Louise Haigh: ‘If we hadn’t taken the action, the fare cap would have been lifted entirely’
With the current £2 bus fare cap due to expire at the end of this year, Transport Secretary Louise Haigh defended Labour’s decision to guarantee an increased £3 cap until December next year. Haigh said the government’s new £1 billion subsidy would improve the frequency and reliability of buses, particularly in rural areas. Kuenssberg pointed out that bus fares would be going up for lots of people who would struggle to afford the change. Haigh said £3 would be the maximum, and in urban areas bus fares would only increase in line with inflation. However, speaking to Trevor Phillips on Sky News, Haigh also implied the fare cap may be scrapped after 2025, suggesting the government could implement a more targeted discount approach for groups like younger people.
Haigh: ‘For too long we’ve let this problem fester’
Despite big increases in funding for the NHS, Labour is yet to provide details on its plans for social care. Laura Kuenssberg reminded Louise Haigh that Wes Streeting had promised a social care plan 18 months ago, and Labour’s manifesto included a pledge for a National Care Service. Haigh argued that Streeting’s ten-year plan for the NHS involves a focus on ‘prevention and community care’, which would ‘ease pressures on social care’. Haigh said there was also £600 million in the budget allocated to local authorities for social care, and claimed the new Fair Pay Agreement would be significant in filling social care vacancies. Kuenssberg pointed out that with the employers’ National Insurance hikes, some care homes have said they might have to close down, despite the additional budget.
Ed Davey: ‘We could do so much more on palliative care’
On 29 November, MPs will vote on the Assisted Dying Bill. Despite the Liberal Democrats previously voting as a party in favour of assisted dying, Lib Dem leader Ed Davey explained that he was against the bill because he worried about the ‘psychological pressure’ of being a burden that elderly, disabled, or terminally ill people may put on themselves. Davey said some people may opt for assisted dying purely because of a ‘selfless point of view’. He argued that improvements in palliative care, in the NHS and in social care would ‘take the sting out of this issue’.
Farmers’ Union President Tom Bradshaw: ‘The industry is feeling betrayed’
After Wales’s First Minister Eluned Morgan asked for people to ‘calm down’ over the government’s inheritance tax plans, Sky News’ Trevor Phillips asked the president of the National Farmers’ Union Tom Bradshaw how farmers were feeling. Bradshaw told Phillips the industry felt ‘betrayed’ over Labour’s ‘ill-considered actions’. The government has argued that 73 per cent of farms won’t be affected by the inheritance tax changes, but Bradshaw claimed that in fact 66 per cent of the farms providing the country’s food are over the £1 million threshold. Phillips asked if farmers could not just pass on the farms seven years before the death of the owner, or use the allowances for partners. Bradshaw suggested that the profit margins in food production are so low, and that money that was previously being invested back into the farm would now have to be spent on pensions or life insurance. He also emphasised the ‘human impact’ on older farmers who may have already lost their partners and had previously thought that they should hold onto their farms until death.
Dr Helen-Ann Hartley: ‘There is a culture of silence and fear amongst the bishops’
This week, Justin Welby resigned as Archbishop of Canterbury after a damning report into serial abuser John Smyth found that Welby should have reported Smyth’s abuse in 2013. Dr Helen-Ann Hartley, the Bishop of Newcastle, is so far the only bishop who called for Welby’s resignation. On Sky News, Trevor Phillips asked Hartley why she is a lone voice. Hartley said she was motivated to speak out because she was ‘horrified’ by the contents of the report, but also because of the letter she received from both archbishops prior to the report’s release, which ‘spoke deeply to the culture of power and control in the Church’. Hartley said she thought some of her peers were silent because they thought they might become the new Archbishop of Canterbury, and others were fearful of being ‘reprimanded’.
Ukrainian environment minister: ‘COP29 is of real strategic importance to Ukraine’
This morning, Ukraine was hit by huge missile strikes targeting its power grid. As COP29 progresses in Baku, Ukrainian environment minister Svitlana Hrynchuk told Laura Kuenssberg that Ukraine wanted to prevent Russia from including occupied Ukrainian territories in its reports to the UN. Hrynchuk said that Russia would ‘use this platform to constantly push for the legalisation of their occupation policy’. She also said Ukraine would ‘show the entire world the environmental consequences of Russia’s war’, including landmines, burnt forests, and huge loss of animal and marine life. Hrynchuk stressed that it would take decades to de-mine Ukrainian land.
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