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Category: Speeches

  • Shabana Mahmood – 2025 Statement on the Government’s Asylum Policy

    Shabana Mahmood – 2025 Statement on the Government’s Asylum Policy

    The statement made by Shabana Mahmood, the Home Secretary, in the House of Commons on 17 November 2025.

    With permission, Madam Deputy Speaker, I will make a statement about how we restore order and control to our borders. I do so as this Government publish the most significant reform to our migration system in modern times.

    This country will always offer sanctuary to those fleeing danger, but we must also acknowledge that the world has changed and our asylum system has not changed with it. Our world is a more volatile and more mobile place. Huge numbers are on the move. While some are refugees, others are economic migrants seeking to use and abuse our asylum system. Even genuine refugees are passing through other safe countries, searching for the most attractive place to seek refuge.

    The burden that has fallen on this country has been heavy: 400,000 have sought asylum here in the past four years. Over 100,000 people now live in asylum accommodation, and over half of refugees remain on benefits eight years after they have arrived. To the British public, who foot the bill, the system feels out of control and unfair. It feels that way because it is. The pace and scale of change have destabilised communities. It is making our country a more divided place. There will never be a justification for the violence and racism of a minority, but if we fail to deal with this crisis, we will draw more people down a path that starts with anger and ends in hatred.

    I have no doubt about who we really are in this country: we are open, tolerant and generous. But the public rightly expect that we can determine who enters this country and who must leave. To maintain the generosity that allows us to provide sanctuary, we must restore order and control.

    Rather than deal substantively with this problem, the last Conservative Government wasted precious years and £700 million on their failed Rwanda plan, with the lamentable result of just four volunteers removed from the country. As a result, they left us with the grotesque chaos of asylum seekers housed in hotels and shuttled around in taxis, with the taxpayer footing the bill.Toggle showing location ofColumn 510

    My predecessor as Home Secretary picked up this dreadful inheritance and rebuilt the foundations of a collapsed asylum system. Decision making has been restored, with a backlog now 18% lower than when we entered office. Removals have increased, reaching nearly 50,000 under this Government. Immigration enforcement has hit record levels, with over 8,000 arrests in the last year. The Border Security Bill is progressing through Parliament, and my predecessor struck an historic agreement with the French so that small boat arrivals can now be sent back to France.

    Those are vital steps, but we must go further. Today, we have published “Restoring Order and Control”, a new statement on our asylum policy. Its goals are twofold: first, to reduce illegal arrivals into this country, and secondly, to increase removals of those with no right to be here. It starts by accepting an uncomfortable truth: while asylum claims fall across Europe, they are rising here, and that is because of the comparative generosity of our asylum offer compared with many of our European neighbours. That generosity is a factor that draws people to these shores, on a path that runs through other safe countries. Nearly 40% come on small boats and over perilous channel crossings, but a roughly equal proportion come legally, via visitor, work or study visas, and then go on to claim asylum. They do so because refugee status is the most generous route into this country. An initial grant lasts five years and is then converted, almost automatically, into permanent settled status.

    In other European countries, things are done differently. In Denmark, refugee status is temporary, and they provide safety and sanctuary until it is possible for a refugee to return home. In recent years, asylum claims in Denmark have hit a 40-year low, and now countries across Europe are tightening their systems in similar ways. We must act too. We will do so by making refugee status temporary, not permanent. A grant of refugee status will last for two and a half years, not five years. It will be renewed only if it is impossible for a refugee to return home. Permanent settlement will now come at 20 years, not five years.

    I know that this country welcomes people who contribute. For those who want to stay, and who are willing and able to, we will create a new work and study visa route solely for refugees, with a quicker path to permanent settlement. To encourage refugees into work, we will also consult on removing benefits for those who are able to work but choose not to. Outside the most exceptional circumstances, family reunion will not be possible, with a refugee able to bring family over only if they have joined a work and study route, and if qualifying tests are met.

    Although over 50,000 claimants have been granted refugee status in the past year, more than 100,000 claimants and failed asylum seekers remain in taxpayer-funded accommodation. We know that criminal gangs use the prospect of free bed and board to promote their small boat crossings. We have already announced that we will empty asylum hotels by the end of this Parliament, and we are exploring a number of large military sites as an alternative. We will now also remove the 2005 legislation that created a duty to support asylum seekers, reverting to a legal power to do so instead. We will continue to support those who play by the rules, but those who do not—be that through criminality or antisocial behaviour—can have their support removed.Toggle showing location ofColumn 511

    We will also remove our duty to support those who have a right to work. It is right that those who receive support pay for it if they can, so those with income or assets will have to contribute to the cost of their stay. That will end the absurdity that we currently experience, in which an asylum seeker receiving £800 each month from his family, and who had recently acquired an Audi, was receiving free housing at the taxpayer’s expense, and the courts judged that we could do nothing about it.

    The measures are designed to tackle the pull factors that draw people to this country, but reducing the number of arrivals is just half of the story. We must also enforce our rules and remove those who have no right to be here. That will mean restarting removals to countries where they have been paused. In recent months, we have begun the voluntary removal of failed asylum seekers to Syria once again. However, many failed asylum seekers from Syria are still here, most of whom fled a regime that has since been toppled. Other countries are planning to enforce removals, and we will follow suit. Where a failed asylum seeker cannot be returned home, we will also continue to explore the possibility of return hubs, with negotiations ongoing.

    We must remove those who have failed asylum claims, regardless of who they are. Today, we are not removing family groups, even when we know that their home country is perfectly safe. There are, for instance, around 700 Albanian families living in taxpayer-funded accommodation having failed their asylum claims—despite an existing returns agreement, and Albania being a signatory to the European convention on human rights. So we will now begin the removal of families. Where possible, we will encourage a voluntary return, but where an enforced return is necessary, that is what we will do.

    Where the barrier to a return is not the individual, nor the UK Government, but the receiving country, we will take action. I can announce that we have told Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Namibia that if they do not comply with international rules and norms, we will impose visa penalties on them. I am sending a wider message here: unless other countries heed this lesson, further sanctions will follow.

    Much of the delay in our removals, however, comes from the sclerotic nature of our own system. In March of this year, the appeals backlog stood at 51,000 cases. This Government have already increased judicial sitting days, but reform is required, so we will create a new appeals body, staffed by professional independent adjudicators, and we will ensure that early legal representation is available to advise claimants and ensure their issues are properly considered. Cases with a low chance of success will be fast-tracked, and claimants will have just one opportunity to claim and one to appeal, ending the merry-go-round of claims and appeals that frustrate so many removals.

    While some barriers to removal are the result of process, others are substantive issues related to the law itself. There is no doubt that the expanded interpretation of parts of the European convention on human rights has contributed. This is particularly true of article 8: the right to a family life. The courts have adopted an ever-expanding interpretation of that right. As a result, many people have been allowed to come to this country when they would otherwise have had no right to, and we have been unable to remove others when the case for doing so seems overwhelming. That includes cases like an arsonist, sentenced to five years in prison, whose deportation was blocked on the grounds that his relationship with his sibling may suffer. More than half of those detained are now delaying or blocking their removal by raising a last-minute rights claim.

    Article 8 is a qualified right, which means we are not prevented from removing individuals or refusing an application to move to the UK if it is in the public interest. To narrow article 8 rights, we will therefore make three important changes, in both domestic law and to our immigration rules. First, we will define what, exactly, a family is—narrowing it down to parents and their children. Secondly, we will define the public interest test so that the default becomes a removal or refusal, with article 8 rights only permissible in the most exceptional circumstances. Thirdly, we will tighten where article 8 claims can be heard, ensuring only those who are living in the UK can lodge a claim, rather than their family members overseas, and that all claims are heard first by the Home Office and not in a courtroom.

    We will also pursue international reform of a second element of the convention: the application of article 3, and the prohibition on torture and inhuman, degrading treatment or punishment. We will never return anyone to be tortured in their home country, but the definition of “degrading treatment” has expanded into the realm of the ridiculous. Today we have criminals who we seek to deport, but we discover we cannot because the prisons in their home country have cells that are deemed too small, or even mental health provision that is not as good as our own. As article 3 is an absolute right, a public interest test cannot be applied. For that reason, we are seeking reform at the Council of Europe, and we do so alongside international partners who have raised similar concerns.

    It is not just international law that binds us. According to data from 2022, over 40% of those detained for removal claimed that they were modern-day slaves. That well-intentioned law is being abused by those who seek to frustrate a legitimate removal, so I will bring forward legislation that tightens the modern slavery system, to ensure that it protects those it was designed for, and not those who seek to abuse it. Taken together, these are significant reforms. They are designed to ensure that our asylum system is fit for the modern world, and that we retain public consent for the very idea of providing refuge.

    We will always be a country that offers protection to those fleeing peril, just as we did in recent years when Ukraine was invaded, when Afghanistan was evacuated, and when we repatriated Hongkongers. For that reason, as order and control are restored, we will open new, capped, safe and legal routes into this country. These will make sponsorship the primary means by which we resettle refugees, with voluntary and community organisations given greater involvement to both receive refugees and support them, working within caps set by Government. We will also create a new route for displaced students to study in the UK, and another for skilled refugees to work here. Of course, we will always remain flexible to new crises across the world, as they happen.

