Former chancellor Jeremy Hunt has accused the independent fiscal watchdog of “political impartiality” ahead of its review that could be critical of the Conservative government.
The previous government has been accused by Rachel Reeves, the current chancellor, of leaving a £22bn financial “black hole” between income and promised spending in the public finances.
Ms Reeves said she only became aware of it upon entering government as information was withheld by the Tory government from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) – independent budget forecasters.
The OBR review into the issue of possible withholding of information and the past government’s departmental spending transparency will be published on Wednesday – the same day as the budget.
Mr Hunt said: “I do not believe publishing a review with criticisms of the main opposition party on the day of a budget is consistent with political impartiality,”.
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No Tory ministers were asked for their views, he added, something that meant the review was a “political intervention”.
The budget day timing of the announcement “gave the impression the OBR had pre-judged the outcome”, Mr Hunt said.
Expected tax rises and public spending cuts coming on Wednesday’s budget announcement are grounded on there being a £22bn black hole.
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OBR chairman Richard Hughes said the report would “solely concern the institutional relationship between the OBR and Treasury” and address the “adequacy of the information and assurances” provided by the Treasury.
He added the watchdog did not consider it “necessary, or appropriate, given the possible market sensitivity of some of the information contained therein, to provide ministers of the previous government with access to the contents of the report and its conclusions before publication”.
Ministers will oversee the HS2 project as the cost of delivering the high-speed train line has been allowed to “spiral out of control”, the transport secretary has said.
Louise Haigh announced on Sunday she has launched an independent review into how costs have been allowed to balloon “without sufficient explanation”.
The transport secretary and her ministers will now have oversight of the project “to ensure greater accountability”, while former Crossrail (now the Elizabeth Line) CEO Mark Wild will take over HS2 Ltd, which runs the project, as chief executive “to get a grip on costs”.
Politics latest: ‘Difficult choices’ coming in budget
HS2’s main contractors will also be reviewed, which could lead to some contracts being renegotiated or amended, the Department for Transport (DfT) warned.
Ms Haigh ruled out resurrecting Phase Two of the project, from Birmingham to Manchester and Leeds, which was cancelled by Rishi Sunak in October last year, following rumours Labour was going to reinstate it.
However, she has hinted previously her government could extend the line from Old Oak Common station in west London’s suburbs to Euston in the capital’s centre.
Image: Transport Secretary Louise Haigh and her ministers will oversee the HS2 project. Pic: PA
The projected cost of the Phase One line from London to the West Midlands, which is still under construction, increased from £30bn to as much as £59.7bn using 2019 prices, according to a leaked document dated 2022/23 seen by The Sunday Times this week.
However, HS2 Ltd, which oversees the project, gave an upper projection to the government in September 2023 amounting to £74bn using the headline rate.
The government said costs had soared due to “poor management, inflation and poor performance from the supply chain, without sufficient explanation of what is to be done to deliver to budget”.
The Department for Transport said the review will “bring the project back on track”.
Read more: ‘Difficult and big choices’ coming in budget, health secretary warns Minister loses brief after complaint by Grenfell survivors
Image: Phase 2 was scrapped last October
Ms Haigh said: “It has long been clear that the costs of HS2 have been allowed to spiral out of control, but since becoming transport secretary I have seen up close the scale of failure in project delivery – and it’s dire.
“Taxpayers have a right to expect HS2 is delivered efficiently and I won’t stand for anything less.
“I have promised to work fast and fix things and that’s exactly why I have announced urgent measures to get a grip on HS2’s costs and ensure taxpayers’ money is put to good use.
“It’s high time we make sure lessons are learnt and the mistakes of HS2 are never repeated again.”
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James Stewart will lead the review and report back this winter, then the government has said it will publish six-monthly reports on HS2’s progress.
Mr Stewart is the former chief executive of Crossrail and former infrastructure chairman at consultancy firm KPMG, and has overseen infrastructure projects on the M25, London Underground and the London Olympics.
