Russian ambassador – We haven’t ‘started yet to act very seriously’
In an extraordinary interview with Laura Kuenssberg, the Russian ambassador to the UK Andrei Kelin repeatedly deflected questions about Russian war crimes, instead suggesting Ukraine posed a threat to Russia. He said Russia had the power to massively escalate the conflict, and claimed it was a ‘big idealistic mistake to think that Ukraine may prevail’:
Is the government really building 40 new hospitals?
Kuenssberg questioned whether the government’s manifesto pledge to build 40 new hospitals was as extensive as they claimed it to be. Health Secretary Steve Barclay said the government was sticking with the proposals made in 2020, but Kuenssberg pointed out that many of the projects are just refurbishments or repairs:
Steve Barclay – junior doctor pay demands are ‘not reasonable’
NHS pay disputes rumble on, with junior doctor strikes planned for June. Steve Barclay told Kuenssberg that the junior doctors’ refusal to budge from their demands of a 35 per cent pay increase was not fair, although he conceded that there needed to be ‘movement on all sides’. Junior Doctors Committee co-chair Vivek Trivedi argued that the 5 per cent pay increase currently on offer would still amount to a real terms pay cut, and that long-term erosion to pay was driving doctors away:
Jonathan Ashworth – job centres need to do more than CV writing training
The Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Jonathan Ashworth spoke to Trevor Phillips about Labour’s plans to promote the training of British workers and get more people back to work. He said it wasn’t fair that companies could undercut wages by hiring international employees, and that Labour would force firms to invest in retraining opportunities:
Andrea Jenkyns – ‘less sanctimony and hypocrisy’
And finally, a recent leak of WhatsApp messages between Conservative MPs showed more evidence of the divisions in the party, with Simon Hoare writing: ‘The nonsense, self-destroying crap has to end or the party dies’. Jenkyns accused Hoare and others of ‘sanctimony and hypocrisy’, but told Trevor Phillips she was just being outspoken, and of course supported the Conservative government. Phillips asked her if all this infighting was really a good message to be sending to the electorate:
Comments