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Jeremy Hunt has said he believes Liz Truss will still be prime minister at Christmas – despite five Conservative MPs already publicly calling for her to leave Number 10.

In an interview with Sky News political editor Beth Rigby, the new chancellor called on Conservative MPs to “give her a chance”.

He also ruled out becoming prime minister himself, saying: “I rule it out, Mrs Hunt rules it out, three Hunt children rule it out.”

Politics live: Hunt urges Tories to ‘give Truss a chance’

Mr Hunt has been described by some as effectively the “caretaker prime minister” after he was brought in to restore economic stability following weeks of turmoil on the financial markets.

This morning he scaled back the energy support package and ditched “almost all” the tax cuts announced by his predecessor Kwasi Kwarteng less than a month ago – in a major reversal of the policies that brought Ms Truss into office.

Asked “what is the point of Liz Truss?”, Mr Hunt replied: “She’s prime minister, she has got important decisions to make.

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“People who want her to go need to ask themselves whether more political instability is going to help keep mortgage rates down, keep interest rates down, calm the markets.

“I don’t think political instability is the answer. She’s been prime minister for about five weeks and we need to give her a chance.”

Pressed on why Ms Truss is still in the job, he continued: “I would rather a leader who listens, learns and changes and I think we would have more instability, much more instability, if we were to have a leadership process.”

Earlier, Sir Charles Walker became the fifth Conservative MP to call for the prime minister to go.

He told Beth Rigby that her position “is untenable”, adding: “She has put colleagues, the country, through a huge amount of unnecessary pain and upset and worry.”

He said the situation “can only be remedied.. with a new prime minister”.

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Sir Charles said the prime minister ‘has put the country through a huge amount of unnecessary pain’

Mr Hunt acknowledged some of the market turmoil seen in recent weeks was self-inflicted, telling Beth Rigby: “I want to remove the UK element.”

He has hinted at further U-turns in a bid to balance the books, telling the Commons this afternoon that he is not against the windfall tax “in principle” – something the Ms Truss is opposed to.

In a further diversion from Ms Truss’ policies, Mr Hunt also failed to commit to spending 3% of GDP on defence – a key pledge made by the prime minister during the Conservative leadership race.

He also failed to promise the triple pension lock will stay – a policy which formed part of the Conservative’s 2019 manifesto – and failed to guarantee benefits will increase in line with inflation.

Read More:
Hunt announces new economic council to provide government with ‘expert advice’
Liz Truss ducks urgent question from Sir Keir Starmer on the economy

Mr Hunt told Beth Rigby he will be able to say more in two weeks time – when he gives a fiscal statement on Halloween.

He said he believes his measures will pass through parliament, adding: “I don’t think there was a single Conservative MP… who opposed the measures I announced today. When you look beneath the political rhetoric, actually there is widespread agreement.”

With her position on the line, Ms Truss met with the One Nation group of Tory MPs in Westminster tonight, where she apologised to those in attendance for the mistakes her government made.

The prime minister’s press secretary told reporters that Ms Truss said she was sorry for the market turmoil caused by the mini-budget and that she tried to do too much too quickly.

The press secretary said the PM outlined that there are no plans for any cabinet reshuffle and that Ms Truss said she wants to work with all the party and get different people’s opinions.

They also described the mood at the meeting as “determined”.

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Hundreds of barbers, car washes and American sweet shops raided in money laundering crackdown

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Hundreds of barbers, car washes and American sweet shops raided in money laundering crackdown

Hundreds of barber shops and other cash-heavy businesses have been targeted in a three-week money laundering blitz.

Police went to 265 premises, including vape shops, nail bars, American-themed sweet shops and car washes across England in a crackdown on high street crime.

The National Crime Agency (NCA) said 35 arrests were made, 97 people suspected to be victims of modern slavery were placed under police protection, and bank accounts containing more than £1m were frozen.

More than £40,000 in cash, some 200,000 cigarettes, 7,000 packs of tobacco, and more than 8,000 illegal vapes were also seized during Operation Machinize, which involved 19 different police forces and regional organised crime units.

