Afternoon summary
The arrival of more people in the UK following a rescue in the Channel may take the official number of people recorded as coming to the UK on small boats above 100,000 since record-keeping began in 2018. (See 12.17pm.) The revelation has led Lee Anderson, the Conservative party deputy chairman, to say that if Rishi Sunak’s small boats strategy does not work, the Tories may have to take “drastic action”, such as withdrawing from the European convention on human rights. (See 1.11pm.)
Updated
NHS Providers, which represents hospitals and other NHS trusts, says today’s waiting list figures (see 9.44am) will ring alarm bells for health leaders. Saffron Cordery, deputy chief executive at NHS Providers, said:
A perfect storm of squeezed funding in the NHS, the pandemic, the cost-of-living crisis, workforce shortages and now industrial action has pushed the waiting list to its highest point at 7.57 million.
This will ring alarm bells for trust leaders up and down the country as mounting care backlogs inevitably pile more pressure onto an already overstretched NHS. Amid ongoing strikes, this is an extremely busy summer for A&E while ambulance services also face very high demand and more urgent calls.
Cordery also said that, because of the impact strikes were having on the ability of hospitals to bring down the backlog, it was vital for government and the unions to try to resolve the pay dispute.
