King pays tribute to John Prescott’s ‘decades of public service’
The King has paid tribute to Lord John Prescott following the news of his death at the age of 86.
His Majesty said in a statement: “I am deeply saddened to learn of the death of Lord Prescott.
“I remember with great fondness his unique and indomitable character, as well as his infectious sense of humour.
“My thoughts and greatest sympathy are with Lord Prescott’s wife, family and loved ones at such a difficult time, and I am sure that very many people will recognize and greatly appreciate Lord Prescott’s decades of public service in front line politics, not least as the United Kingdom’s longest serving deputy prime minister.”
Sky News report on fake carer ‘clearly shows failings in the system’, says No 10
Sky News has today revealed the bizarre story of a fake carer.
The woman who had been expected to care for an 89-year-old man had actually been sending an unqualified friend in her place – thinking she could get away with it because the care agency never checked up on her.
It showed how easy it is for imposters to go into family homes, posing as national care service staff.
‘Deeply concerning’
A Number 10 spokesperson has said “our sympathies” are with the victim’s family and friends, describing it as a “deeply concerning case”.
They said our report “clearly shows failings in the system”, which they said had been left in “crisis” by the Tories.
“We’re committed to building a national care service underpinned by national standards and delivered locally to improve the consistency of care and ensure everyone can live an independent and dignified life.”
Number 10 also pointed to plans to reform the Care Quality Commission.
From the death of former deputy prime minister John Prescott, to a familiar face before the COVID inquiry, it’s been a busy day.
Here are the main things you need to know – and what’s still to come:
- Former Labour deputy PM John Prescott has died aged 86, following a battle with Alzheimer’s;
- He served as MP for Kingston upon Hull East for 40 years and was a huge figure during the New Labour era under Sir Tony Blair;
- His family said serving as an MP was his “greatest honour”, while Sir Tony described him as an “extraordinary man”;
- PM Sir Keir Starmer said he was a “true giant” and a “one-off”.
- Defence Secretary John Healey told MPs the frontline in Ukraine is “now less stable than any time” since the war began;
- Meanwhile, Sir Keir Starmer said the UK “must double down” on backing Ukraine after reports Kyiv had fired British-made long-range Storm Shadow missiles against Russian territory;
- Russia’s ambassador to the UK issued his own stark warning on that front, telling Sky News: “Britain is now directly involved.”
- Finally for now, Matt Hancock has told the COVID Inquiry the government got advice around funerals “wrong” – you’ll remember there were big restrictions on how many people could attend;
- The ex-health secretary also admitted the country came “within hours” of running out of hospital gowns.
Politics Hub With Sophy Ridge is live from 7pm.
Joining us tonight are former Tory minister Nadine Dorries, and one of her party’s ex-leadership candidates Tom Tugendhat.
You can watch and follow here in the Politics Hub.
Hancock: UK ‘within hours’ of running out of hospital gowns during COVID
Former health secretary Matt Hancock has continued to give evidence to the COVID inquiry this afternoon, and has been questioned about the supply of PPE in the early days of the pandemic.
Lead counsel to the inquiry, Jacqueline Carey KC, asked: “Do you accept that entering the coronavirus pandemic as we did, without a single gown, severely hampered the ability to provide safe and appropriate PPE for healthcare workers?”
Mr Hancock replied: “The stockpile that we had was not as good as it needs to be in the future, absolutely.”
‘We nearly had a stock out’
Asked whether England ever ran out, he admits “individual locations did” and overall “we came extremely close”.
“We came within, you know, small numbers of items on a regular basis during April and May 2020,” he said.
“By the second wave, we were in better shape.”
The former health secretary was asked about potentially running out of gowns completely in April 2020, and he said that it very happened.
“Gowns, I think at one point we got to within six or seven hours of running out,” he told the inquiry.
“We were working incredibly hard to make sure that we didn’t have a stock out. We nearly did.”
Watch: Hancock admits funeral guidance was wrong
‘NHS withstood the pressure’
Mr Hancock was also challenged on his claim that the NHS was not overwhelmed during the pandemic.
Ms Carey put to him: “The fact the nurses are being stretched to the ratios that we’ve looked at and the potential adverse consequences for those who are in ICU does not in fact demonstrate the NHS was, in fact, overwhelmed?”
The former health secretary replied: “No, because people could get treatment.”
He went on to say he is not arguing the NHS “was perfect”, nor that it wasn’t “severely pressured” during that period.