As part of bringing HS2 under ministerial oversight, there will be regular meetings with Ms Haigh, rail minister Lord Hendy and Darren Jones, chief secretary to the Treasury.
They will “challenge delivery and remove obstacles to securing the full benefits of the railway more effectively”, the DfT said.
A spokeswoman for HS2 Ltd said: “We welcome the secretary of state’s priorities for HS2 Ltd and are committed to working with the new government to improve delivery. We also fully support James Stewart’s governance review and look forward to his recommendations.
“HS2 Ltd recognises that there are many lessons to be learned from delivery to date and, under new leadership, are actively implementing the changes within our control to stabilise costs.
“HS2 is a complex project of strategic importance to the UK’s rail network, which will not only provide better journeys, more services and fewer delays for rail passengers, but will unlock economic growth and tackle regional inequality.”
A major report on the health service has been published in which it is described as being “in serious trouble”.
The rapid review by Lord Darzi was completed in just nine weeks and sets out the problems in the NHS and themes for the government to incorporate into a 10-year plan for reforming the health service.
Lord Darzi, a widely respected surgeon and former health minister, insisted the NHS can be fixed.
His report detailed the following issues:
• The health of the nation has deteriorated, with more years spent in ill health. Contributing factors – over the past 15 years – include poor quality housing, low income and insecure employment. The result is the “NHS has faced rising demand for healthcare from a society in distress”.
• There has been a “surge” in multiple long-term conditions, including a rise in poor mental health among children and young people. Fewer children get their vaccines and fewer adults now participate in things such as breast cancer screening.
• Waiting times targets are being missed across the board, including for surgery, cancer care, A&E and mental health services. “Long waits have become normalised” and “A&E is in an awful state”.
• People are struggling to see their GP. “GPs are seeing more patients than ever before, but with the number of fully qualified GPs relative to the population falling, waiting times are rising and patient satisfaction is at its lowest ever level.”
• Cancer care still lags behind other countries and cancer death rates are higher than in other countries. There was “no progress whatsoever” in diagnosing cancer at stage I and II between 2013 and 2021. However, more recent figures show some improvement.
Read more UK cancer ‘lagging behind’ other countries Clapping for NHS ‘may have been dangerous’ 8am appointment scramble ‘won’t end without funding’
• Progress in cutting death rates from heart disease has stalled while rapid access to treatment has deteriorated.
• The NHS budget “is not being spent where it should be” and too great a share is being “spent in hospitals, too little in the community, and productivity is too low”. Too many hospital beds are taken up with people needing social care.
• Between 2009 and 2023 the number of nurses working in the community fell by 5%, while the number of health visitors dropped by nearly 20%.
• At the start of 2024, 2.8 million people were economically inactive due to long-term sickness, with most of the rise since the pandemic down to mental health conditions.
• Raids on capital budgets have left the NHS with crumbling buildings and too many outdated scanners, and “parts of the NHS are yet to enter the digital era”.
• The NHS delayed, cancelled or postponed far more routine care during the pandemic than any comparable health system.
• Too many NHS staff are “disengaged” and there are “distressingly high levels of sickness absence”.
A multibillion-pound programme to build the UK’s future flagship fighter jet in partnership with Japan and Italy could be at risk in a sweeping review of defence.
Luke Pollard, the armed forces minister, called the project “really important” but said it would not be right for him to prejudice the outcome of the Strategic Defence Review (SDR) by setting out in a speech which pieces of military kit are required to fight future wars.
It left open the possibility that the Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP) – a vital piece of work for British defence industry giant BAE Systems – could be vulnerable should the review decide that committing limited funds to a project that will only deliver new aircraft in the next decade is not the best way to deter a more immediate threat of war with Russia.
At the same time, though, the architects of the review will need to balance countering current threats against the importance of investing in sovereign aircraft manufacturing skills as well as the economic benefits of the GCAP programme, which already supports thousands of jobs.
