Markus Andrews

Dominic Raab will warn of the “growing threat” from Islamic State in Africa as the UK commits £12.6m to tackle terrorist groups in the region.He is to set out his desire to bring about the “lasting defeat” of IS, also known as Daesh, at a meeting of over 45 foreign ministers from around the world in Rome.The gathering of the Global Coalition Against Daesh on Monday is the first to take place in person since November 2019 and will be co-hosted by Italian foreign minister Luigi Di Maio and US secretary of state Anthony Blinken.Speaking at the event, Mr Raab will say: “The UK recognises the continuing threat and remains absolutely committed to the lasting defeat of Daesh.“The coalition must work together to tackle this pressing threat and target the longer-term challenges that are exploited by those who extol violence and terrorism.“We must ensure there are no safe havens for Daesh.“We must keep up the pressure on Daesh, wherever its poisonous influence spreads. It will exploit any opportunity to re-establish itself.”Attacks by Isis in Africa have gone up by a third over the past year while the group has also shown signs of a resurgence in the Middle East.The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said a new conflict, stability and security fund programme will support regional military efforts to counter IS and other groups, as well as efforts to safely demobilise suspected low-level members of terrorist groups.Its £12.6m contribution will focus on efforts in the Lake Chad Basin in West Africa, which covers northeast Nigeria, Cameroon, Niger and Chad. Islamic State West Africa (ISWA), an affiliate of Daesh, is active in the area.Mr Raab said: “Two years since Daesh’s territorial defeat in Iraq and Syria, the threat of Daesh and its hateful ideology has not gone away. Worryingly it continues to grow in Africa which is why we must work with our coalition partners to fight its poisonous propaganda on all fronts.“We stand shoulder to shoulder with our African partners to tackle the growing threat from Daesh-linked groups across Africa, particularly in the Lake Chad Basin.”Additional reporting by Press Association More

The lifting of all restrictions on 19 July is “possibly too early”, the government has been warned, with public health experts calling for more caution in the weeks ahead amid the continuing spread of the highly transmissible Delta variant.The rapid emergence of Delta forced Downing Street to delay the full reopening of society on 21 June by four weeks, and some scientists are concerned that the UK will remain vulnerable to a significant surge in cases, hospitalisations and deaths once all measures are removed later next month.A total of 101,676 cases were reported last week up to Saturday, a 43 per cent increase on the previous week, while a further 514 people were hospitalised in England with Covid-19 in the seven days up to 21 June. Of these, 304 were unvaccinated. Rising hospital pressures have also been compounded by a recent spike in A&E patients due to non-Covid issues; last week, The Independent revealed that a number of trusts had declared “black alerts” due to sudden surges in admissions.Some have nonetheless called for restrictions to be lifted on 5 July. But Linda Bauld, a professor of public health at the University of Edinburgh, said that such a move “is not supported by current evidence”.“We’ve seen rising numbers of cases in the UK over the past few weeks and although hospital admissions remain low, they are also rising, as are deaths from a very low base,” she said. “We know that although 88 per cent of adults have had a single dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, this provides partial protection and we need time to deliver more second doses, particularly to the over-40s.”Prof Bauld said three more weeks at the current level of easing would put the UK “in a more sustainable position” while providing the government with a “better idea” of the state of the UK’s epidemic. However, she warned, 19 July is still “very ambitious and possibly too early”.Agreeing that all Covid metrics were moving in the wrong direction, Professor Stephen Reicher, a member of Sage’s subgroup advising on behavioural science, said: “The question isn’t whether we should reopen on 5 July, it is what we can do to control the pandemic so we can reopen on 19 July.”Professor Sir Peter Horby, chairman of the government’s New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (Nervtag), said he would not bring the restrictions easing date forward, adding that it had been “very sensible” to delay it by four weeks.