NHS must ‘reform or die’, warns PM – as new report says service in ‘critical condition’

Published

10 months ago

September 12, 2024

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Sir Keir Starmer will warn the NHS must “reform or die”, as the government publishes an independent investigation into the state of the health service.

The report – ordered by Health Secretary Wes Streeting days after he took on the role – was carried out by peer and surgeon Lord Darzi.

Politics live: Starmer and Sunak face off again over winter fuel

It will conclude the NHS is in a “critical condition”, with record waiting lists and too much of its budget spent in hospitals, as well as saying the nation’s health had significantly deteriorated over the past 15 years.

However, Lord Darzi will also say the service’s vital signs “remain strong”, as the sector is filled with staff who “shared passion and determination to make the NHS better for our patients”.

In a speech on Thursday, the prime minister will point to the probe’s findings and lay the blame at the Conservatives’ door – especially the impact of their 2012 Health and Social Care Act, which the report described as a “calamity” that had “proved disastrous”, as well as claims there has been a decade of underinvestment.

But he will offer his own solutions, with a 10-year plan from Labour that promises to have “the fingerprints of NHS staff and patients all over it”.

Sir Keir will say: “Our NHS went into the pandemic in a much more fragile state. We had higher bed occupancy rates, fewer doctors, fewer nurses and fewer beds than most other high income health systems in the world.

“And let’s be clear about what caused that… a ‘scorched earth’ approach to health reform, the effects of which are still felt to this day.

“The 2010s were a lost decade for our NHS… which left the NHS unable to be there for patients today, and totally unprepared for the challenges and opportunities of tomorrow.”

The prime minister will say there is a “profound responsibility” on the government to address the issues, for both health and economic reasons, promising three “big shifts” in its approach:

• Using more technology to create a “digital NHS”
• Shifting more care out of hospitals and into communities
• Moving from treating sickness to focusing on prevention

Sir Keir will warn that what he calls “the biggest reimagining of our NHS since its birth” will not be “easy or quick”.

But he will add: “What we need is the courage to deliver long-term reform – major surgery not sticking plaster solutions.

“The NHS is at a fork in the road, and we have a choice about how it should meet these rising demands – raise taxes on working people to meet the ever-higher costs of aging population, or reform to secure its future.

“We know working people can’t afford to pay more, so it’s reform or die.”

Report gives Starmer mandate for change

Lord Darzi’s damning report coincides with the publication of the NHS monthly performance data.

The figures will reinforce what the former health minister has laid bare in his blistering assessment of the health service. From A&E to children’s services, mental health to cancer treatment, his conclusion is that patients are being failed.

It is in this state because the NHS has suffered from consecutive body blows – years of chronic underfunding, a growing population with complex health needs and the impact of the pandemic. This should come as no surprise.

The slow, steady decline of the NHS has been evident for some time. The challenge facing the government is its response.

What does it do now? Lord Darzi recommends three key areas for urgent action: NHS reform that will see a shift away from hospitals towards primary care and community-based services, tackling the NHS estate, and utilising developing technology to improve patient care.

The government has already said it is going to prioritise the longest waits on the elective register. But should it do that while ignoring the root causes as outlined in the report?

There is the danger then that targets will continue to be missed in the mid to longer term.

The challenge facing the government is it does not have time to waste or money to spare. It is evident that fixing the NHS will need both.

Lord Darzi says there is no quick fix and it is likely the prime minister knows already what action must be taken first.

He knows too, that this report gives him a mandate for transformative and desperately needed change.

Shadow health secretary Victoria Atkins said the Tories would “review this report carefully”, but claimed Labour had appeared to have “missed an opportunity to put together meaningful plans for reform”.

She added: “We Conservatives recognise that investment has to be married with reform. This is why we brought forward long-term plans for productivity, tech, ‘Pharmacy First’, virtual wards, attracting pharmaceutical research and training and retaining staff. We did this whilst boosting investment in the NHS in real terms every single year.

“The Labour government will be judged on its actions. It has stopped new hospitals from being built, scrapped our social care reforms and taken money from pensioners to fund unsustainable pay rises with no gains in productivity. They need to move from rhetoric to action.”

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey, who campaigned heavily on health and social care during the last election, said the report’s findings showed the NHS was “on its knees after years of the Conservatives driving local health services into the ground”.

He said fixing the problem was “this country’s greatest challenge”, as he called for the government to “make it their top priority”, adding: “That must include recruiting more GPs, fixing our crumbling hospitals and crucially tackling the social care crisis that has been ignored for far too long.”

UK

Diogo Jota: Liverpool players join mourners as Premier League star and his brother Andre Silva buried in Portugal

Published

12 hours ago

July 5, 2025

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Diogo Jota: Liverpool players join mourners as Premier League star and his brother Andre Silva buried in Portugal

Liverpool players past and present have joined the family and friends of Diogo Jota and his brother Andre Silva for their funeral in Portugal.

A service was held in the Igreja Matriz de Gondomar church in their hometown of Gondomar near Porto in northern Portugal on Saturday morning.

Mourners lined the streets and some in the crowd clapped as the brothers’ coffins were carried into the church.

The funeral – in pictures

Jota, 28, leaves behind his wife of only 11 days, Rute Cardoso, and three young children.

His younger brother, 25, was an attacking midfielder for Penafiel in the second tier of Portuguese football.