The lack of a guarantee by the minister that the future of the UK-Japan-Italy warplane venture is secure came despite the project being strongly endorsed in the previous government’s “refreshed” defence review, which was published only last year.
Image: The jet – known as Tempest – would be a sixth generation stealth aircraft. Pic: PA
The UK’s planned GCAP fast jet – known as Tempest – is set to be a sixth-generation stealth aircraft, equipped with advanced weapons and radars, with the ability to fly at supersonic speeds in a step up from the F-35 warplane.
A new model is needed to replace the RAF’s fleet of Typhoon jets – a crucial part of UK defences against threats posed by Russia and Iran and potentially China.
“The GCAP programme is a really important programme for us,” Mr Pollard said, answering questions at an annual conference in London on air and space power on Thursday.
He said that John Healey, the defence secretary, would be meeting his Japanese and Italian counterparts next week “to underline that”.
But the minister added: “It is not right for me to prejudge what might happen in the defence review.”
He appeared to be in favour of programmes such as GCAP that are being developed in partnership with allies.
“We need cutting-edge capabilities,” Mr Pollard said. “We need to make sure that when we are procuring systems, high-end systems…that we do it in the most cost-effective way and that is by working with our partners.”
However, the minister said the defence review is “about making those decisions differently”.
He added: “It should not be about ministers saying, ‘You could do a review but by the way I am going to tell you in speeches about this platform, that platform and this platform.'”
Image: An RAF Typhoon pictured at RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus. Pic: Reuters
The comments came a day after Professor Justin Bronk, a leading expert on the Royal Air Force, raised questions about the wisdom of hugely expensive, lengthy procurement programmes like GCAP when a direct war with Russia could erupt by 2028.
He also cautioned that Ukraine is on course to lose against Moscow unless its allies can provide more weapons and ammunition.
“We need to turn things around in Ukraine but also we have to get our own defences in order in the next two to three years,” Mr Bronk told the two-day Chief of the Air Staff’s Air and Space Chiefs’ Conference.
He advised investing in the fighting strength of existing warplanes and weapons.
“Given you have two to three years, and you have to be ready by that point – if I sound a bit alarmed it is because I am – stop looking at large scale procurement programmes for the next little while,” Mr Bronk, a senior research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, said.
“If you’ve got aircraft on order now, great, keep them in the pipeline, but other than that you don’t have time to have new orders delivered.
“Buy ammunition, buy spares, increase the size of your maintenance contracts for your key fleets.”
Turning specifically to the UK’s next generation warplane, he said GCAP only made sense if investing in sovereign capability and the British defence industry is the priority rather than ensuring the UK is ready to fight a war.
“My primary hierarchy of needs in terms of where I would be putting resource … would be that GCAP is completely impossible if there is a war in Europe in the coming five years because the global economy will completely tank, we will have to divert everything to fighting that war, and, by the way, GCAP is also impossible if the US and the Chinese go to war.”
Read more: D-Day parachute jump scaled back over lack of RAF aircraft UK ‘increasingly vulnerable’ to threat of missile and drone attacks
Mr Bronk highlighted how questions are similarly being raised in the United States over the future of Washington’s equivalent next generation combat aircraft programme, which is known as Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD).
“If the US thinks NGAD is maybe unaffordable in the US Air Force programme, then I think we probably need to look very carefully at how we are going to do this in Europe.”
A Ministry of Defence spokesperson said: “GCAP is an important programme and positive progress continues with our partners, Japan and Italy… As well as cutting-edge military technology, the programme is delivering significant economic benefits across the UK.
“The Strategic Defence Review will be wide-ranging, looking at the threats Britain faces and the capabilities we need to tackle them.”
A spokesperson for BAE Systems said: “Tempest and the Global Combat Air Programme will preserve critical sovereign combat air capability and enable the UK to retain control over its own security, support important international relationships and meet future threats, whilst contributing to economic growth and prosperity.
