Starmer vows to support Kyiv’s ‘fight for freedom’ in meeting with Biden – live

Keir Starmer is following the Tony Blair model for fixing the NHS. He takes advice from Blair himself, and has brought back two of the people who were key to mending the health service in the New Labour years – Michael Barber, head of the Prime Minister’s Delivery Unit in Blair’s second term, and Alan Milburn, health secretary during the most innovative phase of NHS reform.

But the most important person in the NHS recovery plan is the current health secretary, which is why it matters that Wes Streeting is an arch-Blairite. The prime minister’s message this week – “no more money without reform” – was absolutely right.

Read John Rentoul full opinion piece below:

Ukraine is currently fighting for the rest us, writes Sean O’Grady. If the West doesn’t step in now, we, too, will face Russia in a fight for freedom:

Sir Keir Starmer has refused to rule out scrapping the 25% single-person council tax discount, saying decisions on the public finances had to be looked at “in the round”.

The Prime Minister said he would not be drawn on the future of the tax break for people who live alone ahead of Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ Budget on 30 October.

Scrapping the discount could further hit some pensioners living alone who have already suffered the loss of winter fuel payments, but Sir Keir insisted he was not punishing elderly Britons.

The Local Government Association, which represents councils, has argued that cash-strapped authorities should be given the power to vary the single person discount, which is worth about £3 billion a year.

Sir Keir was challenged about the potential impact of scrapping the discount for elderly people who live alone and denied the assertion it was a “punishment beating” for pensioners.

“No, absolutely not,” he told reporters accompanying him on his trip to Washington.

“And let’s just try to quash this now. The Budget is on October 30. So, between now and then, you are all going to ask me questions, as you did before the election, ‘will you rule out X, Y, Z?’

“And knowing that I’m not going to say before the Budget what we’re going to do, you will then write a story saying, ‘refused to rule out X, Y, Z’.

“I’m not going to say before the Budget what we’re going to do.

“That does not mean that I’m ruling in anything that you might be putting to me, it simply means, like every prime minister, we’re not going to reveal what’s in the Budget before we get to it.”

But when it was put to him that Ms Reeves had ruled out other potential cash-saving options such as scrapping free bus passes, TV licences and prescriptions, he said: “We’ve got to look at everything in the round.”

Environmental groups have called for proposals for the UK’s first coal mine for 30 years to be “permanently shelved” after the High Court quashed the decision to grant planning permission for the site.

A judge ruled on Friday that the government’s decision to give the go-ahead for the development in Whitehaven, Cumbria, was “legally flawed”, following a challenge by Friends of the Earth (FoE) and South Lakes Action on Climate Change (SLACC) against the site’s developers, West Cumbria Mining (WCM).

FoE claimed that the ruling marks the first case linked to fossil fuels to be decided since a Supreme Court ruling earlier this year, which said that emissions created by burning the materials should be considered when granting planning permission to new extraction sites.

A new decision on planning permission will now be made by the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, Angela Rayner, FoE said, with climate groups calling for the “ill-conceived” project to be rejected “once and for all”.

Niall Toru, senior lawyer at FoE, said: “That the ruling today has gone against the mining company could have ramifications internationally, as there are cases abroad where challenges are being made against fossil fuel projects on a very similar basis.

“This mine should never have been given permission in the first place. The case against it is overwhelming: it would have huge climate impacts, its coal isn’t needed and it harms the UK’s international reputation on climate.

“Any reconsideration of the planning application can surely only reach one conclusion – and reject this harmful mine once and for all.

“We believe that the writing is on the wall and that WCM should withdraw its application for this climate-wrecking project.”

A public panel’s decision that assisted dying should be permitted in England provides “the missing piece of evidence” in the debate, the director of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics said.

The council put the so-called “citizens’ jury” together, with a final vote cast by 28 jury members, with 20 agreeing that the law should change after eight weeks of deliberation.

The council’s director Danielle Hamm told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “This is the missing piece of evidence and it’s the missing piece because it provides that really deep nuance around people’s judgments and why people have reached that decision, and it gives policymakers the information they need to really fully understand where the British public’s attitudes lies.

“It’s not just what people think, it’s why, and their nuanced views, their reasoning and how they’ve reached this decision.

“We’re publishing this interim report now because we know this is a live policy debate across England and the UK more widely, and we hope that this information will be used by decision makers to inform the debate and the conversation on assisted dying.”

The Liberal Democrats have slammed the government for failing to assess the impact of the winter fuel payments cut.

It comes as Sir Keir Starmer confirmed that a full impact assessment on the new measures had not been done.

Lib Dem’s work and pensions spokesperson Wendy Chamberlain said: “It is absolutely unthinkable that this new government would push through a cut to winter fuel payments without an impact assessment.

“We know this will have massive knock-on effects for pensioners and potentially our NHS this winter as people are forced to choose between heating and eating.

“It’s not too late for ministers to change course. Liberal Democrats are calling on the government to tax the big banks rather than punish pensioners to make up for the years of Conservative Party failure.”

Granting permission to Kyiv to fire Storm Shadow missiles deep into Russia could result in a token nuclear strike in retaliation – but history suggests it unlikely, says Mark Almond:

James Cleverly has said he “outperformed” his rivals during his time in Westminster.

He suggested his political career surpasses that of Kemi Badenoch, Robert Jenrick and Tom Tugendhat in terms of acheivements and experience.

The former home secretary told the BBC Radio 4 Political Thinking podcast: “I have outperformed everyone else on this leadership ticket not just the jobs I have held but what I have achieved in those jobs.

“I’ve outperformed all the other runners and riders by a country mile. I have outperformed almost everyone else in my parliamentary intake.

“If you Tipp-Exed the words ‘James Cleverly’ off my political CV and slid it across the desk, you’d look at it and go, ‘bloody hell’.”

The prime minister’s trip to the White House could provide an answer to President Zelensky’s prayers to use Western-made long-range missiles, writes Mary Dejevsky:

For once, a UK prime minister’s visit to Washington could offer more than the usual formulaic courtesies and obligatory references to the “special relationship”. Sir Keir Starmer’s meeting with President Biden at the White House could provide the opportunity for the US to announce that it is acceding to Ukraine’s long-standing pleas to use US- and UK-supplied missiles to strike targets deep inside Russia.

It is a perilous moment, and those with longer memories might sense the ghosts of another fateful UK-US encounter haunting the scene: the meeting between Tony Blair and George W Bush at Camp David in September 2002, where Blair gave Bush a degree of international cover, in the form of his unconditional support, for the invasion of Iraq.

Read Mary Dejevsky’s full opinion piece below: