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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Andrew Sparrow

Tim Farron wins Lib Dem leadership contest, with 56% of the vote - Politics live

Tim Farron has won the Lib Dem leadership contest.
Tim Farron has won the Lib Dem leadership contest. Photograph: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images Europe

Afternoon summary

That’s all from me for today.

Thanks for the comments.

Simon Hughes, who supported Tim Farron, has offered his congratulations, calling Farron a “great liberal”.

Here’s a longer response from Norman Lamb, Tim Farron’s opponent in the contest.

This leadership election has energised and united our party. Tim Farron will be a passionate leader of our party, championing social justice and leading from the front in our campaign to rebuild the liberal voice in our country. I will give him my full backing.

Paddy Ashdown, who supported Norman Lamb in the leadership contest, says Tim Farron has “all the gifts to be a fine leader”.

Ashdown hasn’t always been so complimentary. Earlier this year he said Farron should show “a little more patience and a little more judgement.”

Here is the result being announced.

It doesn’t feel like a moment of great political theatre, does it?

But this isn’t the key event. The Lib Dems are holding a rally for their new leader in Islington Assembly Hall, where Tim Farron will be speaking at around 7pm tonight.

Tim Farron elected Lib Dem leader - Results in full

Here are the voting figures with the actual number of votes cast.

Turnout: 56%

Norman Lamb: 43.5% (14,760 votes)

Tim Farron: 56.5% (19,137 votes)

Updated

Clegg praises Farron as 'remarkable campaigner' and 'natural communicator'

And here’s a longer statement from Nick Clegg, the former leader.

Tim Farron is a remarkable campaigner and a man of the utmost integrity and conviction.

He is a natural communicator with a rare ability to inspire people and rally them to our cause. He knows how to win and I have no doubt he can pick the party up and get us fighting again.

It has been a pleasure to serve alongside Tim in parliament and a privilege to consider him a friend. I know he will be a brilliant leader and he will always have my support.

This is from Willie Rennie, the Lib Dem leader in Scotland.

Updated

Nick Clegg, the former leader, tells Tim Farron he’s got a “tough job, but the best in politics”.

Norman Lamb, who came closer to winning than many people expected, has congratulated Tim Farron.

Here is the Lib Dem news release with details of the result.

And here is a comment from Sal Brinton, the party president.

Both Tim and Norman ran distinctively liberal, strong campaigns that spoke to party members across the UK. At numerous hustings and meetings with members, they spoke of their liberal values, the direction they think we should go, and how to best rebuild the party over the coming months and years.

Tim is a fantastic communicator and his energy, enthusiasm and passion will inspire and drive the Liberal Democrats back to winning ways.

Tim Farron
Tim Farron Photograph: Rob Stothard/Getty Images

Lib Dem MPs are tweeting their congratulations.

And this is from Sal Brinton, the party president.

Tim Farron has been tweeting.

Updated

Here are the exact figures.

Tim Farron is the new Lib Dem leader.

There have been four other Lib Dem leadership elections since the party was formed in 1988. Here are the final results for each contest.

1988

Paddy Ashdown: 71%

Alan Beith: 29%

1999

Charles Kennedy: 57%

Simon Hughes: 43%

2006

Sir Menzies Campbell: 58%

Chris Huhne: 42%

2007

Nick Clegg: 50.6%

Chris Huhne: 49.4%

In 1999 and 2006 there were more than two candidates. The full results, including what other candidates got in the first round, are in this House of Commons library briefing paper (pdf).

Journalists are getting impatient.

Actually, there are quite a few. The Lib Dems say 20,000 people have joined since the election, taking the total membership to more than 60,000.

There have not been many polls during the Lib Dem leadership contest, but the ones that have been carried out have all shown Tim Farron ahead.

Here are some figures

A Survation poll for the Mail on Sunday just after the election

Farron: 23%

Lamb: 18%

At this stage the contest had not properly started, and the poll included Alistair Carmichael, who did not stand. These figures just relate to Lib Dem supporters who responded, and, because it was just one question in a much more general poll, the sample size was tiny.

A Lib Dem Voice survey of members at the end of May

Farron: 58%

Lamb: 20%

Other names were included in this poll too.

A YouGov survey of Lib Dem members in June

Farron: 42%

Lamb: 14%

This included lots of don’t knows.

A Liberal Democrat Newswire members survey earlier this week

Farron: 58%

Lamb: 42%

We’re getting the results of the Lib Dem leadership contest later this afternoon. According to the party, the result will be announced between 4pm and 5pm.

