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.”
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.
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“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.”
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.”
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”.
“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.”
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.
Emergency responders are searching for bodies inside stranded cars and buildings following deadly flash floods in Spain that have killed at least 158 people.
Scenes of destruction have been left in the wake of the powerful floodwaters which hit the east of the country late on Tuesday and early Wednesday, marking Spain‘s worst natural disaster this century.
Cars have been piled high on top of each other, homes and businesses have been swept away, trees have been uprooted, and roads and bridges have been left unrecognisable.
At least 92 people have died in the worst-hit region of Valencia, while deaths were also reported in Castilla La Mancha and southern Andalusia.
An unknown number of people remain missing.
“Unfortunately, there are dead people inside some vehicles,” Spain’s transport minister Oscar Puente said.
In the Valencian district of La Torre, nine dead bodies were discovered inside a garage – with a local police officer among the victims.
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Man pulled from deadly floods
Luis Sanchez, a welder, said he saved several people from floodwaters rushing through the V-31 motorway south of Valencia city.
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“I saw bodies floating past. I called out but nothing,” Mr Sanchez said.
“The firefighters took the elderly first, when they could get in. I am from nearby so I tried to help and rescue people. People were crying all over, they were trapped.”
Satellite images from NASA show how severe flooding has impacted Valencia and its surrounding towns.
The images, captured on 30 October, show large areas to the south of the city covered in floodwater.
The Turia river, which runs through the city, can be seen at a much higher level.
The Pobles del Sud, a large lake nearby, overflowed. Much of the area surrounding the lake was covered in floodwater.
The worst of the destruction was concentrated in Paiporta, a municipality next to Valencia city, where 62 people have been reported dead.
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Spanish town ‘worst-hit’ by floods
Mayor Maribel Albalat told national broadcaster RTVE: “We found a lot of elderly people in the town centre. There were also a lot of people who came to get their cars out of their garages… it was a real trap.”
What has caused the devastation?
The flooding events in Spain have been hard to witness. But the rainfall there could never have been anything but devastating.
Chiva, located just to the west of Valencia, received 491mm of rain in an eight-hour window.
Some 100-200mm fell in surrounding areas with the accumulation of running water producing apocalyptic scenes.
In addition there have been over 20,000 lightning strikes.
Whilst the rainfall totals are astounding in themselves, this part of the world is simply not accustomed to huge quantities of water falling from the sky.
In an average year, Spain would expect somewhere between 50 and 100 mm of rain throughout the entire month of October but Valencia and Andalusia would expect far less – just 60–70mm.
So how did this happen? It’s attributable to a DANA, a “depresion aislada en niveles altos” or a “cut-off low”.
This is a low pressure system which becomes slow moving or stationary, blocked by high pressure elsewhere, which can only keep shedding its rain over the same area for long periods of time.
These systems are not that unusual. They occur when cool air from the north is drawn across the Mediterranean in late summer and autumn when the waters are war. The temperature differential enhances storms and rainfall totals.
But whilst not uncommon, this one was certainly extreme.
And it hasn’t gone yet. This same system has continued to bring further heavy rain and thunderstorms today, but it has now moved a little further north and east, heading toward the French border and currently remaining to the west of Barcelona.
The rain and thunderstorms are likely to continue for a few days yet with the Tarragona and Castellon regions still under an amber warning while a yellow warning remains in force for both eastern and western Spain.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Thursday morning that Valencia had been declared a disaster zone and that the priority was to find victims and missing people.
He also urged those affected to stay at home as more torrential rain was forecast.
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“The most important thing is that I know Spanish people are aware that this phenomenon has not finished,” he said.
Sky News’ Europe correspondent Adam Parsons, reporting from Valencia, said the devastation suffered in the region is “enormous”.
“What we’re witnessing now are the locals here who are waking up and seeing what’s happened to their town and what has happened is something almost apocalyptic,” he said.
A nearby shop was left “absolutely wrecked” and looked like a “bomb has gone off in there”, he added.