“The programme is estimated to contribute £37bn to the UK economy before significant additional export potential through the life of the programme, providing a real opportunity for national growth.”
Dyson has revealed plans for 1,000 job losses in the UK.
The manufacturer of innovative vacuum cleaners and other products said the cuts, which amount to more than a quarter of its UK workforce of 3,500, followed a review of its global needs.
It is understood that the decision is not linked to the UK general election, as the process had begun beforehand.
The company’s founder Sir James Dyson had previously been critical of the Conservative government‘s approach to economic growth and science.
Chief executive Hanno Kirner said: “We have grown quickly and, like all companies, we review our global structures from time to time to ensure we are prepared for the future. As such, we are proposing changes to our organisation, which may result in redundancies.
“Dyson operates in increasingly fierce and competitive global markets, in which the pace of innovation and change is only accelerating. We know we always need to be entrepreneurial and agile – principles that are not new to Dyson.
“Decisions which impact close and talented colleagues are always incredibly painful. Those whose roles are at risk of redundancy as a result of the proposals will be supported through the process,” he concluded.
Dyson signalled that the UK would remain a vital centre for its research and development operation.
The campus at Malmesbury in Wiltshire will also continue to be home to the Dyson Institute, which provides undergraduate engineering programmes.
It had been the company’s historic UK headquarters until 2019 when Sir James decided on a shift to Singapore.
The billionaire entrepreneur, who spoke out in favour of Brexit, denied the move was a reaction to the UK’s departure from the European Union.
Asia has long been Dyson’s manufacturing base due to lower costs and its core growth market for sales.
Sir Keir Starmer has said he is concerned by the impact of mandatory voter ID and is thinking of reviewing it if he gets into government.
Speaking to Sky News ahead of tonight’s deadline to register to vote in the general election, he said the policy may have some flaws.
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The Labour leader told Sky News: “I think we need to review and look at the ID rules. I am concerned about the impact. I won’t shy away from that.
“But my message today is remember your ID when you go to vote this time round because it’s so important that people who want change do vote for change.”
Under rules introduced by the Conservatives in 2022, people eligible to vote have to produce some form of photo ID to cast their ballots.
This general election is the first time photo ID is required everywhere nationally. Previous by-elections, local elections, and police and crime commissioner elections have required ID before.
The changes were brought in to stamp out what the Conservative government claimed could potentially lead to high levels of voter fraud.
But the Electoral Commission said the number of offences has been minimal and instead, there was a risk the policy could put people off voting.
Read more: What counts as voter ID? Manifesto checker: What are the parties pledging?
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The Commission found 14,000 people were turned away during May’s local elections for not having a required form of ID – including Boris Johnson who introduced the requirement.
Of particular concern to campaigners is the risk of disproportionality to the policy.
According to the elections watchdog’s research, poorer people, disabled people and ethnic minorities are disproportionately affected by the rules and may not have as much access to voting as the wider population.
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The Lib Dems have promised to scrap the policy in their manifesto and Sir Keir today has made his strongest signal yet the policy may be scrapped under a Labour government.
The current government’s assessment of the cost of introducing the voter ID policy put the total as high as £120m over a decade.
A former cabinet minister who pushed the bill through parliament claimed the policy did not work.
Jacob Rees-Mogg said the plan had backfired on the Conservatives because many older people were the ones most often caught without the correct ID.
A man wrongly jailed for 17 years for a rape he did not commit has received an apology from the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC).
Andrew Malkinson was jailed in 2003 but eventually released in December 2020.
His charges were quashed last year after new DNA evidence potentially linked another man to the crime.
The CCRC has now offered Mr Malkinson an unreserved apology after the completion of a report from an independent review by Chris Henley KC into the handling of the case.
