Liberal Democrat conference: Sir Ed Davey pledges two-month cancer treatment guarantee in closing speech
Sir Ed Davey has promised to introduce a guarantee for cancer patients to begin treatment within two months if his party holds the balance of power after the next general election.
In his closing speech to the Liberal Democrat conference in Bournemouth, the party leader attacked “Conservative chaos” in government for leading to “unacceptable delays”.
And he pledged the policy would be the “top priority” for him and his MPs in the next parliament.
Politics live: Davey delivers NHS-focused speech
Sharing how he lost both his parents at a young age to cancer, Sir Ed told the audience: “My family’s story isn’t unique. There are millions of us whose lives get turned upside down by cancer.
“This very day, across the UK, a thousand people will hear that fateful diagnosis. A thousand people, choking back tears as they try to process what it means for them.
“Far too many people are still waiting, far too long for a diagnosis, or to start treatment after being diagnosed.
“We will hold the government to account, for every target it misses and every patient it fails. We will never stop fighting for better care for you and your loved ones.”
The Lib Dem conference was held in Bournemouth
A source close to the leader said that in practice, the policy would work like the Armed Forces covenant – a promise from the nation that those who serve or have served in the armed forces, and their families, are treated fairly – to improve services.
The health secretary would be the person ultimately responsible for making sure the target is met.
Patients would be able to complain to the health ombudsman if they weren’t seen within the timeframe, and it could see the government getting sued as a result.
The source would not be drawn over whether the policy would be a deal breaker in any negotiations with Labour after the election, as the party continues to avoid answering questions about any possible agreement coming from a hung parliament, saying instead that the Lib Dems were “focused on voters”.
But he did reveal the cost of the plan was £4bn over five years.
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Lib Dems hint at Labour deal
Sir Ed underlined a number of health pledges the party has made over recent days during the speech – including enabling patients to see a GP within seven days and bringing in mental health MOTs for vulnerable groups.
But he also focused his ire on the Conservatives, as the Lib Dems attempt to win over voters in traditional Tory seats.
Throughout the conference, the party has hammered home its strategy of targeting the so-called “Blue Wall”, with around 80 seats in their sights where they came second to the Tories at the last general election.
Policy announcements made this week designed to appeal to those constituencies included ditching their long-standing pledge to add 1p to income tax.
But the leadership failed to get support from its members to water down its housing targets, losing a vote on the conference floor after a campaign by young activists.
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Lib Dems are determined to translate recent by-election wins into more widespread gains at an election
Despite the cuddly caricature frequently cast on the Lib Dems, the party has a ruthless streak – especially when it comes to by-elections.
If this four-day gathering on the Dorset coast has shown anything, it’s that the party leadership is determined to try and translate the discipline shown during recent individual votes into a wider strategy to pick up seats across the country.
That involves talking a lot about some things – chief among them the NHS, cost of living and the Tory record in government.
But crucially it’s also about barely mentioning others – for that, see the tension on show between members and party HQ over the lack of emphasis being placed on the long-term policy to re-join the EU.
Sir Ed Davey’s closing speech today was another illustration of this approach.
But the lack of some detail and costings around the key policy announcement of a cancer guarantee points to a possible criticism of this broader plan.
Are these serious and realistic answers to the big difficult questions facing the country?
Or just a sort of “centrist populism” that promises the world – just so long as you’re a disillusioned Tory who lives within a handful of marginal seats?
Lib Dems know the risks of making promises you can’t keep.
But after their post-coalition wipeout, they also know that policy can lack much purpose without a presence in parliament.
Sir Ed said: “For the British people, the next general election can’t come quickly enough. People are desperate for change.
“And while Rishi Sunak clings on, out of touch and out of ideas, our job – our responsibility – is to show the British people that positive change is possible. And that we are ready to fight for it, whenever the election comes.
“And this week, we’ve done just that. We’ve shown we have the policies, the passion and the people – not just to get the Conservatives out, but to deliver the real change people want. The fair deal people deserve.”
Nigel Farage will kick off Reform UK’s policies in South Wales on Monday, where he is poised to put pressure on the Tories over immigration and tax.
The Reform leader will launch his party’s “contract with the people” – which they will not call a manifesto – in Merthyr Tydfil to highlight “what happens to a country when Labour is in charge”.
The Senedd in Cardiff is the devolved legislature of Wales and is currently run by a Labour-administration.
The launch will follow a productive few days for Reform that saw his party overtake the Conservatives for the first time – prompting Mr Farage to declare his party the “opposition” to Labour.
Election latest: Pub registered as political party; Farage to launch Reform manifesto in Wales
His fortunes increased further after another poll by Survation for The Sunday Times showed the Tories could be reduced to just 72 seats in the next parliament, while a separate survey by Savanta for The Sunday Telegraph showed Reform up another three points.
