Labour says NHS facing ‘biggest crisis in its history’ amid record ambulance response times and A&E waits in England – live

Shadow health secretary says patients in an emergency can no longer be sure the NHS will be there for them

The British Medical Association said its meeting this morning with Steve Barclay, the health secretary, ahead of a planned strike in March was “constructive”, but without any fresh offer being made.

Prof Philip Banfield, chair of council at the British Medical Association (BMA), told reporters that Barclay was “in listening mode” and that Barclay was “collaborative”, not confrontational.

It went as we expected. We went into the meeting to discuss the pay review body and we came out of the meeting having laid out our stall and making it very clear the state of the NHS and that, really, the pay dispute with the junior doctors has to include some form of addressing full pay restoration.

No, we’re not getting into the detail of money and numbers at this point in time, and I wouldn’t have expected that.

Twenty-six per cent is a lot to lose from your salary, so although it’s a lot of money, it’s a lot of money to lose as well. We’ve got junior doctors who are really struggling financially now because they are qualifying with £100,000 of debt.

What was constructive today was the willingness to listen and to get into the room and discuss what pay restoration may or may not look like.

We’ve got about six weeks, haven’t we, to sit down and try and resolve the situation. None of our doctors want to strike, they would prefer that this was resolved before we got into that situation.

The review of cases identified a small minority of individuals connected to the tier 1 (investor) visa route that were potentially at high risk of having obtained wealth through corruption or other illicit financial activity, and/or being engaged in serious and organised crime.

I should stress that the work carried out only implies that a particular individual potentially poses a risk of having connections to criminality; it does not mean guilt has been proven.

The Home Office has found that there are inherent difficulties in an investment-based immigration route based on passive wealth, both in terms of security and economic value. I am determined this government will ensure such mistakes are not repeated.