The Spectator

Portrait of the Week: Tory phishing, tension over Rafah and Cameron in America

issue 13 April 2024

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The review by Dr Hilary Cass of gender-identity services for people under 18 called for an end to prescribing powerful hormone drugs; warned that children who change gender may regret it; and found that many had experienced trauma, neglect and abuse. More than 150,000 patients had to wait more than 24 hours in A&E before getting a hospital bed last year, a tenfold increase on 2019. Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, suggested that Labour could plug the gap in its spending commitments by getting more taxes sooner from non-doms. Five Bulgarians admitted in court to stealing more than £50 million in fraudulent claims for Universal Credit. Britain held talks with the European Commission on making Gibraltar part of the Schengen area. Peter Higgs, the British theorist of the Higgs boson, died aged 94. Lord Hoyle, the father of the Speaker of the House of Commons, who as Doug Hoyle had sat for 21 years as a left-wing Labour MP, died aged 98. Sir Paul Fox, an influential television executive, died aged 98. Michael Tanner, the Cambridge philosopher and The Spectator’s opera critic for more than 20 years, died aged 88.

A Conservative MP called William Wragg said that he had given someone he had met on a gay dating site the phone numbers of MPs and others because the man had ‘compromising things’ on him. He resigned as vice chairman of the 1922 Committee, as chairman of the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Select Committee and relinquished the Conservative whip. Some political journalists were contacted by a dubious-sounding person called Charlie or Abi and at least one MP sent back an indecent photo of himself. Ramsay El-Nakla, the brother-in-law of Humza Yousaf, the First Minister of Scotland, was charged with abduction and extortion following an incident in which a man fell from a block of flats and later died.

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