CCRC chairman Helen Pitcher OBE said: “Mr Henley’s report makes sobering reading, and it is clear from his findings that the commission failed Andrew Malkinson. For this, I am deeply sorry. I have written to Mr Malkinson to offer him my sincere regret and an unreserved apology on behalf of the commission.”
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Ten-month-old Finley Boden died “as the result of abuse when he should have been one of the most protected children in the local authority area”, a safeguarding review has found.
A report by the Derby and Derbyshire Safeguarding Children Partnership found safeguarding practices in the lead-up to the child’s death were “inadequate”.
The report said the impact of COVID and lockdown had also “severely disrupted” the “protective systems and services designed to detect, prevent and respond to maltreatment”.
It comes after Shannon Marsden, 22, and Stephen Boden, 30, were found guilty in April last year of the murder of Finley in Derbyshire.
The pair murdered the child on Christmas Day 2020, just weeks after he was returned to their care.
They burnt and beat the infant – leaving him with 130 separate injuries, including multiple bone breaks and fractures.
His injuries included a fractured thigh and broken pelvis, burn marks and 71 bruises. Finley also had sepsis and endocarditis – an infection of the lining of the heart.
Image: Stephen Boden and Shannon Marsden. Pic: PA
Social workers had earlier removed Finley from his parents as the local authority, Derbyshire County Council, believed he was likely to suffer “significant harm” at home.
He was murdered weeks after he returned to Marsden and Boden’s full-time care following a family court order made in October 2020.
One social worker warned at that court hearing that Finley would be “at risk of suffering from neglect, physical and emotional harm” if Marsden and Boden continued taking illegal drugs or failed to continue making positive changes.
A representative for Derbyshire County Council told the hearing that “all parties” agreed Finley should “transition” back to the care of his parents, but asked for this to be staged over four months and with the need for additional drug testing.
However, a guardian, employed by the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass) – who represented Finley at the near-two-hour hearing – argued that the transition should be faster as the couple had “clearly made and sustained positive changes”.
The final decision was made by two magistrates assisted by a legal adviser – who supported the guardian’s view that an eight-week transition was a “reasonable and proportionate” length of time.
During the couple’s sentencing at Derby Crown Court in May last year, a judge described the pair as “persuasive and accomplished liars” who inflicted “unimaginable cruelty” on their son.
The judge also said the parents lied about Finley having COVID to prevent anyone from coming to see the baby.
Both were given life sentences, with Shannon Marsden sentenced to a minimum term of 27 years, and Stephen Boden sentenced to a minimum term of 29 years.
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The defence secretary is said to be “furious” after it was reported the British Army wants to relax security clearance vetting for overseas recruits to boost diversity and inclusion.
The UK’s armed forces are looking overseas to boost ethnic minority representation because they have consistently failed to hit recruitment targets, according to The Sunday Telegraph.
The paper said it had seen a document, titled The British Army’s Race Action Plan, which outlines a series of “actions” to boost representation and describes security checks as “the primary barrier to non-UK personnel gaining a commission in the army”.
The guidance reportedly vows to “challenge SC [security clearance] requirements” to increase representation in the intelligence and officer corps, roles which have “uncontrolled access to secret assets”.
Image: Defence Secretary Grant Shapps. Pic: PA
Grant Shapps was reportedly “furious” about the findings and was “ready to go to battle”.
“I am ordering a review of diversity and inclusivity policy at the MoD (Ministry of Defence),” the defence secretary told the paper.
“We want people from all backgrounds to serve in our military but some policies appear to be more about a political agenda than practically improving the lives of our dedicated soldiers and military personnel.
“There will certainly not be any lowering of security clearance requirements on my watch.
“And no one should be offended by having religion as part of remembrance services. You don’t have to be Christian to appreciate and respect the history and traditions of the United Kingdom.”
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An MoD source told the paper: “There are personnel issues that need addressing in the armed services but some of these policies are about a woke agenda and extreme critical race theories.
“These are leftist ideas that have leaked into the civil service and they are at best a distraction and at worst poisoning the wider discussion.”
