Grant Shapps ‘angry’ about infected blood scandal
The final report on the infected blood scandal will be published on Monday. The scandal is the biggest treatment disaster in NHS history, with more than 30,000 infected with HIV and Hepatitis C between 1970 and 1991. On Sky News, Defence Secretary Grant Shapps agreed with Trevor Phillips that the scandal was ‘one of the most shameful failures of government in our lifetime’. Shapps said he hadn’t seen the report, but was ‘angry’ at the lack of responsibility over a period of decades. He agreed that compensation has taken far too long to arrive, and said the government would make a statement quickly after the report is out.
Wes Streeting welcomes archbishop’s intervention on two-child benefit cap
After the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby called for an end to the two-child benefit cap this week, Trevor Phillips asked Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting if Welby should stay away from policy. Streeting praised Welby, saying he ‘is literally the one person in the country whose job is to signal virtue’. Streeting told Phillips he had voted against the two-child limit, but admitted that Labour couldn’t commit to scrapping it unless they worked out how that would be funded. Streeting also mentioned building more housing as a means to alleviate child poverty.
Shapps defends Sunak’s accusation that Labour would make country less safe
On Monday the Prime Minister delivered a speech saying the UK would face ‘some of the most dangerous years’, and also attacked Keir Starmer, claiming that Labour would not match the government’s pledge to spend 2.5 per cent of GDP on defence and that the country would be less safe with Labour in power. Labour have said they would match that spend ‘as soon as resources allow’. Speaking to Laura Kuenssberg, Defence Secretary Shapps argued that the Conservatives had outlined how they would reach 2.5 per cent by making cuts to the civil service, whereas Labour’s plans were ‘simple wishful thinking’. Kuenssberg pointed out that the Tories had had the same position as Labour just weeks ago.
Wes Streeting: ‘NHS is not just on its knees, it’s on its face’
One of Starmer’s key pledges is to reduce the NHS waiting lists by delivering 40,000 extra NHS appointments a week. Labour say they would do this by paying staff to work overtime and at weekends, but Laura Kuenssberg pointed out to Streeting that some NHS trusts are already operating with large deficits, and are considering cutting clinical staff to reduce costs. Streeting said that Labour didn’t want to see hospitals getting rid of their staff, but would not confirm that Labour would give them more money. He said reform was needed, with a 10 year plan to modernise the health service.
Piers Morgan questioned over phone hacking again
Finally, interviewing Piers Morgan for the first time since a high court judge ruled he did know about phone hacking at the Daily Mirror, Laura Kuenssberg asked Morgan whether he still denied the accusation. Morgan repeatedly said there was ‘no evidence’ that he knew anything about phone hacking, and told Kuenssberg he had never been allowed to speak at the trial. He claimed there were ‘a lot people down there spewing utter nonsense’. Kuenssberg asked whether Morgan had ever directly listened to a voicemail without the consent of the phone owner, and Morgan said he hadn’t.
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