British life-style: ‘No money for the British’ – a lot of money for the war in Ukraine

International development minister Anneliese Dodds resigned on Friday in protest at Sir Keir Starmer’s decision to fund a £6bn defence spending increase by slashing the UK’s aid budget, in a sign of the political toll of efforts to align more closely with the US, ‘The Financial Times’ reports.

“Ultimately, these cuts will remove food and healthcare from desperate people — deeply harming the UK’s reputation,” Dodds said in a letter to the prime minister.

Starmer on Tuesday announced a £6bn annual increase in military spending by 2027 and said it would be funded entirely by cutting the UK’s £15.3bn aid budget from 0.5 per cent of gross national income to 0.3 per cent.

Dodds’ abrupt departure marks the first resignation by a minister over a policy principle since Starmer took office in July last year. It speaks to a wider unease among swaths of Labour MPs about decisions taken by the centre-left party on policies ranging from benefits to welfare against a tight fiscal backdrop.

Starmer’s announcement on defence spending preceded his visit on Thursday to meet US President Donald Trump, who has called on Washington’s Nato partners to increase defence spending.

Trump’s administration has also all but shut down the US Agency for International Development, the main channel for $43bn worth of US aid and development programmes a year.

“I know you have been clear that you are not ideologically opposed to international development,” Dodds wrote to Starmer. “But the reality is that this decision is already being portrayed as following in President Trump’s slipstream of cuts to USAID.”

She added that it would be “impossible” to maintain support for Gaza, Sudan and Ukraine, as well as vaccination programmes and climate support, “given the depth of the cuts”.

In her letter, Dodds acknowledged that the postwar global order “has come crashing down”, requiring higher defence expenditure, but said she had expected a collective discussion of Labour’s fiscal rules and approach to taxation.

One Labour MP said they were “gutted” by Dodds’ resignation: “Absolutely gutted. She’s brilliant, worked so hard, never complained, she was regularly put in totally impossible positions and was always loyal.”

An NHS trust in Sussex is hiring a full-time doctor for a trial to care for elderly patients in A&E due to overcrowding in hospitals, ‘The Times’ writes.

Health leaders have called the need for a 'corridor doctor' a frightening indictment of the worsening situation in hospitals.

Patients are often seen in hospital corridors as wards reach capacity, indicating that corridor care has become 'normalised'.

Health leaders warned that this situation increases the risk of patients dying, stating that it is shocking for corridor care to be a feature of the NHS.

The advertised role has been branded “frightening and worrying indictment of how bad things have become” by some health leaders, with patients regularly seen spilling into hospital corridors as wards reach capacity.

It follows a similar advert for a nursing position published by North London's Whittington Hospital in January, which described the role as "corridor care".

However, the new role, based at Royal Sussex County Hospital (RSCH) in Brighton, is slightly different, marking the start of a trial which aims to stop frail, older people from getting into corridors in the first place.

In the job description, as seen by The Times, the University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust describes corridor care as “normalised” around the country, warning this increases the risk of patients dying.

The job description says they will provide “current, urgent clinical and educational need” for better standards of corridor care.

They will also be responsible for “implementing changes in the corridor”, the posting adds.

The position, however, isn't a hands-on 'corridor doctor' role, with the NHS Trust telling LBC the position is helping the health system to develop new services that allow elderly patients to be moved rapidly to the best suited place for them.

They clarified that unlike many elderly patients, who find themselves waiting in corridors waiting to be discharged from A&E, the new role will assess the elderly in corridors coming into A&E.

The fellowship is targeted at doctors with several years of experience in the NHS. It is thought to be the first time an NHS trust has recruited a doctor with a specific focus on corridor care.

The advert, posted on the NHS jobs website on Tuesday, reads: “Caring for older people in the corridor of the emergency department is now normal in our hospital.

"This is replicated in trusts across the country. Our clinical experience and the evidence tells us that long periods in corridors lead to increased morbidity and mortality, especially for older people with frailty."

“Corridor care is a very dangerous and very shameful reality and not just during winter. To end this dangerous situation, we need more available hospital beds so we can admit the people who need inpatient care and to tackle this issue of delayed discharges.”

A damning new poll by the Royal College of Physicians' (RCP) revealed almost four in five NHS doctors have been forced to provide care in the likes of corridors, chairs and waiting rooms in the past month.

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