There are only two candidates, Tim Farron and Norman Lamb, and Farron is the clear favourite.

My colleague Frances Perraudin has written a preview story. Here’s an extract.

While Labour’s leadership contest has been attracting more headlines, the two Lib Dem leadership candidates have attended 25 hustings, more than 100 campaign events and covered about 20,000 miles between them.

The pair announced their intention to stand within a week of Nick Clegg’s resignation speech the day after the general election, in which the party lost 85% of its MPs and two-thirds of its voters.

Both candidates agree that the eventual aim was to get the party into a position where it can be in a coalition government again, though both have ruled out entering into a coalition without a guarantee of electoral reform from their governing partner.

But the immediate task is to rebuild the Lib Dems as a campaigning party, continuing to grow the membership – which has jumped by 18,000 since polling day – and winning back council seats before attempting to get more MPs elected in 2020.

Farron, the MP for Westmorland and Lonsdale since 2005 and a former party president, argues that this can be done by championing issues that the Tories and Labour will not touch. He has promised that, under his leadership, the Lib Dems would campaign against government proposals to extend the right to buy to housing association tenants, something he has predicted Labour will not be brave enough to oppose.

Farron’s Lib Dems would be unequivocal about the tragedy of the Mediterranean migrant crisis while extolling the benefits of immigration. “If we cheese off 70% of the electorate, but 30% embrace us, we’ll have that,” he told the Guardian in an interview during the campaign.

Quoting Oscar Wilde, he said there was one thing worse than being talked about and that was not being talked about. He said the Lib Dems needed a leader who was “spiky” and would say things that get the party noticed.

Lamb, the MP for Norfolk North since 2001 and a former care minister, has a quieter approach. He argues that the electorate prefers credibility in government rather than short-term soundbites. He stresses that the Lib Dems need to become an effective campaigning machine again, but must first win the battle of ideas.

On Monday next week Guardian Live, our events arm, are holding a hustings for all the Labour London mayoral candidates. It’s at Kings Place, near King’s Cross, in London and it starts at 7pm.

My colleague Hugh Muir is chairing the event. You can find out how to get tickets here.

I’m planning to cover it with a live blog and so, if you do come along, do say hello. I’ll be in the room somewhere tapping away on a laptop.

Lunchtime summary

  • A long-awaited report from the former Marks & Spencer boss Lord Rose (pdf) has said the NHS is suffering from a “chronic shortage of good leaders”. As the Press Association reports, the performance management of staff is “haphazard and weak” and too often a form-filling exercise, with workers not held to account, praised and developed in equal measure, the report found. Rose, who was appointed by Jeremy Hunt to carry out a review of NHS leadership last year, said there was a lack of “One NHS Vision” and of a common ethos amongst staff. While the NHS has committed to a vast range of changes in recent years, there is insufficient management and leadership capability to deal with the scale of the challenges faced by them, he said.

A lack of stability is felt across the NHS, with a deep-rooted concern over the many and varied messages sent from the centre of government. For a number of years there have been a range of initiatives and changes of emphasis.

Rose said his review asked people what a good NHS looks like and what would success be. “Shockingly there was no single answer,” he added. “Despite what was set out in the report of the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust public inquiry, many had no answer at all.” He also said he found the NHS is “drowning in bureaucracy”.

  • More than 3,000 phone calls between prisoners and their constituency MPs were recorded by prison authorities, and 280 were downloaded and listened to, an inspector’s report has found. As the Press Association reports, the report by Chief Inspector of Prisons Nick Hardwick found “no evidence of a widespread, deliberate attempt to monitor communications” between inmates and MPs, and said that the majority of calls were downloaded in error. But Hardwick said that in “a small number” of cases there was evidence of rules being deliberately broken by prison officers.
  • Innocent people have been wrongly implicated in paedophile investigations because of botched attempts to access communications data by law enforcement agencies and technology firms, a watchdog has revealed. As the Press Association reports, errors in tracing information about internet activity led to one individual being arrested despite being completely unconnected to a child sex probe, the Interception of Communications Commissioner (IOCCO) disclosed. Blunders sparked five police searches at properties linked to people who had nothing to do with child abuse investigations, while three cases against suspected paedophiles had to be dropped.

Our data show the Labour lead among unlikely voters grew hugely between 2010 and 2015, suggesting differential turnout is an important factor in explaining the polling miss.