Three days of mourning has been declared in Spain, beginning on Thursday.
Spain’s Mediterranean coast is used to autumn storms that can cause flooding, but this was the most powerful flash flood event in recent memory, and scientists have linked its strength to climate change.
“When the alert came the water was already two metres high,” Carolina shouts from her balcony. “There were no police, firefighters or the mayor. No one came to rescue us.”
The distress is echoed street after street.
Carmen puts her head in her hands and weeps.
“They have lost everything,” she says, pointing at her neighbours’ houses.
Every home is in ruins and their owners are heartbroken.
Dolores shows us inside her house. She says the flood was up to the ceiling but because no help came, they have had to hammer holes in the walls to clear the water.
“I feel awful. I’m terrified and very afraid. My husband is sick – we need more help,” she says.
The level of destruction is immense.
On the street, we meet Noel with his children. The youngest toddler barefoot in the mud.
Yesterday, Noel and his wife had nothing to eat. He feels helpless.
“Right now, there are people who are trapped. The mud is up to their waists, so they can’t open their doors,” he says.
“I live on a high floor so I didn’t have problems with the flooding in my home, but I don’t have water, light, or food.”
There’s a growing feeling of desperation in this suburb.
At one point, someone shouts “food!” and people rush to grab what they can from a nearby shop.
It’s not clear if they have been let in by the owner or are looting.
The devastation is so great and at a time when people are at their most in need, they feel frustrated and alone.
In a nearby shelter we meet people from Algemesi who have been made homeless by the flood.
Carol says she has never felt so hopeless.
“There was a tree trunk that came into the front of my house. There are no walls, no ceiling. I don’t have anything. There’s nothing left,” she explains, beginning to cry.
For many, the initial trauma of this natural disaster has been compounded in the aftermath by a feeling of loss and loneliness.
Thousands of North Korean soldiers are now positioned near Ukraine’s border and likely to enter combat in the coming days, the US says.
Russian troops have been training them in artillery, drones and “basic infantry operations, including trench clearing”, said US secretary of state Antony Blinken.
He said it strongly indicated they would be used on the front line and would therefore become legitimate targets for Ukraine.
Some 10,000 North Korean troops are in Russia, including up to 8,000 in the Kursk border region, Mr Blinken said.
The troops are wearing Russian uniforms and carrying Russian gear, according to US defence secretary Lloyd Austin.
“We’ve not yet seen these troops deploy into combat against Ukrainian forces, but we would expect that to happen in the coming days,” Mr Blinken said on Thursday.
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America’s top diplomat said the recruitment of troops from North Korea to Russia’s “meat grinder” was a “clear sign of weakness”.
Mr Blinken made the assessment after he and Mr Austin met their South Korean counterparts in Washington DC.
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Foreign minister Cho Tae-yul called for the immediate withdrawal of North Korean soldiers from Russia and condemned it “in the strongest possible terms”.
They also all agreed China should do more to rein in North Korea, Mr Blinken said, adding that he’d had a “robust conversation” with Beijing this week.
Mr Austin also announced that – with the US election just days away – America would soon be announcing new security assistance for Ukraine.
The deployment of troops to Russia is down to the close relationship between President Putin and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un.
A mutual defence pact was agreed during their summit, meaning the countries will help each other if they are attacked.
The US says North Korea has also given munitions to Russia as it continues its grinding effort to take more territory in Ukraine’s east.
The White House published images earlier this month which it said showed 1,000 containers of equipment being sent to Russia by rail.
There are concerns about what military aid Russia will now provide in exchange.
North Korea test-fired an an intercontinental ballistic missile for the first time in almost a year on Thursday and there is speculation Russia may have provided technological help.
In a statement, the US, Japan and South Korea condemned the launch as a “flagrant violation” of UN resolutions.
“We strongly urge (North Korea) to immediately cease its series of provocative and destabilising actions that threaten peace and security on the Korean Peninsula and beyond,” they said.