“Chauvinistic” debates on immigration are distracting ministers from tackling the child poverty “emergency”, the founder of the Big Issue has told Sky News.

Lord John Bird, a crossbench peer, said there is “no evidence” the government is trying to “stop the growth or the propagation” of generational poverty, and the best thing they can do is admit they “haven’t got this right” and change course.

It comes amid a delay to Labour’s child poverty strategy, which is looking at whether to lift the controversial two-child benefit cap, among other measures.

While not affiliated to any political party, Lord Bird warned Labour will not hold back the rise of Reform UK unless they get a grip on the issue – calling debates on immigration a “great distraction”.

“They’re largely there because of the problems in the country,” he said of Nigel Farage’s party.

“There’s a kind of rightward move in the country and a lot of that has to do with the way the immigration is going.

“It’s all about, in my opinion, chauvinism – and patriotism has become a new value. I am particularly concerned about that.”

Lord Bird is proposing an amendment to the Children’s Wellbeing and School’s Bill next month that would impose a statutory duty on the government to reduce child poverty in England.

Education minister Baroness Jacqui Smith has previously rejected the idea, saying targets “would not in themselves drive reductions in poverty”.

But according to analysis by the Big Issue, Scotland has seen a 12% drop in relative child poverty since passing legally binding targets in 2018, whereas England and Wales has seen a 15% rise.

Lord Bird’s amendment has the support of Labour peer Ruth Lister, the former director of the Child Poverty Action Group, who argues targets “galvanise” governments and local authorities into action.

Manifesto pledge at risk

Labour is under pressure as its manifesto promised an “ambitious strategy” to bring down child poverty, but the taskforce set up to deliver it after the general election missed its deadline in May.

The delay followed cost concerns around lifting the two-child benefit cap, which multiple charities and Labour MPs argue is the most immediate thing the government can do to help the record 4.5 million children living in poverty in the UK.

That figure is projected to rise to 4.8 million children by the end of this parliament without further action – putting the manifesto pledge in jeopardy.

The cap is likely to be a significant issued at Labour’s annual party conference kicking off this weekend, against the backdrop of a deputy leadership contest in which both contenders have pledged to make child poverty a priority.

Education Secretary Bridget Philipson, who is standing in the race and co-chairs the poverty taskforce, said this week that “everything is on the table, including removing the two-child limit”.

Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden, who co-chairs the taskforce, has not ruled out an announcement by the prime minister at the conference, but stressed: “Everything has to be paid for, everything has to be budgeted.”

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Lord Bird said removing the two-child cap, estimated to cost £3.4bn a year, would alleviate an “emergency”.

However, he said a longer-term strategy was needed to prevent poverty, warning it is more entrenched now than during his own “terrible” childhood.

The 79-year-old was born in a Notting Hill slum to a poor Irish family in 1946, becoming homeless at age five and learning to read and write through the prison system as a teen.

Back then “no one was giving you a handout” whereas there is “institutional poverty now”, Lord Bird said, blaming recent governments for “trying to make the poor slightly a bit more comfortable” rather than “turning off the tap”.

‘Aim for the impossible’

He urged Labour to challenge the radicalism of Nye Bevan, the founder of the NHS, and “aim for the impossible” in eradicating child poverty, with investments in education and social development.

“There’s no evidence that the government is trying to stop the growth or the propagation from one generation to another of poverty,” he said.

“The cheapest but most efficient thing this government could do is stop pretending they’ve got it right, stop pretending they got the answers. The most important thing they could do is say, whatever we’re doing, it’s not working.”

A US vaccine firm has opened the first mRNA manufacturing plant in the UK, against a backdrop of increasing anti-jab rhetoric back home.

The new facility outside Oxford is part of a £1bn investment in the UK by Moderna, which specialises in mRNA.

The novel vaccine technology delivered some of the most effective and fastest-to-develop jabs during the COVID pandemic.

Several pharma companies, including Germany’s leading mRNA pioneer BioNTech, are now racing to develop new therapies.

Moderna says the plant will produce up to 100 million doses of its existing vaccine products each year. It has also been designed to scale-up production to 250 million doses a year in the event of a new disease outbreak.

“God-forbid, if there is another pandemic, we can switch the facility any day,” said Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel.