Read more: British Army ‘may have no choice’ but to enlist citizens Minister rejects claims army will shrink after danger warning Are we heading for World War Three? Experts give their verdicts
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‘Lunacy of pushing woke ideas’
Twelve former senior military officers lambasted the relaxed vetting policy as “dangerous madness” in an open letter to the defence secretary.
“Among the lunacy of pushing woke ideas around the use of ‘gender neutral’ pronouns, or allowing male soldiers to wear make-up or flowing locks on parades to accentuate their feminine side, we pick out the wickedness of a policy to dilute security vetting in order to boost representation of ethnic minorities,” they wrote.
“With Islamism and other extremism rampant, this is nothing short of dangerous madness.”
An MoD spokesperson said: “Our priority is protecting the national security of the United Kingdom and ensuring the operational effectiveness of our armed forces.
“We take security extremely seriously and ensure that all personnel have the appropriate security clearance, which is reviewed on a case-by-case basis.”
Phillip Schofield “reluctantly declined” to participate in an external review following his departure from ITV because of the “risk to his health”.
The presenter quit This Morning – which he had hosted for more than 20 years – after admitting to an “unwise but not illegal” relationship with a younger male colleague, who also refused to participate in the review.
Schofield admitted lying about the affair and was dropped by his talent agency, YMU.
The review, published today, has found ITV’s management “made considerable efforts to determine the truth”.
But in the “face of the denials of the individuals involved, ITV was unable to uncover the relevant evidence”, it added.
Jane Mulcahy KC, who led the inquiry, said it was “clear” that Phillip Schofield’s “patronage” assisted his younger colleague in the “early days of his time at ITV”.
Beyond that, however, he appeared to have “made his way on his own”.
Of 48 people interviewed by Ms Mulcahy, only one reported any knowledge of the affair – a former junior member of staff, the barrister said.
They did not report their knowledge at the time, Ms Mulcahy added, and “nor did others report suspicions from much earlier in 2017”.
In a letter in August, Schofield’s lawyer said the presenter “reluctantly declined” to participate in the review because of the “risk to his health”, adding that his “mental health has since deteriorated”.
Image: Holly Willoughby has also left This Morning
Regarding the young man with whom Schofield had an affair, a letter from his lawyers said he “wanted to move on with his life and was not prepared to assist with this review”, Ms Mulcahy said.
Because it was not a statutory inquiry, the KC had “no power to compel people to cooperate” and all who did so spoke on a voluntarily basis.
A number of them had questions or concerns about confidentiality, she added.
Those spoken to included people in senior and junior positions, current and former staff, people on air and those managing “on-screen talent”.
Image: ITV chief executive Dame Carolyn McCall
Ms Mulcahy is now emphasizing the “importance of junior employees at ITV having the confidence to raise concerns to management in line with ITV’s ‘Speaking Up’ policy”.
She added: “I have no doubt that senior management are absolutely wedded to the importance of an open culture.
“But this culture is still not filtering down to junior employees, many of whom remain convinced that to speak out will have a detrimental impact on their careers.”
Her report recommends increasing efforts to ensure staff can raise concerns. It also recommends publishing a talent “charter”, setting out key standards to be upheld.
The external review was announced by ITV chief executive Dame Carolyn McCall in May.
Its remit was to carry out an external review of the facts following Schofield’s departure from the broadcaster.
ITV said it had investigated “rumours of a relationship” between Schofield and a younger employee – but the pair “repeatedly denied” the affair.
Read more: Timeline of ITV departure after colleague affair Schofield’s statement as he stepped down – and Holly’s response Presenter dropped as ambassador for The Prince’s Trust
Schofield had originally said he was leaving This Morning because he had “become the story” following rumours of a rift between him and co-presenter Holly Willoughby – who quit the show herself in October.
He joined the show as a presenter in 2002 and first presented it together with Willoughby in 2009.