“I don’t think we should rush into anything, we really want to make sure that we can release all restrictions and not have to backtrack at all,” he told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show on Sunday.Announcing a delay to the original so-called “freedom day” on 21 June, Mr Johnson told the public the government will “monitor the position every day and if after two weeks we have concluded that the risk has diminished then we reserve the possibility of proceeding to Step 4 and full opening sooner”.In a Commons statement on Monday, however, it is widely expected the government will not sanction an early reopening on 5 July – despite calls from some Tory backbenchers – and rather insist the relaxation of all remaining Covid restrictions remains on track for 19 July.Just last week, the business minister Kwasi Kwarteng also claimed the government would “always err on the side of caution”, as he suggested it was “unlikely” measures would be lifted ahead of what the prime minister has described as the “terminus” date of 19 July.It was not immediately clear whether Sajid Javid, who replaced Matt Hancock as health secretary at the weekend following his dramatic resignation, will return to the despatch box tomorrow tasked with the job of updating MPs on the government’s plans.Speaking on Sunday for the first time since his return to the cabinet, Mr Javid said his “most immediate priority” will be ending the Covid-19 pandemic as soon as possible, as he stressed he wanted to “see that we return to normal as soon and as quickly as possible”.Asked whether Labour would support the direction indicated by Mr Javid, Sir Keir Starmer told reporters: “What we’ve seen today already I’m afraid is confusion, because the incoming health secretary said he wants to open up as quickly as possible. The government’s now rowed back on that.“I don’t think it’s inspired confidence that already on day one, there’s been the health secretary saying his position this morning and then the government rowing back on it.”Prof Horby, who is also professor of emerging infectious diseases in the Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford, said the government and its scientific advisers were watching the data “very carefully”.He added: “There will be a lot of analysis of the data coming up to that date, to make sure we’re comfortable with that release.”Professor Lawrence Young, a virologist at the University of Warwick, said that cases were continuing to rise as a result of the more transmissible Delta variant, but insisted that the link between infections, severe disease and hospitalisations has “been significantly weakened” as a result of the UK’s vaccine rollout.Even so, he added, “it does make sense to hold our nerve for a few more weeks [in easing restrictions] to get more people doubled jabbed and be sure that we have the Delta variant under control”.Some breakthrough infections are still to be expected, where a vaccinated individual falls ill from Covid, Prof Horby added. Those who have refused to receive a vaccine also remain particularly vulnerable. “But at this stage, we’re able to make sure that the health system isn’t overwhelmed and vaccination is really key to that.”He warned that the route out of the pandemic would be “a bumpy road out and that there will be twists and turns that we’re not wishing to see”. More

Keir Starmer’s immediate future as Labour leader could be “safe”, even if the party suffers another historical defeat at a crucial by-election, due to a lack of “unity” around any potential replacement, MPs have suggested.With polls pointing towards a second rare victory for an incumbent government in under two months and Labour insiders increasingly downbeat about Labour’s prospects in Batley and Spen, speculation has inevitably turned to questions over Sir Keir’s leadership.The co-chair of the left-wing group Momentum told The Independent that the Labour leader had been an “utter failure” and suggested he should “consider resigning” if the party loses control of the seat for the first time since 1997.In a further sign of how acrimonious relations between the left and Labour’s high command have become of late, one MP remarked Sir Keir would become a “lame duck” leader if he endures another defeat at the ballot box in under two months.But senior figures on the left also played down the prospect of any imminent challenge to Sir Keir’s leadership, pointing to the absence of a candidate to rally around, or one being able to gather the required number of 40 MPs to kick-start a challenge.It was also claimed the recent shake-up of the Labour leader’s backroom operation at Westminster, including the influential positions of chief-of-staff and director of communications, may be used in an attempt “placate” frustrated MPs as evidence of the party taking a fresh approach later this week.Diane Abbott – a key figure during Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership – told The Independent that MPs had “obviously discussed what happens if we lose Batley and Spen”.“People are talking about Starmer’s position,” she said. “But the thing which that makes him safe, I think, is the question of who we would replace him with. “There’s no resolution on that, whether from the left of from the sort of erstwhile Blairites, so my guess would be that even if we lose Batley and Spen, Starmer remains secure for the time being.”Pressed on what discussions had taken place, the former shadow cabinet minister said: “Well, we can all see the polls. Some of us have been up there and seen and heard the response. Who does Starmer appeal to? He doesn’t appeal to the sort of soft Tory vote in places like Chesham and Amersham. “He didn’t appeal to hardcore Labour supporters in Hartlepool, so the question is, what is his electoral base and who does he appeal to? If he’s too grey a character to appeal to anybody, is his position sustainable? But, as I say, there’s no unity on who should replace him.”Ms Abbott added that various names had come up, but suggested the “strongest name” was the mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham. “But he’s not an MP, so he’s not a short-term proposition,” she added.