Reform has consistently pushed the Conservatives to adopt a more hardline stance on immigration and tax cuts.
In a flavour of the policies that will be unveiled tomorrow, the party said earlier this month that it would like to see a tax on businesses who employ overseas workers.
This would see firms pay a higher 20% rate of national insurance for foreign workers, up from the current 13.8%.
Reform is also opposed to Labour’s plans to end private school tax exemptions, and wants the UK to leave the European Convention on Human Rights, overseen by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg, in order to use offshore processing centres for illegal immigrants and prevent them from claiming asylum.
Some Tory candidates and former MPs on the right of the party have been agitating for Mr Sunak to advocate for an exit from the ECHR – something he has been reluctant to do but has left the door open to.
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Other Reform policies include offering vouchers to go private if you can’t see a GP in three days, scrapping interest on student loans, increasing police numbers, keeping “woke ideologies out of the classroom”, abolishing the TV licence fee, reforming the Lords and reducing “wasteful spending”.
Mr Farage used an article in The Sunday Telegraph to criticise Lord Cameron, the foreign secretary, for an interview he gave to The Times on Friday in which he urged voters to reject the Reform leader’s “inflammatory language” and “dog whistle” politics.
In response, Mr Farage wrote: “If Lord Cameron is worried about damaging divisions, he should look a bit closer to home.
“The terminally divided Tory party has proved itself incapable of effective government over the past 14 years – and is set to be even more hopelessly split in opposition, after it gets hammered on 4 July.”
The Reform leader will also turn his fire on Labour, saying he had chosen Wales to launch his “contract with the people” “because it shows everyone exactly what happens to a country when Labour is in charge”.
“Schools are worse than in England, NHS waiting lists are longer than in England, COVID restrictions were even tighter than in England and now Welsh motorists are being soaked by literally hundreds of speed cameras to enforce the deeply unpopular new 20mph blanket speed limit in towns and villages,” he said.
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“Meanwhile, the Tories have been the official opposition almost solidly since 2016 and have achieved zilch, which probably explains why we are neck-and-neck with them in the polls in Wales.
“So, if you want a picture of what the whole country will be like with a Starmer government and a feeble Conservative opposition, come to Wales and then hear us unveil a better future for all of Britain”.
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Rishi Sunak has repeatedly said a vote for Mr Farage’s party amounted to handing a “blank cheque” to Labour, whom the polls predict will form the next government from 4 July.
The full list of candidates standing in Merthyr Tydfil and Aberdare are:
- Workers Party of Britain – Anthony Cole
- Communist Party of Britain – Bob Davenport
- Independent – Lorenzo de Gregori
- Green Party – David Griffin
- Conservative Party – Amanda Jenner
- Labour Party – Gerald Jones
- Liberal Democrats – Jade Smith
- Reform UK – Gareth Thomas
- Plaid Cymru – Francis Whitefoot
An extra 250,000 children will be hit by the two-child benefit cap next year, rising to an extra half a million by 2029, a leading thinktank has warned.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said the number of children who will fall under the cap – which limits child benefits for the first two children in most households – will reach 670,000 by the end of the next parliament if the policy is not reformed.
The two-child benefit cap, which restricts Child Tax Credit and Universal Credit to the first two children, was brought in by the Conservative government in 2017.
Campaigners have long called for it to be abolished on the grounds it would lift thousands of children out of poverty.
It comes as a separate study from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) found 40% of people who work in primary schools and GP surgeries have considered quitting their job because of a “shameful” level of hardship among the population.
Election latest: Minister says election ‘not about the past’ as poll suggests Tory wipeout on 4 July
The JRF found the service providers were “staggering under the weight of hardship” by having to provide extra support to the nearly four million people struggling to pay for essentials including food, heating and clothing.
The IFS said the two-child cap has helped drive up the share of children in large families who are in relative poverty from 35% in 2014-15 to 46% in 2022 – a period when poverty for families with one or two children fell.
The Labour Party has faced pressure to drop the cap – including from former prime minister Gordon Brown – but has so far refused to commit to ending it, citing the current state of the country’s finances.
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The pressure intensified further after figures on the right, including former home secretary Suella Braverman and Reform leader Nigel Farage, both called for the cap to be scrapped.
Abolishing the cap does not appear in either the Tory or Labour manifestos, with only the Green Party and Liberal Democrats making the commitment in their offers to the public.
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What do voters think of manifestos?
The IFS said removing the cost of the limit would cost the government about £3.4bn a year, equivalent to freezing fuel duties for the next parliament.
The limit currently affects two million children and more children are added each year because it applies to those born after 5 April 2017.
The IFS said when fully rolled out, the cap will affect one in five children, rising to 38% of those in the poorest fifth of households.
