Closing summary
The prime minister has rejected suggestions that it was unfair for ministers to have agreed a 5% pay rise with more than 1 million NHS staff before offering a higher baseline increase to doctors. Part of the deal struck between ministers and health unions in May saw around 1.3 million eligible staff on the AfC contract – which includes nurses, paramedics, 999 call handlers, midwives, security guards and cleaners – receive a 5% pay rise, backdated to April.
A senior cabinet minister has urged health unions to take the government’s pay offer seriously, after union leaders said the proposed deal would drive doctors out of the profession and could lead to further strikes. Gillian Keegan, the education secretary, defended the offer of a 6% pay rise for junior doctors, a day after the government accepted the recommendations of the public sector pay review bodies.
The Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, has been invited to the UK on an official visit in late autumn, the first such visit by the heir to the Saudi throne since he was accused of masterminding the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, the Washington Post columnist and dissident. Numerous UK ministers have been to Saudi Arabia in the interim, and senior Saudi ministers have also come to the UK, including the foreign minister, Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud.
Rishi Sunak continues to trail Keir Starmer in the polls as his personal favourability rating slides further into negative territory. The prime minister’s net favourability rating has fallen to -21, according to a poll published by Ipsos UK on Friday, with 47% of people saying they had an unfavourable view of him, PA Media reported.
The immigration minister Robert Jenrick told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that ministers were not planning to make any more compromises, after peers pressed for further changes to the illegal migration bill. Members of the Lords want further concessions on limits to the detention of children, modern slavery protections and the provision of safe and legal routes for refugees to the UK.
Rishi Sunak must uphold his £11.6bn climate finance commitment, conservative parliamentarians, including the former net zero tsar, have said. Writing to the prime minister in a cross-party letter, they say recommitting to the target and clearly demonstrating how it would be met would “avoid doing further damage to the UK’s climate leadership, and help to build a safe and more prosperous future”.
Pupil absences are at “crisis” level, the education secretary has said, as she endorsed headteachers driving children to school if necessary. Gillian Keegan told Sky News headteachers had a duty to get children to school. Figures released earlier this year showed that about 125,000 pupils last year were severely absent, meaning they were absent more often than they were in classrooms, PA Media reported.
The MP Angus MacNeil has had his membership of the SNP suspended after he refused to rejoin the party’s Westminster group. MacNeil, who has often voiced criticism of the SNP leadership, was kicked out of the Westminster group for a week after reportedly clashing with the chief whip, Brendan O’Hara, PA reported.
Around 950 workers at Gatwick airport will take eight days of strike action, beginning later this month, in a dispute over pay. Unite said members who carry out roles including baggage handling and check-in would strike. They are employed by ASC, Menzies Aviation, GGS and DHL Services. The workers will strike initially for four days from Friday 28 July to Tuesday 1 August. Then a further four days from Friday 4 August to Tuesday 8 August.
Bailiffs raided the Environment Agency yesterday, the Guardian has learned, with staff having to leave for the day. Details about the turmoil at the quango’s Bristol headquarters, Horizon House, are scarce, but the EA has confirmed it happened.
A high court judge has ruled that two councils and a local resident can proceed with a legal challenge to the government about whether or not it is lawful to place thousands of asylum seekers on two military bases. West Lindsey district council is challenging the plans to move people into the RAF Scampton site in Lincolnshire, while Braintree district council and a local man, Gabriel Clarke-Holland, are bringing a case over the use of Wethersfield airbase in north Essex, where the Home Office started placing asylum seekers on Wednesday.
Plans to construct a road tunnel near Stonehenge have been approved, the Department for Transport (DfT) said. The transport secretary, Mark Harper, has granted a development consent order for the project on the A303 in Wiltshire, PA Media reported.
Rail passengers are being warned of disruption to services next week because of fresh industrial action by train drivers and other workers in long-running disputes over pay, jobs and conditions. Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) will strike on 20, 22 and 29 July, while drivers in Aslef will ban overtime from 17 to 22 July, PA Media reported.
A parliamentary committee is renewing an inquiry into sexism and misogyny in the City after a spate of sexual harassment allegations rocked the business world. MPs on the influential Treasury committee said the inquiry would examine the barriers faced by women in financial services, and determine whether meaningful progress had been made since its last investigation in 2018 raised concerns over the gender pay gap, stigmatisation of working mothers, and an “alpha male” culture.
That’s it from me, Tom Ambrose, and indeed the UK politics live blog for today. Thanks for following along.
Updated
Plans to construct a road tunnel near Stonehenge have been approved, the Department for Transport (DfT) said.
The transport secretary, Mark Harper, has granted a development consent order for the project on the A303 in Wiltshire, PA reported.
A DCO previously issued for the £1.7bn scheme was quashed by the high court in July 2021 amid concerns about the environmental impact on the Unesco world heritage site.
The plans involve overhauling 8 miles of the A303, including digging a 2-mile tunnel.
Updated