The UK investment deal was agreed by the previous government, but the plant’s opening is welcome relief for the current one.

In recent weeks, four major pharmaceutical companies have halted planned investments in the UK following disputes over drug pricing and profitability in the UK.

‘A great statement’

It also promises to restore domestic vaccine manufacturing capability in the UK, the lack of which was exposed when dangerous supply interruptions threatened the early COVID response.

“It’s a really fast way of getting new vaccines discovered,” said Lord Patrick Vallance, former chief scientist and now science minister.

“It’s also a great statement of confidence in the UK that [Moderna has] chosen to base themselves here.”

The Trump effect

The mRNA molecule is the same used by our cells to order the production of new proteins, and allows vaccines to be produced using just the genetic code of a virus or other biological target.

Moderna’s investment decision pre-dated Donald Trump’s return to the White House, but the Moderna CEO said its operation in the UK – a country that “still believes in vaccination” – may pay dividends if anti-vaccine rhetoric translates into a lack of demand for its products in the US.

“If there is less appetite by governments around the world, including in the US, to use vaccines, we might invest less in vaccines,” said Mr Bancel.

“We have to invest where there’s a demand for our products.”

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The UK presents other attractions for the company which has suffered substantial losses as demand for its COVID vaccine has fallen.

It’s betting that leading UK universities and a large patient population will make for successful clinical trials.

The company has ongoing NHS trials of new jabs against seasonal flu, a combination COVID and flu vaccine, cancer vaccines and mRNA therapies for two inherited childhood diseases.

Moderna says it is now the largest private commercial sponsor of clinical trials in the UK.

Paddling in a bay on the tiny Channel Island of Sark, I suddenly felt very sick and cold.

Less than 48 hours later, I was being emergency evacuated to the intensive care unit of a London hospital via cart, tractor, lifeboat, private jet and ambulance.

Ultimately, an incredible team of doctors, nurses, and volunteers saved my life – for a second time, though falling ill with one of the rarest diseases in the world while in one of the remotest corners of the British Isles was an unfortunate first.

I have something called atypical Haemolytic Uremic Syndrome (aHUS) that – when triggered – affects my immune system, destroying blood cells and harming other vital bodily functions.

Classed as “ultra-rare”, there is only around one new incident of aHUS per two million people every year. And an attack can be fatal, so the speed of diagnosis is key.

In my case, I already knew about the condition as I first fell ill with it eight years ago.

When it happened a second time, the heroic efforts of Sark’s only doctor, a group of volunteer rescuers and the medics at University College Hospital (UCH) meant I was raced from the middle of the English Channel to an intensive care bed in just over 11 hours – enabling rapid and effective treatment.

Now back home and expected to make a full recovery, I thought I would share my experience to help raise awareness about this little-known disease as today is aHUS Awareness Day.

‘I was feeling increasingly wretched’

My husband and I had planned to spend a few days in August on Sark – a beautiful island in between the UK and France that is a designated “dark sky” area because of an absence of light pollution.

There are no public streetlights on the territory.

More relevant to this story, cars and regular ambulances are also banned.

Instead of driving, Sark’s just over 500 residents and ferry-loads of tourists either walk, cycle or sit on the back of carts towed by horses – and on occasion tractors – to visit beaches, coves and other attractions.

I started to feel queasy on the ferry that took us to Sark.

We initially thought it was seasickness.

But the nausea lingered as we walked from the port to our hotel to dump our bags.

Thinking a swim might make me feel better, we trekked down a steep path to the beach and ventured into the sea, which is when my body decided to break.

I came out of the water, shivering uncontrollably and thought I was going to faint. After getting myself dry, we tried to return to the hotel, but I started vomiting violently on the side of the path – much to the disgust of a family that was trying to overtake us.

Once back at the hotel, I collapsed into bed, only leaving it to be sick.

We speculated that it must be food poisoning and hoped it would pass within a day.

But 24 hours later, while I had stopped vomiting, I was feeling increasingly wretched and beginning to wonder whether it could be aHUS again.

‘The onslaught is like an invisible storm’

The only other time I have been struck down by the disease was in January 2017, while working as the defence editor at The Times.

On that occasion, I took myself to my local hospital in Kent to be told that I had acute kidney failure and my bloods were “deranged”.