    I know that the British people do not want to close the doors, but until we restore order and control, those who seek to divide us will grow stronger. It is our job as a Labour Government to unite where there is division, so we must now build an asylum system for the world as it is—one that restores order and control, that opens safe and legal routes to those fleeing danger across the world, and that sustains our commitment to providing refuge for this generation, and those to come. I know the country we are. We are open, tolerant, and generous. We are the greater Britain that those on this side of the House believe in, not the littler England that some wish we would become. These reforms are designed to bring unity where others seek to divide, and I commend this statement to the House.

  • Lindsay Hoyle – 2025 Statement on Budget Leaks

    Lindsay Hoyle – 2025 Statement on Budget Leaks

    The statement made by Lindsay Hoyle, the Speaker of the House of Commons, in the Commons on 17 November 2025.

    Minister, it is not normal for a Budget to have been put in the press. This is the hokey-cokey Budget: one minute something is in, the next minute it is out. I am very worried. The previous Government also had to be reprimanded for leaking. It is not good policy. At one time, a Minister would have resigned if anything was released. This House should be sacrosanct, and all decisions should be heard here first. Please do pass on the message.

  • Parole Board – 2025 Decision on Colin Pitchfork

    Parole Board – 2025 Decision on Colin Pitchfork

    The document released by the Parole Board on 13 November 2025.

    Colin_Pitchfork_-_Redacted_Parole_Board_decision_letterDownload
  • Wes Streeting – 2025 Speech to the NHS Providers Conference

    Wes Streeting – 2025 Speech to the NHS Providers Conference

    The speech made by Wes Streeting, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, in Manchester on 12 November 2025.

    Thanks so much for that introduction, and thanks to all of you for being here.  

    I’m delighted to be here given the, or to give, the announcement that everyone’s been talking about in the news today. That is the government’s reforms to NHS system architecture.  

    And I’m really grateful, Daniel, for the leadership for you and NHS Providers is showing at such a challenging time, but before I get into the challenges, let me just start with the positives. Because right now, we’re achieving things in the NHS. We’ve not seen for a long, long time and I know it’s not been easy. I’ve made considerable demands on you. And will continue to do so. But you’ve shown over the last year, or so, that while the NHS was broken, it wasn’t beaten. 

    You provided 5 million more elective appointments, 135,000 more cancer, diagnoses within the 28-day target, and cut waiting lists by over 200,000. Ambulance response times and 12-hour waits in A&E are down. There are two and a half thousand more GPs. In fact, we now have the highest number of GPs on record. 

    You’ve opened over a hundred Community Diagnostic Centres at evenings and weekends. New surgical hubs to bust the backlog. The extra doctors, nurses and mental health staff we need to treat patients on time and together, we built the 10-year plan for health to create the truly modern health service that we’re all crying out for. 

    These are the green shoots of recovery that are beginning to renew confidence and restore faith in our National Health Service for both patients and for our staff, our investment and modernisation are paying off. And with it, ambition and optimism are returning. It’s why I can come here today and say, with credibility, that we can still cut waiting times to 18 weeks, by the end of this Parliament. 

    Something few thought possible when we made the commitment in opposition. And while we can do it, and we can do it while delivering year-on-year improvements to Urgent and Emergency Care, we can get back to seeing people within four hours and while rebuilding general practice, so that patients can get an appointment with their doctor when they need one. 

    So, I want to begin by saying to all of you genuinely. Thank you. There’s sometimes a perception out there that I’m going to have to really battle this system and all of you to modernise and it’s such a misrepresentation of the leaders I work with. NHS leaders and frontline staff are not only chomping at the bit for change. You’re the ones showing the world that it can be delivered.

    There’s a real can-do culture back in the NHS, but and it’s a big but – there is also a great deal of jeopardy, out there from economic constraints, winter pressures, industrial action. And the political forces willing us all to fail. 

    So there’s a lot of pressure on our shoulders, because we all know how important the NHS is to our country. How central it is to the lives of every family in this land. And how strongly we believe in the values that have underpinned it since 1948, values that are becoming increasingly contested. 

    So, it’s important, I think for us to keep in mind, the consequences, if we get this wrong. Millions are counting on us and there’s much much more to do, so this isn’t the moment to ease off the gas. This is the moment to push our foot harder on the accelerator. 