“The obvious names have come up, Angela Rayner, obviously, but you wouldn’t necessarily get unity around Angela Rayner at this point. That’s why I think even if we lose Batley and Spen, Starmer can carry on.”Another MP on the left agreed there was a lack of unity around any potential candidate, but also suggested Sir Keir would be in a “dangerous” position if he lost the election, saying: “There will be a large number of MPs who will look at that result and think to themselves, ‘on the current trajectory I’m going to lose my seat’.“His authority in the party will diminish, so even if there isn’t a political outrider, for the next two years he’s going to be a lame duck leader.” A second senior MP said: “I don’t think there will be a challenge, however, the disaffection will continue to grow. I think he has got a sense of shame and will have to think very, very carefully about his leadership.”Andrew Scattergood, the co-chair of the Momentum group set up to support the left-wing policies of the Corbyn leadership, suggested another defeat in the wake of recent defeats in Hartlepool and Chesham & Amersham would signal “Sir Keir’s leadership in its entirety has been an utter failure”.“I think that is on the back of a by-election defeat previously, I think that is on not showing proper opposition to the Tory party throughout his leadership,” he said. “I think it’s also an example of failed leadership in the way he’s treating the members and I think that signals the final failure that should be sort of allowed as Labour leader.”Asked whether he believed Sir Keir should resign, he replied: “If they lose the by-election he should seriously consider his position and consider resigning.“Everything is pointing towards Labour certainly not doing well at the next general election. I think it’s time that Labour had an overhaul of where they stand and the policies and politics this country and broader need in the post-pandemic world that we will sooner or later be entering. “At the minute there are no signs and there is no confidence from me in Starmer being able to come up with the answers and the policies, not only to change people’s lives, but to prove successful at the ballot box.”Frustration over the Labour leader’s performance, however, isn’t confined to the left of the party. Speaking at an event hosted by The Independent last week, the Labour peer Lord Adonis suggested that a change in leadership may not be “long in coming”, stressing: “There’s a limit to how much failure even the Labour Party can take.“The thing to understand about Labour in the past is that, though it’s true that we’ve been very good at keeping leaders who lose elections, in mid-term they have generally looked as if they could win,” he said.“It’s important to understand that. They’ve been winning by-elections, ahead in the polls. That’s true even of Ed Miliband and, of course, remember that Jeremy Corbyn did well in the 2017 election and that made people think he may be able to pull another rabbit out of the bag. The issue for Keir, and we’re all hoping that we hold the Batley and Spen by-election, but there is a certain dynamic of events there too.”But offering a defence of Sir Keir, Dame Margaret Beckett, a former deputy leader of the party, dismissed calls for him to resign, saying the current context of the pandemic was a “nightmare for any leader of the opposition” and “worse than under any normal circumstances”.“People talk about it being unprecedented times for a government. It’s an unprecedented challenge for a leader of the opposition,” she told The Independent.“It’s absolutely ridiculous, he can’t get anything across, he can’t get himself heard. The prime minister is playing from the Trump playbook, spends all his time going out having his photograph taken, and he’s on the news every night.“The most difficult thing for any opposition at any time is always to get a hearing and, at the moment, it’s just almost incomparably difficult, and I think in the circumstances he’s doing extremely well.”Pressed for her thoughts on colleagues suggesting the possibility of a leadership contest, she replied: “If they have any real concerns for the welfare of the British people they should find better things to do with their time.”On the party’s prospects in the West Yorkshire seat, a Labour source admitted: “It’s very, very tough. The impact of different people coming in, [George] Galloway coming in and other candidates taking pro-Brexit votes in comparison to 2019, is hugely disruptive and frankly it’s looking very, very difficult for us.” More

