Markus Andrews

Resident doctors’ 29 per cent pay demand is “non-negotiable”, the new leader of the British Medical Association has said, warning strikes could go on for years. Dr Tom Dolphin also claimed the demand is both reasonable and easily affordable for the NHS, as members gear up for five days of strikes later this month. But the government has ruled out negotiating with doctors on pay, with health secretary Wes Streeting accusing them of “squandering an opportunity by striking” instead of working with him to improve working conditions.“You will not find another health and social care secretary as sympathetic to resident doctors as me”, he said. But Dr Dolphin said the union will not negotiate on or accept a figure lower than 29 per cent because that is the extent of the real-terms loss of earnings doctors have seen since 2008 – a salary they want restored in full. Resident doctors from the British Medical Association have voted in favour of strike action (PA) More

Former MI6 boss Sir Alex Younger is backing calls for digital ID cards to help deter small boat crossings.It was reported last month that Downing Street is exploring a proposal to introduce digital ID cards for every adult in Britain to check an individual’s right to live and work in Britain.“It’s absolutely obvious to me that people should have a digital identity,” he told BBC Newsnight on Thursday (10 July).“Let’s stop shouting at the French; a lot of this is on us,” he added.It comes as Sir Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron agreed a “groundbreaking” one-in, one-out migration deal at the end of a historic three-day state visit by the French president. More

Sir Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron have agreed a “groundbreaking” one in, one out migration deal – just hours after hundreds made the perilous journey across the English Channel to the UK.At the end of a historic three-day state visit by the French president, he and the prime minister announced a pilot scheme which could see around 50 illegal migrants arriving in small boats returned to France each week in exchange for asylum seekers being held there.But just hours earlier, around 220 people, including 70 in one boat, were brought to shore in Dover by Border Force officials.The deal is a personal victory for Sir Keir, who has vowed to “smash the gangs” that bring migrants to the UK, and said the agreement would “finally turn the tables” on the crisis.Starmer and Macron said the first-of-its-kind agreement would bring an end to the small boats crisis More

Sir Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron have struck a landmark deal to deter migrants from crossing the Channel in small boats. The “one-in, one-out” agreement will see some of those who arrive in the UK illegally via the Channel sent straight back for the first time since Brexit, with Britain taking an equivalent number of migrants from France in return. The deal came after days of talks between the prime minister and French president, with the small boats crisis dominating the agenda during Mr Macron’s state visit. Sir Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron have agreed the migration deal More

Watch live as Sir Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron announce a migrant return deal with France intended to tackle illegal crossings over the Channel.The prime minister said the UK would tackle illegal migration with “new tactics” and a “new level of intent” before the pair held crunch talks to hammer out a deal.Sir Keir told a joint press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron: “In exchange for every return, a different individual will be allowed to come here via a safe route, controlled and legal, subject to strict security checks and only open to those who have not tried to enter the UK illegally.“This will show others trying to make the same journey that it will be in vain, and the jobs they have been promised in the UK will no longer exist because of the nationwide crackdown we’re delivering on illegal working which is on a completely unprecedented scale.“The president and I have agreed that this pilot will be implemented in the coming weeks.” Before Sir Keir and Mr Macron were due to speak, the UK coastguard tackled “multiple incidents involving small boats” in the English Channel.UK Border Force vessels raced out on Thursday morning to intercept several small boats crossing the Channel, the coastguard said. More

Brexit made it harder to tackle illegal migration across the Channel, Emmanuel Macron said as he and Sir Keir Starmer unveiled a “one in, one out” migrant returns scheme on Thursday (10 July).The French president told a joint press conference with the British prime minister: “It’s in fact since Brexit [that] the UK has no migratory agreement with the EU.”It creates an incentive to make the crossing, the precise opposite of what Brexit had promised.”The pair have agreed on a plan to send back small boats migrants, with an asylum seeker being sent to the UK in exchange. More

Watch as Sir Keir Starmer takes a swipe at Nigel Farage whilst announcing a migrant deal with France.Speaking with Emmanuel Macron in a joint address on Thursday (10 July), the British prime minister said dealing with migration requires a “serious, pragmatic response, not the performative politics of the easy answers”.He said that it is that himself and Mr Macron who have been “working hard to get a returns agreement” whilst “others have simply been taking pictures”.The prime minister appeared to reference the Reform UK leader, who earlier on Thursday went to Dover with GB News where he witnessed a migrant boat crossing the English Channel.The British and French leaders have agreed to a pilot “one in, one out” plan to send back small boats migrants, with an asylum seeker being sent to the UK in exchange. More

A Reform councillor has been suspended from her job with an MP after being charged with assault following an incident at a Pride event. Mandy Clare, who worked in the office of Sarah Pochin, is due to appear in court on 8 August after being arrested at Winsford Pride on 28 June. She was charged with assault and criminal damage and was later released on bail. A spokesperson for Ms Pochin, the MP for Runcorn and Helsby, said the office has a “zero-tolerance policy” for “disorderly” conduct. Amanda Clare, from Malpas More