Closing summary
We’re closing this live blog down now. Thanks for reading and commenting. Here’s a summary of the day’s events:
Rules governing contracts awarded by the NHS are to be relaxed and private sector involvement expanded, the health minister Maria Caulfield said. She told Sky News: “We are using the independent sector because they have got capacity. We’re spending about £19bn a year, which sounds like a huge amount, it’s actually only 8% of the NHS budget.”
NHS waiting lists will rise further in the coming months, Caulfield said. She told LBC she could not promise lists would fall from 7.47 million, admitting the number is likely to continue to climb.
Greenpeace defended its anti-oil protest following criticism of a “major security breach” at Rishi Sunak’s constituency manor house. Areeba Hamid, the group’s co-executive director, said the protest had been planned carefully and would not have gone ahead if the prime minister was there.
The London mayor, Sadiq Khan, said he would stick to his decision to expand the ultra-low emission zone to the capital’s outer boroughs. He said: “It wasn’t a decision I took lightly, but it’s the right one. I’m simply unwilling to delay, water down, or step back from this vital policy.”
Khan suggested drivers start looking for alternative cars now. He was asked if there is enough time to buy a Ulez-compliant vehicle with the £2,000 scrappage grant before the expansion comes in on 29 August.
Updated
Eddie Izzard has launched a campaign to be elected as the Labour MP for a Brighton constituency.
The comedian announced her intention to join the race to become the party’s candidate for Brighton Pavilion on Friday. The seat has been held since 2010 by the only Green party MP, Caroline Lucas, who is standing down at the next general election.
It is Izzard’s latest attempt to enter Westminster politics after she tried unsuccessfully to become Labour’s candidate for Sheffield Central last year. In a video on her campaign website, Izzard said:
Brighton is a city at the forefront of change and I want to help it to continue to make that change.
She also said she was proud of her roots in the county in which she grew up, adding:
I’m just the latest in over 200 years of Izzards in East Sussex. Whilst the Tories stoke fear and encourage culture wars, Brighton has shown the country another way.
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