Britain’s health secretary has resigned after a tabloid splashed photos and videos of him kissing an aide in his office — breaking the same coronavirus social distancing rules he imposed on the nation.While Matt Hancock was swiftly replaced, the scandal was another blow to Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his Conservative government, which has repeatedly come under criticism for incompetence and hypocrisy in its handling of the pandemic over the past year.“People have made huge sacrifices to beat the pandemic and what riles them is the whiff of hypocrisy that people make the rules and don’t stick to them themselves,” Conservative lawmaker Andrew Bridgen told the BBC on Sunday. Hancock announced his resignation Saturday, a day after apologizing for breaching social distancing rules after the Sun tabloid published images showing him and senior aide Gina Coladangelo embracing and kissing in his office. The Sun said the images were taken on May 6, before lockdown rules were eased to allow hugs and physical contact with people not in one’s own household. Hancock, who is married, wasn’t the first senior British politician caught red-handed for breaking the government’s own COVID-19 rules. Johnson’s former top aide, Dominic Cummings was accused of undermining the government’s “stay home” message during Britain’s first lockdown in 2020 when he broke a travel ban and drove across England to his parents’ home. The breach caused a furor and was widely seen to erode public trust in Johnson’s government.And Neil Ferguson a leading government scientific adviser who advocated for strict lockdown rules, quit his position in May 2020 after it emerged he didn’t practice what he preached and allowed his girlfriend to visit him at home. At the time, Hancock remarked that the social distancing rules in place “are there for everyone” and are “deadly serious.”On Sunday, many questioned why Johnson publicly stood by Hancock after evidence of the latest rule breach emerged. Johnson had expressed confidence in the health minister, and his office said he had considered the matter closed after Hancock’s apology, despite widespread calls to fire him. “Boris Johnson should have had the guts, the spine, the awareness, the judgment, to sack him on Friday,” said Jonathan Ashworth, the opposition Labour Party’s health spokesman.Hancock had come under fire for his leadership in the government’s response to the pandemic long before the publishing of the intimate photos. He was accused of cronyism for hiring his friend, businesswoman Dido Harding, to run the much-criticized national test and trace system. Questions were also raised after the government awarded a lucrative coronavirus testing contract to a company run by a pub landlord near Hancock’s former constituency home. Hancock has denied involvement in the contract.Some are now also asking how Coladangelo, a close friend of Hancock’s from university, landed her job as a non-executive director at the Department of Health.The scandal came on the back of wider accusations from the opposition about “sleaze” in the Conservative party. Last month, former Prime Minister David Cameron was called before lawmakers to answer questions about lobbying work he did to win government funds for a now-bankrupt financial services company.Lucy Powell, a Labour lawmaker, said the fact that Hancock wasn’t fired reflected poorly on Johnson’s judgment.“I’m afraid it feels to me that the prime minister has a very dangerous blind spot when it comes to issues of integrity and conduct in public life,” she told Sky News. “That’s a really big problem and it’s an even bigger problem when you’re in the middle of a pandemic and you’re asking the public to also have integrity and conduct in the way that they go about with their own lives.” More

Classified defence documents containing details about HMS Defender and the military have been found by a member of the public at a bus stop in Kent.A member of the public who wished to remain anonymous contacted the BBC after finding 50 pages of classified information behind a Kent bus stop on Tuesday morning.The documents were “found in a soggy heap”, the BBC reported.The Ministry of Defence (MoD) confirmed the incident on Sunday, saying an employee had reported losing the documents last week. “The Ministry of Defence was informed last week of an incident in which sensitive defence papers were recovered by a member of the public,” an MoD spokesperson said in a statement shared with The Independent.“The department takes the security of information extremely seriously and an investigation has been launched,” they said.It is unclear whether the individual who left the documents behind at the bus stop could face any action. “The employee concerned reported the loss at the time,” the spokesperson said, adding: “It would be inappropriate to comment further.”According to the BBC, the documents included information on a mission described by the MoD as an “innocent passage through Ukrainian territorial waters” with guns covered and the ship’s helicopter stowed away in its hangar.The documents suggested the mission would be conducted in the “expectation that Russia might respond aggressively”, the BBC reported.Indeed, HMS Defender sparked a reaction from Russian forces on Wednesday after it made its way through waters south of the Crimean peninsula, which the Kremlin illegally annexed from Ukraine in 2014. The ship had been headed to the Indo-Pacific region with the UK Carrier Strike Group, but it was announced earlier this month that it would be splitting with the group to carry out its “own set of missions” in the Black Sea. Defence secretary Ben Wallace has said Moscow’s response on Wednesday, which saw several aircraft follow the ship at heights as low as 500 feet, was “neither safe nor professional”.Russia has also said that warning shots were fired by their vessels. However, the UK government has said that it was only a routine “gunnery exercise” that took place. The MoD said that HMS Defender “conducted innocent passage through Ukrainian territorial waters in accordance with international law” in a statement appearing to echo the contents of the misplaced documents.Shadow defence secretary John Healey has called the incident “as embarrassing as it is worrying for ministers”.