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The number of people waiting for routine hospital treatment in England has risen for the first time in seven months, new figures show.

An estimated 6.33 million patients were waiting for 7.57 million treatments to be carried out at the end of April, NHS England data shows.

This is up from 6.29 million patients and 7.54 million treatments at the end of March.

NHS waiting lists have become a key focus of the general election campaign.

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Rishi Sunak vowed to tackle the high numbers in January 2023, when it stood at 7.21 million treatments.

On Wednesday night, Rishi Sunak claimed during Sky News’ Battle For Number 10 programme that NHS waiting lists are “coming down”.

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But he admitted: “We’ve not made as much progress on cutting waiting lists as I would have liked.”

He was booed by the audience, which represented a mix of voters, after he said junior doctors strikes have had an impact on waiting lists.

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The waiting list hit a record high in September 2023, with 6.5 million patients waiting for 7.77 million treatments.

Sir Keir Starmer vowed to bring down waiting lists by creating 40,000 new appointments per week, as one of the first things a Labour government would do.

Tim Gardner, assistant director of policy at thinktank The Health Foundation, said: “With both Labour and the Conservatives promising big improvements in NHS waiting times, today’s figures are a stark reminder of the scale of the challenge facing the next government.”

He added that while there has been “some progress” in recent months “there is still a huge mountain to climb”.

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Lib Dem health spokeswoman Daisy Cooper called on Mr Sunak “to apologise to the public for his failure to get NHS waiting lists down instead of ducking responsibility”.

“The prime minister getting booed by the public over soaring waiting lists last night shows just how angry people are with his record of failure,” she added.

Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting said: “This has blown a hole in Rishi Sunak’s claim that the NHS has turned a corner.”

He said the PM “can’t blame NHS staff… the blame lies solely with the Conservatives”.

Junior doctors strike outside the University Hospital of Wales
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Mr Sunak blamed junior doctor strikes for long waiting lists

The newest data on England also found:

  • 5,013 patients in England had been waiting more than 18 months to start routine treatment at the end of April, up from 4,770 in March
  • This is despite the government and NHS England pledging to end all waits of more than 18 months by April last year, excluding exceptionally complex cases or patients who choose to wait longer
  • A total of 50,397 patients had been waiting more than 65 weeks to begin treatment at the end of April, compared with 48,968 in March
  • The target to eliminate all waits over 65 weeks was previously March 2024 but has been moved to September this year
  • 302,589 people had been waiting more than 52 weeks to start routine hospital treatment at the end of April, down from 309,300 at the end of March
  • The target is to eliminate all waits of more than a year by March 2025
  • Those waiting more than 12 hours in A&E from a decision to admit to being admitted was 42,555 in May, up slightly from 42,078 in April
  • The number waiting at least four hours from the decision to admit to admission also increased, from 134,344 in April to 138,770 in May
  • 74% of patients were seen within four hours in A&Es last month, down from 74.4% in April
  • A target of March this year was made for 76% of patients to attend A&E to be admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours
  • 73.5% of patients urgently referred for suspected cancer in April were diagnosed or had cancer ruled out within 28 days, down from 77.3% in March – below the 75% target
  • GPs made 260,108 urgent cancer referalls in April, up from 254,594 in March, and up year on year from 218,324 in April 2023
  • Patients waiting no longer than 62 days in April from an urgent suspected cancer referral or consultant upgrade to their first definitive treatment for cancer was 66.6%, down from 68.7% in March – the target is 85%

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League table of foreign criminals awaiting deportation and their offences set to be published

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League table of foreign criminals awaiting deportation and their offences set to be published

A league table of foreign criminals and their offences is set to be published for the first time.

The plans, due to be announced on Tuesday, will reportedly focus on those offenders awaiting deportation from the UK.

The latest data shows there were 19,244 foreign offenders awaiting deportation at the end of 2024, a rise from 17,907 when the Conservatives left office in July and 14,640 at the end of 2022.

Despite more offenders being deported since Labour came to power, the number waiting to be removed from the UK has been growing.

Factors are understood to include the early release of inmates due to prison overcrowding, instability and diplomatic problems in some countries and a backlog of legal cases appealing deportation.

Shadow home secretary Chris Philp said the decision to publish the nationalities of foreign criminals showed Labour had “buckled” under pressure from the Conservatives to disclose the data.

The latest government statistics show there were 10,355 foreign nationals held in custody in England and Wales at the end of 2024, representing 12% of the prison population.

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The most common nationalities after British nationals were Albanian (11%), Polish (8%), Romanian (7%), which also represented the top three nationalities who were deported from the UK in 2024, according to Home Office figures.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper is understood to have ordered officials to release the details by the end of the year, according to The Daily Telegraph.

