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Thousands of ambulance workers in England and Wales are going on strike today – with NHS leaders warning that they cannot guarantee the safety of patients.

Speaking to Sky News, Health Secretary Steve Barclay said the system would be “under severe pressure” due to the strike, and urged Britons to use “common sense in terms of what activities they do”.

He accused trade unions of choosing a time for the strike when the NHS is already facing winter pressures due to flu, COVID and other illnesses.

The strikes, involving around 25,000 staff, are taking place after last-ditch crisis talks between Mr Barclay and unions failed to address the issue of pay.

Ambulance workers on the picket line outside ambulance headquarters in Coventry
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Ambulance workers on the picket line in Coventry

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Unison’s strike is running from noon until midnight, while the GMB action began at 12am and will also run until midnight this evening. Unite’s strike began at midnight and will conclude at midday.

It is expected that all Category 1 calls (the most life-threatening, such as cardiac arrest) will be responded to during the strike action today, while some ambulance trusts have agreed exemptions with unions for specific incidents within Category 2 (serious conditions, such as stroke or chest pain).

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It means those who suffer trips, falls or other non-life-threatening injuries may not receive treatment.

Mr Barclay said some decisions about what will be covered during strikes by ambulance workers today will be taken on the day.

Asked why there was not a national contingency plan in place for the industrial action, he told Sky News: “The difficulty with putting contingency measures in place is given the uncertainty as to what exactly is and is not being covered, and the fact that those decisions in some cases will be taken on the day.

“But it’s also the case that even what’s referred to as Category 3 urgent calls are often very serious as well. So we’re doing all we can with NHS colleagues to put in place contingency measures.”

He accused the unions of refusing to guarantee a “national exemption” for life-threatening cases but unions have repeatedly said they have agreed on a local level that Category 1 and 2 calls will be covered and they emphasised that during a meeting on Tuesday.

About 600 members of the army, navy and the RAF have been drafted in from across the country to help during the walkouts, some of whom have never driven the vehicles before.

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‘I cannot express how bad it is’ – paramedic

Ahead of the industrial action, the unions had called on the government to make an offer on pay and suggested an agreement could be reached.

While Onay Kasab, from Unite, warned after the meeting that ambulance strikes would “escalate” unless the government agreed to negotiations.

“Our members are absolutely determined to win not just the pay battle but to win the battle to save the NHS,” he said.

Mr Barclay said: “Further pay increases would mean taking money away from frontline services at a time when we are tackling record waiting lists as a result of the pandemic.”

Writing in The Telegraph, the health secretary added: “We now know that the NHS contingency plans will not cover all 999 calls. Ambulance unions have taken a conscious choice to inflict harm on patients.”

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GMB union boss: ‘Make us an offer on pay’

But Rachel Harrison from the GMB union hit back, telling Sky News: “I actually think that’s a really insulting statement to our key NHS and ambulance workers. They’ve not made a conscious decision to put lives at risk.

“They’ve made a conscious decision to stand up for what they believe is an NHS that is crumbling beneath their feet and as they’re watching thousands of their colleagues leave the service every year because of poor pay and poor working conditions and a feeling of being unable to deliver the safe standards of patient care that they want to.

“That’s why they’re making this conscious decision and it is insulting to say that they’re doing this to put people at risk.”

Read more:
Strikes every day before Christmas – which sectors are affected and why
How A&E and other NHS services will be impacted

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NHS Confederation chief executive Matthew Taylor said: “We have reached the stage where our leaders feel it’s necessary to say they cannot guarantee patient safety, they cannot avoid risks as these strikes unfold.”

The strike action comes a day after ambulance and hospital trusts across the country declared critical incidents as a result of “sustained” and “unprecedented” pressure on services.

Meanwhile, nurses across the country went on strike for a second day yesterday.

Royal College of Nursing chief Pat Cullen has confirmed that nurses will announce post-Christmas strikes by the end of the week unless the government agrees a deal on pay.

