Rishi Sunak has ditched a Tory leadership campaign pledge to fine patients who miss GP and hospital appointments, backtracking on plans health leaders had warned would “make matters worse”.
On his first public visit as prime minister, to a hospital in Croydon, Mr Sunak pledged to put “fairness at the heart” of the “difficult decisions” his government will take as it seeks to “fix” the economic “mistakes” he admitted had been made by his party.
The PM insisted it was “right” for him to focus on domestic challenges, denying accusations of a “massive failure of climate leadership” by opting not to attend the Cop27 summit, on the same day the United Nations warned there remained “no credible” pathway in place to rein in global temperature rises to 1.5C.
Meanwhile, his spokesperson said King Charles was still advised by No 10 not to attend the event – contradicting claims hours earlier from environment secretary Therese Coffey that it was “up to” the monarch whether to travel to Egypt.