But he is saying that “the system as a whole withstood the pressure”.
Prescott, a pork pie and me
Brandishing a pork pie on a silver tray, John Prescott stood on the stage during his 1995 Labour conference speech and bellowed: “Lies, lies! Porky pies!”
It was the defining moment of my stormy 40-year relationship with the combustible, irascible former Cunard steward who became Britain’s longest-serving deputy prime minister.
The object of his anger was my front page splash in that day’s Daily Express under the headline: “Prescott fury at new snub. Blair deputy is passed over for radio interview.”
The story began: “John Prescott was ‘spitting blood’ last night at another humiliating snub by Tony Blair and his inner circle.
“The Labour deputy was said to be furious that Mr Blair’s friend Peter Mandelson will appear in a major end-of-conference BBC interview instead of him.”
The previous evening, with two Daily Express colleagues I’d dined at Brighton’s English’s seafood restaurant with Blair ally Jack Straw, then shadow home secretary.
I’d only filed about half a dozen paragraphs, but the office called and demanded more copy, as they wanted to splash the story. So I phoned another 10 paragraphs from English’s – back when journalists spoke their articles down the phone to a copy taker.
The pork pie moment
Mr Straw came to me the next day and said people who’d seen us dining thought he was the source.
He wasn’t, I reassured him!
It was a Labour MP who was a close ally of Mr Prescott.
In his conference speech, Mr Prescott attempted to summon me to the stage to be presented with the pork pie.
I resisted the temptation. But he wasn’t finished.
After his speech, with TV crews from Sky News and Newsnight in tow, he came into the press room to remonstrate with me.
And he did indeed present me with the pork pie.
Jon vs John
In the next day’s Daily Express, under the headline “That’s pie in the sky, John”, I wrote: “First let me declare an interest. I am a fan of Labour deputy leader John Prescott.
“Over the years, he has shouted at me, sworn at me and once poked me in the chest in the committee corridor of the Commons.”
Right up to his sad death, I remained a fan. And the last time we met, in the House of Lords when his health was deteriorating, he said to me: “You always tell it like it is, Jon.”
Somewhat startled, I replied: “You didn’t always say that, John!” But clearly the old warhorse had mellowed in old age and was prepared to forgive if not forget.
Before the 1995 spat, when Mr Prescott was a member of Neil Kinnock’s shadow cabinet, I’d often ring him for a quote for the newspapers I worked for before the Daily Express.
Often driving one of his legendary “two Jags”, he’d begin by berating me and complaining about “your f***ing paper” before eventually saying: “What do you want to know.”
Legendary status
When Bryan Gould resigned from John Smith’s shadow cabinet in 1992 over a left-right policy clash, I asked Mr Prescott if he too was planning to resign.
“Don’t be daft!” he replied bluntly. He may have been outspoken and combative. But he was also a pragmatist, as he was to prove in his 10 years as deputy prime minister.
Our last clash before he mellowed was when he stood unsuccessfully to become police and crime commissioner for Humberside in 2012, which I covered for Sky News.
After his defeat, I asked him – not unreasonably, I thought – if he was going to retire now. “Retire? Retire!” he shouted at me. But he later did, when his health began to fail.
I was heartened when he spoke to me in friendly terms the last time we met. Unlike some senior politicians, he wasn’t one to bear grudges, after all.
And what became of the pork pie? I took it back to the Express office and presented it to a rather bemused Sir Nicholas Lloyd, the editor. We didn’t eat it, though.
The pie, after all, had legendary status. Like John Prescott did.
We’ll never see his like again.
Mum-of-two with stage four cancer feels ‘betrayed’ by health secretary
Wes Streeting has come in for more criticism for his intervention on the assisted dying debate.
The health secretary sparked controversy earlier this month when, having said he’d vote against the bill going before MPs next Friday, he suggested legalising it would take require cuts in other parts of the NHS.
He also revealed he’d ordered his officials to carry out a review of how much legalising assisted dying would cost.
‘Talking down the NHS’
It was seen by some as a major political intervention. MPs get a free vote when the bill goes before parliament on 29 November, meaning they don’t have to vote on party lines, and the government is staying neutral.
Clare Turner, a mother of two with stage four cancer, said she feels “very betrayed” and accused Mr Streeting of having “talked down the NHS”.
“I don’t think he is being honest about his motivations,” she said.
“I think he needs to come out and say, ‘it’s something I just don’t feel comfortable about’.”
