Health secretary said he is not doing ‘victory laps’ as Labour says it has met its manifesto promise earlyConservative MP for Rutland and Stamford, Alicia Kearns, who acts as a shadow cabinet spokesperson, was also on the media round this morning, and told viewers of Sky News that while her party stood “shoulder to shoulder” with Ukraine, she was “quite cautious” about Keir Starmer’s announcement in the pages of the Telegraph that he was prepared to put British troops on the ground as part of a peacekeeping force.She said:I’m quite cautious, because we’re not a place in which we understand the terms or the conditions or the numbers or the way in which we’ve been deploying our people, and we should always make sure that we are making decisions based on as much information as possible.The reality is that Ukraine is still fighting for its freedom. Russia has taken around 600 square miles of territory over the last few months. We’re not in a place as yet where I think we can be making those commitments … things are going to change over the next few hours, let alone the next few days, weeks and months.We will always give Ukraine the support they need. We will stand shoulder to shoulder with them. We will fight for them to determine the terms of this peace.And also, it’s important to note, this can’t just be that we’ve managed to stop the shooting and murder, and therefore we’ve got peace. We need a peace deal that will end the threat to our European neighbours and to us, one that will make us safer from a state that is currently behaving like a terrorist. Continue reading…
Source link : https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2025/feb/17/wes-streeting-labour-keir-starmer-nhs-appointment-pledge-uk-politics-live
Author : Martin Belam
Publish date : 2025-02-17 09:55:00
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Streeting says ‘hell of a lot’ still to do after PM says NHS has met its two million extra appointments pledge – UK politics live