She warned Mr Sunak that the “clock is running” for him to enter negotiations to prevent further action.

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Strikes: ‘Critical incidents’ declared

Yesterday, health minister Will Quince urged people to think again about contact sports and avoid running on icy roads during the ambulance strike.

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Mum diagnosed with cancer tells of the day her life changed ahead of assisted dying vote

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Mum diagnosed with cancer tells of the day her life changed ahead of assisted dying vote

There is a lot at stake this week for Sophie Blake, a 52-year-old mother to a young adult, who was diagnosed with stage four cancer in May 2023.

As MPs vote on whether to change the law to allow assisted dying, Sophie tells Sky News of the day her life changed.

“One night I woke up and as I turned I felt a sensation of something in my breast actually move, and it was deep,” she says, speaking from her home in Brighton.

“Something fluidy, a very odd sensation. I woke up and made a doctor’s appointment.”

Sophie underwent an ultrasound followed by a biopsy before she was taken to a room in the clinic and offered water.

“They said, ‘a hundred percent, we believe you have breast cancer’.”

But it was the phone call with her mother that made it feel real.

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“My mum had been waiting at home. She phoned me and said ‘How is it darling?’ and I said ‘I’ve got breast cancer,’ and it was just that moment of having to say it out loud for the first time and that’s when that part of my life suddenly changed.”

Sophie says terminal cancers can leave patients dreading the thought of suffering at the end of their lives.

“What I don’t want to be is in pain,” she says. “If I am facing an earlier death than I wanted then I want to be able to take control at the end.”

Assisted dying, she believes, gives her control: “It’s an insurance policy to have that there.”

Read more:
Why is assisted dying so controversial and where is it legal?
UK on ‘slippery slope’ Justice Minister says ahead of vote

On Friday, the government is set to debate the issue before voting on it. Sophie hopes they’ll back the proposal.

“It should be my choice to be able to have a compassionate death,” she says.

There has been much debate about the bill since details about how it would work were published earlier this month.

On Friday, former prime minister Gordon Brown became the latest senior political figure to share his opinion on the matter, coming out as against the legalisation of assisted dying, based on his experience of his own daughter’s death.

Disability rights advocate Lucy Webster warns that for people like Sophie to have that choice, others could face pressure to die.

Lucy Webster, disability rights advocate
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Lucy Webster

“All around the world, if you look at places where the bill has been introduced, they’ve been broadened and broadened and broadened,” she tells Sky News.

Lucy is referring to countries like Canada and Netherlands, where eligibility for assisted deaths have widened since laws allowing it were first passed.

Lucy, who is a wheelchair user and requires a lot of care, says society still sees disabled people as burdens which places them at particular risk.

“I don’t know a single disabled person who has not at some point had a stranger come up to us and say, ‘if I were you, I’d kill myself’,” she says.

The assisted dying bill, she says, reinforces the view that disabled lives aren’t worth living.

“I’ve definitely had doctors and healthcare professionals assume that my quality of life is inherently worse than other people’s. That’s a horrible assumption to be faced with when [for example] you’ve just gone to get antibiotics for a chest infection. There are some really deep-seated medical views on disability that are wrong.”

Under the plans, a person would need to be terminally ill and in the final six months of their life, and would have to take the fatal drugs themselves.

Among the safeguards are that two independent doctors must confirm a patient is eligible for assisted dying and that a High Court judge must give their approval. But the bill does not make clear if that is a rubber-stamping exercise or if judges will have to investigate cases including risks of coercion.

Julian Hughes, honorary professor at Bristol Medical School, says there’s a very big question about whether courts have the room to take on such a task.

Julian Hughes, honorary professor at Bristol Medical School
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Julian Hughes

“At the moment in the family division I understand there are 19 judges and they supply 19,000 hours of court hearing in a year, but you’d have to have an extra 34,000,” he explains.

