UK politics: No 10 brushes off claims Streeting’s criticism of ‘technocratic approach’ refers to Starmer –as it happened

Wes Streeting leaves 10 Downing Street. Photograph: Wiktor Szymanowicz/Future Publishing/Getty Images

5.20pm GMT

Afternoon summary

• The US is engaging in “extreme rightwing tropes” with echoes of the 1930s and threatening “chilling” interference in European democracies, British MPs warned ministers on Thursday.

• The government has vowed that there will be no more concessions on the employment rights bill and that it will force the Lords to vote on it again next week, after Conservative and cross-bench peers blocked it on Wednesday night.

• Keir Starmer has said resident doctors would be irresponsible to push ahead with strikes next week after NHS England said a surge of “super flu” cases had left the service facing its worst-case scenario this winter.

• Wes Streeting, the health secretary, has said that Labour’s decision to adopt a “practical, technocratic approach” to governing is a problem, in implied criticism of Keir Starmer. (See 1.28pm.)

• The first passenger trains in the Bee Network will join by the end of 2026, after Greater Manchester disclosed the next steps in its ambitious transport system.

For a full list of all the stories covered on the blog today, do scroll through the list of key event headlines near the top of the blog.

Updated at 5.24pm GMT

5.19pm GMT

Here is John Crace’s sketch on the Commons UQ earlier on President Trump’s new national security strategy.