The newspaper reported Ms Cooper overruled Home Office officials, who previously claimed it was too difficult to provide quality data on foreign criminals.

A Home Office source said: “Not only are we deporting foreign criminals at a rate never seen when Chris Philp and Robert Jenrick were in charge at the Home Office, but we will also be publishing far more information about that cohort of offenders than the Tories ever did.”

The source added that ministers wanted “to ensure the public is kept better informed about the number of foreign criminals awaiting deportation, where they are from and the crimes they have committed”.

In March, the government announced £5m in funding to deploy staff to 80 jails in England and Wales to speed up the deportation of foreign offenders.

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Foreign nationals sentenced to 12 months or more in prison are subject to automatic deportation, but the home secretary can also remove criminals if their presence in the UK is not considered desirable.

Shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick welcomed the news, saying: “We will finally see the hard reality that mass migration is fuelling crime across our country… Frankly, the public deserved to know this [detail on foreign criminals] long ago.”

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Starmer and Zelenskyy discuss ending Russia’s ‘brutal war’ – as Putin says says he is open to bilateral talks on longer ceasefire

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Starmer and Zelenskyy discuss ending Russia's 'brutal war' - as Putin says says he is open to bilateral talks on longer ceasefire

Sir Keir Starmer and Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke about ending Russia’s “brutal war” on Ukraine in their latest phone call on Easter Monday, as Vladimir Putin said he was open to bilateral talks.

The prime minister and Ukrainian president spoke on Monday afternoon, when Sir Keir “reiterated his iron-clad support for Ukraine“.

A Downing Street spokesperson added that the prime minister “said that the UK supports Ukraine’s calls for Russia to commit to a full ceasefire and that now is the time for Putin to show he is serious about ending his brutal war”.

“They discussed the latest developments on the Coalition of the Willing, and looked forward to further progress towards a just and lasting peace,” the spokesperson added.

Mr Zelenskyy later said on social media that he had a “good and detailed conversation” with the prime minister, and added Ukrainian officials will be in London for talks on ending the war with Russia on Wednesday.

“We are ready to move forward as constructively as possible, just as we have done before, to achieve an unconditional ceasefire, followed by the establishment of a real and lasting peace,” he added.

The Ukrainian president added that the 30-hour Easter truce, which both Kyiv and Moscow accuse the other of violating, showed that Russia “are prolonging the war”.

It comes as Mr Putin proposed bilateral talks with Ukraine on a longer ceasefire, which would mark the first time Russia held such talks since a failed peace deal soon after the invasion in 2022.

Speaking to a state TV reporter, the Russian president said: “We always have a positive attitude towards a truce, which is why we came up with such an initiative (the Easter truce), especially since we are talking about the bright Easter days.”

When asked about Mr Zelenskyy’s calls to extend the 30-hour ceasefire into a 30-day pause on civilian targets, he added: “This is all a subject for careful study, perhaps even bilaterally. We do not rule this out.”

The Ukrainian president said on Sunday evening that the Russian army had “violated Putin’s ceasefire more than 2,000 times” during the day, and accused Russia of “failing” to “uphold its own promise of a ceasefire”.

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From Saturday: Why Putin offered an Easter truce?

It also comes after Donald Trump has said he hopes Russia and Ukraine “will make a deal this week,” after he and his secretary of state Marco Rubio warned that the US will walk away from efforts to broker a peace deal unless there are clear signs of progress soon.

The US president said on his Truth Social platform that both countries would “start to do big business” with the US after ending the war.

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Last month, Ukraine accepted Mr Trump’s proposal for a 30-day truce, but Mr Putin refused to back a full 30-day ceasefire, saying crucial issues of verification had not been sorted out.

He then said he would agree not to target Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. However, both sides have accused each other of breaking the moratorium on attacks on energy targets and at sea.

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Can Rachel Reeves come up trumps in Washington?

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Can Rachel Reeves come up trumps in Washington?

👉Listen to Politics at Sam and Anne’s on your podcast app👈

Sky News’ deputy political editor Sam Coates and Politico’s Anne McElvoy look at the day ahead in British politics.

Returning from an Easter break for a new season, Sam and Anne begin by discussing how British and global politics will react to the death of Pope Francis.

They discuss the Pope’s own role in politics around the world and the legacy he leaves behind.

Meanwhile, Rachel Reeves is heading to Washington ahead of her first IMF spring meetings, amid pessimistic predictions for the UK’s own economy.

Sam and Anne discuss whether the chancellor can bring Trump’s tariffs on UK imports down and keep hopes high for a US-UK trade deal.

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