    One reason why we see renewed confidence is the rigid focus you’ve brought to reducing waste and increasing productivity while improving services at the same time. In fact, reducing waste and increasing productivity are essential to improving patient services and staff experience.  

    This government is investing an extra £26 billion in the NHS this year. 

    We continue to be relative winners of Budgets and Spending Reviews. Although you and I know what the word relative means which is why I’m always relatively happy at how we do at Budget time. And we owe it to patients, to staff and to taxpayers to make sure that every penny that’s going into this service is money well spent. 

    That’s why I’m really proud that for the first time in years, the NHS is in balance, seven months into the financial year. It’s not going to be easy to stay on track for the rest of this year, especially with the double whammy of strikes and winter to come. 

    But breaking even is a huge shift from the £6.6 billion deficit we were looking at.

    There are people out there saying that universal health care, free at the point of need is no longer affordable or possible. And everyone in this room and beyond is proving them wrong.  

    So, this isn’t just a technocratic accounting triumph. It is the foundation of everything else because it’s ultimately what will allow us to invest again in staff technology and services, all of which add up to better patient experience. It also gives me, but all of us, credibility with the Chancellor. The government inherited public finances with a £22 billion black hole. 

    And it won’t have escape your notice that the public finances and the wider economy are still under serious strain. So, there is no money to waste and I think that it’s really important that we accept with some humility that one of the reasons the Chancellor is having to make some unpopular choices is to protect investment in the NHS. 

    This government will always put our public services and our NHS first. But the investment this government is making in the NHS also comes with a moral duty for us as NHS leaders, because every penny that goes into treating the sickness in our society is a penny that could have been spent on tackling the wider social determinants of health, much of which sits outside the NHS. 

    On prevention rather than cure. Of course when I say savings, it sounds very benign. In reality, I do want to take this opportunity to acknowledge that this has been particularly hard for ICBs.  

    I’ve asked a lot of you this year, last year, I said that ICBs will have a more focused purpose, as strategic Commissioners. They’re the drivers of the transformation from a National Health Service to a Neighbourhood Health Service and a preventative health service. 

    Given that focus brief, we’re asking ICBs to downsize significantly.  

    Having seen redundancies in organisations I’ve worked in previously, I want you to know. I do not take this lightly. I know this will have been weighing heavily on all of you and the people who work for you and I certainly don’t want ICB leaders to take the flag for decisions and timetables on head count that are ultimately my responsibility. 

    I’m very alive to the uncertainty that’s hung over staff for far too long. And I don’t mind saying, it’s made me uncomfortable, as it should. Because I know we’re not just talking about jobs, we’re talking about people’s livelihoods. And again that is my responsibility. Not yours. I want to be honest with you and through you to your staff that I have not resolved this quickly enough. 

    But this is worth doing and we can now bring certainty to people. From today I’m giving ICBs the go ahead and the funding for the voluntary redundancy programs that staff have been waiting for. This will see overall head count cut by 50 percent which will particularly, not exclusively, but particularly, affect roles in corporate services, communications and administration. 

    Alongside this, we’re moving ahead with the abolition of NHS England and we’ll complete it to the timetable the Prime Minister announced in March. Head count across my Department and NHS England will also be halved, returning to the size we had in 2010, when the NHS delivered the shortest waiting times and highest patient satisfaction in history. This move will free up more than a billion pounds a year, which will be reinvested in frontline care. 

    To, anyone listening at home. And who knows? Someone might be listening at home. I want to reassure you that our investment is not simply pouring more water into a leaky bucket. We’re plugging the holes cutting out the waste, and rebuilding our National Health Service. And to those of you here today, and hopefully you’re listening. 

    We aren’t simply changing staff numbers. We are ending the constant assurance, ad hoc demands and micromanagement that you’ve been subjected to. The centre will instead enable you to focus on improving services for patients. A new department that empowers rather than suffocates NHS leaders and frontline staff. And I have to say, the way in which leaders across the service are responding to the scale of the challenge I’ve placed on you has been extremely and genuinely impressive.  

    We’ve seen an uptick in flu jabs, among staff and the public, we’ve stress tested plans much earlier, we’re investing in new ambulances, building new urgent treatment centres and introducing new mental health crisis centres. 

    Online access to GP practices should stem the tide of the 4 million patients who go to A&E each year because they can’t get through to their local surgery. So thank you to all of those GPs who have successfully introduced this new system. You’ll be crucial in unclogging emergency departments, freeing up beds and saving lives this winter.  

