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Rishi Sunak refuses to say if he uses private GP

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has repeatedly refused to say whether he uses private healthcare, insisting it is “not really relevant”.

Mr Sunak told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme that his healthcare was “a personal choice”.

Nursing union leader Pat Cullen said the PM “needed to come clean as a public servant”.

And when asked the same question, shadow health secretary Wes Streeting said he did not use private healthcare.

In the interview, Laura Kuenssberg suggested there was huge public interest in Mr Sunak’s decisions and that former Conservative prime minister Margaret Thatcher was open about her choice to use a private GP.

Mr Sunak said healthcare was “something that is private”, adding he “grew up in an NHS family”, with a dad who was GP, and a mum who was a pharmacist.

But when pressed again, Mr Sunak did not answer the question and instead said, in general, “we should be making use of the independent sector” so patients could choose where they have treatment.

A newspaper report in November last year suggested Mr Sunak was registered with a private GP practice that offers on-the-day appointments and charges £250 for a halfhour consultation.

The latest NHS figures show that, in November last year, 58% of NHS patients were not seen on the day they made an appointment.

At the same time, a record high of more than seven million people are waiting for hospital treatment, as the NHS faces one of the worst winters in its history.

Ms Cullen, the general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, said public servants “ought to be clear with the public whether or not you are using private health cover”.

“That’s about being open, it’s about being transparent and it’s about honesty,” she said.

Mr Streeting said the PM’s answer to the question about his healthcare showed him to be someone who did not understand the biggest crisis in NHS history.

He said private healthcare created a twotier system, but patients were free to make their own choices about treatment.

Mr Sunak has said he has a policy of not commenting on his family’s healthcare arrangements, when asked previously.

Laura Kuenssberg said there was likely to be a political row over Mr Sunak’s personal healthcare choices.

One former minister told the BBC presenter: “[Mr Sunak’s] lack of transparency shows he thinks going private is a problem. It is - he’s taking decisions on public spend that affect a version of ‘the public’ that he’s not willing to be part of.”

Some of Mr Sunak’s predecessors have made a point of drawing attention to their use of the NHS when they were prime minister.

David Cameron often spoke about how the NHS cared for his disabled son, while Boris Johnson said the health service saved his life after he fell seriously ill with Covid.

But when Mrs Thatcher was prime minister she was candid about her use of private health insurance, which she said was vital for her to “go into hospital on the day I want, at the time I want, and with a doctor I want”.

Mr Sunak was interviewed as senior doctors warn of a NHS on a knife edge, with health workers striking over pay and some hospitals in crisis.

A sharp rise in Covid-19 and flu admissions in recent weeks has put pressure on hospitals, which are also dealing with a backlog of treatment that built up during the pandemic.

A&E waits and ambulance delays are at their worst levels on record.

In Sunday’s interview, Mr Sunak acknowledged the NHS was “undeniably under enormous pressure”.

When asked if the NHS was “in crisis”, he said while recovering from the pandemic “was going to be tough”, he was optimistic “we can get to grips with this problem”.

In his new year speech this week, Mr Sunak said bringing down NHS waiting lists was one of his five top priorities and has since held talks with health leaders to alleviate the crisis.

Ana Montes: Top spy freed in US after more than 20 years

Ana Montes - among the best-known Cold War spies caught by the US - has been released from prison after more than 20 years in custody.

The 65-year-old spent almost two decades spying for Cuba while employed as an analyst at the Defence Intelligence Agency.

After her arrest in 2001, officials said she had almost entirely exposed US intelligence operations on the island.

One official said she was among “the most damaging spies” caught by the US.

Michelle Van Cleave, who was head of counter-intelligence under President George W Bush, told Congress in 2012 that Montes had “compromised everything - virtually everything - that we knew about Cuba and how we operated in Cuba”.

“So the Cubans were well aware of everything that we knew about them and could use that to their advantage. In addition, she was able to influence estimates about Cuba in her conversations with colleagues and she also found an opportunity to provide information that she acquired to other powers.”

After her arrest, Montes was accused of supplying the identities of four US spies and oceans of classified material. She was handed a 25-year prison sentence, with the sentencing judge accusing her of putting the “nation as a whole” at risk.

However, unlike other high-profile spies caught during the cold war, Montes was motivated by ideology, not personal gain. She agreed to work for Cuban intelligence in part based on her opposition to the Reagan Administration’s activities in Latin America.

In particular, a report from the defence department’s inspector general found, she is believed to have been angered by US support for the Nicaragua Contras - a right-wing rebel group suspected of committing war crimes and other atrocities in the country.

She was initially approached by a fellow student at Johns Hopkins University in 1984 after expressing outrage at US actions in Nicaragua. She was later introduced to a Cuban intelligence agent and at a dinner in New York City she “unhesitatingly agreed to work through the Cubans to ‘help’ Nicaragua”, the inspector general’s report said.

After travelling to Havana the following year for training, she joined the Defence Intelligence Agency, where she would eventually become the organisation’s senior analyst on the island’s communist government. For almost two decades she met with Cuban handlers every few weeks at Washington DC restaurants and sent coded messages containing top secret information to them via pager. She received her orders by transmissions sent over short-wave radio.

She was finally detained in September 2001 after US intelligence officials received a tip that a government employee seemed to be spying for Cuba. One of the FBI agents who arrested her said she had appeared stoic upon her arrest.

Newport News: Condition of teacher shot by child improving

The condition of a Virginia teacher left seriously injured when she was shot by a six-year-old pupil has shown signs of improvement, authorities say.

Abby Zwerner suffered life-threatening injuries after she was shot with a handgun at Richneck Elementary School in the city of Newport News on Friday.

Mayor Phillip Jones told the BBC that Ms Zwerner’s recovery was “trending in a positive direction”.

But he added that she remained in a critical condition after the incident.

Online, social media users wished Ms Zwerner - who is believed to be in her 30s - a speedy recovery.

Her alma mater, James Madison University in Virginia, offered “prayers and best wishes for Abby’s health and recovery”.

It is unclear how the child - who remains in police custody - obtained the gun. Officials said that while the school - which has around 550 students - had metal detection facilities, students were checked at random and not every child was inspected.

Police have declined to say what might have motivated the incident, but Chief Steve Drew told reporters the shooting had come after an “altercation” in a first grade (ages six to seven) classroom and did not appear to be “accidental”.

One parent, Steve Gonzalez, whose child was present in the classroom at the time of the shooting, told Fox News that Ms Zwerner had reacted selflessly after the shooting.

He said that after being struck by the bullet “she screamed at her kids to run away”.

Mayor Jones - who took office just five days ago - said police were continuing to investigate the circumstances around the shooting, but said he thought the “word altercation was a valid one, and one that I would use”.

“We don’t have all the answers about how a six-year-old was able to handle a firearm or how a six-year-old was able to access a firearm,” he said.

“This is a dark day in our history and I think this is a red flag for the country.”

Officers have also declined to discuss what contact they have had with the student’s parents.

Virginia law prevents six-year-olds being tried as adults. And the child would also be too young to be committed to the custody of the Department of Juvenile Justice if found guilty.

But a judge could revoke the parents’ custody of the boy and take him into the supervision of the state.

On Saturday, Chief Drew said police had “been in contact with our commonwealth’s attorney [local prosecutor] and some other entities to help us best get services to this young man”.

School District Superintendent George Parker said on Saturday that the shooting showed “we need to educate our children and we need to keep them safe”.

“We need the community’s support, continued support, to make sure that guns are not available to youth and I’m sounding like a broken record today, because I continue to reiterate that: that we need to keep the guns out of the hands of our young people,” he added. Source: BBC