“It’s vital the internal inquiry launched by the secretary of state establishes immediately how highly classified documents were taken out of the Ministry of Defence in the first place and then left in this manner,” he told the Press Association.“Ultimately ministers must be able to confirm to the public that national security has not been undermined, that no military or security operations have been affected and that the appropriate procedures are in place to ensure nothing like this happens again,” Mr Healey said. More

The spread of the Delta variant in the UK could have been curbed by stronger border measures, the chairman of Nervtag has said.Professor Sir Peter Horby told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show that modelling of the Delta variant suggests a more transmissible strain than the Alpha, or Kent, variant and that it will be difficult to control. He believes we will soon see it spreading across Europe.Asked if the Delta variant’s spread in the UK was due to not having strong enough border measures earlier, Prof Horby said: “It’s clear that the Delta variant started to transmit within the UK because of introductions from other countries.“So I think there is a case to be said that that did happen and stronger border measures may have delayed that, may even have prevented it.“But there is an obvious trade-off that policymakers and politicians have to make between absolute complete restrictions and stopping various viruses coming in.”Boris Johnson has faced criticism for not putting India on the “red list” earlier when it became apparent that a new variant was spreading rapidly across the nation. The variant now makes up more than 90 per cent of cases in England and is estimated by Public Health England (PHE) to be 64 per cent more transmissible than the Alpha variant indoors.Official estimates suggest that around 20,000 passengers who could have been infected with the Delta variant between early April and 23 April, when India was put on the red list.Prof Horby’s verdict comes just weeks after Labour shadow home secretary, Nick Thomas-Symonds, dubbed the Delta variant the “Johnson variant” and accused the government’s “unforgivable recklessness” with its approach to border protections. Mr Thomas-Symonds said: “They have allowed the Delta variant, first identified in India to take hold here. Let’s call it what it is – let’s put the blame where it should lie. In this country – it’s the Johnson variant.” More

Brandon Lewis has once again acknowledged that a tweet he sent out in January, in which he claimed “there is no Irish Sea border”, is not entirely true.“I fully accept that tweet hasn’t aged well,” the Northern Ireland secretary told Andrew Marr on Sunday when he appeared on the broadcaster’s eponymous BBC1 show.Mr Marr had shown his guest a screenshot of the tweet and asked him to “straightforwardly accept that that is not true”. Quick to defend both himself and the government, Mr Lewis responded: “On 1 January [when the tweet was published], we were very clear that we didn’t want a sea border.”He went on to blame the EU for its implementation of the Northern Ireland Protocol post-Brexit, which he branded “purist”. “What’s happened since [1 January] is we’ve seen the implementation of the Protocol, the outworking of it, the purist way the EU want to see it, has meant that we’ve seen disruption in Northern Ireland.”Asked repeatedly by Mr Marr if “right now” there is in fact an Irish border, Mr Lewis admitted while there was not a sea border by the traditional definition, there were barriers to trade.“If you’ve travelled to Northern Ireland, as I do regularly, when you go through the airports, you’re not going through a border in the sense that anybody expects the border, but I’m not denying the fact there is big disruption in Northern Ireland to businesses and consumers.“We need to rectify that and we will do.”Pressed on whether it was an issue for ministers at home or in the European bloc to resolve, Mr Lewis said it was a “two-way thing”, adding that the “EU needs to show the flexibility that they keep talking about”.His response to the tweet was similar in an interview with Belfast newspaper The News Letter back in March, when he framed it as something he truly believed at the time he wrote it.