    And on the social care side, we’re working more closely with local authorities to ensure people get the care and support they need at home rather than languishing in hospital beds. But we know that the NHS is already running hot. A&E and ambulance demand is already higher than it was in 2024. 

    Flu is coming earlier and there is a particularly nasty strain this season. Those are the challenges we have to rise to for many patients, who come through our doors. This winter, it will be the one time in the entire year when they experience the NHS. What impression do we want them to leave with? 

    Do you want to be just about managing? That can’t be our benchmark. We can’t accept the winter crisis as an annual event like the John Lewis Christmas ad. We have to improve year on year. And of course, with all these challenges, the last thing patients need this winter is strike action by the BMA. 

    I was really proud of the way that NHS leaders and frontline staff pulled together to get through the last round of resident doctor strikes.  

    We saw an additional 11,000 procedures going ahead compared with the June 2024 war count. We managed to keep the costs of industrial action, down to the tune of a hundred million pounds less than the previous round. 

    And despite the busiest July on record for A&E, this was the highest proportion of patients seen within four hours in four years. I think that is a considerable achievement. And I want all of you to know that it wasn’t lost on me how hard you all worked to keep the show on the road. 

    But the truth is that strikes do have unavoidable and serious consequences, particularly when they’re called during winter. That is why I made a comprehensive offer to the BMA last week in a final attempt to prevent strike action. Coming on top of a 28.9 percent pay rise which they have already received from this government. 

    I would have thought that the offer to go even further with extra jobs prioritisation and money back in their pockets would have demonstrated how serious this government is about improving resident doctors lives and career prospects. Yet the BMA rejected the offer out of hand, refusing to even put it to their members. 

    If strikes do go ahead, this will cost around £240 million and we will not be able to afford the same offer again, so my message to BMA is simple: postpone the strikes, trust your members and give resident doctors a say. Patients, doctors and the wider NHS staff all lose if strikes go ahead. And there is still time for everyone to win.

    That brings me to a broader point about choices and trade-offs. When we pull together, and when we mobilise behind the ideas in the 10 Year Health Plan, we can deliver year-on-year improvement, change and transformation that gets the NHS back on its feet and fit for the future. Where parts of our team fail to recognise that we can’t solve everything, for everyone, everywhere, all at once, that’s when we run into difficulties.  

    That’s what makes our collective job, much harder. And I know I’m preaching to the choir in this room because as leaders, there are choices and trade-offs that you face every day and it’s really important that we continue to work together to face those choices and trade-offs in an honest way. 

    Because the progress of the last 18 months, tells a bigger story, one of a service beginning to believe in itself again. That’s quite something. Given the horrendous state of neglect the NHS was in after 14 years of under investment and mismanagement. And we have to be honest that some of what we’re doing has never been tried before. Success won’t happen overnight.  

    We, I, will make some mistakes along the way. That is all part of learning and improving. But together we’ve begun restoring confidence, we’ve built strong foundations for real improvements. We’ve moved from barely scraping by to having real hope and big ambitions. 

    I said there’d be fewer targets and less bureaucracy and there are. I said there’d be no more short-termism and we now have multi-year funding settlements to give you the certainty you need. I said the centre would be smaller and it will be. I said the power would be handed back to patients professionals and providers and it is being. All of this is why we’re here today in a position to declare that the NHS is on the road to recovery. 

    And at the heart of that revival is our 10-year plan for health. It sets out how we’ll transform the service of today into an NHS fit for the future. Our three big shifts will create a new model of care that not only catches up with the rest of the pack, but leads the world. 

    The plan breaks with the fiction that you can run a health service, one and a half million staff who deliver 600 million patient interactions every single day, from an office building in Whitehall. The new care model is backed by a new operating model, anchored in clear and consistent principles, power and resources should flow to local providers, frontline staff, and ultimately be placed in the hands of patients.  

    Autonomy should be earned by meeting public expectations delivering, high quality care with excellent financial oversight through world-class leadership. Good performance should be incentivised and rewarded. Poor performance should be held rigorously to account. And transparency and choice are essential, not nice to have. That’s what lay behind our decision to publish new NHS League tables. 

    I know there was a concern when I announced them last year that this would be about naming and shaming and good, old-fashioned, manager bashing. I hope you can see now that this is actually about confronting the challenges we all face with grown-up honesty.  

    I was delighted for example, with the way the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Kings Lynn, a hospital which is literally being propped up on stilts, responded to being bottom of the table.  

    Let me just share with you what the executive managing director, Chris Bown said. He said, and I quote, the issues about our waiting times in our emergency department being too long, our waiting times for cancer care, and elective care being too long, and our financial situation, are not attributed directly to the state of the building. There are things we must do within this building to improve the experience of patients and staff.  