If differential turnout is indeed the primary cause, then this is good news for pollsters as it should be possible to fix the problem using turnout weighting that accounts for the wider set of factors we identify.

It is sampling and weighting which are likely to have played at least some role, they argue.

Cornwall’s devolution deal opens a new frontier in English devolution and is another milestone in the early stages of a decentralisation decade. The impetus behind English devolution is growing and this deal shows that it’s not just cities that can benefit.

Cornwall has struck a devolution deal without a directly-elected mayor - showing that government is prepared to flex in order to push through its plans.

Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service operates 460 courts and tribunal hearing centres across England and Wales. The estate costs taxpayers around half a billion pounds each year, and at present, it is underused. Last year over a third of all courts and tribunals were empty for more than fifty per cent of their available hearing time.

  • The number of sexual offences, violent crimes and fraud allegations reported to police rose significantly during the last year, government figures have revealed. But, as the Press Association reports, the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW), which measures if people say they have experienced crime, showed offences dropped by 7% on the previous year to 6.8m, their lowest level since 1981.
  • Michael Fallon, the defence secretary, has compared the fight against Islamic State (Isis) to the Battle of Britain. Speaking to a Rusi conference, he said:

Today, with more warnings of threats to our citizens in Tunisia following the horrific events of two weeks ago, we’re fighting a new Battle of Britain. Once again, against a fascist enemy, an enemy prepared to kill its enemies and civilians alike, it is the RAF spearheading our counter attack, targeting the terror menace in Iraq.

He also confirmed the deployment of a second RAF Rivet Joint spy plane to help monitor Isis in Iraq and Syria.

Updated

Many MPs, like Yvette Cooper (see 12.03pm), have said they will donate their pay rise to a good cause. Just today the Labour MP Ruth Smeeth has written a post on her website saying she will do the same.

Ipsa is prepared to help MPs give to charity through a give as you earn scheme, the Telegraph reports.

But Number 10 won’t say whether David Cameron will be doing this.

Number 10 has refused to say what David Cameron will do with his pay rise as an MP. The prime minister’s official spokeswoman said that Cameron had argued against the proposed increase, but that this was a decision for Ipsa. She told journalists:

As you know, the PM has consistently throughout this consultation process opposed the pay increase that Ipsa had been considering ... It is the government that makes the decision on public sector pay. It is Ipsa that makes the decision on MPs’ pay.

In December 2013 Cameron took a much more aggressive stance against the proposal, hinting that he might take steps to block it. He said:

The idea of an 11% pay rise in one year at a time of pay restraint, I think, is simply unacceptable. Ipsa do need to think again and unless they do so, I don’t think anyone will want to rule anything out.

If Cameron wanted to block the increase, he would have to push emergency legislation through parliament. That was never a particularly likely option, and there is speculation that Cameron has decided to give up fighting Ipsa over this because he does not want to anger Tory MPs who want the rise to go through.

While MPs are getting a (one-off) 10% pay increase, the Home Office has announced today that police officers in England and Wales are getting 1%.

In the Commons John Whittingdale, the culture secretary, is making a statement now about the green paper on the future of the BBC. My colleague Matthew Weaver is covering it on a separate live blog.

This chart, in today’s Ipsa report, shows how MPs’ pay rises have failed to keep pace with average pay rises across the economy as a whole, and in the public sector.

(But, arguably, the chart is misleading because it masks the fact that MPs’ pay is much higher than average pay across the economy as a whole, or in the public sector.)

Pay increases for everyone, for the public sector, and for MPs
Pay increases for everyone, for the public sector, and for MPs Photograph: Ipsa

Here is the 15-page report from Ipsa today defending its decision (pdf).

In their foreword, the board defend their decision to recommend such a large increase when other public sector pay increases are being capped at 1%.

In reaching our view we have been mindful of the fact that the country is going through an extended period of austerity. Some saw this as a ground not to increase pay. We do not agree. As the evidence demonstrates, it is proper to make a one-off adjustment to pay, as part of a cost-neutral package of changes. But the circumstances of austerity have caused us to change our minds regarding the mechanism of annual indexation to be used for the rest of this Parliament. We initially decided on a measure which would reflect the movement of wages across the whole economy, not least because MPs represent constituents who work across the whole economy. Instead, we will apply a measure which reflects the movement of wages in the public sector. This, we judge, gives proper recognition to the many representations made to us about austerity.

For more on why Ipsa is recommending such a large one-off increase in MPs’ pay, this is what it said in its 2013 report setting out its reasoning.