Watch: What is assisted dying?
Mr Streeting has suggested improving end-of-life care should be the priority, rather than legalising assisted dying.
It’s a view shared by other MPs, including Lib Dem leader Ed Davey.
But Ms Turner, 59, said of Mr Streeting: “One minute ‘we want palliative care to be better’, and then the next minute he’s saying ‘this is going to cost too much’.
“What is it?”
Labour ‘must condemn’ Netanyahu arrest warrant, Tories say
As you may be aware by now, the International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defence secretary Yoav Gallant.
The warrants are for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity related to the war in Gaza, which Israel launched following the 7 October attacks by Hamas.
We’ve now had a response from the Conservative Party, with shadow foreign secretary Dame Priti Patel saying: “The decision by the ICC to issue arrest warrants for the democratically elected leader of Israel and Israel’s former defence minister is deeply concerning and provocative.
“This will do nothing to bring about the release of all hostages held and the bringing of much-needed aid into Gaza.”
‘Labour must condemn decision’
She went on to say that the aim must be to secure “sustainable peace, a de-escalation of tensions in the region and an end to this conflict”.
Dame Priti accused the ICC of “drawing a moral equivalence with the actions of the terrorist leadership of Hamas”, which she labelled “wrong”.
“The Conservative government did not believe the ICC has jurisdiction in this area, as Israel is not a signatory to the Rome statute, and because Palestine is not recognised as a state.
“The Labour government must condemn and challenge the ICC’s decision,” she concluded.
UK ‘directly involved’ in Ukraine war after British-made missiles fired on Russia, Moscow’s ambassador tells Sky News
“Britain is now directly involved” in the war in Ukraine, Russia’s UK ambassador has claimed.
Speaking to Sky’s Mark Austin for The News Hour, Andrei Kelin said Ukraine’s firing of British-made Storm Shadow missiles into Russian territory made the UK a direct participant in the conflict.
“This firing cannot happen” without the aid of NATO and Britain, he said.
The UK government has not commented on Ukraine’s use of the missiles, which came days after Joe Biden gave Kyiv the all-clear to use American long-range missiles on Russia for the first time.
Put to him that if Russia considered the UK a direct participant, then Moscow’s allies like Iran, China, and North Korea are too, Mr Kelin shrugged off the comparison.
Russia has regularly used Iranian drones in the war, and North Korea has deployed some 100,000 troops.
The latter is thought to have proved decisive to the US decision to let Kyiv use the missiles, after months of pleas from Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Mr Kelin claimed there were “plenty of mercenaries from different countries fighting right now on the side of Ukraine”, highlighting what he says was a Polish unit in the Kursk region.
Minister teases update on national insurance policy after concerns over impact on charities
Charities are among the many employers to have expressed concern about the looming increase to their national insurance contributions.
And now a minister has suggested a change could be in the offing.
Commons leader Lucy Powell said there would be an update “soon” regarding the policy’s impact on charities, after the fears of an air ambulance service in Chelmsford were raised by a Lib Dem MP.
Marie Goldman said Essex and Herts Air Ambulance could face an additional cost of £100,000 as a result of the tax rise.
Ms Powell said the health secretary was looking at how a boost to NHS funding provided in last month’s budget could be used to “support other health charities and health services”.
“There will be an update to this House soon,” she added.
It could be that funding is made available specifically to help certain employers cover the national insurance rise.
Watch: How the budget could impact employers
There’s no doubt Prescott’s career will go down in Labour history
The death of John Prescott – the longest serving deputy prime minister in British history – has sent shockwaves through British politics.
Serving in Neil Kinnock’s shadow cabinet before becoming Sir Tony Blair’s deputy, Mr Prescott was a political giant and an incredibly influential working class voice in the Labour movement.
The son of a railway signalman and the grandson of a miner, Prescott offered a fresh working class perspective in stark contrast to Sir Tony’s wealthy Oxbridge background: something that Sir Tony has said undoubtedly contributed to Labour’s electoral success.
Current deputy prime minister Angela Rayner has been compared to Mr Prescott for providing Sir Keir Starmer with a working class teammate with a trade union background, but Mr Prescott’s colourful life and authenticity – even when that meant punching a protester for throwing an egg at him – can never be emulated.
Whatever he’s remembered for – from the Kyoto protocol, being a mediator between Sir Tony and Gordon Brown, or perhaps his personal issues – there is no doubt that his career will go down in history as a consequential contribution to the Labour movement.