PM says pension change will reduce NHS backlog through extra hours – but figures show only 105 doctors retired early last year
A tax cut for wealthy pensioners will bring down NHS waiting lists, Rishi Sunak has insisted – but he did not say how many doctors would stay in their jobs because of it.
Criticism has mounted over the move to scrap the lifetime allowance in the spring budget, which Labour has branded a “tax giveaway to the wealthiest 1%”.
Under the plans, people will be allowed to put aside as much as they can in their private pension scheme without being taxed – removing the £1.07m limit.
Ministers have insisted that it will encourage senior doctors to stay in the workforce for longer, but doubts have been raised after the government’s own data suggested only 105 of them left the NHS due to early retirement last year.
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When it was put to the prime minister only hundreds of doctors might stay on he told BBC Breakfast: “It’s not just about whether they leave or stay; it’s about whether they’re doing the extra shifts, because that’s what’s going to help us get the backlog down.”
Mr Sunak said “thousands of doctors” leave the NHS every year, and “about two-thirds to three-quarters of them have said that they don’t provide extra hours” due to the pension rules.
“The key thing is I want to get the waiting lists down. I think everyone watching who has a family member waiting on NHS waiting lists will want that person – grandmother, grandparent, aunt, uncle – to get that treatment as quickly as possible. Because of this change we’re going to be able to do that.”
However, he did not say how many doctors removing the £1m tax-free threshold could entice back, only that “overall we think about 12,000 people will be working more in the workforce”.
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In response to a written question from Labour last November, health minister Will Quince provided statistics showing 105 doctors left the NHS due to early retirement in 2021/2022.
However, there were warnings of a mass exodus after a survey from the British Medical Association (BMA) last year showed 44% of consultants were threatening to leave in the next 12 months, blaming “a decade of pay erosion and punitive pension taxation”.
The union has welcomed changes to the pension rules, with Committee chair Vish Sharma saying: “The scrapping of the lifetime allowance will be potentially transformative for the NHS as [the majority of] senior doctors will no longer be forced to retire early and can continue to work within the NHS, providing vital patient care.”
He added that the changes will also “reduce the perverse incentive to reduce hours due to pension tax”.
In the spring budget it was also announced that the annual tax-free pension savings allowance would increase by 50% to £60,000.
The department of health suggested 22,000 senior NHS clinicians could have exceed the previous £40,000 allowance, while around 31,000 clinicians had reached at least 75% of the £1.073 million lifetime allowance
How will the NHS pay offer be funded?
During his interview, Mr Sunak was also unable to say how the revised NHS pay offer announced last week will be funded.
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The government has put forward a revised 5% pay offer to NHS staff
Unions reached the deal with the government in a major breakthrough that saw NHS staff offered a one-off payment of 2% of their salary plus a COVID recovery bonus of 4% for the current financial year 2022/23, and a 5% pay increase for 2023/24.
Asked if this is new money, Mr Sunak said: “The NHS does have new money, yes.”
Pressed further, he said: “We’re just about to start the financial year and the NHS and social care will have £14bn more over the next couple of years.”
Mr Sunak was then quizzed on whether the money would come out of that existing budget.
He replied: “People want to know the NHS is well-funded, but what’s also important is how we use that money.”
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The deal with health unions came after months of ministers saying there was no cash to meet their demands, arguing the money would have to come out of frontline services.
Downing Street has insisted the offer – which will require the government to find £4bn in spare cash – will not impact frontline services, saying “areas of underspend” had been identified.
Rwanda deportations ‘will begin once court proceedings have concluded’
Mr Sunak was also grilled on targets for his “stop the boats” plan.
He said “no illegal immigration is acceptable” and his new bill – to ban people claiming asylum if they come to the UK through unauthorised means – “is about fairness”.
Asked whether that means stopping all boats, he said: “That’s what we’re trying to do. I don’t think anyone would sit here and say to you that they tolerate any illegal migration.”
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The home secretary toured Rwanda at the weekend
On whether he could get the number of Channel crossings to zero, he said: “People will be able to judge me by my actions at the next election – I’m perfectly confident about that.”
The prime minister said deporting migrants to Rwanda will begin once court proceedings have concluded.
When it was put to him that Home Secretary Suella Braverman has suggested flights will start this summer, Mr Sunak said: “No, that’s not what she said, and what she said actually was that when the court process has concluded, then we’ll be able to start flights as quickly as we can.
“But ultimately we have to go through the court process, policies being challenged. We won the first battle of those and we’ll continue to defend the policy.”
Outgoing US President Joe Biden is set to meet his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping today for what is likely to be his last time as US president.
The two leaders are expected to hold talks on the sidelines of a meeting of Asia-Pacific leaders in the Peruvian capital, Lima.
It comes against the backdrop of increasing tension in the US-China relationship with a potential trade war looming under a Trump presidency, several China hawks tapped for US cabinet positions and China’s growing status among global south countries as an emerging leader of an alternative world order.
This week China was focused on events in the southern city of Zhuhai.
First there was a car ramming attack at Zhuhai’s sports stadium which left 25 people dead. A shocking event that was heavily censored in China.
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What happened at Zhuhai sports centre?
Less than an hour’s drive away the country was holding its premier air show.
It was a military enthusiast’s dream, and not even intermittent rain could keep the crowds of tens of thousands of people away from relishing in the roar of jets in the skies above Zhuhai.
China’s fighter jet fleet
One of the main drawcards was China’s newest stealth fighter the J-35A. It will join the country’s J-20 in service for the People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF).
A J-35A stealth aircraft flies during the exhibition. Pic: Reuters
The J-10C was China’s aerobatics star of the show. There were daily displays of its prowess in sky-high manoeuvres and formations that impressed onlookers, leaving a streak of colours across the cloudy rain-clogged sky.
China’s aerobatic team
China’s military modernsiation programme is continuing apace
It boasts the largest navy in the world and the largest armed forces by active-duty personnel.
The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Airforce is developing fast too.
Dr Nicole Leveringhaus, a China security expert from King’s College London, says: “China started with very little. It was devastated by wars on many fronts in the 30s and 40s. Its defence industry was depleted. In 70-plus years it’s built itself up and now we’re seeing the results.
“It’s an impressive feat to go from a bloated land-based peasant guerrilla army to what it has to today.”
Chinese pride and nationalism on display
Enjoying the air show spectacle, military fan Liu Liansong said: “I think the air show is great. It is a firm manifestation of the air force’s development from scratch. We as Chinese people feel very proud.”
Inside the air show
The air show included massive exhibition halls of military hardware, from drones to robotics, firearms and mock missiles. Merely getting from one end of the venue to the other through densely packed crowds was a mission.
Russia in the air
The other crowd puller this week was Russia’s aerobatic air force unit, performing daily theatrics at dizzying speeds.
It is another sign of the deepening ties between China and Russia.
Russia’s aerobatic team shows off for the crowd
One Russian tourist and recreational pilot, Yulia, told Sky News: “Both sides are looking for good communication in business, aviation and in many spheres including tourism.”
The secretary of Russia’s security council and former defence minister Sergei Shoigu also visited the air show, viewing both Chinese and Russian-made jets.
In Beijing, secretary Shoigu was quoted by Russian state media as saying: “I see the most important task as countering the policy of ‘dual containment’ of Russia and China pursued by the United States and its satellites.”
One of Russia’s jets up close
The West is increasingly frustrated by China’s support of Russia. The US has sanctioned two Chinese companies, accusing them of being involved in the production of Russian aerial drones used on the battlefield.
China insists it is not supplying weapons to Russia.
One of the companies, Xiamen Limbach Aircraft Engine Co, had a small stand in one of the exhibition halls. Its representatives declined Sky News’ request for an interview.
Tariff war brewing
Despite the raw military might on display in Zhuhai, in China there is uncertainty and unease about what an impending Donald Trump presidency will mean for global trade.
President-elect Trump has threatened blanket tariffs of up to 60% on Chinese products exported to the US.
This would be a serious blow to China’s target GDP growth and comes at a time when the country’s economy faces deep-set challenges.
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At the other end of the country, in Beijing analysts are weighing up the impact of possible tariffs and the Chinese government’s options to respond.
Senior Asia analyst Chim Lee, from The Economist Intelligence Unit, is not optimistic that a US-China agreement to minimise the damage can be reached.
Senior Asia analyst Chim Lee
“I think both sides have recognised that the era of making deals is passed,” Mr Lee said.
“We’re going to see China starting with some targeted measures, tariffs it feels more comfortable to impose,” he explained. “But there are also areas where China is starting to be a bit more aggressive.”