My colleague George Arnett has been doing the sums for MPs’ pay. He says their monthly paycheck has gone up from £5,588.33 gross to £6,166.66 gross. Assuming they have been paid for May, June and July already, the backpay on their next cheque should be £1,735 (3 months’ difference), giving them an August payoff of £7,901.66, he says.

Updated

The TaxPayers’ Alliance has condemned the pay rise for MPs. This is from Jonathan Isaby, its chief executive.

Just a week after the chancellor rightly announced further pay restraint in the public sector, it is totally inappropriate for IPSA to be pushing forward with this pay hike. This unaccountable body is doing our MPs a great disservice: the invisible quangocrats at IPSA may have made this regrettable decision, but the public will inevitably direct their anger at their elected representatives in parliament.

Yvette Cooper, the Labour leadership candidate, has put out a statement saying David Cameron should intervene to block the MPs’ pay rise. She said:

This is crazy. How on earth has David Cameron allowed this to happen? He needs to step in urgently and stop this MPs pay rise going ahead. The idea of increasing MPs pay by 10% at a time when nurses, care workers, police officers and our armed forces face another five years pay freeze is completely unfair. The Tories are cutting tax credits for ordinary families yet allowing this Ipsa increase to go ahead.

I made it clear from the outset that this pay rise should not go ahead, and that MPs pay needs to reflect the wider conditions in the public finances and the economy. If it does now go ahead, I won’t take it. If that is impossible then I will put the money towards something like funding an apprenticeship or similar cause in my constituency. But I hope the prime minister does the right thing and intervenes to stop Ipsa pressing ahead with this.

Ipsa has today published a 15-page report defending its decision. It originally published plans for a big increase in MPs’ pay in 2013, but it had to hold a final consultation after the general election.

Ipsa says 30 MPs responded in writing to the latest consultation. It says they were divided over the merits of the proposed increase. Today’s report includes quotes from four of them who backed Ipsa’s position.

Here are the four quotes.

From Tobias Ellwood, the Conservative MP

I know I speak for the silent majority (who are not millionaires) to say this increase is well overdue... I hope common sense will prevail and this pay rise will be honoured.

From Keith Vaz, the Labour MP

I am supporting IPSA’s recommendations as they have been done independently of Members.

From Mark Field, the Conservative MP

IPSA... must work totally free from government influence. Mark Field MP

From Rory Stewart, the Conservative MP

In my view IPSA was established precisely to take away the responsibility of this sort of decision from the hands of MPs... MPs were traditionally unpaid. And parliament predicted when salaries were introduced that it would be a source of continual public disappointment and anger, as it has been... My fundamental conclusion is that an independent body such as IPSA is now and should be in the future the appropriate body to make recommendations - not MPs themselves. I believe IPSA has conducted serious research and comparisons. I believe they are in a better position than MPs to be objective. I would accept their recommendation.

Here’s the statement from Sir Ian Kennedy, chair of Ipsa, explaining its decision to increase MPs pay by 10%

Parliament gave Ipsa the power to deal with the vexed issue of MPs’ pay – independent of parliament and government. Pay has been an issue which has been ducked for decades, with independent reports and recommendations from experts ignored, and MPs’ salaries supplemented by an opaque and discredited system of allowances.

We have made the necessary break with the past. We have created a new and transparent scheme of business costs and expenses, introduced a less generous pension scheme, where taxpayers contribute less and MPs make a higher contribution, and scrapped large resettlement payments. We have consulted extensively on MPs’ pay, and with today’s decision we have put in place the final element of the package for the new parliament.

In making this decision we are very aware of the strongly held views of many members of the public and by some MPs themselves. We have listened to those views. We have made an important change to the way in which pay will be adjusted annually. Instead of linking MPs’ pay to wages in the whole economy, it will be linked to public sector pay.

Over the last parliament, MPs’ pay increased by 2%, compared to 5% in the public sector and 10% in the whole economy. It is right that we make this one-off increase and then formally link MPs’ pay to public sector pay.

Sir Ian Kennedy
Sir Ian Kennedy Photograph: Sophia Evans for the Observer

Ipsa confirms that MPs to get a 10% pay rise

The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority has just confirmed that it will impose a pay rise on MPs.

It amounts to a pay rise of 10% (although Ipsa argues it is not a pay rise, but a pay regrading.)