It said 43% of children in households with at least one person of Bangladeshi or Pakistani origin will be affected, while those who fall under it on average will lose £4,300 per year – representing 10% of their income.
IFS research economist Eduin Latimer said: “The two-child limit is one of the most significant welfare cuts since 2010 and, unlike many of those cuts, it becomes more important each year as it is rolled out to more families.”
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Mubin Haq, chief executive of the abrdn Financial Fairness Trust, which funded the research, said: “The limit has been a significant contributor to child poverty amongst large families during a period when poverty for families with one or two children fell.
“If the next government is serious about tackling child poverty, it will need to review the two-child limit.”
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Alison Garnham, the chief executive of Child Poverty Action Group, said the “biggest driver” of child poverty in the UK was the two-child limit.
“Any government serious about making things better for the next generation will have to scrap the two-child limit, and do so quickly.”
A Labour spokesperson said: “We are under no illusions about the scale of the task ahead if we win the election.
“Labour has already set out how we would make a start, with free breakfast clubs in every primary school, cutting fuel poverty and bringing down energy bills, banning exploitative zero hours contracts, making work pay, ending no-fault evictions and creating more good jobs right across the country.”
In the marginal seat of North East Fife in this election, it is not a straight fight between red and blue, but shades of yellow too.
In 2017, the SNP won here by just two votes ahead of the Scottish Liberal Democrats. That astonishing two-vote tipping point made it the UK’s most marginal seat at the time.
But in 2019, the Lib Dems won it from the SNP, giving the party one of its four MPs in Scotland.
Today, Lib Dem posters line the winding road that takes you to Anstruther’s waterfront.
It’s a charming fishing village and overlooking the harbour are quaint restaurants and gift shops – handmade soap, whisky and fresh fish – it’s all on offer.
With this allure comes a melee of tourists who join us as we hop to each business, talking to them about how the campaigns have resonated with them here.
Election latest: Minister says election ‘not about the past’ as poll suggests Tory wipeout on 4 July
“The tourists are a big part of this area for us,” says Tom Cooper, who’s owned his whisky gift shop for over six years.
Whisky shop owner Tom Cooper wants the main parties to offer more help to small businesses
He’s even had a few celebrities pop by.
“We get up to eight to nine tourist buses each day in the summer, if we didn’t have that, we wouldn’t survive,” he adds.
He loves having them dropped off outside his door, but the tourist season isn’t long enough to make the off-season easier.
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“When it’s very, very quiet, you’re talking maybe four months of the year with maybe a six or seven hours a day, that you’re not doing very much. And you can’t really drag people in the door.
“We need to bring people in. The villages needs money. You know, that’s that’s where the economy lies, I think, in the future.”
And when at the ballot box, Tom says it’ll be his shop at the forefront of his mind.
“I look for somebody that’s going to help businesses like myself, small businesses, and keep the high streets going, get people out,” he says.
This is one of the constituencies to have had its boundary lines redrawn.
Changes have now led to areas with higher levels of deprivation being added to the North East Fife seat.
Away from the picturesque coastline, further inland there are signs of a lack of investment and care.
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Glenrothes shopping centre stands partially derelict.
“That’s been like that for about six years,” someone comments, as we look on at the peeling sides of a building and faded shop signage.
This constituency has one of the highest levels of child poverty.
“People are struggling, there are a lot of people not in work,” Chris Lewis, a business owner, tells us.
Chris runs an ice cream parlour, fish and chip bar and waterfront restaurant.
Chris Lewis believes politicians have broken their past promises
“Employment is what I care about, we need to lift people back to work on a decent wage,” he says.
“I would like to see everybody getting a job, then everybody could work hard and get people off benefits.”
Chris says he has been burnt by past promises.
“This area – whether Lib Dem and SNP – to me it seems they never seem to deliver.”
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Chris adds: “There’s just so many promises and you think, you’ve had your time, can someone else do more for the country. We’re a very tourist-heavy area and we can’t afford to lose that. If Scotland loses its attraction, you know, we failed.”
The national narrative and the polls are having an impact on how he is feeling.
“I never thought I’d say it, but Labour are coming to mind, I think they’re going to do more for the country than the others.
“But who do you believe? There’s always promises. And when it comes down to how many are delivered, usually very few.”
We’ve met those across this constituency who intend to back Reform, SNP and Labour throughout the day.
A sign that even the most seemingly straightforward of seats is all to play for.
The list of candidates standing in North East Fife are:
- Conservatives – Bill Bowman
- Liberal Democrats – Wendy Chamberlain
- Labour Party – Jennifer Gallagher
- SNP – Stefan Hoggan-Radu
- Scottish Green Party – Morven Ovenstone-Jones
- Reform UK – Matthew Wren
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