Sunak quizzed on nurses' pay and state of the NHS

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We chose to focus in our interview with the prime minister on the NHS because right now, it's one of his biggest problems.

There was an element of "crisis, what crisis?" despite what's happening right now in A&Es around the country being considered that serious by many in the health sector. Rishi Sunak was obviously reluctant to use that word.

And he was adamant he was not going to divulge whether he pays for healthcare.

Whether or not you think that's an issue, there is likely to be a political row about it, not least because he does not want to give detail.

One former minister told me: "His lack of transparency shows he thinks going private is a problem. It is - he's taking decisions on public spend that affect a version of 'the public' that he's not willing to be part of."

It was though noteworthy that he did signal a willingness to talk to nurses about this year's pay.

He's a million miles away from telling nurses he'll open the cheque book but it was a clear softening of the fraught tone of the public conversation of the last few weeks.

Pat Cullen, the leader of the nurses' union told us on the show she thought it was a "chink of light".

Last year, The Crown star Emma Corrin called for gender-neutral categories at major film awards.

Director Sam Mendes has told the BBC's Laura Kuenssberg he has "total sympathy" with the idea.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is under pressure to tackle the severe challenges facing the NHS this winter.

Hospitals are struggling with a difficult flu season, staff shortages and backlogs due to Covid.

You can see what is happening in your area by using our NHS tracker.

• Sunak says the NHS does not recognise figures from the Royal College of Emergency Medicine suggesting some 300 people a week have died due to failings in A&E
• He does admit there are "unacceptable delays" in ambulances and A&E but a small number of trusts are responsible for more than half of these
• He says he is confident that within a few months treatment waiting lists would be under 18 months

• He says the government has always been open to talks with nurses and unions over pay but does not clarify if a rise in this financial year is on the table
• We still don't know whether Sunak has ever been registered with a private GP
• Sunak says inflation will not come down automatically but because of the plans the government has put in place and until it does they can't help nurses or anyone else

• New laws will be passed early this year to stop migrants crossing the English Channel in small boats and they should apply to everyone trying to enter the UK illegally, he says

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Laura Kuenssberg asks Pat Cullen, chief executive of the Royal College of Nursing, for her final thoughts.

Cullen says she'll feel optimistic going forward if 47,000 nursing vacancies get filled and nurses get a "decent" salary.

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Referring to Sam Mendes's new film Empire of Light which was filmed in Margate, Andy Haldane, chief executive of the Royal Society of Arts, calls for regeneration in towns across the country.

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Professor Clive Kay, chief executive of King's College Hospital, reacts to shadow health secretary Wes Streeting's comments about health inequalities, which he agrees have been exposed by Covid and need to be addressed.

He agrees that radical solutions are required and says: "We can't go for quick-fix or sticking plasters, we need sustained, sustainable radical solutions."

In a final couple of questions, Kuenssberg asks Streeting if junior doctors should get a 30% pay rise.

He says he understands the financial pressures on them but he couldn't honestly say if he was the health secretary that he would be able to deliver that.

She asks if buying cigarettes should be outlawed.

Streeting says Labour will consult on phasing out the sale of cigarettes over time.

Kuenssberg asks Streeting about his previous statement that GPs giving vaccinations is money for old rope.

He says: "The vaccination programme is absolutely critical to our country."

He adds: "I'm not trying to insult a profession that is slogging their guts out and is incredibly burnt out."

But he does want more GPs, more focus and investment and over a 10-year plan shift the focus of healthcare out of hospital and into the community to allow faster access to treatment and better value for money.

Streeting says he wants to see people treated as fast as possible and if there is spare capacity in the private sector they will use it.

I would absolutely use the private sector in the short-term to get the NHS waiting lists down free at the point of use, he says.

We are focused on fixing the NHS, getting people access to treatment as fast as possible, he adds.

Kuenssberg asks him about his plan to make GPs salaried members of NHS staff instead of running practices as businesses. He says there is already a trend in GPs moving towards this way of working.

Asked if he would get rid of GP practices being run by doctors, he says: "We are looking to phase that out, we are going to be consulting on that this year."

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We've heard what the PM has to say and next up, responding for Labour, is the party’s shadow health secretary Wes Streeting.

Kuenssberg asks him if he uses private healthcare. He says "no" and the PM's answer to the same question showed him to be someone who did not understand the biggest crisis in the NHS history.

Asked if there's anything wrong with paying for private healthcare, he says it has created a two-tier system, but it's a free country and people can make that choice.

He says he wants to make sure people have access to great healthcare whether they can afford it or not.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak tells Laura Kuenssberg he understands that the NHS is under immense pressure and that fixing it is a top priority for him.

Empire of Light/Searchlight PicturesCopyright: Empire of Light/Searchlight Pictures

We're hearing now from film and theatre director Sir Sam Mendes.

He says his new film Empire of Light hopes to dramatise "what it is to live through bipolar and manic depression rather than explain it".

The film sees Hilary (Olivia Colman) play a cinema manager in a British seaside town, struggling with her mental health.

Mendes says there is stil a stigma surounding mental illness and that people don't ask after your health in the same way as they might if you had cancer treatment, for example.

Empire of Light is in cinemas from 9 January

The RCN's Pat Cullen says the strikes were the hardest thing she has had to do in her 40 years of nursing.

But she says nurses are getting poorer, they cannot manage to survive on the wages government are giving them, and they are not being listened to, so something has to give.

The only way it appears the government will listen to the people holding the health service together is if they use their voice standing at the picket lines, she says.

Prof Clive Kay, who runs King's College Hospital in south London, says nurses are impacted by the cost of living crisis so "we should reward them" and these kinds of disputes are only resolved by getting around the table and we need to do that sooner rather than later.

Giving his thoughts on Sunak's plans for the economy, former Bank of England chief economist Andy Haldane says "as things stand it is not really a growth programme at all".

He says there were hints of it in the PM's speech earlier in the week but it is still falling short.

This is the year where optimism and innovation will only happen if there's a sense of a brighter tomorrow, he says.

Inflation has peaked in headline terms so it will fall this year but the labour market is very tight with lots of unfilled vacancies which put pressure on wages.

He says inflation will remain above the Bank's 2% target for a little while yet.

Chief executive of King’s College Hospital in south London Professor Clive Kay says he doesn't think he heard the PM quite grasp the fact this is a really difficult situation.

He says it's not a one-off or a quick fix there's going to need quite a time to fix this and we need some realistic conversations about the situation, how difficult it is and what the public can expect.

"The suggestion that there's going to be a quick fix is not a reality," he says.

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We are now hearing what the Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg panellists think about what they've heard in the PM's first TV interview of the year.

Royal College of Nursing general secretary Pat Cullen says she heard a chink of optimism and a little shift in what the PM was saying but general secretaries will not be at tomorrow's meeting between the government and unions at No 10.

It's not about negotiations, nurses' pay or pay for 22/23 and these talks will not avert the strike action planned for 10 days' time.

She says the PM talked about coming to the table, "that's a move for me" but it must be about pay for 22/23, she says.