This will trigger a confrontation with MPs, most of whom say that a pay rise of his kind is unacceptable. But, without changing the law, MPs cannot block it, because after the expenses scandal MPs passed legislation putting Ipsa in charge of their pay, to stop them having to vote on it any more.

Here’s an extract from its news release.

The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) confirmed today that MPs’ pay will rise to £74,000 as part of a package of changes to their remuneration.

The pay rise will be backdated to 8 May 2015. MPs’ pay will then be adjusted yearly in line with average earnings within the public sector, rather than being linked to the whole economy as previously announced.

IPSA has a statutory duty to review MPs’ pay in the first year of a new Parliament. We consulted in June on our December 2013 determination to increase MPs’ pay. The one-off pay adjustment is part of a wider remuneration package, which, apart from the pay rise, has already been implemented.

The package included:

· A career-average pension, in line with other parts of the public sector. This came into effect on 8 May 2015. Previously there had been a more generous final-salary pension.

· An end to generous resettlement payments.

· Further cuts to expenses: MPs can no longer claim for the costs of hospitality, evening meals, taxis home from Westminster when working late (unless the House sits after 11pm), and home contents insurance.

Today’s announcement follows three consultation exercises since 2012.

Martha Lane Fox has been tweeting about her new NHS role.

The Guardian’s healthcare professional network hosted a discussion recently on seven-day working in the NHS. Here is a summary of the key points.

Jeremy Hunt's speech - Summary and analysis

Sometimes it is useful to pick a fight in politics, and it will be interesting to see where public opinion falls in the contest between Jeremy Hunt and NHS consultants over weekend working. According to Sky, their audience reaction this morning (judging by the emails they have received) has been generally pro-Hunt. The issue is very similar to the one that led Tube drivers to go on strike recently over 24-hour working on the London Underground, and they did not seem to attract a huge amount of sympathy (although perhaps they should have done - for reasons that LBC’s James O’Brien explained rather superbly.)

The headline story obscures the fact that this was a wide-ranging speech, that went well beyond weekend working in hospitals. It was forward-looking and visionary, and - in one of the most striking passages - Hunt predicted that we will move to a world where the ambulance arrives before you’ve had the heart attack, not after (because some whizzy gadget on your wrist has called 999, he implied.) It was very Steve Hilton, and Hunt even gave a name check to the prime minister’s former strategy chief, and to More Human, the title of Hilton’s recent book. When Hilton left Number 10 for California, it was assumed that his influence was on the wane. But last week George Osborne announced a “national living wage”, which he had championed, and now Hunt is putting his ideas at the heart of NHS reform, and so clearly he remains a power in Tory politics.

Here are the key points in the speech.

  • Hunt said he had a 25-year vision for the future of the NHS and that empowering patients was at the heart of it. He said he wanted:

... a fundamental shift in power from a bureaucratic system where power sits in the hands - ultimately - of politicians to a democratic system where the most powerful person is not the doctor, the manager or even the Health Secretary but the one million patients who use the NHS every 36 hours.

This would require “a profound transformation” in NHS culture, he said.

  • He said he wanted the NHS to become “the world’s largest learning organisation”.

We need to foster an inquisitive, curious and hungry learning culture. The world’s fifth largest organisation needs to become the world’s largest learning organisation.

  • He said said he would impose a new contract on NHS consultants forcing them to work weekends. He said that the new arrangements would apply to all new consultants. Consultants on existing contracts would not be forced to move, but they would lose the generous payments they currently get when they do work weekends, and he said he hoped most hospital doctors would be on the new contracts by the end of the parliament. (See 9.49am.)
  • He said the NHS had to exploit the opportunities provided by new technology. This could be transformational for patient care, he said.

We will be decoding individual genomes, allowing us to target personalised medicines, improve diagnosis and therapy, and reduce waste. New medical devices will mean an ambulance arrives to pick us up not after a heart attack but before it - as they receive a signal sent from a mobile phone.

With 40,000 health apps now on iTunes, these innovations are coming sooner than most people realise. The future is here, but it needs to be more evenly distributed. Heart rates and blood pressure will no longer be simply a matter for the doctor - patients will know them and monitor them too. Data sharing between doctor and patient means power sharing too. Intelligent transparency creates intelligent patients with healthier outcomes. Get this right and it is no exaggeration to say that the impact will be as profound for humanity in the next decade as the internet has been in the last.

He said that he was appointing Martha Lane Fox, the internet entrepreneur, to develop ideas for digital innovation in the NHS.

