Another winter crisis looms for the NHS, meaning a difficult start for the new Health Secretary, Victoria Atkins. Despite Rishi Sunak pledging to reduce the hospital waiting list, it has continued to grow. Atkins told Laura Kuenssberg that more money than ever before was going into the NHS, and the government was using that cash to increase its workforce. She also implied that recent industrial action was partly to blame for the long waiting list, despite seeing a graph that showed a steady increase in its size since 2010.
Starmer’sThatcher praise:
Keir Starmer attempted to woo Conservative voters this weekend with an article in the Sunday Telegraph in which he said Labour would ‘get Britain back to greatness’, and described Margaret Thatcher as having ‘dragged Britain out of its stupor’. Trevor Phillips asked shadow business secretary Jonathan Reynolds if that period of greatness was indeed referring to the country’s Thatcher years. Reynolds said Starmer was not endorsing a particular prime minister, but rather making the point that Labour could be the vehicle of change for the country. He claimed the way in which the party had changed under Starmer was proof that they could do the same with the country as a whole.
Ndileka Mandela: we are witnessing ‘climate apartheid’
Kuenssberg also spoke to activist Ndileka Mandela, the granddaughter of the former South African president, at Cop 28. Mandela said the climate crisis is creating a new kind of apartheid, in which the poorer global south bears the brunt of climate change which is largely caused by the global north. She claimed richer countries were using their economic and legal power to subjugate poorer nations, and pointed out that African countries produce only a small percentage of global emissions.
Mark Regev claims civilian casualties in Gaza are ‘very low’
Finally, after the humanitarian pause to the conflict in Gaza ended, Israeli bombardments have begun once more. Kuenssberg put it to Mark Regev, a senior adviser to Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, that Israel’s actions look to many like collective punishment, which is illegal under international law. She pointed out that Israel’s allies were becoming ‘increasingly alarmed’ at the number of civilian deaths. Regev suggested that the numbers put out by Hamas were exaggerated, and claimed that the Israel was making an ‘unprecedented’ effort to be surgical in its fighting.
Comments