Officers also found two cannabis farms containing a total of 150 plants, while 10 shops have been shut down.

The NCA estimates that £12bn of criminal cash is generated in the UK each year with businesses such as barber shops, vape shops, nail bars, American-themed sweet shops and car washes often used by criminals.

Goods seized during their visit to a vape shop in Rochdale.
Pic: GMP/PA
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Goods seized during a visit to a vape shop in Rochdale. Pic: GMP/PA

Police officers at a shop in Tameside. 
Pic: GMP/PA
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Police officers at a shop in Tameside. Pic: GMP/PA

Rachael Herbert, deputy director of the National Economic Crime Centre at the NCA, said: “Operation Machinize targeted barber shops and other high street businesses being used as cover for a whole range of criminality, all across the country.

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“We have seen links to drug trafficking and distribution, organised immigration crime, modern slavery and human trafficking, firearms, and the sale of illicit tobacco and vapes.

“We know cash-intensive businesses are used as fronts for money laundering, facilitating some of the highest harm and highest impact offending in the UK.”

Pic: NCA
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Money laundering crackdown. Pic: NCA

Security minister Dan Jarvis said the operation “highlights the scale and complexity of the criminality our towns and cities face”.

“High street crime undermines our security, our borders, and the confidence of our communities, and I am determined to take the decisive action necessary to bring those responsible to justice,” he said.

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Kara Alexander: Dagenham mother who murdered her two young sons in the bath jailed

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Kara Alexander: Dagenham mother who murdered her two young sons in the bath jailed

A skunk-smoking mother who murdered her two young sons in the bath while in a psychotic state has been jailed for life with a minimum term of more than 21 years.

Kara Alexander was found guilty of drowning Elijah Thomas, two, and Marley Thomas, five, at the home they shared in Dagenham, east London, in December 2022.

Alexander, 47, who had denied two counts of murder, was convicted at Kingston Crown Court in February.

Post-mortems on the boys found they had either been drowned or suffocated – but Alexander accepted at trial that she had placed them in the bath before they “accidentally” drowned.

Returning to Kingston Crown Court on Friday, Mr Justice Bennathan sentenced Alexander to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 21 years and 252 days.

The judge referred to the children’s father finding his deceased sons next to one another as “the stuff of nightmares”.

Mr Justice Bennathan said: “On the evening of 15 December 2022, you’d been smoking skunk.

“You’d been doing so every night for weeks, probably much longer. At some stage, both the boys were in their pyjamas ready for bed, with Elijah also wearing his nappy.

“You drowned them both by your deliberate acts.”

The judge said Alexander “unspeakably” held the boys under water for “up to a minute or two”.

“The bath was probably still run from their normal evening routine and I do not think for a moment that your dreadful acts were pre-meditated,” he said.

The judge said Alexander dried the boys, put them in clean pyjamas and laid them together, tucked in under duvets, on the same bunk bed.

“The next morning, their father, worried by your unusual silence, came and found them. The stuff of nightmares,” he said.

The jury heard how the boys’ father was due to have them that weekend and became increasingly concerned when he had not heard back from Alexander.

When he arrived at their home, she told him the children were upstairs sleeping.

When the father returned downstairs to call for help, Alexander had run away. It took the police around an hour to find her.

The Metropolitan Police said forensic analysis of Alexander’s phone, which had been found in a filled sink, showed it had been in regular use in the run-up to the murders, but on the day the children were found, no calls were made or messages sent.

This led detectives to believe that she had intentionally been avoiding people following their deaths.

Prosecutors said they built their case on showing the boys could not have accidentally drowned and that the only reasonable explanation for their deaths was that Alexander caused them to drown.

Read more from Sky News:
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Man who murdered taxi driver after being refused cigarette is jailed

The judge said there was every sign Alexander was a “caring and affectionate” mother to both children before the events of 15 December 2022.

He pointed out that their father said Alexander “never shouted or raised her voice at the boys” and “never showed violence to the boys”.

The judge said: “From all that I have read and seen of you, I have no doubt that every day when you awake you will remember and grieve for the little boys whose lives you snatched away.”