  • He said that NHS Improvement would be the new operating name for Monitor and the NHS Trust Development Authority. Ed Smith will be the new chair. Interestingly, the DoH news release about this does not mention NHS Improvement and instead treats them as two separate bodies, although it does say they are committed to “ever closer partnership”.
  • He said a new Independent Patient Safety Investigation Service was being set up, modelled on the Air Accident Investigation Branch in the airline industry. This will be overseen by NHS Improvement (or whatever it is called). The body will also complete a review of safe staffing levels in hospitals.

There can be no compromise on the issue of safe staffing and we need a methodology that properly assesses and publishes what appropriate levels of staffing should be, taking full account of the changes that can be made with new technology and modern multidisciplinary work practices. This will be independently reviewed by NICE, the Chief Inspector of hospitals, and Sir Robert Francis to ensure it meets the high standards of care the NHS aspires to.

  • Hunt announced an “international buddying programme” to enable hospitals to learn more about patient safety from around the world. To start, five trusts - Surrey and Sussex Healthcare, Leeds Teaching Hospitals, University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire, Barking Havering and Redbridge, and Shrewsbury and Telford will partner with Virginia Mason in Seattle, “perhaps the safest hospital in the world”. In the future other hospitals will learn from organisations like Kaiser Permanente in California, the Mayo Clinic, Alzira in Spain, and Apollo in India.
  • He said that more information would be made available to patients. From next year the electronic booking service will include information about hospital ratings and waiting times. And NHS England will ensure patients get more choice over alternative services in maternity and end-of-life care.
  • He said that forcing NHS to be more open about its mistakes had led to improvements. He described this as “intelligent transparency”.

I call it intelligent transparency - and as we have rolled it out in the last few years there has been fairly predictable opposition. Some worried that openness about failures would lead to an irreversible cycle of decline. Others said it would damage morale and staff retention. When I stood up in the House of Commons two years ago and said care was unsafe not just at Mid Staffs but at 11 other Keogh hospitals, political opponents called it ‘running down the NHS.’

In fact the opposite happened.

Following the Keogh Report and the work of our outstanding Chief Inspector of Hospitals, 21 Trusts - 15% of the total - have been put into special measures. And did staff drain away from them? On the contrary, between them they hired an additional 125 doctors and 871 nurses.

Hunt said he would extend this, by publishing avoidable death figures for hospital trusts from next March.

  • He said that the Conservatives were the “true party of the NHS”.

Conservatives have been responsible for the NHS for more of its history than any other party. Indeed although a Labour government set up the NHS in 1948, it was a Conservative health Minister, Sir Henry Willink, who first presented a White Paper to the House of Commons in 1944 arguing for the setting up of a National Health Service, strongly supported by Winston Churchill.

Jeremy Hunt
Jeremy Hunt Photograph: REX Shutterstock/REX Shutterstock

Updated

Clare Gerada, the former chair of the Royal College of General Practitioners, is not impressed by Jeremy Hunt’s plans.

To coincide with Jeremy Hunt’s speech, the Department of Health has published this report from the NHS pay review body on implementing seven-day working in the NHS (pdf).

It says that “a key contractual barrier” to turning the NHS into a proper seven-day-a-week organisation - the goal David Cameron set out in his first major speech after the general election - is the contract that allows consultants to opt out of weekend working. This is what Hunt wants to change. (See 9.49am.)

But it also says staff shortages could be a “substantial barrier” to achieving the prime minister’s goal. (Bold text from original document.)

Resource requirements for the expansion of seven-day services are not fully incorporated into local workforce plans and education commissions, and it takes a number of years to train suitably skilled and qualified staff. If changes are introduced without the appropriate workforce planning then the short-term impact on staff levels could see agency costs increase. We note that those responsible for workforce planning and commissioning of training are not yet fully linked into local plans for seven-day services. Given the number of years it takes to train suitably skilled and qualified staff we believe a substantial barrier to the expansion of seven-day services could be insufficient numbers of appropriately trained staff.

Hunt tells NHS consultants they must accept contracts for 7-day working

Jeremy Hunt’s speech was not just about forcing consultants to work at weekends - it ranged much more widely, as the summary I’ll post shortly will show - but his plan to put consultants on contracts for seven-day working was at the heart of it.

Here is the key passage.