“We shouldn’t fool ourselves and think that there wouldn’t be some families who would be interested in getting the inheritance rather than spending the inheritance on care for their elderly family members. We could quickly become a society in which suicide becomes normalised.”

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Young people to lose benefits if they refuse work and training, says minister

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Young people to lose benefits if they refuse work and training, says minister

Young people will lose their benefits if they refuse to take up work and training opportunities, a minister has said ahead of announcing measures to cut the welfare bill.

Liz Kendall, the work and pensions secretary, told Sky’s Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips that “conditions” will be attached to new skills opportunities the government intends to create.

Politics live: MP proposing assisted dying bill responds to claims it’s a ‘slippery slope’

With a record number of young people currently unemployed, Labour promised in its manifesto a “youth guarantee” for 18-21 year olds to have access to training, an apprenticeship, or support to find work.

“If people repeatedly refuse to take up the training work responsibilities, there will be sanctions on their benefits,” Ms Kendall said.

“The reason why we believe this so strongly is that we believe in our responsibility to provide those new opportunities which is what we will do. We will transform those opportunities, but young people will be required to take them up.”

The Labour government has said it will stick to a commitment under the former Tory administration to reduce the welfare bill by £3bn over five years.

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The Public Accounts Committee's report says the DWP has relatively few programmes that directly target people from ethnic minority backgrounds

Ms Kendall said her party will bring in its “own reforms” to achieve that target, though did not elaborate further.

The Conservatives had planned to change work capability rules to tighten eligibility, so around 400,000 more people signed off sick long-term would be assessed as needing to prepare for work by 2028/29 to deliver the savings.

Asked whether these people would ultimately be denied their current benefits under Labour’s plans, Ms Kendall told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg: “I’m saying we will bring forward our own reforms. You wouldn’t expect me to announce this on your programme.

“But my objective is that disabled people should have the same chances and rights to work as everybody else.”

The latest official forecasts published by the government show the number of people claiming incapacity benefits is expected to climb from around 2.5 million in 2019 to 4.2 million in 2029.

Last year there were just over three million claimants.

Ms Kendall will launch proposals on Tuesday designed to “get Britain working” amid concerns about the soaring unemployment rate.

Read More:
The 800,000 people who have fallen into ‘economic inactivity
Surprise fall in retail sales a sign economy is slowing

Thousands of jobs to go at Bosch

The white paper is expected to include the placement of work coaches in mental health clinics and a “youth guarantee” aimed at ensuring those aged 18-21 are working or studying.

Ministers are also looking at a subsidised jobs scheme, Sky News revealed last week.

The UK remains the only G7 country that has higher levels of economic inactivity now than before the pandemic.

Ms Kendall said the reasons are “complex” and include the fact that the UK is an older and sicker nation.

Asked whether she believes “normal feelings” are being “over-medicalised”, she said that while some people may be “self-diagnosing” themselves with mental health issues it is a “genuine problem”.

“There’s not one simple thing. You know, the last government said people were too bluesy to work.

“I mean, I don’t know who they were speaking to. There is a genuine problem with mental health in this country.”

Ms Kendall’s language was softer than Sir Keir Starmer, who this weekend promised a crackdown on “criminals” who “game the system” .

Writing in the Mail on Sunday, he said: “Make no mistake, we will get to grips with the bulging benefits bill blighting our society.”

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Man fighting for his life after stabbing on Westminster Bridge

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Man fighting for his life after stabbing on Westminster Bridge

A man is fighting for his life after a stabbing on Westminster Bridge, police have said.

Officers were called to the scene at around 10.45am on Sunday to reports of a fight and found a man with a stab injury. He was taken to hospital in critical condition.

Westminster Bridge is closed with investigations ongoing.
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Westminster Bridge is closed with investigations ongoing.

Three people have been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and another has been arrested on suspicion of affray.

Two of those arrested were taken to hospital with minor facial injuries, the Met Police said.

It is understood the incident is not being treated as terror-related.

The road remains closed, with the police investigation ongoing.

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