Dozens of MPs oppose Streeting’s new power to say what NHS pays for drugs

Dozens of MPs are opposing Wes Streeting’s decision to award himself power to dictate what the NHS pays for drugs amid growing concern the move may be illegal.Thirty-one MPs have signed a House of Commons motion voicing their disapproval of the health secretary being handed the power to override the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s (Nice) judgment on how much the NHS should spend on individual medicines.They fear that the change is a “power grab” that undermines the role Nice has played since its creation in 1999 as the arbiter of which medicines constitute value for money for the NHS to buy – and thus which patients can receive – in England and Wales. Nice is widely viewed internationally as a model of how to protect against drug companies charging excessive prices.Labour, Green, Liberal Democrat, Independent, Scottish Nationalist and Plaid Cymru MPs have backed a “prayer”, tabled by the Labour ex-shadow chancellor John McDonnell

Key figure in Mandelson vetting scandal will not give evidence before MPs

A key figure in the row over Peter Mandelson’s appointment as UK ambassador to Washington will not appear before a parliamentary committee of MPs to give evidence.Emily Thornberry had requested that Ian Collard speak to the foreign affairs committee (FAC) on Tuesday, but confirmed on Saturday that he would submit written answers instead.The committee has already heard from Olly Robbins, the Foreign Office’s top civil servant who was forced out of his post last week after the decision to fail Mandelson during his security vetting was overruled by his department, and the Cabinet Office permanent secretary, Cat Little. Keir Starmer’s former chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, is due to appear on Tuesday.Collard, who has given evidence to the select committee previously, is a former ambassador to Lebanon and Panama and was appointed the Foreign Office’s chief property and security officer in March 2023

Security vetting stepped up after MP is given bodyguard with far-right links

The security company that provides bodyguards for MPs has tightened its vetting processes after it sent a bodyguard with far-right links to protect a politician who was under threat from extremists.Mitie, which has a £31m contract for the work, is updating its CPO (Close Protection Operative) vetting processes to include regular social media checks. There will also be random checks on the social media activity of those already taken on.Concerns about the threat to MPs from extremists – including Islamists and the far right – have risen, with elected representatives facing a level of threat not seen since the campaign mounted by Irish republican terrorists in the 1980s and 70s.Mitie’s contract followed the assassination of the Conservative MP David Amess by an Islamist terrorist in 2021

Partygate v Mandelson: Keir Starmer faces attack from his own playbook

The lexicon of a British parliamentary scandal is arcane.As Keir Starmer fights to remain prime minister, he has had to respond to a “humble address”, had his judgment picked over during an “emergency opposition day debate” and now faces the ignominy of a “privilege motion”.Close observers of UK politics will, however, recognise these terms as familiar: they are all parliamentary tools used by Labour in opposition as they tried to hold the Conservatives accountable at various points – not least during the Partygate affair that helped bring down Boris Johnson.At first sight, the two controversies are very different.Johnson was ousted in the wake of allegations that he had attended parties in Downing Street during a pandemic lockdown he presided over

Unlucky chancellor? Iran shock hits Reeves just as UK seemed to turn corner

Donald Trump’s war on Iran is “folly”; shadow chancellor Mel Stride should be “lined up for the sack”; and the Liberal Democrat Daisy Cooper’s plan for managing fuel shortages is “fundamentally economically illiterate”.Rachel Reeves has always relished a political fight, but in recent days she has been swinging at her opponents with what looks very much like enjoyment.Her team say the chancellor’s righteous anger is calculated. The consequences of the conflict may still be being felt in many months and she wants to hammer home two claims: that “we did not start this war and we did not join this war”, as Reeves told MPs this week; and that before the bombs started falling, the UK economy was on the up.“We have got to win the argument that the economy was turning the corner before the war and there was momentum behind it

‘Nigel is mad to accept his money’: who is Christopher Harborne, the mystery billionaire bankrolling Reform?

A crypto tycoon is giving record-breaking amounts to Farage’s party. But little is known about his motivesShortly before Christmas 2022, Chakrit Sakunkrit, owner of the Kamalaya Wellness Sanctuary on the Thai island of Koh Samui, invited 200 guests to spend a few days celebrating his 60th birthday. One sultry afternoon, Sakunkrit and a small group gathered around a table near the shore, surrounded by the burgundy foliage of Good Luck plants. To his right, dressed down in a polo shirt, sat Nigel Farage.Since Brexit marked the achievement of his life’s work three years earlier, Farage had fizzled