This is not about increasing the total number of hours worked every week by any individual doctor. Doctors already work extremely hard, and their hours should always be within safe limits. But we will reform the consultant contract to remove the opt-out from weekend working for newly qualified hospital doctors. No doctors currently in service will be forced to move onto the new contracts, although we will end extortionate off-contract payments for those who continue to exercise their weekend opt-out. Every weekend swathes of doctors go in to the hospital to see their patients, driven by professionalism and goodwill, but in many cases with no thanks or recognition. The aim is to acknowledge that professionalism by putting their contributions on a formalised footing through a more patient and professionally orientated contract. As a result of these changes by the end of the parliament, I expect the majority of hospital doctors to be on 7-day contracts.

Around 6,000 people lose their lives every year because we do not have a proper 7 day service in hospitals. You are 15% more likely to die if you are admitted on a Sunday compared to being admitted on a Wednesday. No one could possibly say that this was a system built around the needs of patients - and yet when I pointed this out to the BMA they told me to ‘get real.’ I simply say to the doctors union that I can give them 6,000 reasons why they, not I, need to ‘get real.’

They are not remotely in touch with what their members actually believe. I have yet to meet a consultant who would be happy for their own family to be admitted on a weekend or would not prefer to get test results back more quickly for their own patients. Hospitals like Northumbria that have instituted 7-day working have seen staff morale transformed as a result ...

There will now be six weeks to work with BMA union negotiators before a September decision point. But be in no doubt: if we can’t negotiate, we are ready to impose a new contract.

BMA accuses Hunt of 'wholesale attack on doctors'

Before Jeremy Hunt delivered his speech Dr Mark Porter, the BMA council chairman, accused him of mounting “a wholesale attack on doctors”. He said:

Despite whatever the health secretary may claim, his simplistic approach ignores the fact that this is a much broader issue than just doctors’ contracts.

Today’s announcement is nothing more than a wholesale attack on doctors to mask the fact that for two years the government has failed to outline any concrete proposals for introducing more seven-day hospital services.

The health secretary has questions to answer. How does he plan to pay for it? How will he ensure there isn’t a reduction in mid-week services or fewer doctors on wards Monday to Friday? Yet again there are no answers.

This is a blatant attempt by the government to distract from its refusal to invest properly in emergency care. So, I say again to the health secretary, get real and show us what you mean.

The government expects the majority of hospital doctors to be on seven-day contracts by the end of the parliament. Ministers want to remove the ability to opt out from weekend and evening working from consultants’ contracts by April 2017.

Jeremy Hunt has finished. I presume he’s taking questions, but sadly the King’s Fund Periscope has gone down.

I will post a summary of the speech soon, as well as bringing you all the best reaction.

He is now winding up.

But the transition to patient power will dominate healthcare for the next 25 years. We cannot resist the democratisation of healthcare any more than we can resist democracy itself. But we can choose whether we want the NHS to be the leader of the pack, turning heads across the globe, or a laggard always struggling to embrace innovation adopted earlier elsewhere.

Mid Staffs, curiously, can help us here. It was indeed a terrible shock as we looked in the mirror and saw just how far we had drifted from a truly patient-centred system. But if we learn the lessons, it could also be a decisive moment of change when we break from the past and resolve to become the first truly democratic, patient-centred healthcare system in the planet.

Hunt says he has asked Martha Lane Fox, the internet entrepreneur, to develop ideas to for digital innovation in the NHS.

Updated

Hunt says he also wants to make it easier for patients to choose the right service.

So today I can announce that before the end of this year, NHS England will come up with concrete proposals to make sure that there is meaningful choice and control over services offered in maternity and end of life care and for those with complex long term conditions.

Hunt says he wants to give patients more information about hospital services.

So from next year as part of the new electronic booking service, which has replaced Choose and Book, all GPs will be asked to tell patients not just which hospitals they can be referred to, but the relevant CQC rating and waiting time as well. Because those ratings now include patient experience, safety and quality of care, patients will for the first time be able to make a truly informed choice about which local service is best for them.

Hunt says within the next five years electronic health records will be available in every health setting.

He describes how new technology can transform the NHS.

With 40,000 health apps now on iTunes, these innovations are coming sooner than most people realise. The future is here, but it needs to be more evenly distributed. Heart rates and blood pressure will no longer be simply a matter for the doctor - patients will know them and monitor them too. Data sharing between doctor and patient means power sharing too. Intelligent transparency creates intelligent patients with healthier outcomes. Get this right and it is no exaggeration to say that the impact will be as profound for humanity in the next decade as the internet has been in the last.

And I want the NHS to get there first.

Hunt is now talking about weekend working.

