Chancellor Rachel Reeves delivers a speech in the media briefing room of 9 Downing Street in central London, ahead of the Budget later this month, November 4, 2025
ACADEMICS and campaigners have called on Chancellor Rachel Reeves to drop “dangerous and damaging” NHS private finance plans ahead of the autumn Budget next week.
The government is considering new PFI-style deals to build “neighbourhood health centres” under plans to move care from hospitals into community settings.
In their 10-year NHS plan, ministers set out the possibility of relying on public-private partnerships (PPP) to fund the centres, fuelling concerns that taxpayers could be left footing the bill for high borrowing costs.
Campaigners gathered outside the Department of Health and Social Care yesterday in a protest organised by We Own It to demand a halt to the plans.
The anti-privatisation group has also co-ordinated a letter, signed by 50 academics, which calls on Ms Reeves to “abandon this dangerous and damaging proposal and fund public services through direct taxation or borrowing.”
Signed by figures such as Lord Sikka, the letter calls the arguments for private finance “bogus” and warns Ms Reeves that “using private capital in the NHS is no different from a family buying their home using a payday loan.”
Campaigners have warned about the dangers of risking a repeat of disastrous PFI (private finance initiative) schemes, in which private firms funded the building of hospitals, while high-interest repayments were made over the long term.
Research by the Institute for Public Policy Research found that for just £13 billion of investment, the NHS was landed with an £80bn bill.
US Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz raises his hand to vote in favor of a draft resolution to authorize a so-called international stabilization force in Gaza, on November 17, 2025 in New York City. (Photo by Adam Gray/Getty Images)
CodePink said the plan “will leave Palestine in the hands of a puppet administration, assigning the United States, which shares complicity in the genocide, as the new manager of the open-air prison.”
Palestine defenders decried Monday’s approval by the United Nations Security Council of a US plan authorizing a so-called international stabilization force for Gaza—a plan decried by one peace group as a denial of Palestinian self-determination.
While US Ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz hailed the approval of what he called a “historic and constructive resolution,” Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007, rejected what it said “imposes an international guardianship mechanism on the Gaza Strip, which our people and their factions reject.”
“Assigning the international force with tasks and roles inside the Gaza Strip, including disarming the resistance, strips it of its neutrality, and turns it into a party to the conflict in favor of the occupation,” added Hamas, which the US labels a terrorist organization.
After waging war on Gaza for over two years, Israeli officials also rejected the resolution for opening the door to Palestinian statehood—which is officially recognized by around 150 nations but is vehemently opposed by Israel—with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calling such an outcome “unacceptable.”
The approved stabilization force will be tasked with securing Gaza’s borders, protecting civilians, facilitating humanitarian assistance, supporting a redeployed Palestinian police force, and supervising disarmament of Hamas and other militant resistance groups. Under the plan, Israeli occupation forces would fully withdraw from Gaza after the stabilization force achieves security and operational control of the Palestinian exclave.
Then, a transitional governing body—the so-called Board of Peace led by US President Donald Trump—would be established to coordinate security, humanitarian aid, and reconstruction. The plan, which builds on Trump’s 20-point peace proposal adopted in last month’s tenuous ceasefire, dangles the carrot of a pathway toward Palestinian self-determination and statehood under a reformed Palestinian governing authority.
Human Rights Watch criticized the vote in an X post stating that “the fact that the words ‘human rights’ don’t appear in the resolution adopted by the Security Council today speaks volumes.”
The US-based peace group CodePink said in a statement that “the resolution, while disguised as a peaceful and humanitarian proposal, is in reality a blueprint for the internationalization of the Israeli occupation and a complete denial of Palestinian self-determination.”
CodePink continued:
The resolution imposes a two-year mandate to “secure borders,” “protect civilians,” and “decommission weapons,” with the stated goal of disarming Palestinian resistance. However, it does nothing to address and end the root cause of the violence: Israel’s ongoing siege, occupation, and ethnic cleansing. The United States, which armed and shielded the Israeli government unconditionally as it killed and displaced hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, should not be considered a neutral actor of good faith. A military force that answers to a “Board of Peace” chaired by the US president is an extension of US and Israeli interests, plain and simple.
“The establishment of a ‘technocratic Palestinian administration’ that answers to a US-led board will strip the Palestinian people of political agency,” CodePink added. “Essentially, it will leave Palestine in the hands of a puppet administration, assigning the United States, which shares complicity in the genocide, as the new manager of the open-air prison that Israel has already established.”
Members of the New York branch of the Palestine Youth Movement led a demonstration outside the US mission to the UN in Manhattan to protest the resolution.
“We see through this thinly veiled attempt to strip the Palestinian people of their sovereignty, self-determination, and right of return,” the group said on Instagram. “The people reject any and all occupation plans for Gaza. Our movement will continue to struggle against Zionism and imperialism until Palestine is free, from the river to the sea.”
Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpAKeir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.
