“Foreigners will be forced to pay for using an ambulance or visiting A&E under a £500 million crackdown on “health tourism”. Jeremy Hunt, the health secretary, will announce charges for emergency treatment and travel on all non-British residents for the first time next month, The Times has learnt. Emergency care should not be delayed by the need for payment, officials say, but any treatment judged non- urgent — even in A&E departments — should be withheld until fees are paid.” – The Times(£)
“Home Secretary Theresa May has emerged as the unlikely public favourite to lead the campaign for Britain to leave the EU….The Survation poll, commissioned by the cross-party organisation Leave.EU, asked which politician was best qualified to lead the referendum argument on ‘controlling our own borders and setting our own immigration policy’.” – Daily Mail
>Yesterday:
“George Osborne is to give more details of the UK’s EU renegotiation demands in Berlin on Monday. David Cameron has promised to speed up efforts to get a new deal for the UK ahead of an in/out referendum planned by the end of 2017. He will shortly set out the UK’s wish list in writing after pressure from EU leaders who say he has not been clear about what he wants from them.” – BBC
“The government has encouraged hospitals to offer discounted parking for carers as it rejected a bid to change the law. Labour MP Julie Cooper’s bill to exempt carers from parking charges was stymied by Tory MPs and is unlikely to become law. Ms Cooper said the charges were “one extra penalty” carers did not need. Social Care Minister Alistair Burt said local hospitals should make their own decisions but should try to reduce the “cost burden” on carers.” – BBC
“Chris Grayling sparked fury by saying reporters and campaigners were using the laws to find news stories in a way that ‘isn’t acceptable’. But he was accused of ‘staggering hypocrisy’ as it emerged he regularly commented on and praised stories uncovered by Freedom of Information (FoI) requests in opposition, using them to embarrass the previous government. The Conservative Party even uncovered some of the stories using FoI itself, between 2008 and 2010 when Mr Grayling was leading the attack on Labour’s record.” – Daily Mail
“Ministers were sent a report containing “gobsmacking” details about Kids Company only three days before paying it £3m. The document confirmed large payments to individual clients and the family of staff and found incomplete financial records. At the time, the charity said clinical need justified the spending. Newsnight and BuzzFeed News have seen the report, which was commissioned by Kids Company.”- BBC
“Boris Johnson will formally endorse the latest increase in the living wage on Monday, backing a rival scheme to the national living wage announced by George Osborne in the budget. The mayor of London will announce the new rate for the living wage in London, currently £9.15 an hour, which employers choose to pay on a voluntary basis. Mr Johnson is expected to raise it to £9.50 and believes the living wage should be part of the city’s “psyche”.” – The Times(£)
“The arrest of three peaceful protesters during last week’s Chinese state visit was a “disgraceful infringement of free speech” a senior Conservative MP has said. Former minister Tim Loughton told The Independent that the Government’s response to the incidents had been insufficient and said the influential Home Affairs Select Committee may review how such demonstrations are policed.” – The Independent
“A future Labour government at Holyrood would restore tax credits for working families, its Scottish leader Kezia Dugdale will tell party members. The MSP will make the pledge in her keynote address to the Scottish Labour conference in Perth. Ms Dugdale believes new taxes would not be necessary to pay for the plan.” – BBC
>Yesterday: ToryDiary: The Scottish Conservatives should not have had to abandon an event for lack of police protection
“A senior adviser to Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has been accused of showing “contempt” with his apology over a tweet backing a rival party. Andrew Fisher has faced calls for his expulsion after suggesting people should back a Class War candidate at the general election. The recently-appointed policy adviser said he apologised “unreservedly”. But Labour MP Ian Austin criticised his suggestion the tweet had been “misinterpreted”.” – BBC
“An economist lined up to advise the Labour leadership once vowed to “move heaven and earth” to ensure George Galloway, the Respect leader, defeated the party, it has emerged. James Meadway, chief economist at the New Economics Foundation think tank, was part of the Respect party campaign team that successfully unseated Labour in Bethnal Green and Bow at the 2005 election. He has also been listed as a member of Mr Galloway’s Respect party.” – The Times(£)
“Jeremy Corbyn has continued making policy on the hoof – committing £10billion to scrapping tuition fees at a bus stop. The Labour leader had been chatting to students when he made the pledge, which included restoring maintenance grants, despite it not being official party policy. The move will alarm Labour moderates, not least because all policies must go through the party’s National Policy Forum and be vetted by Angela Eagle, the MP leading the review.” – Daily Mail
“This is an emergency. A little heroism is called for. Someone on those green benches must do or die— and quite possibly die. “Most,” wrote the German historian Leopold von Ranke, “see their ruin before their eyes; but they go on into it.” Let that not stand as Labour’s epitaph.” – Matthew Parris The Times(£)
“LABOUR have been slammed for starting to campaign in the Oldham West by-election before the funeral of the late MP Michael Meacher. Leaked emails seen by The Sun show the party are breaking traditional convention by beginning to leaflet in the Greater Manchester seat today. Under threat from UKIP — who achieved 21% of the vote in the seat at May’s General Election — Labour bosses are pushing for a very quick four week campaign with the by-election planned for Thursday 3 December.” – The Sun(£)
“Watch out men of Westminster — Harriet Harman is writing a no-holds-barred memoir. She was sacked by Tony Blair, sidelined by Gordon Brown and frustrated by Ed Miliband, but was the only Labour senior figure still standing after the general election in May. Now, after 33 years in parliament, the former deputy leader feels it is time to give her version of events, telling the story of women in politics, something she feels has been left out of most political books. Some people, she warned, would “find life difficult” as a result.” – The Times(£)
“The UK may not be prepared for the number of Syrian refugees the government plans to accept, MPs say. Ministers plan to take 20,000 refugees by 2020 – a “huge change in the scale” of resettlement, according to Home Affairs Committee chairman Keith Vaz. He said the committee was “concerned about our real level of preparedness and ability to increase capacity to manage such numbers at short notice”.” – BBC
“It is a sad fact that any really difficult piece of public policy – war, spending cuts, big industrial or environmental developments, movements of population, will have individual victims. This is a good reason for proceeding with great care. It is not a reason for avoiding difficulty. To govern is to choose, not to call yet another inquiry.” – Charles Moore Daily Telegraph