Tony Blair"s Brexit speech "not helpful", says Jeremy Corbyn

Jeremy Corbyn has criticised Tony Blair’s call for pro-Europeans to form a new cross-party movement to oppose Brexit, urging the former prime minister to “respect the result” of the referendum and to put his energy towards building relations in Europe.

Corbyn, who was questioned on the comments after addressing Labour’s local government conference at Warwick University, said: “Well, it’s not helpful. I would ask those to think about this – the referendum gave a result, gave a very clear decision on this, and we have to respect that decision, that’s why we didn’t block article 50.

“But we are going to be part of all this campaigning, all these negotiations about the kind of relationship we have in Europe in the future.. The referendum happened, let’s respect the result. Democracy happened, respect the result.”

Earlier Corbyn said people were dying at the hands of the government’s austerity policies in a scathing attack on the prime minister days before two crucial byelections.

The Labour leader blamed ministers for an “emergency” in local services and a social care crisis caused by “disgraceful neglect” as he urged voters in Copeland and Stoke-on-Trent to “send a message” to Theresa May on 23 February that they had had enough of cuts.

In a speech to Labour councillors at Warwick University, Corbyn said: “We have a state of emergency in our social care system and the worst crisis in the history of our NHS.”

He added that the situation in social care was an “absolute scandal that leaves 1.2 million elderly people without the care they need”.

Corbyn cited a report in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine that said the crisis was linked to 30,000 excess deaths in 2015. “People are dying because of the choices made by this government,” he said. “Councils are at breaking point on social care. Our social care system has been privatised, outsourced and cut. It has dehumanised our parents, grandparents and neighbours.”

Corbyn vowed a Labour government would provide the NHS and social care with adequate funds while accusing May of leading a government that gives billions away in tax breaks to big business and the richest in society while cutting services for the most vulnerable.

He said: “It is this callousness, even brutality, that has put local services in a state of emergency.”

The twin byelections, caused by the resignation of Labour MPs Jamie Reed and Tristram Hunt, represent Corbyn’s toughest electoral challenge yet. The Conservatives are hoping to win Copeland from Labour, who are trailing in the polls. Corbyn’s past opposition to nuclear power is viewed with suspicion among many voters in the Cumbrian constituency, which is economically reliant on the Sellafield nuclear processing facility.

The party’s battle to retain the two seats suffered a further blow after Corbyn’s campaigns chief, Simon Fletcher, quit on Friday over an apparent clash with Labour’s inner team over the direction of the party.

The sudden resignation of one of his closest aides follows the resignations of four shadow cabinet members over Corbyn’s support for the article 50 bill.

Corbyn said on Saturday that Fletcher would continue working with Labour. “Simon and I are great friends and will remain great friends. We had a good chat last night. I’ve known Simon for 25 years, he’s a great friend of mind and he is going to do other things, but will continue working with us.”

In Stoke, which voted strongly in favour of Brexit in last year’s referendum, the main challenge is expected to come from Ukip, where party leader Paul Nuttall is standing.

Corbyn, who is expected to campaign in the constituency on Saturday, claimed Labour would “defeat Ukip’s politics of hate”.

Tony Blair"s Brexit speech "not helpful", says Jeremy Corbyn

MP Vicky Foxcroft gives moving speech about losing her baby

A heartbreaking speech by a Labour MP moved several members of the House of Commons to tears during a debate on stillbirths, as Vicky Foxcroft described being pregnant at 16 and losing her baby after just five days.

The Lewisham and Deptford MP said the speech was the hardest she had ever had to give, saying she had felt as a frightened teenager that she was “treated like a kid, not a grieving mum”.

Her baby, Veronica, died after the umbilical cord became wrapped around her neck during labour, starving her of oxygen. She died five days later after Foxcroft and her then partner decided to switch off life support.

“I don’t have children now because I’ve lived with the fear of the same thing happening and I couldn’t do it twice,” Foxcroft said.

She had never spoken publicly about her loss before, she said. “The absolute truth is I struggle to talk to my family and my very close friends about it,” she said, describing her daughter as “my little angel”.

“I also want to apologise to my many friends who I haven’t told. It’s not because I don’t want you to know or I am embarrassed, it’s just because I find it so very hard to do so.”

Visibly shaking and close to tears, Foxcroft said she was treated like she should be pleased not to be a teenage mother. “As a young woman, going through this, I felt like most people looked at me as if I should be grateful, but I wasn’t and I’m not,” she said.

“I was her mum and I also hoped one day I would be her best friend. If she was alive today, she would be 23 years old. The pain does get easier to deal with, but it never goes away.

“I hope one day nobody else has to go through this. I want my message to be heard by young women, in my constituency and across the country, just to say you are not alone.”

Describing the moment she decided to turn off her daughter’s life support machine, Foxcroft said: “She was never able to cry, to smile, but I loved her and desperately wanted her. I got to hold her then for the first time until her heart eventually stopped … I never wanted to let her go.”

Sitting down, Foxcroft was comforted by fellow Labour MP Gloria De Piero, who had tears in her eyes.

The Conservative MP Sir Nicholas Soames, who was next to speak, wiped his eyes as he praised Foxcroft.

He said: “I hope that the whole house will read the honourable lady’s speech and will feel that she has done something incredibly brave today and courageous, and to my honourable friends who have proposed this debate, nothing but the greatest respect is due.

“And to my honourable friend who first talked about this with such courage and straightforwardness, all our thoughts are with her and all the other parents who have suffered these terrible losses.”

