Australia is dependent upon UK’s ability to deliver new submarines, but report finds ‘cracks are already beginning to show’ “Cracks are already beginning to show” in the UK’s funding for the Aukus agreement that could derail the ambitious nuclear submarine plan, a British parliamentary inquiry has found, highlighting a threat to Australia’s security.UK shipbuilding has been under-funded for decades and the country’s submarine availability is “critically low”, the House of Commons defence committee’s report found. Continue reading...
John Healey says warship and aircraft forced Russia to abandon activity in North Sea in month-long operationA British warship and aircraft tracked and monitored Russian submarines attempting to survey vital undersea infrastructure in the North Atlantic, ensuring they abandoned their mission, the defence secretary, John Healey, has announced.Speaking at a Downing Street press conference, Healey said the UK operation lasted more than a month and saw a Royal Navy warship and P8 marine patrol aircraft “track and to deter any malign activity” by three Russian submarines. Continue reading...
The health secretary and the BMA trade accusations over who bears responsibility for the collapse of talksGood morning. Resident doctors in English hospitals started a six-day strike at 7am this morning. Many of them will continue to work, but there will be enough of them joining the strike to have a significant impact on the care hospitals can deliver. It is the 15th resident doctors (who used to be known as junior doctors) have been on stage since they launched a campaign in 2023 to get their pay back to the equivalent level it used to be before austerity kicked in after the financial crash.This morning Wes Streeting, the health secretary, deployed a new statistic in his PR battle against the BMA, the doctors’ union organised the strikes. He confirmed a figure highlighted in the Daily Mail’s splash saying strikes by resident doctors have now cost the country £3bn.We think that strikes cost £50m a day. And so that is, an accurate reflection of the cost of these strikes.What is true is that in order to deliver a full pay restoration back to 2008 levels, using the RPI account of inflation, it would cost in the order of £3bn a year.Let’s then assume that other NHS staff would understandably demand the same. Then that cost would be more like £30bn a year. That is more than the entire cost of the Ministry of Justice’s entire budget for running the criminal justice system. Continue reading...
Senior figures express concerns over medical union’s refusal of pay rise that is higher than offer to other NHS staffTrade unions have privately expressed qualms about the forthcoming doctors’ strikes, expressing frustration at the conduct of the talks and the demands of the British Medical Association.The BMA is pushing for a pay rise higher than the 3.5% offered to doctors by the government, with strikes planned for next week. Continue reading...
Six-day stoppage in England next week to go ahead and minister confirms offer of extra training places withdrawnThe NHS is bracing for the longest strike yet by resident doctors after last-ditch talks failed, prompting Wes Streeting to accuse the medics of suffering from “delusion”.Many thousands of resident – formerly junior – doctors across England will stage a six-day stoppage over pay and jobs starting at 7am on Tuesday, just after the Easter weekend. A deadline for agreement ended on Thursday. Continue reading...
Union says there has been ‘far too little progress’ in talks over pay and career developmentUK politics live – latest updatesSenior doctors in England are to be balloted over the prospect of strikes, the British Medical Association has announced.The union said that simultaneous ballots of consultants and specialist, associate specialist, and speciality (SAS) doctors would run from 11 May to 6 July as both sets of medics escalate their disputes with the government. Continue reading...
Prime minister threatens to withdraw NHS training posts for residents doctors if they don’t call off strikeGood morning. Keir Starmer is chairing a meeting of the government’s Cobra emergency committee later to discuss the Iran war, but domestic issues don’t go away and he (or, to be more accurate, his staff) have also found time to write an article for the Times delivering a warning to resident doctors in England planning to go on strike. As Jamie Grierson reports, the PM is threatening to withdraw an offer of thousands of extra NHS training posts for resident doctors if they do not call off the strike within 48 hours.Judging by what Dr Jack Fletcher, chair of the BMA resident doctors committee, told the Today programme in an interview this morning, Starmer may have as little success with his ultimatum as Donald Trump seems to be having with his inconsistent and increasingly apocalyptic warnings to what is left of the Iranian government.I’m very happy to sit down with the government at any point to try and negotiate a settlement, but I don’t think that’s done by writing in newspapers and issuing threats unilaterally.The government made very late changes to the pay offer, reducing the pay investment and stretching it over a longer period in a way that had not been previously talked about.Ministers effectively moved the goalposts on the deal at the last minute.Two weeks ago, the government took that investment, reduced it, and then stretched it over three years. That is a very, very, very different outcome to the one that we were discussing just two weeks ago. Continue reading...
Malcolm Turnbull asks defence department official what Australia would do if the promised Virginia-class and Aukus-class submarines don’t arrive Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastAustralia will be left with no submarines if it abandons the Aukus deal with the US and UK, a senior defence official has warned, declining to publicly countenance an alternative plan if Australia’s promised nuclear-powered fleet does not arrive under Australian command.“Defence has been directed to pursue Aukus and we are pursuing Aukus and that’s our plan. I would not venture into the space about ‘Plan B’ or ‘Plan C’,” defence department deputy secretary, Hugh Jeffrey, told a Sovereignty and Security Forum in Canberra on Friday. Continue reading...
Police say two people tried to enter Faslane base in Scotland, home to core of UK’s submarine fleet and Trident nuclear weaponsTwo people have been charged, one of them Iranian, after they allegedly tried to enter HM Naval Base Clyde in Scotland, which houses the UK’s nuclear Trident submarines.A 34-year-old man and a 31-year-old woman were charged after the incident at the base, which is known as Faslane. Police Scotland said inquiries were continuing and that the pair were due to appear at Dumbarton sheriff court on Monday. Continue reading...
Man and woman, one of whom is understood to be Iranian, held after asking to enter sensitive military siteTwo people have been arrested, one of whom is understood to be Iranian, after they tried to enter the Faslane nuclear submarine base in Scotland in what may have been an attempt at espionage.A man, 34, and a woman, 31, were detained by Police Scotland after they had asked to enter one of Britain’s most sensitive military sites late on Thursday afternoon. The base is home to the UK’s Trident submarines and not open to the public. Continue reading...