Here’s today’s story previewing his announcement.

Hunt says he wants the NHS to be the world’s largest learning organisation.

He is offering the NHS a new deal:

More transparency in return for fewer targets.

Hunt says he is publishing the Rose report into NHS management today.

He is also publishing Sir Bruce Keogh’s review of professional codes for doctors and nurses.

Hunt announces a new “international buddying programme” for NHS trusts

Hunt says he is announcing a new “international buddying programme”.

Some trusts are partnering with Virginia Mason hospital in Seattle, perhaps the safest in the world.

  • Hunt announces a new “international buddying programme” for NHS trusts.

Updated

Hunt says the new Trust Development Authority (TDA)/Monitor body will be called NHS Improvement.

Ed Smith will be the new chair, he says.

Hunt says the NHS is the world’s fifth biggest organisation. But he wants it to be the most innovative one.

Hunt says the pressure to improve the NHS has come from the staff themselves.

If staff are given freedom, they will innovate and improve, he says.

Hunt says the NHS has introduced more transparency into its proceedings.

But this has not damaged confidence in the NHS. In fact, it has gone up. Last year it was up 5%, to its second highest level, he says.

The number of people who think the NHS is the best health system in the world has gone up 24% in the seven years since Mid-Staffs.

Nigel Lawson described the NHS as a religion. The trouble with religions is that when you question them, you get criticised. But forcing the NHS to be more open about its mistakes has been a positive thing, he says.

Hunt says the NHS makes too many mistakes.

Twice a week it operates on the wrong part of the body, he says.

Hunt says every health secretary faces a crisis. His first was when he received the Francis report into what went wrong at Mid-Staffs.

Patients had been let down. That was a betrayal of the principles of the NHS.

He says if we want to change “from a bureucratic to a patient-centric system”, it needs profound change.

“Patient-centric” is an unsatisfactory phrase, he says. He would prefer More Human - the title of Steve Hilton’s recent book.

Hunt says his reforms plans look ahead to the next 25 years

Hunt says the Tories are “the true party of the NHS”.

But they have to face up to the challenges it faces for the future.

Today he is setting out plans for the future of the NHS for the next 25 years, he says.

Hunt says that the future of the NHS was on the ballot paper at the election.

The Conservatives committed themselves to giving the NHS an extra £8bn.

But the Conservatives have been committed to the NHS for much longer, he says. It was a Conservative minister in the wartime coalition government that announced plans for the NHS, he says.

Jeremy Hunt's speech

Jeremy Hunt is speaking now.

He says it will be the most important speech he has given as health secretary.

But it will also be one of the longest, he says - almost 40 minutes.

I haven’t got a live video feed, but the speech will be on Periscope.

Jeremy Hunt is giving his speech to the King’s Fund thinktank.

Jeremy Hunt, the health secretary, is throwing down the gauntlet to NHS consultants in a speech saying they must start working weekends. Here’s the Guardian’s preview, and here’s how it starts.

Britain’s medical consultants are to be told by the health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, that a new weekend working contract will be imposed on them unless they agree to the sweeping changes within six weeks.

The new contract will have at its core the controversial weekend working provision, but will also contain the abolition of lucrative overtime payments that Hunt describes as extortionate.

Hunt will send out “a get real message” to the British Medical Association, saying a new contract, including seven-day working, starting with new consultants, is essential if the NHS is to make efficiency savings and meet its target of becoming a full seven-day service by 2020. He wants the new contract to start from April 2017.

The BMA, he will claim, has become “a roadblock to reform” and is not remotely in touch with the views of its members”.

Hunt’s move was described by the BMA as a “wholesale attack on doctors”. It said the ultimatum was a “blatant attempt” by the Government to distract from its “refusal to invest properly in emergency care”.

I’ll be covering the speech in detail.

Here is the agenda for the day.

9am: Jeremy Hunt gives his speech on weekend working.

11.30am: The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority publishes its final decision on MPs’ pay.

11.30am: Nicky Morgan, the education secretary, gives a speech on arts teaching in schools.

Around 11.30am: John Whittingdale, the culture secretary, publishes a green paper on the future of the BBC. We will be covering that on a separate live blog.

4pm: The Liberal Democrats announce the results of their leadership contest.

As usual I will be covering the breaking political news as it happens, as well as bringing you the best reaction, comment and analysis from the web. I will post a summary at lunchtime and another in the afternoon.

If you want to follow me on Twitter, I’m on @AndrewSparrow

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