“Looking to do the Protocol in a way that consumers in Northern Ireland effectively wouldn’t see it, wouldn’t feel it, wouldn’t have an issue with it,” he told the paper. “Clearly that is not the lived experience on the ground and that is why we’ve taken measures over the last couple of months with the EU and obviously we took the measures unilaterally last week.”The cabinet minister’s latest remarks come amid ongoing talks between the UK and EU to reduce the burden of red tape required to move goods between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.Northern Ireland’s Protocol, which was agreed by UK and EU officials as a way to keep the land border on the island of Ireland free-flowing, has created a series of new checks and restrictions – particularly on transporting GB produce into Northern Ireland.A prohibition on chilled meats is due to come into force this week – the so-called “sausage war” – but the EU has indicated it is willing to grant a request from Boris Johnson’s administration to extend a temporary exemption period from the ban for a further three months.The EU’s ambassador to the UK said last week the bloc was “turning regulations upside down to try and find a solution to this problem”.“What we didn’t like to see was unilateral action by the government in breach of what we had agreed,” Joao Vale de Almeida added. “I hope that is behind us now, although the legal procedures must continue, and that we can find a new way of working on these issues.”Tensions continue to mount in Northern Ireland as loyalists claim the trade arrangements have driven a constitutional wedge between them and the rest of the UK.There are fresh concerns loyalist anger could result in violence during the country’s sensitive loyal order parading season during the summer. It comes after a string of riots in April – one of which saw a bus hijacked and set on fire in Belfast city centre – erupted due to unrest over the post-Brexit legislation. Maros Sefcovic, the European Commission vice president, is due to appear before a Stormont committee on Monday to answer questions on the bloc’s stance on the Protocol. More

Appointing Sajid Javid as the new health secretary after Matt Hancock’s resignation is akin to “putting the fox in charge of the chicken coop”, Labour has said.Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow health secretary, described his counterpart as an “architect of austerity” who oversaw NHS “cutbacks” during his time as Chancellor.In the first 70 years of the NHS, the average annual budget rise stood at 3.7 per cent. However, between 2009/10 and 2018/19 – the peak years of austerity under the Conservatives – the average funding growth each year was just 1.5 per cent. Mr Javid held two ministerial roles in the Treasury between 2012 and 2014 before being appointed Chancellor in July 2019, only to resign a year later following a run-in with Dominic Cummings, the prime minister’s former chief adviser.Speaking to the BBC on Sunday, Mr Ashworth warned that the government and new health secretary, who steps in for Mr Hancock following a breach of Covid regulations, had to start focusing on “delivering the quality care that patients deserve”.He highlighted that 5.1 million people were on the waiting list, cancer treatments were delayed and young people were struggling to access mental health care, some of which was because the NHS entered the coronavirus crisis “on the back of 10 years of underfunding” and “cutbacks”.Mr Ashworth added: “Sajid Javid was responsible for that. He was a Treasury minister. He was a leading advocate for, indeed an architect of the austerity that has afflicted the NHS these last 10 years, which has weakened it.”In many ways making him Health Secretary, given his record as an architect of austerity, it’s a bit like putting the fox in charge of the chicken coop.”Mr Javid, speaking for the first time after Saturday night’s surprise appointment, said his “most immediate priority” will be ending the coronavirus pandemic as soon as possible.”I just want to start by saying I think Matt Hancock worked incredibly hard, he achieved a lot, and I’m sure he will have more to offer in public life,” he said.”I was honoured to take up this position. I also know that it comes with a huge responsibility and I will do everything I can to make sure that I deliver for this great country.”We are still in a pandemic and I want to see that come to an end as soon as possible and that will be my most immediate priority, to see that we can return to normal as soon and as quickly as possible.”The British Medical Association (BMA) has meanwhile said that Mr Javid will need to be “honest” with the public over tackling a backlog of care and negotiate the resources that the NHS needs, Dr Chaand Nagpaul, council chairman of the BMA, told Sky News there were “a record five plus million patients on waiting lists” which “doesn’t include about 20 million patients who were not seen in outpatient clinics last year”.He added: “Many of those patients will become more ill as time goes on. Many of them have health conditions, which if they’re not treated promptly, will become more serious.”And what he will need to do is manage that crisis in a way that delivers prioritisation, but also be honest with the public about the length of time it’s going to take.”And as a health secretary, and a former chancellor, he’s going to need to negotiate the resources that the NHS needs.”The government has not costed for the several billions of pounds that are going to be needed to address this backlog.”Dr Nagpaul said Mr Javid will need to address issues around pay and recruitment, adding health workers wanted to hear that “he understands the workforce”.”The health service cannot survive without its workforce,” he said. More