Labour’s 1st week LIVE: ‘Tough’ test for new Government as junior doctors push for massive 35% pay rise in crunch talks
WES Streeting is "optimistic" ahead of talks this afternoon with junior doctors aimed at ending their long-running dispute over pay.
Speaking at the Tony Blair Institute’s Future of Britain Conference, this morning, Streeting, the new health secretary, said: "I'm seeing the junior doctors this afternoon, they are coming into the Department of Health.
"I know they’re coming in not just from my diary, but from the army of cameras and journalists currently stationed outside the department."
Asked if he was optimistic about the talks, he said: "Optimistic? Yes.
"This is an important reset moment in the relationship between junior doctors and their Government."
It comes after Keir Starmer chaired his cabinet this morning as Labour ministers prepare to return to the front benches for the first time since 2010 at the opening of parliament this afternoon.
The on-going junior doctors strike is likely to be the first real test for the new Government with the bitter dispute having the potential to reveal cracks in the new administration.
Follow our live blog below for the latest news and updates...
First pic of Starmer and team on the front benches
Keir Starmer speaks in the House of Commons this afternoon with Labour ministers on the Government front bench for the first time in more than a decade.
Credit: PA Mother of the House Diane Abbott welcomes increase in number of female MPs
Labour’s Diane Abbott described the work of an MP as a “great job”, as she welcomed the new members to Parliament and celebrated the increased number of women in the House.
Speaking for the first time as Mother of the House, the longest serving female MP, she told the Commons: “I would also like to congratulate the 304 new members of Parliament, who entered Parliament after this election and say to them, it is a great job and you will never regret coming here."
Sir Lindsay Hoyle has been re-elected as Speaker of the House.
Credit: PA Have the unions reacted to the latest meetings and statements from the Government?
Yes, the BMA's junior doctors' committee has said Labour comments about pay rises being a "journey and not an event" align with their pay restoration goals.
Health leaders urged the Government to resolve the dispute as a priority after NHS England said 61,989 appointments, procedures and operations had been postponed as a result of the latest walkout from June 27 to July 2.
The strike was the 11th by junior doctors in 20 months.
Since December 2022 there have been strikes across a number of staff groups in the NHS including nurses, other doctor groups, physiotherapists and paramedics.
Collectively this industrial action has led to nearly 1.5 million appointments, procedures and operations being postponed, at an estimated cost to the NHS of more than £3 billion.
What else has Wes Streeting said about today's meeting?
Mr Streeting has been speaking to reporters ahead of this afternoon's crunch talks.
He told them: "In opposition, we were very clear that the headline 35% pay demand is not one that we could afford, and that has not changed since the General Election.
"The reason we were so blunt in opposition wasn't simply about delivering a tough message, but about showing them the respect I think they are due, and a key ingredient of respect is honesty.
"Secondly, beyond pay, there are a whole range of issues about how junior doctors are treated by their employer which I am genuinely angry about - in terms of their placements, their rotations."
'We're not popular - and we're not very conservative'
Not exactly Les Dawson-style linguistics at the PopCon event this morning but someone was duty bound to say it.
Trying to work out where it all went wrong ...
The Conservative party is going through something akin to a political post-mortem at its PopCon event in Westminster this morning.
Speakers at the gathering include Jacob Rees-Mogg, Suella Braverman – the latter via video link from the US – and Lord Frost.
'I believe in those with skin in the game'
Keir Starmer has confirmed the government will set up a “council for regions and nations” so that ministers can meet regularly with metro mayors. He was speaking at the Downing Street meeting this morning attended by almost all of England’s metro mayors.
Starmer told them: "I’m a great believer in devolution, I’m a great believer in the idea that those with skin in the game – those that know their communities – make much better decisions than people sitting in Westminster and Whitehall."
Who is likely to be the next leader of the Conservative party?
While the official race is yet to get underway several hopefuls have been widely tipped as contenders.
These include Suella Braverman and Priti Patel - on the right of the party – and Tom Tugendhat on the centre-left.
Speaking to the Telegraph, Braverman dismissed Robert Jenrick, one of her rivals, as a "leftwinger".
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Credit: PA 
Credit: alamy What is happening in parliament later today?
The House of Commons will convene for the first time since the general election at 14.30 this afternoon to elect a Speaker.
Sir Lindsay Hoyle, below, well-known for his withering take-downs of rowdy MPs, currently holds the post. He is expected to indicate that he wants to continue in the role but it is not yet clear if there will be a challenger.
The long process of swearing in MPs will then start after the Speaker is chosen.
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'The fox is in the henhouse'
Reform MP Lee Anderson has taken a swipe at his former party.
As the five Reform party MPs posed for pics by Westminster Palace, Tory defector Lee Anderson warned: "The fox is in the henhouse."
Last night Mr Farage claimed his party "has more than doubled its membership in the last five weeks".
The MP for Clacton urged his fans to "come and join the revolt".
It came as the party hit back at accusations that some of its election candidates were "fake" artificial intelligence bots.