    Now, the reason I highlight that as an example is, he could easily have said it’s all because my hospital’s falling down. 

    And I know he could have said that because I recall offering that defence myself on BBC local radio, in his part of the world earlier that day. And in contrast to what I said, what Chris did was offer the warts and all honesty that is the first step on the road to recovery, not making excuses and covering backsides, but actually taking responsibility and showing a determination to improve. 

    Even when factors are stacked against you, that is how we turn the NHS around. But even as we let go of the top-down approach of the past, we’re not abandoning trusts to their fate. Those at the bottom of the tables will receive more support. At the other end, good performance will be incentivised and rewarded. 

    This new culture of openness drives change and builds confidence that the NHS can learn and improve, which is crucial to restoring people’s faith in the NHS itself.  

    And today I want to talk about the next steps we’re taking on our new operating model. The first step is a real empowerment of primary care and general practice. Already, the hard work and innovation of GPs across the country are helping to renew public confidence in the NHS as the reversal of a decade of declining patient satisfaction shows.  

    And I know it’s not easy. The demands of a 21st century population, the demands of ageing and rising health need have led to unsustainable workloads. We’ve already halved the number of targets in the GP contract and are investing an extra £1.1 billion. But the bright future that general practice deserves will only come through fundamental modernisation. 

    That’s why we’re introducing two new neighbourhood contracts. A single neighbourhood provider contract for the delivery of enhanced services, for patients, through expert, multi-disciplinary teams and a multi-neighbourhood provider contract to lead the Neighbourhood Health Service at scale.

    This is taking the best of the NHS to the rest of the NHS. Learning from some of the trailblazing GP Federations already doing this. Pooling resources and expertise will deliver better services over larger areas, like frailty or end-of-life care, and deliver a more efficient back office so more of GPs time is spent with patients. And as Neighbourhood Health Services reduce demand on acutes, new, financial flows will see savings return to them, helping to accelerate the left shift.  

    I should say at this point, just for the avoidance of doubt, because there might be more media attention on this speech than usual, our second step – reinvent the NHS Foundation Trust model for modern times. Today, we’re launching a new generation of Foundation Trusts called Advanced Foundation Trusts. They will be the front runners towards a more autonomous accountable and integrated NHS. 

    And I can announce that eight trusts are in the running for this new status. They come from across the country from Dorset to Northumbria and they are a mix of acute mental health, and community Trusts. They represent both the best of our NHS and the diversity of NHS. Those who are successful will have demonstrated that they’re delivering on the public’s priorities. High quality care for patients, value for money and progress on the left shift. 

    They’ll be the kind of providers who don’t need the sense of breathing down their neck or trying to micromanage their finances.  

    And they will benefit from real and immediate freedoms, including the ability to reinvest surpluses accumulated last year in future capital projects, more operational, autonomy and fewer ad hoc requests from the centre. 

    We’ll continue to open new freedoms and deliver greater autonomy for Advanced Foundation Trusts in the coming years. And in 10 years time, we want every Trust to have achieved that status. 

    Our third step is the creation of Integrated Healthcare Organisations, or IHOs. Advanced Foundation Trusts will be among the first to take on IHO contracts and hold the whole health budget for a defined population. 

    I’ve heard from so many leaders about how hard it can be to invest in prevention because the savings fall in another part of the system. IHOs will reverse this disincentive, if it makes sense to invest in community care to prevent unnecessary hospital admissions, they’ll be rewarded for doing just that. Any trust can become one, not just the big acutes.
    And so there is no reason, by the way, they couldn’t be led by Primary Care professionals.

    In fact, one of the two trusts currently under consideration for IHO status is a Community Trust. And that diversity will continue. If a nurse is best placed to lead a community service, a GP best place to lead a hospital or an acute Trust best place to lead Neighbourhood Health Services, well then that’s what they’ll do.  

    Because what matters is what delivers for patients. None of this is simply a renaming exercise. However, technocratic it might sometimes appear or even feel. Good system architecture is how we bring to life the vision and ambition in the 10-year plan. 

    I’m offering that as a reminder to myself as much as anyone else. We’re breaking the NHS out of its short-term cycles, annual plans of emergency, bundles of rolling crises, complex rules, unnecessary targets. Instead, our approach is, and will be, if you deliver for patients, if you manage your finances well, if you innovate, then you will have the space to lead.  

    Because plans don’t deliver change people do, and this conference is a reminder that confidence comes from good leadership and that good leadership in the NHS has never mattered more. Great NHS leaders, listen to staff and patients and turn that listening into action. 