Fortunately, the haematologist on duty had been aware of aHUS – then a new acronym for me – and had me rushed to University College Hospital in London, which has a specialist team that can treat the condition led by Professor Marie Scully, a world-renowned expert.

I soon learnt that aHUS is caused by part of my immune system – called the complement system – becoming overactive and attacking my body rather than targeting bugs.

This “friendly fire” – likely linked to a genetic glitch that, in my case, had thankfully lain dormant for the first 40 years of my life – can be activated by infection, pregnancy or food poisoning, though sometimes the cause is unknown.

The subsequent onslaught is like an invisible storm that destroys a patient from the inside, shattering red blood cells, damaging small blood vessels and causing tiny clots.

The clots clog up kidneys and trigger acute renal failure.

If left untreated, other organs can also collapse, while the risk of a stroke or heart attack rises.

Without intervention, the prognosis is dire.

Between 10 to 15% of patients die during the initial illness, while up to 70% of patients develop end-stage renal failure, requiring a lifetime of dialysis.

Since 2013, however, patients in the UK have had access to a drug called eculizumab, which effectively turns off the malfunctioning part of the immune system. It is expensive – at many thousands of pounds a shot – but it saves lives, including mine.

‘My protein levels were off the scale’

Lying in bed in Sark more than eight years on from the first episode, I did not want to believe my body had turned on itself again.

But after a little over 36 hours, with no improvement, my husband decided to get help.

His action likely saved me from even graver kidney damage or worse.

He set out to find Sark’s only GP, Dr Bruce Jenkins.

Blood tests are the best way to diagnose aHUS, but they were not an option on the island.

Instead, Dr Jenkins did a urine test, which is a good alternative.

Any trace of blood or protein in the urine is a sign that a person’s kidneys are in trouble.

My protein levels were off the scale of the test.

Upon seeing the result, Dr Jenkins instructed my husband to go back to our hotel and pack our bags – I was still floundering in bed – while he coordinated an emergency evacuation.

On Sark, given the lack of vehicles, this meant mobilising an ambulance cart towed by a tractor, which is operated by a team of Community First Responders – all volunteers.

The GP also contacted the main hospital on Guernsey, a larger Channel Island, which provides a marine ambulance service to rescue anyone with a medical emergency on Sark.

While all this was happening, I called an emergency number for the aHUS medics at University College Hospital to warn them I was likely suffering a relapse.

By chance, Professor Scully was on duty that day – a Friday – and over the weekend. She and her team sprang into action, contacting Sark and Guernsey to help.

Speed was key as my condition was worsening.

‘I asked a doctor if I was going to die’

Within minutes of the alert going out from Dr Jenkins, a tractor, pulling a white ambulance cart, arrived at our hotel, and the first responders guided me and my husband onboard.

They took us to the port to wait for the “Flying Christine”, an ambulance boat carrying two paramedics and operated by St John’s Ambulance and Rescue Service.

That team transported us via sea to Guernsey hospital before we were transferred to a specialist medical plane to be flown to Luton airport.

The last leg was a more conventional ambulance drive to UCH, where critical care doctors, as well as Professor Scully and her colleagues, were poised to start the treatment.

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This quick response by the NHS and a network of volunteers meant I was taken from my sickbed in Sark to life-saving treatment in London in barely 11 hours.

By this point, the aHUS attack had caused my haemoglobin and platelet levels to drop, and my kidneys were failing.

The main treatment was the eculizumab drug – administered intravenously – but I also needed blood transfusions and to be put on a machine that acts as a form of dialysis.

The relief of being in the best possible place for my condition was immense, but the next few days were still frightening as my body took time to respond.

At one point, I asked a doctor if I was going to die – she assured me I was not.

On another occasion, pumped full of medication, hooked up to various machines and drifting in and out of sleep, I dreamt I was under missile fire – an occupational hazard of being a journalist who covers war – and tried to leap out of bed to an imaginary shelter, prompting the nurse who was looking after me to spring into action and make sure I stayed put.

Gradually, though, the treatment started to work.

After nearly a fortnight in hospital, including one week in intensive care, I was well enough to be discharged.

Today, I am on the mend and incredibly grateful to everyone who helped to save me from myself.

Deborah Haynes and Professor Marie Scully will be on Sky News from 8.30am to speak about aHUS Awareness Day.