Boris Johnson pledge for 50,000 more nurses not quite what it seems - 12k from abroad, 14k new undergrad students, 5k degree apprenticeships. Which leaves 19k nurses “retained” who would otherwise have left... so not “new” nurses at all
Rowena Mason
6,994 posts
Rowena Mason
@rowenamason
Whitehall editor at The Guardian. Email me at [email protected]
- Emily Thornberry, shadow AG, says using the doctrine of necessity to justify NI protocol bill is "complete and utter nonsense". "The doctrine of necessity relies on grave and immediate peril. Boris Johnson's career may be in peril but it doesn't seem to apply otherwise"
- No business under 500 people will be subject to business regulation, says Treasury minister Chris Philp. What none at all?!
- Exclusive - Boris Johnson has been pictured with wine and cheese alongside his wife and up to 17 staff in the Downing Street garden during lockdown - with @GuardianHeather and @peterwalker99
- No 10 confirms the PM headed off on holiday to the West Country on Sat - the day before Kabul fell to the Taliban - while Dominic Raab, foreign secretary, was also on hols abroad in Cyprus. Downing Street insists he was in charge throughout, nobody deputising in Westminster.
- Andy Burnham setting out a real alternative vision here:1) universal basic income 2) homes for all as a human right 3) social care service free at point of use like NHS funded by 10% levy on estates after death 4) buses in public ownership...and lots more policy
- The Andrew Sabisky row just got a whole lot worse. PM’s deputy official spox won’t say if Boris Johnson agrees with eugenics or whether black people less intelligent than white people. Only that “his views are well documented” - and won’t comment on the controversial appointment
- Lots of Tory MPs now tweeting near identical messages asking constituents to "rest assured" they are passing on concerns about Cummings to the "relevant colleagues" > orchestrated attempt to dampen public anger doesn't seem like enough
- Boris Johnson really did just say Sirte in Libya will be a great tourist destination once they've "cleared the dead bodies" - v v bad taste
- Almost half of the personal tax cuts confirmed today will go to richest 5% of population, the Resolution Foundation says. And there's the reason that the Treasury didn't want to publish a distributional analysis.
- One of the 21 MPs on chief whip offer: “One of the most self-unaware letters I’ve received...The party is now led by a narrow sect who wouldn’t be out of place in a muppet version of the Handmaiden’s tale. It’s like being asked by captain if you want to get back on the Titanic.”
- New: Rishi Sunak is believed to have met Frank Hester in the afternoon on the day after the autumn statement in Nov when Hester paid £16k for Sunak to fly to Leeds by helicopter. Downing St declined to “get into the details” of whether they met.
- Exclusive: Clive Lewis to stand for Labour leader with a pledge to go further than Jeremy Corbyn in giving members a say on policy and a more decisive break with Blair/Brown era
- Rishi Sunak has twice spoken up just now about how important family is to him, saying it is the “most important thing” - despite his ministers going out this morning to criticise Keir Starmer for saying he would carve out Friday evenings for his children.