    They don’t wait for permission to do the right thing. They don’t require a diktat from NHS, England, their attitude says we can do better, and we will. The difference now is that the system will support you to unleash your entrepreneurialism, creativity and innovation. All this adds up to a very different kind of NHS. 

    It marks a fundamental shift from command and control to collaboration and confidence. And when people feel they are part of a system that learns listens and leads. Confidence returns and confidence is everything. The NHS was built on it, the confidence of a nation that believed in universal healthcare, free at the point of use. The confidence of staff, who knew they were part of something bigger than themselves. What we’re doing together is restoring that confidence. The coming years won’t be a walk in the park. There are no magic wands. No silver bullets. Keeping up momentum will require all of the energy and grit and initiative that’s got us heading in the right direction. 

    We need to up our elective activity, to hit the ambitious targets the Prime Minister set us. To get people seen as quickly as possible in urgent and emergency care and to keep improving access to GPs, and we need to maintain our firm grip on the finances.  

    But for the first time in years, the NHS can look forward with confidence rather than back in frustration, because we’ve got a plan, that’s not just ambitious and realistic. We’ve got a plan that is working and that is why the NHS is on the road to recovery. Thank you very much.

  • Heidi Alexander – 2025 Comment on Driving Lesson Backlog

    Heidi Alexander – 2025 Comment on Driving Lesson Backlog

    The comments made by Heidi Alexander, the Secretary of State for Transport, on 12 November 2025.

    We inherited an enormous backlog of learners ready to ditch their L-Plates, who have been sadly forced to endure record waiting times for their tests. Every learner should have an equal and fair opportunity to take a test.

    We’re taking decisive action and these new measures will deliver thousands of extra tests over the next year, helping learners get on the road sooner. This will ease pressure on the system, removing barriers to opportunity and supporting economic growth as part of our Plan for Change.

  • Stephanie Peacock – 2025 Speech at the G20 Culture Ministerial Meeting

    Stephanie Peacock – 2025 Speech at the G20 Culture Ministerial Meeting

    The speech made by Stephanie Peacock, the Minister for Sport, Tourism, Civil Society and Youth, on 29 October 2025.

    It is an honour to represent the United Kingdom here today, and it has been a privilege to experience the diversity and dynamism of South African culture first hand over the past few days, since I arrived here on Sunday.

    It was a pleasure to accompany you, Honourable Minister McKenzie, to the powerful performance of ‘This Is Who I Am’ in Johannesburg earlier this week – an extraordinary example of international cultural collaboration in action, supported by the British High Commission.

    The UK is committed to effective and ambitious multilateralism, and we are grateful to you for convening us to discuss pressing matters affecting the cultural and creative sectors, as well as the great opportunities.

    I would like to thank the South African Presidency, on behalf of the United Kingdom, for your leadership, ambition, and wonderful hospitality throughout this year’s G20 Culture Track.

    The musical and artistic performances we have all enjoyed here highlight culture’s power to unite and connect communities. 

    In the UK, we, too, see how the huge diversity of cultural heritage contributes to our national story. Which is why we are pleased to have ratified the 2003 UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage last year and warmly welcome our hosts, South Africa, who joined this year.

    The British Library’s Endangered Archives Programme alone has undertaken 130 projects across Africa and we commend South Africa for shining a light on the role of museums and cultural institutions as custodians of heritage in this declaration. 

    Honourable Minister, you have rightly placed a strong emphasis in the declaration from this meeting on the creative economy. 

    In the UK we also recognise the importance of these sectors and we have launched a dedicated plan to tackle barriers to growth and maximise opportunities across the creative industries. 

    Improving cultural access is another key priority for the UK Government. We strongly believe that arts and culture should reach everyone, everywhere.

    This includes supporting our creative and cultural professionals to operate and tour internationally.

    We recognise that the arts and cultural sectors, and creative industries can be critical drivers of innovation, not simply consumers of it.

    The use of digital technologies in these areas offers extraordinary opportunities to expand access, participation and inclusion.

    But we must acknowledge that digital transition and Artificial Intelligence are reshaping how culture is created, shared and valued.

    This is why the UK is committed to international partnership to shape a digital ecosystem for culture that is inclusive, resilient and sustainable – whether through the G20, UNESCO, bilateral agreements, or the work of the British Council.

    The UK is working to safeguard cultural heritage at risk, while advancing innovative, culture-based solutions to the climate crisis at home and around the world through our international programmes.

    Our International Cultural Heritage Protection programme operates globally, in cooperation with the British Council.