The debate was brought by the Conservative MPs Antoinette Sandbach and Will Quince, who both also spoke about losing children.

In his speech, Quince praised Foxcroft, saying MPs were “breaking a silence, breaking a taboo, telling parents up and down the country that it is OK to talk about the babies and children we have lost. In the mother of all parliaments, there is no subject we won’t talk about”.

MP Vicky Foxcroft gives moving speech about losing her baby

Sydney"s "Rose of Tralee" shakes up Irish pageant with abortion rights speech

For almost six decades the Rose of Tralee – a pageant “which brings young women of Irish descent from around the world to County Kerry, Ireland for a global celebration of Irish culture” – has managed to avoid anything more political than expressing a desire to help the less well off.

That cozy consensus changed this week, when the Sydney entrant to the competition, Brianna Parkins, told presenter Dáithí Ó Sé, live on television: “I think we can do better here in Ireland. I think it is time to give women a say on their own reproductive rights. I would love to see a referendum on the eighth coming up soon. That would be my dream.”

Parkins was referring to the eighth amendment to Ireland’s constitution, passed in 1983, which guarantees the “right to life of the unborn and, with due regard to the equal right to life of the mother, guarantees in its laws to respect, and, as far as practicable, by its laws to defend and vindicate that right.”

— Marian Keyes (@MarianKeyes) August 27, 2016

Oh lads! This is an AMAZING article from @parkinsbrea. I’m in awe of her courage

Sydney"s "Rose of Tralee" shakes up Irish pageant with abortion rights speech

Laws to shield elderly from abuse left out of Queen"s Speech

Labour has stated that soon after a lot more than four years in office, the Coalition has run out of tips for reform, a charge minsters reject.

Charities and regulators had hoped that the Speech would announce that the Government is adopting a bill meant to overhaul the regulation of healthcare pros.

The draft bill was drawn up for ministers earlier this yr by the Law Commission, the Government physique responsible for replacing outdated or unfair rules.

The proposed law would unify 9 diverse disciplinary codes covering far more than 30 well being and care professions, making certain that wrongdoing by diverse sorts of worker are dealt with in the very same way.

It would also enable the creation of a public “barred list” of care staff discovered to have mistreated older and vulnerable folks.

Supporters say that a much better barring system is required to avert abusive care staff taking up employment elsewhere right after being found to have mistreated the outdated.

An official Whitehall evaluation of the draft bill concluded that passing it would deliver advantages like a “reduced danger to the public” and “increased public trust and confidence” in the well being and care techniques.

In accordance to the commission, recent rules are “out-dated and inflexible”. The new law would “introduce a clear and consistent legal framework which is needed to allow the regulators to uphold their duty to defend the public.”

Baroness Cumberlege, a Conservative peer and professional on social care, explained that ministers are reluctant to help the bill.

“The Conservative element of the Government is not a excellent fan of regulation, and they do not seem keen to introduce some thing that appears like new regulation. But what the bill would do is simplify the regulations and make the program considerably a lot more clear for the public, which is really wise,” she mentioned.

Parliament is expected to rise for the standard election as early as March, and extended breaks for summer, the part conferences in the autumn and Christmas indicate there is comparatively tiny time to debate new laws ahead of then.

Lady Cumberlege stated that failing to consist of the draft bill in the Queens’ Speech would imply the timing was “too tight” to get the new law passed ahead of the election.

That would imply the reforms would have to wait until the new government formed following summer time found time for them.

A Department of Health spokesman stated ministers will change the law in due course, but gave no timetable.

He stated: “We require to make positive that our expert regulation system is match for the future. We are committed to legislate on this important situation when Parliamentary time makes it possible for. We welcome the Law Commission’s report and will respond to their proposals in due program.”

Laws to shield elderly from abuse left out of Queen"s Speech

Today in healthcare: Jeremy Hunt"s speech at the Nuffield Trust Well being Policy Summit

Excellent morning and welcome to the day-to-day weblog from the Guardian’s neighborhood for healthcare experts, we’re reporting from the Nuffield Believe in Wellness Policy Summit, which will hear keynote speeches from both Jeremy Hunt and Andy Burnham right now.

Prior to the event commences, here’s a run through today’s best healthcare stories.

The Guardian reviews on research findings by Age Uk that about 168,000 older people have stopped acquiring aid with important tasks such as eating, washing and acquiring dressed as a end result of deep and continuing cuts to social care beneath the coalition government. Healthcare correspondent Denis Campbell reports:

NHS leaders complain that some of the increasing overcrowding in emergency departments and a considerable proportion of bedblocking are due to the inadequacy of nearby social care provision, due to the fact these in hospital are unable to reside semi-independently at house or be discharged there, in spite of currently being medically match to go.

Meanwhile, a piece for our sister Social Care Network by former care companies minister Phil Hope seems to be ahead to the Independence Day forum, which is currently being held in the Property of Commons nowadays. Hope says the event supplies the opportunity for a constructive debate about how we can deliver a transformed well being and social care system.

In other news:

• BBC: Course revamp aims to preserve healthcare graduates in Wales

• Telegraph: Dementia death toll could be worse than cancer

• Guardian: Three-year-previous heart patient Samuel Starr died following NHS system ‘failure’

If there is a story, report or occasion you’d like to highlight – or you would like to share your ideas on any of the healthcare troubles in the information today – you can get in touch by leaving a comment beneath the line or tweeting us at @GdnHealthcare.

Today in healthcare: Jeremy Hunt"s speech at the Nuffield Trust Well being Policy Summit