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Prime minister makes major speech on NHS reform after social media attacks by Elon Musk
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Sir Keir Starmer has addressed the criticism by Elon Musk in a major speech on NHS reform.
The prime minister said changes to the NHS will open up millions of new appointments to cut waiting times for patients.
He has also responded to Mr Musk following a flurry of lurid claims by the billionaire that Sir Keir was “complicit in the rape of Britain” while director of public prosecutions over the issue of grooming gangs operating in the north of England.
Mr Musk has also been calling for the release of jailed far-right activist Tommy Robinson – a development which has seen him also turn on Reform leader Nigel Farage, who he claimed on Sunday “does not have what it takes” to lead the party.
Sir Keir told the media briefing in Surrey on Monday morning: “Those that are spreading lies and misinformation, as far and as wide as possible, are not interested in the victims. They’re interested in themselves. Those who are cheerleading Tommy Robinson are not interested in justice.
“They’re supporting a man who went to prison for nearly collapsing a grooming case, a gang grooming case. These are people who are trying to get some kind of vicarious thrill through street violence that people like Tommy Robinson promote.”
Asked by ITV whether he could take legal action over Musk’s claims: “I’ve said quite a lot about the various lies and misinformation that are put out there.
“My record is open – there was nothing secret about being director of public prosecutions. Every case I prosecuted went to court and was looked at by a judge.”
He added: “This isn’t about whether I defend myself or my record, frankly. That record is there, you can see it, you can make your own mind up. It is something about the nature of our politics, because once we lose the anchor that truth matters in the robust debate we must have, then we’re on a very slippery slope.”
Sir Keir Starmer has condemned Kemi Badenoch for her social media comments about grooming gangs, saying he “won’t tolerate politicians jumping on the bandwagon simply to get attention”.
It comes after Ms Badenoch piled in on Sir Keir following attacks from Elon Musk.
The PM said: “What I won’t tolerate is this discussion and debate based on lies without calling it out. What I won’t tolerate is politicians jumping on the bandwagon simply to get attention – those politicians were in government for 14 long years
“Tweeting, talking about it, but not doing anything about it.”
Asked by the BBC about suggestions by Elon Musk that the US should “liberate the people of Britain from their tyrannical government”, Sir Keir Starmer said: “I don’t really have any comments on the particular comment that was made this morning by Musk.”
Pressed by Sky News on Mr Musk’s lurid claims that safeguarding minister Jess Phillips “should be in jail”, the prime minister said: “I think most people are more interested in what’s going to happen in the NHS, frankly, than what’s happening on Twitter.
“But you asked me a really important question that’s been in the news for the last few days … child sexual exploitation is utterly sickening, and for many, many years too many victims have been completely let down.
“Let down by perverse ideas about community relations, or by the idea that institutions must be protected above all else. They’ve not been listened to and they’ve not been heard. When I was chief prosecutor for five years I tackled that head on, because I could see what was happening.
“That’s why I reopened cases that had been closed and supposedly finished. I brought the first major prosecution of an Asian grooming gang … we changed the whole prosecution approach because I wanted to challenge the myths and stereotypes that were stopping those cases being heard.”
He added: “That record is not secret.”
On the remarks about Ms Phillips, he said: “Those that are spreading lies and misinformation, as far and as wide as possible, are not interested in the victims. They’re interested in themselves. Those who are cheerleading Tommy Robinson are not interested in justice.
“They’re supporting a man who went to prison for nearly collapsing a grooming case, a gang grooming case. These are people who are trying to get some kind of vicarious thrill through street violence that people like Tommy Robinson promote.
“And those attacking Jess Phillips, who I am proud to call a colleague and a friend, are not protecting victims. Jess Phillips has done a thousand times more than they’ve even dreamt about when it comes to protecting victims of sexual abuse throughout her entire career.
“And so just as I took on the criminal justice system and institutions when I was chief prosecutor, I’m prepared to call out this for what it is. We’ve seen this playbook many times, a whipping up of intimidation and threats of violence, hoping that the media will amplify it.
“And Jess Phillips does not need me or anybody else to speak on her behalf. But when the poison of the far right leads to serious threats to Jess Phillips and others, then in my book a line has been crossed.”
The NHS app is getting a major upgrade as part of the government’s plans to overhaul the NHS and reduce waiting times from 18 months to 18 weeks.
Health secretary Wes Streeting said on Sunday that changes to the app would help move the NHS “into the digital age”.
Mr Streeting said the app updates would “put patients in the driving seat and treat them on time”, putting patients in control of their healthcare.
Here’s what those changes to the NHS app look like so far:
The government has announced major upgrades to the NHS app in a bid to cut waiting times
The PM has promised to cut waiting lists by shifting treatment away from centres and “deliver more care in people’s communities and their homes”.
Sir Keir Starmer promised to open more community diagnostic centres, open 12 hours a day seven days a week – something he said would avoid an extra 800,000 referrals each year.
“We will shift treatment away from centres and deliver more care in people’s communities and their homes”, he said.
“If you need a scan or an X-ray, you get it done much more quickly and at your convenience.”
This is the year that we roll up our sleeves and reform the NHS, Sir Keir Starmer has said.
“A new era of convenience in care, faster treatment at your fingertips, patients in control – an NHS fit for the future,” the prime minister said.
Sir Keir Starmer has outlined of the consequences of avoiding NHS reform, warning that working people “cannot be expected to subsidise current levels of care with ever growing taxes”.
“The NHS can’t become the sort of national money pit”, the PM told NHS workers and journalists at a speech in Surrey.
“Productivity can’t bump along 11 per cent lower than it was before the pandemic. Working people can’t be expected to subsidise the current levels of care with ever-rising taxes. That is the price of ducking reform – and I won’t stand for it.”
2025 is about rebuilding Britain, and rebuilding the NHS is the cornerstone of that aim, Sir Keir Starmer has said.
“That’s why I wanted to come here to make this speech this morning,” he said.
Vowing to protect the principle of free care at the point of use, and treatment according to need, the prime minister continued: “But to catapult the service into the future, we need an NHS that is reformed from top to bottom.
“Millions of extra appointments, signed sealed and delivered with the plan that we are launching here today. National renewal in action. People have long said we couldn’t do this … this sort of wallowing in a fatalism about the potential of this country … this plan we are launching today is a comprehensive rebuttal of that mindset.
“An NHS that treats patients more quickly. That is closer to their lives. That gives them the level of convenience that they take for granted in nearly every other service they use every day.”
Sir Keir Starmer has begun his speech on action to cut NHS waiting lists by thanking workers in the health service.
“This year of course is the 80th anniversary of VE and VJ day, and on the 8 May and 15 August we will all come together to celebrate the greatest victory of this country and the greatest generation that achieved it.
“And we intend to do them proud. But what that generation knew, what they realised and understood, is that the strength and prosperity of our nation rests on the security of working people. And that the fundamental job of government is to deliver that security.”
There is no institution more important for the security of the UK than the NHS, he said.
Elon Musk has made it clear that he is ready for attacks from Keir Starmer and on Sunday night warned his social media followers to be ready for a “cringeworthy” response from the prime minister.
Shortly before the speech was due to start he also appeared to suggest that the Trump administration should try to actively remove the Starmer government posting an inflamatory poll question on X: “America should liberate the people of Britain from their tyrannical government” – yes or no.
He quickly followed it up by claims that Donald Trump had saved civilisation.
Musk posted: “Had this election not been won by @realDonaldTrump, civilization would be lost.”
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