This action could include export controls on China’s production of critical minerals and retaliatory tariffs on US agriculture exports.
Trade competition, military posturing and complicated geo-political alliances have set the stage for a challenging next phase in US-China relations.
New pictures show the moment of impact as an Israeli missile hit a Beirut apartment block and exploded.
The block was one of five buildings destroyed by airstrikes on Friday alone.
Israel launched airstrikes in the southern suburbs of Beirut in a fourth consecutive day of intense attacks.
There were no immediate reports of casualties.
An Associated Press photographer captured a sequence of images showing an Israeli bomb approaching and hitting a multi-storey apartment building in Beirut’s Tayouneh area.
Richard Weir, a senior crisis, conflict and arms researcher at Human Rights Watch, reviewed the close-up photos to determine what type of weapon was used.
“The bomb and components visible in the photographs, including the strake, wire harness cover, and tail fin section, are consistent with a Mk-84 series 2,000-pound class general purpose bomb equipped with Boeing’s joint directed attack munition tail kit,” he told AP.
Pics: AP
Smoke covers a building that collapses following the strike. Pic: AP
Deadly strikes as bombardment stepped up
Israel stepped up its bombardment this week – an escalation that has coincided with signs of movement in US-led diplomacy towards a ceasefire.
The Israeli military said its fighter jets attacked munitions warehouses, a headquarters and other Hezbollah infrastructure. It issued a warning on social media identifying buildings ahead of the strikes.
Meanwhile, an Israeli airstrike killed five members of the same family in a home in Ain Qana in the southern province of Nabatiyeh, Lebanon’s state media said.
The report said a mother, father and their three children were killed but didn’t provide their ages.
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Three other Israeli strikes killed six people and wounded 32 in different parts of Tyre province on Friday, also in south Lebanon, the report said.
Video footage also showed a building being struck and turning into a cloud of rubble and debris that billowed into Horsh Beirut, the city’s main park.
Residents check the site of the airstrike in Tayouneh, Beirut. Pic: AP
More than 3,200 people have been killed in Lebanon during 13 months of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah – most of them since mid-September.
About 27% of those killed were women and children, according to Lebanon’s health ministry.
Israel dramatically escalated its bombardment of Lebanon from September, vowing to cripple Hezbollah and end its barrages in Israel.
Friday’s strikes come as Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister has asked Iran to help secure a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hezbollah.
The prime minister appeared to urge Ali Larijani, a top adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, to convince the militant group to agree to a deal that could require it to pull back from the Israel-Lebanon border.
Iran is a main backer of Hezbollah and for decades has been funding and arming the Lebanese militant group.
On Thursday, Eli Cohen, Israel’s energy minister and a member of its security cabinet, said that prospects for a ceasefire with Lebanon were the most promising since the conflict began.
The Washington Post reported Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was rushing to advance a Lebanon ceasefire to deliver an early foreign policy win to his ally, US President-elect Donald Trump.
“Super high-IQ revolutionaries” who are willing to work 80+ hours a week are being urged to join Elon Musk’s new cost-cutting department in Donald Trump’s incoming US government.
The X and Tesla owner will co-lead the Department Of Government Efficiency (DOGE) with former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.
And in a post on X, the official DOGE account put out a call to arms for people to sign up and help “dismantle government bureaucracy”.
The post said: “We are very grateful to the thousands of Americans who have expressed interest in helping us at DOGE.
“We don’t need more part-time idea generators.
“We need super high-IQ small-government revolutionaries willing to work 80+ hours per week on unglamorous cost-cutting.
“If that’s you, DM this account with your CV. Elon & Vivek will review the top 1% of applicants.”
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Elon Musk speaking at an event held at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate. Pic: AP Photo/Alex Brandon
In a reply to an interested party, Mr Musk suggested the lucky applicants would be working for free.
“Indeed, this will be tedious work, make lost of enemies & compensation is zero,” the world’s richest man wrote.
“What a great deal!”
When announcing the new department, President-elect Donald Trump said Mr Musk and Mr Ramaswamy “will pave the way for my administration to dismantle government bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure federal agencies”.
Mr Musk has previously made clear his desire to see cuts to “government waste” and in a post on his X platform suggested he could axe as many as three-quarters of the more than 400 federal departments in the US, writing: “99 is enough.”
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