Education secretary defends "rude and dismissive" comments that employers don"t look at A-level results There has been a political dimension to the A-level results in England, Wales and Northern Ireland today, with the UK education secretary being forced to defend her remarks earlier in the day that in 10 years’ time, nobody would be looking at the grades teenagers earned today. Speaking to Sky News, Gillian Keegan had said: Somebody asked me: ‘What will people ask you in 10 years’ time?’ They won’t ask you anything about your A-level grades in 10 years’ time. They will ask you about other things you have done since then: what you have done in the workplace, what you did at university. And then, after a period of time, they don’t even ask you what you did at university. It is really all about what you do and what you can demonstrate and the skills that you learn in the workplace. Keegan, the sixth Conservative education secretary since the 2019 general election, later told reporters at the City of London Academy Islington, in north London, that what she said “is true, it is just real. It’s an important step to get to your next destination, but when you’re a couple of destinations further on there’ll be other things that they look at.” Bridget Phillipson, the shadow education secretary, said: I think the comments from the secretary of state are incredibly rude and dismissive. This is a nerve-racking day for young people who’ve worked incredibly hard. The last thing that they need is the secretary of state offering comments like that, and it really does add insult to injury coming a Government that completely failed to put in place the kind of support that our young people needed coming out of the pandemic, after all of the disruption they’d experienced. Labour has clipped up Keegan’s comments for social media, with an additional statement by Phillipson: Hard work matters. Results matter. That’s why the education secretary telling young people that the qualifications they got today won’t be relevant in ten years isn’t just plain wrong, it’s downright rude. She’s talking down England’s young people, and she needs to apologise. Summary of the day … The UK education secretary has been forced to defend remarks saying that in 10 years’ time, nobody would be looking at the grades teenagers earned today. Gillian Keegan, the sixth Conservative education secretary since the 2019 general election, told reporters: “It is true, it is just real,” after saying: “What will people ask you in 10 years’ time? They won’t ask you anything about your A-level grades in 10 years’ time. They will ask you about other things you have done since then: what you have done in the work place, what you did at university. And then, after a period of time, they don’t even ask you what you did at university.” The shadow education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, said: “I think the comments from the secretary of state are incredibly rude and dismissive. This is a nerve-racking day for young people who’ve worked incredibly hard. The last thing that they need is the secretary of state offering comments like that. She’s talking down England’s young people, and she needs to apologise.” A-level grades awarded to students in England have shown their biggest drop after results plummeted across the board in line with the government’s policy of enforcing a return to pre-pandemic grading. England’s results showed a large gap in top grades compared with Wales and Northern Ireland, which were also announced today. Northern Ireland awarded A*-A grades to 37.5% of its A-level entries, while Wales awarded 34% – in stark contrast to the 26.5% in England. Scottish pupils got their results on 8 August, which also showed a fall. The government has confirmed that seven NHS England cancer targets are to be scrapped, as the service moves to having three performance standards from October. The new guidelines will move away from what the government termed the “outdated” two-week wait target. Currently that two-week wait target is not being met. The health minister Will Quince has claimed the government is scrapping the two-week cancer target in NHS England after clinical consultations. He said: “The biggest factor in people surviving cancer is the stage at which they are diagnosed. We have listened to the advice from clinical experts and NHS England to reform cancer standards which will speed up diagnosis for patients.” Angela Rayner has insisted that SNP calls for employment law to be devolved are not needed. The deputy Labour leader met apprentices in Glasgow as she set out her party’s plans to enhance workers’ rights. They include protection against unfair dismissal, sick pay from day one and banning zero-hour contracts and fire and rehire policies. Earlier, Scotland’s first minister Humza Yousaf had asked: “Will Labour commit to full devolution of employment law should they form the next government?” Rayner responded: “They won’t need it because I want employment law across the whole of the UK to be uplifted and better.” Rishi Sunak has spoken on the phone today to Saudi Arabia’s crown prince and prime minister, Mohammed bin Salman. The Downing Street readout of the call stated that Sunak and Bin Salman “looked forward to meeting in person at the earliest opportunity”. In July the Guardian reported that the prince had been invited to the UK for an official visit in late autumn, which would be the first such visit by the heir to the Saudi throne since he was accused of masterminding the killing of Jamal Khashoggi. The journalist’s body was hacked to pieces with a bone-saw at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. The Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesperson, Layla Moran, said it “beggars belief that Rishi Sunak is rolling out the red carpet for Mohammed bin Salman”. Labour’s Angela Rayner said Sunak should use any visit to “have a conversation about human rights”. The DUP’s Jeffrey Donaldson has claimed that the party has been having “meaningful engagement” with the UK government over the restoration of the Stormont assembly, while also criticising the Irish taoiseach Leo Varadkar’s recent interventions as “unhelpful”. The government