The proportion of patients who said there were always enough nurses on duty improved from 55.7% in 2023 to 57.9% in 2024. Photograph: Jeff Moore/PA
Findings of CQC survey from November 2024 lead experts to say waiting in such settings has become normalised
Corridor care has become the new normal in England, experts have said, as a national survey found that one in five patients admitted to hospital had to wait in such settings.
The report by the Care Quality Commission also found that nearly 10% of patients waited more than 24 hours to be admitted to hospital and 17.5% waited 12 to 24 hours.More than half of all patients waited more than six hours.
Nearly half waited in a treatment bay, but 18% had to wait in a corridor, 31% in a waiting room and 1%, or 361 patients, said they had to wait in a storage room or cupboard in November last year.
The CQC’s chief inspector of hospitals, Dr Toli Onon, said trolley waits were regrettable and must not become the norm. She said it was great to see improvements since but that reports of lengthy waits and patients whose health had deteriorated was a real concern.
Keir Starmer says that the Labour Party under his leadership is intensely relaxed about assaulting those least able to defend themselves – the very poorest and most vulnerable.
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Foreign Minister of the People’s Republic of China, Wang Yi speaks at a UN Security Council meeting on Palestine in New York, United States on September 27, 2024. [Selçuk Acar – Anadolu Agency]
China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Tuesday that any arrangements regarding the Gaza Strip should reflect Palestinian governance, Anadolu reports.
“Any post-conflict arrangement for Gaza should reflect the fundamental principle of ‘the Palestinians governing Palestine’ and must adhere unwaveringly to the ‘two-state solution’” only through which “lasting peace and stability” can be achieved in the Middle East, Wang told Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul-Gheit during a meeting in Beijing.
China will keep “upholding justice on the international stage, firmly support the restoration of the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people and promote advancing and implementation of the ‘two-state solution,’” he said.
Beijing “never interferes in other countries’ internal affairs and never engages in geopolitical rivalry,” as the goal of Chinese-Arab cooperation is “common development, shared prosperity and helping all countries achieve modernization,” said Wang.
China is the Arab countries’ “most reliable partner” and supports them in “overcoming external interference, pursuing development paths suited to their own national conditions, strengthening strategic autonomy,” as well as achieving unity and self-reliance, and jointly safeguarding regional peace and stability.
Aboul-Gheit, while expressing the importance of relations with China, also expressed a willingness for broader prospects for China-Arab League relations.
“The Arab League appreciates China’s commitment to fairness and justice on the Palestinian issue and looks forward to China continuing to play a constructive role,” he said.
Aboul-Gheit is in China for the 11th China-Arab Civilization Dialogue in Beijing, which is attended by 150 representatives from 22 Arab countries and the League of Arab States, according to state-run China Daily.
The UN Security Council adopted a US-drafted resolution Monday establishing a transitional Board of Peace (BoP) and authorizing an International Stabilization Force (ISF) to oversee governance, reconstruction and security efforts in Gaza.
The resolution passed with 13 votes, while Russia and China abstained. It authorizes the ISF and the BoP until Dec. 31, 2027.
Since October 2023, nearly 69,500 Palestinians have been killed, mostly women and children, and more than 170,700 wounded in Israel’s war that has reduced much of the enclave to rubble.
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpAKeir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
European Union flags are seen waving outside the EU Commission Building in Brussels, Belgium. [Dursun Aydemir/Anadolu Agency]
The European Union on Tuesday welcomed the adoption of the UN Security Council’s resolution endorsing a ceasefire and a 20-point plan for peace in Gaza, describing it as an “important step in advancing a comprehensive plan to end the Gaza conflict,”Anadolu reports.
Speaking in Brussels, EU spokesperson Anouar El Anouni said the resolution “consolidates the ceasefire, enables large-scale humanitarian access, and paves the way for early recovery, reconstruction, and institutional reform in Gaza after two years of devastating conflict.”
“The EU will continue to engage closely with the UN and regional partners to support implementation in line with international law,” he said.
He stressed that the EU calls on all parties to adhere to the resolution’s provisions and implement the comprehensive plan “without delay,” while also reaffirming support for reviving a political process to achieve lasting peace based on the two-state solution.
“The EU is ready to play its part and contribute to the implementation of the Gaza peace plan, including through the civil-military coordination center,” El Anouni added.
The UN Security Council on Monday adopted a US-drafted resolution establishing a transitional Board of Peace (BoP) and authorizing International Stabilization Forces (ISF) to oversee governance, reconstruction, and security efforts in the Gaza Strip.
The resolution passed with 13 votes in favor, while Russia and China abstained. It authorizes the ISF and the Board of Peace until Dec. 31, 2027.
Since October 2023, nearly 69,500 Palestinians have been killed—mostly women and children—and more than 170,700 wounded in Israel’s war that has reduced much of the enclave to rubble.
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpAKeir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves delivers a speech in the media briefing room of 9 Downing Street in central London, ahead of the Budget later this month, November 4, 2025