Mr Justice Bennathan said Alexander was in a psychotic state when she killed her sons and that it was cannabis induced.

He said Alexander had a previous psychotic episode in 2016 in which cannabis also probably played a part, but acknowledged he could not be sure she was aware that the drug could trigger another psychotic state.

In his sentencing remarks, Mr Justice Bennathan warned of the dangers of drugs.

He said: “The heavy use of skunk or other hyper-strong strains of cannabis can plunge people into a mental health crisis in which they may harm themselves or others.

“If any drug user does not know that, it’s about time they did.

“At your trial, Kara Alexander, the three psychiatrists who gave evidence disagreed about a number of things, but on that they were unanimous.

“It will comfort nobody connected to this case, but if these events bring home that message to even a few people, some slight good may come from what is otherwise an unmitigated tragedy.”

Detective Chief Inspector Paul Waller, who led the investigation, said: “This is an incredibly tragic case, which has left a father without his two beloved boys and a family without two young brothers.

“Kara Alexander will spend the next two decades behind bars, where the memory of what she has done will haunt her forever.

“To the family and friends of Elijah and Marley, while no amount of time will erase the pain of such a loss, I hope this sentence serves to bring some semblance of justice.

“I hope you can now move on with your life, remembering the boys as you knew them, and treasuring the happy times you spent with them.”

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‘I don’t look at myself as a dying person anymore’: New drug that slows incurable breast cancer now available on the NHS

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'I don't look at myself as a dying person anymore': New drug that slows incurable breast cancer now available on the NHS

A groundbreaking new cancer treatment, hailed by patients as “game-changing”, will be available via the NHS from today.

The drug capivasertib has been shown in trials to slow the spread of the most common form of incurable breast cancer.

Taken in conjunction with an already-available hormonal therapy, it has been shown in trials to double how long treatment will keep the cancer cells from progressing.

“I don’t look at myself anymore as a dying person,” says Elen Hughes, who has been using the drug since February this year.

“I look at myself as a thriving person, who will carry on thriving for as long as I possibly can.”

Ellen Hughes has been using the drug capivasertib
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Elen Hughes says capivasertib has extended her life and improved its quality

Mrs Hughes, from North Wales, was first diagnosed with primary breast cancer in 2008.

Eight years later, then aged 46 and with three young children, she was told the cancer had returned and spread.

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She says that capivasertib, which she has been able to access via private healthcare, has not only extended her life but improved its quality with fewer side effects than previous medications.

It also delays the need for more aggressive blanket treatments like chemotherapy.

New breast cancer drug capivasertib
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Capivasertib is now available from the NHS

“What people don’t understand is that they might look at the statistics and see that [the therapy] is effective for eight months versus two months, or whatever,” says Mrs Hughes.

“But in cancer, and the land that we live in, really we can do a lot in six months.”

Mrs Hughes says her cancer therapy has allowed her “to see my daughter get married” and believes it is “absolutely brilliant” that the new drug will be available to more patients via the NHS.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence approved capivasertib for NHS-use after two decades of research by UK teams.

Professor Nicholas Turner, from the Institute of Cancer Research which led the study, told Sky News it was a “great success story for British science”.

Professor Nicholas Turner, from the Institute of Cancer Research which led the study
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Professor Nicholas Turner wants urgent genetic testing of patients with advanced breast cancers to see if they could benefit

The new drug is suitable for patients’ tumours with mutations or alterations in the PIK3CA, AKT1 or PTEN genes, which are found in approximately half of patients with advanced breast cancer.

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How AI could transform breast screening results
Breast cancer cases and deaths set to surge – study

Prof Turner says hundreds of patients could see the benefit in the immediate future, with thousands more people identified over time.

“We need new drugs that will help our existing therapies work for longer, and that’s where this new drug, capivasertib comes in,” says Prof Turner.

“It doubles how long hormone therapy treatment works for, giving patients precious extra time with their families.”

He called for urgent genetic testing of patients with advanced breast cancers to see if they could benefit.

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