Health secretary Wes Streeting has said that Keir Starmer’s popularity rating has plummeted since coming into office because they are taking “tough decisions” that are putting the needs of the country ahead of concerns about the popularity of the party.

He told listeners of LBC Radio:

We are taking a whole bunch of decisions at the moment which are not going to make us very popular, because they’re tough decisions.

They are the right decisions, putting the national interest ahead of the party interest, and ultimately, people would judge us on our results at the next election.

The worst thing we could do now is duck the difficult decisions, resort to government by gimmick, sticking plaster politics, and treating politics as a popularity contest.

We have got to take the right decisions now to make sure this country is better placed for the long term.

That’s the leadership Keir Starmer is providing. That’s the leadership the chancellor will show tomorrow, and that’s what we’re all doing to turn our country around.

NHS will not be fixed in single budget, says Wes Streeting

Jessica Elgot

Our deputy political editor Jessica Elgot has this report on Wes Streeting’s media appearances this morning:

The NHS will not be turned around in one budget, the health secretary, Wes Streeting, has warned, saying measures to be announced on Wednesday would “arrest the decline” amid significant reform of the health service.

Streeting told broadcasters new efficiencies in the health service would be the key quid pro quo for significant investment. The government is expected to announce a spending boost of at least 4% to the health budget.

Reeves said on Monday new cash would continue to drive down waiting lists, delivering more surgical hubs and radiotherapy machines – with the aim of an extra 40,000 appointments a week.

Streeting said on Tuesday he was confident there would be substantial improvements to the NHS over the course of the parliament. “I think people are realistic, you don’t fix the NHS overnight,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

“You don’t fix it in a single budget, but over the course of this parliament, you will get the NHS back on its feet at the same time as making the right long-term decisions that will make the NHS fit for the future.”

Streeting also said he would not guarantee that the funding would make a difference in time to avert a winter crisis this year. “I will always face up to the challenges. I will not stop the difficult decisions or the fact that there are still problems to be solved, and you will see me on the frontline this winter, where there will still be challenges, because you can’t just wave away the pressures,” he said.

Read more from Jessica Elgot here: NHS will not be fixed in single budget, says Wes Streeting

Former British colonies owe ‘debt of gratitude’, says Robert Jenrick

Ben Quinn

Britain’s former colonies should be thankful for the legacy of empire, not demanding reparations, according to the Conservative leadership candidate Robert Jenrick.

The MP and former minister said countries that were part of the empire “owe us a debt of gratitude for the inheritance we left them” in the form of legal and democratic institutions.

Jenrick made the comments in an article in the Daily Mail, pushing back against the growing momentum to provide reparations and justice to countries and people affected by transatlantic slavery.

Commonwealth leaders agreed at the weekend that the “time has come” for a conversation about reparations for the slave trade, and politicians and campaigners in Britain are due to host a second national conference on reparations on Sunday.

Keir Starmer was among 56 heads of government who signed a document at the Commonwealth summit that acknowledged calls for “discussions on reparatory justice” for the “abhorrent” transatlantic slave trade.

Starmer was criticised before the conference after he told reporters he wanted to “look forward” rather than have “very long endless discussions about reparations on the past”.

Jenrick accused Starmer of doing a U-turn on the issue and of “capitulating to those determined to tear our country down”.

Read more from Ben Quinn here: Former British colonies owe ‘debt of gratitude’, says Robert Jenrick

Kemi Badenoch, who is the bookies’ favourite to be the next Conservative leader, has told Times Radio that the contest is poised “neck and neck”.

Interviewed by Kate McCann, Badenoch told listeners:

People are tired of the party looking like it is not out working for the people out there. That is what I want to bring: integrity, and a focus on conviction and conservative values.

There is something very significant that is going on, we are picking a leader of the opposition. People have a choice.

And, you know, there are a lot of people who still haven’t voted. It is neck and neck. I’m not necessarily ahead, like the bookies say. It’s just what people are placing bets on.

And I want people to remember that this is not a general election, this is a leadership contest where we picking what kind of person we want.

In a reflective moment during the interview, Badenoch agreed that if she won it would change life for her and her family. She said:

This is a sacrifice, because I worry about the direction of the country.

I worry about a lot of decisions we make, and us not being honest with the public about the serious trade-offs that are going to be required, and not saying enough about how the world is becoming a more dangerous place.

And if I want to leave a better world for my children, and your children, all our children, I think that stepping up and putting my case forward is the right thing.

Somewhat contrary to the testy tone of her interview with Kate McCann on Times Radio, Conservative leadership hopeful Kemi Badenoch told listeners “I don’t mind criticism. Actually, I love criticism. It helps me get better.”

She argued that “I don’t like deliberate misrepresentation. People can throw out all sorts of random allegations and they get published and you say, well, no, that’s not true, but it keeps coming back again. Is it true that you said this? When nothing of the sort has happened.”