Keir Starmer meets Scottish MPs outside No 10 ahead of parliament opening
Credit: reuters 
Credit: reuters 'Politics just got a whole lot more interesting'
Social media users have been reacting to the landing in parliament of Nigel Farage and his Reform MPs for the opening later today.
"Give em hell gentlemen," said one, with another adding: "five courageous men".
Conservative Mayor praises Keir Starmer after meeting
The Tees Valley mayor was the only Conservative in the room with the PM and other regional leaders.
But in a post on X afterwards, Ben Houchen offered a positive endorsement of the PM.
He said Starmer was fresh and energetic, and that he looked forward to working with him.
In pictures: cabinet arrivals
More cabinet ministers have started arriving in Downing Street this morning for the meeting with Keir Starmer, among them Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, Ed Miliband, the energy secretary and the new justice secretary, Shabana Mahmood.
Credit: reuters 
Credit: reuters 
Credit: reuters Like the first day at school ...
Nigel Farage, chairman of Reform, has arrived in Westminster for the opening of parliament this afternoon.
Here he is pictured with fellow Reform MPs Richard Tice and Rupert Lowe as they prepare to be sworn in as MPs.
Why the junior doctors strike is such a bitter dispute
Junior doctors, whose salaries start at £32,000, have been in dispute with the Government over pay and working conditions for more than a year.
They say in 2008, medics were paid £20 an hour in today's money, and this has dropped to £15 in 2023/24.
Several health secretaries have failed to resolve the dispute, including the latest politician to hold the position, Conservative MP Victoria Atkins, tipped as one of the frontrunners to lead the party in the wake of the general election.
You can read more about the strike in the link below.
Minutes to go ...
Keir Starmer is just minutes away from chairing his cabinet meeting before the opening of today's parliament.
Deputy prime minister Angela Rayner is among those who have arrived in Downing Street this morning.
Ed Miliband says Labour moving at 'fast pace'
The new energy secretary has praised the lifting of the onshore wind ban.
Thornberry has 'big part play'
Sir Keir Starmer has insisted Emily Thornberry has a "big part to play" in Labour after she said she was "surprised" not to be given a ministerial job (see post at 12.07).
Speaking to reporters in Wales, the Prime Minister said: "I'm putting together a very strong team based on delivering.
"We got a very strong mandate at the general election, a mandate for change, a mandate for doing politics differently, and about service. That's why I'm putting my team together.
"Emily Thornberry has been fantastic, she's got a big part to play, as has every single one of my now 412 Labour MPs.
"But it's very important that we demonstrate the progress we're making, which is why I've been to Scotland, to Northern Ireland, and now to Wales to reset the relations."
Watch: Rachel Reeves' first speech as new Chancellor
'We need to leave the ECHR and scrap Human Rights Act'
While there's been no official throwing of the hat in the ring for the upcoming battle to lead the Conservatives certain big names are already making their presence known.
Robert Jenrick (former immigration minister) and Victoria Atkins (ex-health secretary) politely declined to discuss their possible leadership bids on the BBC yesterday – they only agreed, of course, to appear on Laura Kuenssberg's Sunday morning political show to defend the party's record of the past 14 years - while today Suella Braverman is all over social media with a mini-manifesto of sorts.
'We need to smash the gangs'
Asked if those arriving by small boats would now have the right to claim asylum, the Prime Minister's spokesman said: "We need to ensure that people who arrive here are processed so that people are not sitting in the system, housed in expensive taxpayer-funded hotels as they have been under previous administrations.
"And ultimately, we need to act upstream to secure our borders and smash the gangs and that is why the Home Secretary set out immediate action already this weekend to launch the recruitment process for the new border security commander and stand up the new Border Security Command.
"As well as, as I say resource up a new returns and enforcement unit that will bring together both its Foreign Office expertise and 1,000 additional staff to ensure that failed asylum seekers and others with no right to be here are removed."
What now for housebuilding in the UK?
Sir Keir Starmer's administration has made economic growth - and the tax revenue that would flow from it - a key plank of his strategy to fund our crippling public services.
The Conservatives pledged in 2019 to reach a target of 300,000 new homes a year - with mandatory building targets for all local authorities.
But a Tory backbench rebellion last year forced former Housing Secretary Michael Gove to water them down.
He rewrote the National Policy Planning Framework (NPPF) making the targets advisory rather than mandatory.
Now he's in Wales ...
Keir Starmer has met First Minister of Wales Vaughan Gething at the Senedd in Cardiff as part of a two-day tour of the four nations of the United Kingdom.
Credit: Reuters 'Summer will be challenging as small boat crossings continue'
The summer will be “challenging” for the Government as small boat crossings continue, a spokesman for the Prime Minister has said.
He said: “Clearly the Government has set out its very clear position that as the Prime Minister said over the weekend, the Rwanda scheme is dead and buried. It started. The scheme was cancelled and flights won’t go ahead."
On additional powers the Border Security command would have, the spokesman said: “The Home Secretary has previously set out that the new command will have new counter-terror powers to enable search and seizure.”