    One recent project – delivered in partnership with organisations across Egypt, Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia and Jordan – has  protected six historically important sites impacted by climate change and enabled them to be safeguarded for future generations.

    As G20 members, we individually and collectively recognise our responsibility to use our influence and voices to champion culture’s role in driving climate action.

    The Declaration we will shortly adopt is testament to the immense value we place on culture, cultural heritage and creativity and its important role in driving sustainable development.

    I would like to thank all members of the working group for all their exceptionally hard work on the text. 

    The Declaration sends a powerful message to the world about the role culture can play in transforming all our lives – for the better. The UK is proud to endorse it.

    Thank you.

  • Keir Starmer – 2025 Comments on Stabbings on Train

    Keir Starmer – 2025 Comments on Stabbings on Train

    The comments made by Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister on 1 November 2025.

    The appalling incident on a train near Huntingdon is deeply concerning.

    My thoughts are with all those affected, and my thanks go to the emergency services for their response.

    Anyone in the area should follow the advice of the police.

  • Yvette Cooper – 2025 Statement on Rapid Support Forces in El Fasher

    Yvette Cooper – 2025 Statement on Rapid Support Forces in El Fasher

    The statement made by Yvette Cooper, the Foreign Secretary, on 27 October 2025.

    Further advances by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in El Fasher, Sudan, are having a horrifying and devastating impact on civilians. With hundreds of thousands of people trapped in the city, many facing forced displacement and indiscriminate violence, the humanitarian consequences are catastrophic. Civilians must be able to leave safely and access lifesaving aid without obstruction.

    We are witnessing a deeply disturbing pattern of abuses in El Fasher — including systematic killings, torture, and sexual violence. Women and girls are facing particularly horrific violations such as sexual violence and rape as a weapon of war, and their suffering must not be ignored.

    Both the RSF and the Sudanese Armed Forces have publicly committed to protecting civilians and enabling humanitarian access in line with international humanitarian law. These commitments must now be translated into immediate and concrete action. Orders must be issued to forces on the ground to ensure the safety of civilians, humanitarian personnel, and operations. The RSF leadership will be held accountable for the actions of their forces.

    All parties must urgently cooperate with the UN and humanitarian agencies to enable safe, rapid, and unimpeded access, in line with UN Security Council Resolution 2736. Attacks on civilians, aid workers, and civilian infrastructure — including hospitals — must stop now.

    UK aid is making a difference on the ground, including reaching the most vulnerable through organisations such as the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Sudan Humanitarian Fund. In total we are contributing by providing over £120 million in aid to Sudan, including allocating an additional £5 million to the Sudan Cash Consortium, with around two-thirds of this support for the most vulnerable in North Darfur.

    Bringing an end to the war in Sudan will also support security at home and help tackle illegal migration to the UK. The UK will continue to work with international partners, including the Quad, to push for an immediate ceasefire and a path toward peace. The suffering must end.

  • Keir Starmer – 2025 Comments After Labour Loses Caerphilly

    Keir Starmer – 2025 Comments After Labour Loses Caerphilly

    The comments made by Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, on 24 October 2025.

    We must press ahead with the renewal that working people need to see.

    Now, this week, we received another reminder of just how urgent that task is. A bad result in Wales, I accept that, but a reminder that people need to look out their window and see change and renewal in their community, opportunities for their children, public services rebuilt, the cost of living crisis tackled.

    Renewal is the only answer to decline, to grievance and to division and we have to keep going on that. It is the offer we must make to the people of Scotland, Wales and England next year.

    And that means we must come together. We must unite. We must keep our focus on what is, in my view, the defining battle for the soul of our nation.

  • Bridget Phillipson – 2025 Comments After Lucy Powell Wins Deputy Leadership

    Bridget Phillipson – 2025 Comments After Lucy Powell Wins Deputy Leadership

    The comments made by Bridget Phillipson on 25 October 2025.

    I want to congratulate Lucy on her victory in this contest.

    It’s crucial that our party now comes together to take the fight to Reform in next year’s crucial Senedd, Holyrood and local elections.

    I am obviously disappointed at today’s result but I’m proud of the campaign I’ve run. I want to thank everyone who voted for me in this contest. I feel privileged to have had the chance of meeting members across the country, talking about their priorities and what they want to see: a united party, talking about the good things this Labour government is doing, not fixating on our mistakes.

    Regardless of today’s result, I will always be a strong voice for our members and trade unions at the cabinet table and I will still be that powerful campaigning presence at the top of government working to deliver a crucial second term of Labour government.