has been criticised for binning food waste legislation that campaigners say could have reduced food prices and curbed climate change. The policy would have made food waste reporting mandatory for large and medium-sized businesses in England. The government collected more than £270m from the plastic packaging tax (PPT) during its first year, official figures show. It was £41m more than the Treasury predicted. Four people have been detained in France today after six people died and more than 50 were rescued when a boat carrying people to the UK sank in the Channel at the weekend. Pub bosses have called on the government to loosen licensing rules for Sunday opening hours and alcohol sales for the Women’s World Cup final. Industry bosses have said licensing rules could mean some venues will be unable to serve pints or open early for fans on the day. England kick off against Spain at 11am. That is it from me today. We will be closing the blog shortly. I will be back with you again tomorrow. Take care, see you soon. The Scottish Tory leader, Douglas Ross, has rejected the assertion he is avoiding the Rutherglen and Hamilton West constituency. While Ross was visiting a business at Prestwick airport in Ayrshire he said he was “absolutely not” avoiding the seat, saying there had not actually been a byelection called yet, and when it was, he would be campaigning with his candidate, Thomas Kerr. He told PA Media: “I’ve confirmed I’ll be there supporting Thomas, as I say, he’s already launched his campaign, he’s already doing activity there with our local campaigners and I’ll be very proud to support Thomas in that byelection.” Responding to recent polling figures he said: “These opinion polls go up and down, I don’t get too excited when the polls go up, I don’t get too demotivated when they go down.” Asked if he was still the right man to lead the Tories north of the border, Ross said: “Yes, absolutely.” The number of babies born in England and Wales in a year dropped in 2022 to the lowest level in two decades, according to official figures. It follows the recent trend of decreasing live births, which had been the case before the pandemic, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said. The number has been steadily decreasing for the past decade – returning to roughly the level seen in the early 2000s. It has recently recovered twice from relative lows – on that occasion, and in the mid-1970s – before reaching relative highs in 1990 and 2012. Our police and crime correspondent Vikram Dodd writes: The Metropolitan police has won its battle to stop attending most of the mental health calls it receives after a tense behind-the-scenes row with the health service, the Guardian has learned. From 31 October it will start implementing a scheme that aims to stop officers being diverted from crime fighting, to do work health staff are better trained to do. The Guardian in May revealed that the Met commissioner, Sir Mark Rowley, had written to health and social care leaders setting a deadline of 31 August – leading to furious reaction from health chiefs who told the commissioner it could not be done. The agreement sees Rowley push his deadline back by two months. In return, the health service will not publicly criticise the police decision, and will try to put measures in place to pick up the work. A formal announcement is expected as soon as tomorrow and follows weeks of tense talks. DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson has claimed that the party has been having “meaningful engagement” with the UK government over the restoration of the Stormont Assembly, while also criticising taoiseach Leo Varadkar’s interventions as “unhelpful”. Speaking after a meeting between Stormont parties and the head of the Northern Ireland civil service Jayne Brady at Stormont Castle on Thursday, Donaldson said: “There is now meaningful engagement. The Government is responding to the points that we had put forward in our paper, that we presented to them some time ago. “So I think we are now making progress, we are now getting down to addressing the issues that need to be resolved.” PA Media reports Donaldson said his party wanted to see legislation that would “underpin Northern Ireland’s ability to trade with the rest of the UK, and to do so in a way that ensures our businesses have the access they need to that market, that fundamentally important market”. He criticised Varadkar’s suggestion last week that if Stormont was not restored by the autumn there could be talks about potential alternatives as “unhelpful”, adding: “We’re not planning for failure. We want to get this right.” Angela Rayner has insisted that SNP calls for employment law to be devolved are not needed while she was visiting Glasgow today. The deputy Labour leader met apprentices in Glasgow as she set out her party’s plans to enhance workers’ rights. They include protection against unfair dismissal, sick pay from day one and banning zero-hour contracts and fire and rehire policies. First minister Humza Yousaf had said on social media earlier: “I would remind Angela Rayner that we have engaged constructively with trade unions. That is why we haven’t had any NHS strikes in Scotland, in stark comparison to Labour-run Wales. Will Labour commit to full devolution of employment law should they form the next government?” PA Media reports that during her visit to the Royal Strathclyde Blindcraft Industries Training College on Thursday, Rayner said: “They won’t need it because I want employment law across the whole of the United Kingdom to be uplifted and better. That’s why we’ve got a new deal for working people. I want a new deal for working people to be here in Scotland so we have those protections of employment law.” She added employment practices would be “in effect across the board” rather than split off across the four UK nations. And she said she did not want to see “disparities” across the different parts of the UK. The SNP’s social justice spokesperson at Westminster, David Linden countered “Neither the Tories or Labour at Westminster can be trusted to protect these hard-fought rights. “Power over employment law must be handed to Scotland’s parliament where workers’ rights can be defended and strengthened under progressive leadership. “Labour once proudly brandished itself the party of the workers. How far they have fallen under Sir Keir Starmer, that they would rather the rights of Scottish workers were ripped up by Westminster, than protected at Holyrood.” Cambuslang East councillor Katy Loudon will be the SNP’s candidate in the Rutherglen and Hamilton West byelection after the seat was left vacant after the departure of Covid rule-breaking MP Margaret Ferrier. Ferrier won the seat for the SNP in 2019 with a majority of 5,230, but had been sitting as an independent since 2020. The SNP have published a video on social media today introducing Loudon. The date for the byelection is yet to be set. Rishi Sunak has spoken on the phone today to Saudi Arabia’s crown prince and prime minister Mohammed bin Salman. A Downing Street spokesperson said: “He welcomed the opportunity to speak to the crown prince and looked forward to personally deepening the longstanding ties between the UK and Saudi Arabia, as the kingdom continues to go through a period of profound social and economic transformation under Vision 2030. “The leaders discussed their commitment to further develop our trade and investment relationship, including by collaborating in new cutting-edge industries, and to strengthen our close cooperation on defence and security. “The prime minister reiterated the UK’s longstanding commitment to support Saudi Arabia’s security and regional stability.” No 10 said Sunak “highlighted Saudi Arabia’s constructive and positive leadership on Ukraine following the recent talks in Jeddah and the leaders agreed on the importance of allies working together to end the bloodshed in Ukraine and support a just and lasting peace”. PA Media reports the Downing Street readout of the call stated that Sunak and bin Salman “looked forward to meeting in person at the earliest opportunity.” In July the Guardian reported that the Saudi crown prince had been invited to the UK for an official visit in late autumn, which would be the first such visit by the heir to the Saudi throne since he was accused of masterminding the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, the Washington Post columnist and dissident, in 2018. Khashoggi’s body was hacked to pieces by a bone-saw at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Today’s call comes amid renewed media reports about the proposed visit. Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesperson, Layla Moran, said it “beggars belief that Rishi Sunak is rolling out the red carpet for Mohammed bin Salman”. She said: “This man, who authorised the brutal murder of Jamal Khashoggi and presides over a dismal human rights record, should not be receiving a warm welcome from the UK government. It sends a signal that he can continue acting with impunity and we and our allies will do nothing about it.” Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner said Sunak should use the visit to “have a conversation about human rights”. Former prime minister Boris Johnson visited Riyadh in March 2022. The government has been criticised for binning food waste legislation that campaigners say could have reduced food prices and curbed climate change. The policy would have made food waste reporting mandatory for large and medium-sized businesses in England. According to research by the environmental campaign group Feedback, if it led to just a 1% reduction in food waste, food businesses would save an estimated total of at least £24.4m a year. Martin Bowman, senior policy and campaigns manager at Feedback, said this was “an immediately achievable goal” which would “more than offset the costs of measurement and reporting, saving millions of pounds, and helping struggling families by lowering food inflation”. “After a decade of failed voluntary reporting, it is a dereliction of duty for the government to abandon this policy,” he said. Campaigners say that the decision by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) to backtrack on the legislation also risks exacerbating environmental challenges. The government collected more than £270m from the plastic packaging tax (PPT) during its first year, official figures show. HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) released the first annual update on the PTT on Thursday. The tax was introduced in April 2022 as a £200 per tonne levy placed on plastic packaging with less than 30% recycled content. PA Media reports HMRC showed that receipts for the financial year of April 2022/23 totalled £276m. It was £41m more than the Treasury predicted. Sam Tuckett is associate director at the Education Policy Institute, and has written for the Guardian today about the English A-level results, arguing they reflect inequalities across England after challenging years: [This cohort’s] GCSE years were disrupted by pandemic school closures, and their GCSE grades were teacher assessed, meaning most will not have sat a public exam prior to this summer. Furthermore, student absences were rife, with added disruption stemming from industrial action as unions strove to reach a pay deal. These issues appear to have had unequal impacts on different students. In particular, the proportion achieving top grades in parts of northern England have declined relative to 2019, whereas the rate in other regions, notably London, has increased. As was the case last year, the return to exams relative to teacher assessments appears to have benefited male students across most subjects. In particular, the female lead in the proportion achieving top grades in maths and physics in 2022 appears to have reversed. Independent schools had one of the largest drops since last year, but their proportion achieving top grades since 2019 increased the most. In contrast, the proportion achieving top A-level grades in further education establishments has decreased since 2019. We cannot say to what extent this variation represents differences in the impacts of school closures and absences, the suitability of post-16 course choices based on inflated 2021 GCSE results, or the year-on-year variation we might expect to see anyway. Most likely it is a combination of all three.