Badenoch went on to say “I keep going back to the fact that all these things are anonymous comments, often from people who maybe they don’t want me to succeed, maybe they don’t think that I should be the person in charge, and they will do whatever they can to stop that from happening. And it’s one of the reasons why I think that we need to move away from this endless sort of negativity and briefing.”

Kemi Badenoch has given a somewhat prickly interview with Times Radio’s political editor Kate McCann. The leadership contender was combative throughout, and fell back on one of her tried and tested media strategies, to try and walk back something controversial she has said and say it didn’t mean what everybody else says it meant, even when confronted with her own precise quotes.

In particularly McCann pushed Badenoch on whether she had claimed there was “a whiff of impropriety” about her rival Robert Jenrick.

Badenoch said:

Well, I’m not going to ask you to read out the full quotes, but I do remember what I said.

And if I could finish the point I was making, we have a problem. Now that the party has been defeated very badly, we are at a crossroads. We have one chance to get this right.

And I was making a point that integrity matters. I think that is important, and I’m very happy to talk about my integrity.

Now, if an interview asks me a question about my opponent, I will answer lightly, but I’ll go back to talking about myself.

What I do not like is when an interviewer asks a question, you answer it, and then they say, well, why were you talking about your opponent? When they just asked that.

As McCann tried to interject, Badenoch spoke over her, saying:

If I may finish, Kate, I think it is very important that politicians are allowed to say what they think without it constantly being twisted to create, you know, an attack on someone else.

Eventually McCann put the question directly to her, asking “so do you think there is a whiff of impropriety about Robert Jenrick?”, to which Badenoch said:

I’m not interested in talking about Robert Jenrick. I’m interested in talking about my campaign.

So that cleared that up.

Health secretary Wes Streeting has claimed that the government is already “ramping up” a promised additional 40,000 weekly NHS appointments in England, though he said due to data lag he could not provide precise figures.

Speaking on LBC radio, Streeting said it would be a hard winter ahead for the NHS, but that tomorrow’s budget was putting a level of funding in place to arrest a decline in the health service.

He told listeners he would come back on the same show in a year’s time to demonstrate the progress made, saying:

I will come back on your programme to mark one year of a Labour government and tell you how many more appointments have been delivered in the first year of a Labour government compared to the previous year of Conservative government.

And therefore I will be able to confidently tell you that we will have honoured our promise to deliver 40,000 more appointments a week well within the first year of a Labour government. That was the promise we made. It is a promise we will keep.

Streeting said the government was sending in what he described as “crack teams of top clinicians” into hospitals in areas with the largest waiting lists and the most people off work sick.

Reiterating a line that he took on Monday, Streeting said:

I can’t pretend that there’s a magic wand that I can wave so that no one will be waiting on a trolley in the corridor this winter.

And nor am I going to say that is any more acceptable under a Labour government than it was under a Conservative government.

It is not acceptable.

And I am doing everything I can, as fast as I can, to turn the NHS around.

Health secretary Wes Streeting has robustly defended Labour’s plans to end the VAT tax break for independent private schools.

Speaking on LBC radio, the health secretary said:

I would just say to independent schools, you have hiked your fees up with inflation-busting increases year after year after year since 2010 and now you’re pleading poverty.

If you are worried about whether children in your schools will continue to access your schools, you’ll have to cut your cloth in the way that state schools have had to.

In a barbed reference to the charitable status many schools have enjoyed over the years, Streeting continued:

They have hiked up their fees with inflation-busting increases for well over a decade, and they can, I’m sure, take steps to mitigate against children being forced to drop out if if they’re the good charities they say they are.

Good morning, and welcome to our live coverage of UK politics on the eve of the first Labour budget for well over a decade. Here are your headlines …

• Wes Streeting has said private schools can mitigate the impact of VAT rule changes “if they’re the good charities they say they are”

• The health secretary also said the government was already ramping up additional appointments in the NHS in England

• However, Labour ministers have said the budget will end neglect of “broken not beaten” NHS

• Kemi Badenoch has said the Tory leadership contest remains “neck and neck” as it enters its final stretch

• Data shows a loophole exempts 355 landowners in England from inheritance tax

• Post-Brexit border checks are putting food security at risk, produce sellers warn

We spent a lot of yesterday watching senior Labour politicians explain that they couldn’t say in advance what would be in tomorrow’s budget, while also briefing out or announcing things that would be in the budget. Speaker Lindsay Hoyle delivered a broadside about that in the House in the afternoon, saying it was “disrespectful” to MPs. We will find out today whether that has made any difference to either the statements from the government, or the questions politicians get asked by broadcast media.

It is Martin Belam with you again today. The best way to get in touch with me is via email – martin.belam@theguardian.com.