Liverpool manager Arne Slot, captain Virgil Van Dijk and teammates including Andy Robertson, Conor Bradley, Ryan Gravenberch, Cody Gakpo, Curtis Jones, Darwin Nunez and Joe Gomez were seen at the service.

Former teammates Jordan Henderson, James Milner and Fabinho were also there.

Van Dijk carried a red wreath with Jota’s number 20, while Robertson had a wreath featuring number 30, Silva’s number at Penafiel.

Some of Jota’s teammates in the Portuguese national side also attended, including Bruno Fernandes, of Manchester United, Ruben Dias and Bernardo Silva, of Manchester City, Joao Felix and Renato Veiga, of Chelsea, Nelson Semedo, from Wolves, Joao Moutinho and Rui Patricio.

Ruben Neves was one of the pallbearers after flying in from Florida where he played for Al Hilal in the Club World Cup quarter-final on Friday night.

‘More than a friend’

In a post published on Instagram before the service, he told Jota he had been “more than a friend, we’re family, and we won’t stop being that way just because you’ve decided to sign a contract a little further away from us!”

Jota’s fellow Liverpool midfielder, Alexis Mac Allister, said on Instagram: “I can’t believe it. I’ll always remember your smiles, your anger, your intelligence, your camaraderie, and everything that made you a person. It hurts so much; we’ll miss you. Rest in peace, dear Diogo.”

Porto FC president Andre Villas-Boas and Portugal national team manager Roberto Martinez were also in attendance.

‘With us forever’

Speaking after the ceremony, Martinez said the period since their deaths had been “really, really sad days, as you can imagine, but today we showed we are a large, close family.

“Their spirit will be with us forever.”

The service was private, but the words spoken by the Bishop of Porto, Manuel Linda, were broadcast to those standing outside the church.

He told Jota’s children, who were not at the service, that he was praying for them specifically, as well as their mother and grandparents.

“There are no words, but there are feelings,” he said, adding: “We also suffer a lot and we are with you emotionally.”

The brothers died after a Lamborghini they were travelling in burst into flames following a suspected tyre blowout in the early hours of Thursday morning.

No other vehicles are said to have been involved in the incident.

Liverpool have delayed the return of their players for pre-season following Jota’s death and players past and present paid tribute to him and his brother on social media.

Flowers have been left outside Anfield, where flags have been lowered to half-mast and all club shops, museums and tours have been closed until Monday.

UK

Rachel Reeves hints at tax rises in autumn budget after welfare bill U-turn

Published

15 hours ago

July 5, 2025

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Rachel Reeves hints at tax rises in autumn budget after welfare bill U-turn

Rachel Reeves has hinted that taxes are likely to be raised this autumn after a major U-turn on the government’s controversial welfare bill.

Sir Keir Starmer’s Universal Credit and Personal Independent Payment Bill passed through the House of Commons on Tuesday after multiple concessions and threats of a major rebellion.

MPs ended up voting for only one part of the plan: a cut to universal credit (UC) sickness benefits for new claimants from £97 a week to £50 from 2026/7.

Initially aimed at saving £5.5bn, it now leaves the government with an estimated £5.5bn black hole – close to breaching Ms Reeves’s fiscal rules set out last year.

In an interview with The Guardian, the chancellor did not rule out tax rises later in the year, saying there were “costs” to watering down the welfare bill.

“I’m not going to [rule out tax rises], because it would be irresponsible for a chancellor to do that,” Ms Reeves told the outlet.

“We took the decisions last year to draw a line under unfunded commitments and economic mismanagement.

“So we’ll never have to do something like that again. But there are costs to what happened.”

Meanwhile, The Times reported that, ahead of the Commons vote on the welfare bill, Ms Reeves told cabinet ministers the decision to offer concessions would mean taxes would have to be raised.

The outlet reported that the chancellor said the tax rises would be smaller than those announced in the 2024 budget, but that she is expected to have to raise tens of billions more.

It comes after Ms Reeves said she was “totally” up to continuing as chancellor after appearing tearful at Prime Minister’s Questions.

Criticising Sir Keir for the U-turns on benefit reform during PMQs, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said the chancellor looked “absolutely miserable”, and questioned whether she would remain in post until the next election.

Sir Keir did not explicitly say that she would, and Ms Badenoch interjected to say: “How awful for the chancellor that he couldn’t confirm that she would stay in place.”

In her first comments after the incident, Ms Reeves said she was having a “tough day” before adding: “People saw I was upset, but that was yesterday.

“Today’s a new day and I’m just cracking on with the job.”

Sir Keir also told Sky News’ political editor Beth Rigby on Thursday that he “didn’t appreciate” that Ms Reeves was crying in the Commons.

“In PMQs, it is bang, bang, bang,” he said. “That’s what it was yesterday.

“And therefore, I was probably the last to appreciate anything else going on in the chamber, and that’s just a straightforward human explanation, common sense explanation.”

UK

Diogo Jota and Andre Silva’s funeral in pictures

Published

16 hours ago

July 5, 2025

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Diogo Jota and Andre Silva's funeral in pictures

The family and friends of Diogo Jota and his brother Andre Silva have been joined by Liverpool stars past and present and other Portuguese players at the pair’s funeral near Porto.

The Liverpool forward, 28, and his brother died in a car crash in Spain on Thursday.

Pictures below show the funeral at the Igreja Matriz de Gondomar church in the town of Gondomar near Porto. Click here for our liveblog coverage of the day’s events.