civilians in its count.
The world’s most secretive state is a mystery for billions of people – but not Anastasiya Samsonova.
She has returned from a week’s holiday in North Korea.
“We saw nothing terrible there, there is no danger there,” the 33-year-old HR manager tells me.
“Frankly speaking, we really liked it.”
She was part of a group of 15 Russian tourists who were the first foreign visitors to a new seaside resort, which was opened to great fanfare by North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un in June.
Her holiday snaps show a white sand beach, shimmering seas and high-rise hotels. But something’s missing – people.
Anastasiya Samsonova at the Wonsan-Kalma beach resort in North Korea. Pic: Anastasiya Samsonova
There are rows of sun loungers, but not a soul sitting on them. A glittering banquet hall that’s devoid of diners.
That’s because, when it comes to international tourists, the Wonsan-Kalma resort is currently only open to Russians.
“The hotel was absolutely new,” Anastasiya enthuses, unfussed by the absence of others.
“Everything was done very beautifully, a good interior … very developed infrastructure.”
Kim Jong Un and his daughter Kim Ju Ae on the beach in Wonsan at the resort’s opening. Pic: KCNA/Reuters
The North Korean watching a slide at the resort. Pic: KCNA/Reuters
But why not Turkey? Or Thailand?
I gently suggest that people in Britain might be shocked at the idea of a summer break in a country better known for famines and forced labour than parasols and pina coladas.
“We were interested in seeing how people live there,” Anastasiya explains.
“There were a lot of prejudices about what you can and can’t do in North Korea, how you can behave. But actually, we felt absolutely free.”
Pic: Anastasiya Samsonova
Anastasiya is one of a growing number of Russians who are choosing to visit their reclusive neighbour as the two allies continue to forge closer ties following the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine.
Last year, North Korean troops supplied military support in Russia’s Kursk region, and now there is economic cooperation too.
Pic: Anastasiya Samsonova
North Korean produce, including apples and beer, has started appearing on supermarket shelves in Russia’s far east.
And last month, Moscow launched direct passenger flights to Pyongyang for the first time in decades.
But can this hermit nation really become a holiday hotspot?
The Moscow office of the Vostok Intur travel agency believes so. The company runs twice-weekly tours there, and I’m being given the hard sell.
Pic: Danil Biryukov / DVHAB.RU
“North Korea is an amazing country, unlike any other in the world,” director Irina Kobeleva gushes, before listing some unusual highlights.
“It is a country where you will not see any advertising on the streets. And it is very clean – even the asphalt is washed.”
She shows me the brochures, which present a glossy paradise. There are images of towering monuments, pristine golf greens and immaculate ski slopes. But again, no people.
‘There is a huge growing demand among young people,’ Irina Kobeleva says
Ms Kobeleva insists the company’s tours are increasingly popular, with 400 bookings a month.
“Our tourists are mostly older people who want to return to the USSR,” she says, “because there is a feeling that the real North Korea is very similar to what was once in the Soviet Union.
“But at the same time, there is a huge growing demand among young people.”
Sure enough, while we’re chatting, two customers walk in to book trips. The first is Pavel, a young blogger who likes to “collect” countries. North Korea will be number 89.
“The country has opened its doors to us, so I’m taking this chance,” he tells me when I ask why he wants to go.
Read more from Sky News:
Trump’s tariffs are back – here’s who is in his sights this time
Coca-Cola and Brewdog beer on Russian shelves despite sanctions
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
For pensioner Tatiana, the reason is sentimental.
“My husband wanted to go there, but now he’s gone. So I want his wish to come true,” she says.
It’ll certainly cost them. One week’s trip that takes in Pyongyang, a circus and the new beach resort, costs roughly £1,500 without flights.
At that price, I suspect most tourists will be content for this secretive state to remain hidden.
World
US manhunt for ‘dangerous’ murder suspect who dropped off baby after four relatives found dead
A car has been found during the search for a man suspected of killing the parents, grandmother and uncle of a baby girl found abandoned in a US state.
Austin Robert Drummond, 28, is suspected of having murdered four relatives in Tennessee – James M Wilson, 21, Adrianna Williams, 20, Cortney Rose, 38, and Braydon Williams, 15, who were identified on Wednesday.
Mr Wilson and Adrianna Williams were the parents of the infant found alive in a car seat in a front yard on Tuesday afternoon.
Police say Drummond then dropped off the baby and made people aware of the child, in an act of “compassion”.
However, officers added Drummond remains on the run and should be considered “armed and dangerous”.
Ms Rose was Adrianna and Braydon Williams’ mother, according to District Attorney Danny Goodman.
No details have been given on how they were murdered.
Vehicles are seen being taken in Lake County, Tennessee on 30 July, near the area where four family members were found dead. Pic: WHBQ/AP
Drummond dropped off the seven-month-old infant and brought attention to people nearby to come get the child, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Director David Rausch said during a news conference.
The baby is safe and being cared for, according to Stephen Sutton, a spokesperson for the Lake and Dyer county sheriffs.
“While this was an extremely tragic and violent event… there was a sign of compassion, if you will,” Mr Rausch said.
“That tells us that there’s a possibility that Austin may have a sense that there is hope for him to be able to come in and have a conversation about what happened.”
Mr Rausch said he believes it was a targeted attack by Drummond, who had a relationship with the victims and their family.
A relative of the victims posted on Facebook after the deaths, saying the suspect has “literally been nothing short of amazing to us and our kids”, according to our US partner network NBC News. “We all trusted him,” the relative added.
Read more US news:
Tesla ordered to pay $243m over crash
Trump orders nuclear subs closer to Russia
The unoccupied car that police said Drummond had been driving was found on Friday in Jackson, Tennessee, about 70 miles from where the bodies were found and some 40 miles from where the baby was left in a car seat in a front yard.
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation has said it obtained warrants for Drummond. He is wanted on four counts of first-degree murder, one count of aggravated kidnapping, and weapons offences.
Authorities offered a $15,000 reward for information leading to his arrest.
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
Drummond was convicted of one count of aggravated robbery in August 2014, according to public records. His sentence ended in September 2024, according to Tennessee Department of Correction records.
He was charged criminally for activities inside the prison, including attempted murder, after he completed the sentence that put him behind bars, District Attorney Mr Goodman said.
Drummond was out on bond on the other charges at the time of the killings, he added.
-
Sports3 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports1 year agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports2 years agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Sports2 years agoButton battles heat exhaustion in NASCAR debut
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike