For a sitting Health Secretary to use the word “gaslighting” about his own department’s flagship public institution is, by any measure, a significant moment. But does the strategy that’s been laid out actually deliver?

The Problem It’s Trying to Fix

The backdrop to this strategy is bleak. The Women and Equalities Committee, chaired by Labour MP Sarah Owen, delivered a damning parliamentary report in December 2024 that used the phrase “medical misogyny” without apology. It found that women experiencing painful reproductive conditions: endometriosis, adenomyosis, heavy menstrual bleeding, PMDD –  routinely have their symptoms dismissed, normalised, and minimised. Women, for years, were told to “suck it up.” Their pain, the committee concluded, was treated as a personality failing rather than a medical complaint. 

The statistics sit behind that language like a wall. As of December 2024, there were over 586,000 women on incomplete gynaecology pathways in the NHS, with nearly 45% of those patients waiting more than 18 weeks, far beyond the NHS standard. Almost 19,000 had been waiting longer than a year. Endometriosis, affecting roughly one in ten women, currently takes close to a decade to diagnose on average. The gynaecology waiting list has more than doubled in eight years. Female life expectancy has declined. Only the wealthiest third of women, the strategy’s own authors note, can expect to remain in good health until retirement.

This is not a niche policy issue. It is a crisis affecting millions of people’s daily lives: their careers, relationships, fertility, and mental health.

What the Strategy Actually Does

The renewed strategy is built around four pillars: centring women’s voices and choices; transforming NHS performance in the services that matter most to women; supporting all women to live healthy, prosperous lives; and creating a structural approach to reform under the wider 10-Year Health Plan.

Several concrete commitments stand out.

1. For the first time, the strategy introduces a guaranteed standard requiring that women are offered appropriate and effective pain relief for invasive gynaecological procedures, including contraceptive coil fittings and hysteroscopies. This is long overdue. Campaigners and clinicians have been pushing for this for years following high-profile accounts, including from BBC presenter Naga Munchetty, of traumatic coil fittings conducted without anaesthesia. A Mail on Sunday investigation found that up to a third of women received no pain relief at all during coil insertion, even after guidance recommending it was issued in 2021. The strategy now moves that guidance to a mandatory standard of care; a meaningful shift, if enforced.
2. Women will be directed to the right specialist at the first attempt through a new single referral system, rather than being “passed from one appointment to another,” in Streeting’s words. Action will be taken to cut the near-decade-long diagnostic wait for conditions like endometriosis.
3. Perhaps the most structurally significant element is the proposal to link women’s feedback directly to provider funding through a new trial. Streeting was explicit about the logic: “We need to hit medical misogyny where it hurts –  the wallet.” Services that fail to listen to women would, in theory, face financial consequences.
4. The strategy reaffirms the government’s earlier commitment to set an explicit target to close the Black and South Asian maternal mortality gap, an issue of profound inequality. Black women are currently approximately 2.3 times more likely to die during or shortly after pregnancy than white women; South Asian women are around 1.4 times more likely. The government says it will invest £50 million through the National Institute for Health and Care Research to tackle maternity disparities.
5. A £1 million investment in a menstrual education programme aims to help girls distinguish between normal and abnormal periods earlier. This matters: the parliamentary report found that sex education has consistently failed to teach girls what constitutes “normal” menstruation, which contributes to diagnostic delays that stretch into adulthood.

The strategy is embedded in the government’s wider 10-Year Health Plan and its ambition to shift care from hospitals into communities. New Neighbourhood Health Centres are envisaged as single, accessible points for women’s health — if they can replicate the success already shown by the existing Women’s Health Hubs model, where GP practices pool specialist services in areas like menopause care and coil fitting, this could be transformative.

What the Strategy Doesn’t Do — Yet

Progress has been “too slow” before. 

The 2022 Women’s Health Strategy, published under the Conservatives, contained similar commitments and similar rhetoric. The parliamentary inquiry found its progress had been insufficient. The risk with this iteration is the same: a well-intentioned document that struggles to translate into consistent practice across a fragmented NHS. Structural reforms, like shifting commissioning to bring gynaecology and contraception under single funding streams, remain complicated and have historically been resistant to top-down policy fixes.

The waiting list problem is immense. 

While the strategy pledges to cut the gynaecology waiting list, the scale of the backlog is daunting. Even the commitment to move patients from the independent sector — where spare private capacity exists — into state-funded treatment represents a significant logistical undertaking. The elective reform plan announced earlier this year aims to reduce the longest waits from 18 months to 18 weeks, but the timeline remains unclear.

“Medical misogyny” requires cultural change, not just clinical protocols. 

The Women and Equalities Committee was unambiguous: the problem is not simply a lack of resources. It is a culture of bias, normalisation, and dismissal, embedded across primary and secondary care. Sarah Owen, chair of the committee, described it as “not a criticism of male doctors” specifically, but a “systemic misogyny” that runs through the whole structure. A new standard of care mandating pain relief is a policy. Changing the underlying attitudes of clinicians requires sustained training, accountability, and cultural leadership over years.

Intersectional inequalities need more than targets. 

The commitment to close the black and Asian maternal mortality gap is welcome and long overdue, but setting a target is not the same as achieving it. Significant variation in access to perinatal mental health services by ethnicity persists. ICB budget cuts risk undermining the specialist programmes that disproportionately serve the women who need them most.

Does It Tackle Misogyny? 

That depends on what you think tackling misogyny in healthcare looks like.

If it means naming the problem honestly and committing the government’s authority to confronting it: yes, this strategy does that more forthrightly than anything that has come before it. The language is not a bureaucratic euphemism. Calling out a “system that gaslights women” from the despatch box, and then legislating pain standards and accountability mechanisms to match, represents a qualitative shift.

Weighing in here myself (as a woman), I am split into two minds: we are finally moving in a positive direction for women’s rights in healthcare, but the fact that it has taken this long for us to acknowledge the sexism occurring frustrates me.

The menopause, for example, has only been given recognition in recent years, and that was mostly through relentless campaigning from the Menopause Mandate, an incredibly powerful movement from dedicated women for the menopause to be recognised properly in healthcare. It was through an aunt of mine that I discovered the sheer amount of symptoms that occur during the menopause, and upon further research I realised just how little women are taught about their health in schools.

Testosterone is not included in NHS prescriptions, costing from £60 monthly, something that most women need to feel like “themselves” again. Out of curiosity, I recently read a book on how to deal with the perimenopause (called the Feel Good Fix), and despite it not being in my imminent future, it made me truly admire all the women who have fought so hard to raise awareness of menopausal symptoms, and that women should not “disappear” once they reach a certain point in their lives.

Women’s contraception currently has one of the longest lists of side effects possible from a medication, and Plan B was only recently made free in pharmacies. After watching a Loose Women debate about medieval contraceptive methods, the pain described from inserting an IUD without anaesthetic to me feels, quite frankly, torturous. The lack of education surrounding the pill and its effectiveness is also alarming – it is not common knowledge that antibiotics stop it from working, or that Plan B is less effective if you are over 155-165 pounds.

So while this new Women’s Health Strategy is a step in the right direction, it is important to note that it is just that – a step. There is much more awareness and education needed surrounding women’s health, but for now, a government that names the problem honestly has at least cleared the first hurdle. The women who’ve been waiting a decade for a diagnosis will be watching closely to see if it clears the rest.

Featured Image Credit: House of Commons on Flickr

The export of new submarines and technology is expected to be worth £20 billion over the next 25 years, creating 7,000 new jobs across the defence supply chain.

At its peak the AUKUS submarine programme, known as SSN-AUKUS, will employ over 21,000 people in the UK.

Defence Secretary, John Healey MP, said: “AUKUS is one of Britain’s most important defence partnerships, strengthening global security while driving growth at home.

“This historic Treaty confirms our AUKUS commitment for the next half century. Through the Treaty, we are supporting high-skilled, well-paid jobs for tens of thousands of people in both the UK and Australia.”

The partnership announcement comes after the government pledged to increase defence spending to five per cent of GDP by 2025 and coincides with a joint naval operation involving the UK’s Carrier Strike Force and more than 3,000 British military personnel in the Indo-Pacific region, signalling the UK’s continued strategic role in the region.

Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, said: “The UK-Australia relationship is like no other, and in our increasingly volatile and dangerous world, our anchoring friendship has real impact in the protection of global peace and prosperity. 

“Our new bilateral AUKUS treaty is an embodiment of that – safeguarding a free and open Indo Pacific whilst catalysing growth for both our countries.”

The foreign secretary will join British forces on this operation, meeting his Australian counterpart for the annual “Australia-UK Ministerial” (AUKMIN) to discuss how the two countries can deepen their collaboration efforts.

In response to the announcement, the Conservative Party welcomed continued progress while emphasising the origins of AUKUS under its leadership.

James Cartlidge MP, Shadow Defence Secretary, said: “AUKUS was a landmark achievement of the last Conservative Government and it’s essential that Labour keeps up the momentum, including on industrial collaboration.

“We welcome further progress but this must deliver in practice, both in terms of jobs and strengthened mutual security, at a time of heightened threat.”

The delegation will also observe Royal Navy operations and engage with service personnel aboard HMS Prince of Wales, currently docked in Darwin.

The deployment of the Carrier Strike Group is part of the wider Exercise Talisman Sabre involving over 35,000 military personnel from 19 nations including the United States, New Zealand and Japan.

The Government states that the treaty reflects the UK’s strategic aim of maintaining operational readiness with allies and supporting defence exports. Officials also say the partnership supports the Indo-Pacific deployment strategy by reinforcing existing trade and security commitments in the region.

AUKUS remains one of the UK’s largest long-term defence undertakings and a key element in its trilateral relationship with the United States and Australia.

Featured image via Simon Dawson / No 10.

UK exporters will benefit from lower tariffs, allowing improved export opportunity for goods like automobiles, cosmetics and whisky.

The two countries will also share data on convicted criminals and suspected trafficking cases while removing barriers to returning immigrants who do not meet entry requirements.

Business and Trade Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said: “The billions brought to our economy from the trade deal signed today will reach all regions and nations of the UK so working people in every community can feel the benefits.”

Prime Minister Keir Starmer said: “Our landmark trade deal with India is a major win for Britian. It will create thousands of British jobs across the UK, unlock new opportunities for businesses and drive growth in every corner of the country.

“We’re putting more money in the pockets of hardworking Brits and helping families with the cost of living, and we’re determined to go further and faster to grow the economy and raise living standards across the UK.”

The agreement will make it easier for companies in each country to set up in the other, which is expected to generate millions of pounds worth of private investment into metropolitan areas in India like Mumbai as well as the UK cities like Leicester, Manchester, London and Edinburgh.

A Double Contributions Convention (DCC) was also agreed. This allows workers sent abroad by their employers to continue paying into their home country’s social system for up to 36 months. This prevents duplicate payments and simplifies employment terms for companies.

The government clarified that the DCC does not change migration rules. Workers from India must still meet visa thresholds, pay fees, and receive sponsorship. The deal will not affect how the UK manages its borders.

Workers temporarily sent from India will pay into India’s national system, without gaining access to UK pensions or benefits. These measures are intended to keep systems balanced and avoid financial impact on the UK’s social contributions system.

Trade barriers will also be cut, with tariffs on the aerospace industry falling from 11 per cent to 0 per cent, and those on the automotive industry from 110 per cent to 10 per cent.

The manufacturing sector is also set to benefit with tariffs as low as 0 per cent on certain goods, down from 22 per cent.

The average Indian tariff on UK goods stands at 15 per cent, following the trade deal this will drop to three per cent.

Tufan Erginbiligic, Rolls-Royce CEO, said: “India is an important market for our business, with over 90 years of partnership with Indian industry and the Indian Government.

“We welcome the provisions in this Free Trade Agreement, including those that bring closer alignment with international standards for trade in civil aerospace.

“These agreements will benefit Rolls-Royce and our customers, paving the way for future aerospace growth in India.”

UK exports to India are expected to increase by 60 per cent by 2040, equivalent to £15.7 billion per year while total trade is expected to rise by 39 per cent, or £25.5 billion annually.

Parliament is expected to approve the agreement in the coming weeks. A full impact report will be published soon, and a long-term review will follow from the Office for Budget Responsibility.

Our full explainer of the trade deal can be found here.

Featured image via Salma Bashir / Shutterstock.

Both leaders spoke confidently about the party’s growing grassroots momentum and its plans to tackle government inefficiency.

Farage, in particular, emphasized the need to address what he described as “huge amounts of waste” within the political system, a sentiment that many voters may find appealing, especially in light of ongoing concerns over public spending.

However, despite their bold rhetoric, the scale of Reform UK’s growth and their ability to challenge the established political forces remains open to question.

Farage’s focus on waste and inefficiency resonated throughout his address, saying: “We have an all-star team of brilliant people working for free, dedicated to rooting out inefficiencies wherever they occur.”

While this might sound compelling, the reality is that Reform UK’s expansion is still limited. Farage’s claim of grassroots support, with 450 branches across the country, is noteworthy but falls short compared to the size and reach of the Conservative and Labour parties.

The Conservative Party alone has over 1,500 local branches, and Labour operates more than 2,000. These numbers highlight a significant disparity in terms of infrastructure, making Reform UK’s 450 branches seem far less impressive in the wider political landscape.

Dr Bull also expressed confidence about the party’s progress, saying, “Our growth has been nothing short of unprecedented.” He also claimed that Reform UK is now the largest party on two councils, with 832 councillors, “with more being elected every day.”

While these figures represent a notable achievement, they still place the party far behind the dominance of the Conservative Party, which holds over 8,000 council seats, and Labour, which also controls a substantial number of local councils.

The scale of Reform UK’s presence in local government is growing, but it remains a small fraction of the representation held by the two major parties..

A key issue that Farage highlighted during the conference was the party’s position on nuclear energy. He passionately defended the need for Sizewell C, calling it “moronic to close down Sizewell” and emphasizing that nuclear power is vital for the UK’s long-term energy strategy.

“We are a pro-nuclear party,” Farage declared, framing the issue as central to the UK’s plans to reduce emissions. This is a position that aligns with his broader pro-growth, pro-business messaging. 

However, public opinion on nuclear energy remains mixed. A 2023 YouGov survey found that only 40 per cent of Britons support nuclear energy, with concerns about cost, safety, and long-term waste management still present.

While nuclear power is undoubtedly an important part of the energy conversation, Farage’s clear-cut stance on the matter could alienate voters who are more cautious about its potential risks.

Dr Bull also shared his ambitious vision for the party, boldly stating: “We are going to fight and win the next general election. We’re going to put Nigel Farage in Number 10.”

However, these declarations are not entirely in line with Reform UK’s performance in recent elections. Despite Farage’s significant profile as a Brexit leader, his political ventures outside of that movement have not always resulted in electoral success.

The Brexit Party, which he led, secured just two per cent of the vote in the 2019 general election. Reform UK, which evolved from the Brexit Party, performed similarly poorly in the 2021 Hartlepool by-election, where they finished a distant fifth, with just over two per cent of the vote.

These results suggest that Reform UK may face significant challenges in gaining traction against the two dominant parties, even with their growing grassroots support as seen in the recent local elections.

In addition to economic and energy policies, Farage also touched on cultural issues, including his discomfort with the burqa, which he described as something he “doesn’t like to see.”

While he made it clear that this issue is not a priority for Reform UK, the comment could nevertheless contribute to a perception of divisiveness, especially in a political climate where diversity programmes, religion and identity are key focal points.

His remarks on cultural matters risk alienating potential supporters who may be economically right-wing and disillusioned with the Conservative-Labour options, but less interested in debate around social cohesion and immigration.

On the other hand, Farage’s message about accountability and reducing waste could resonate with many voters frustrated by government inefficiency, but there are also questions about whether Reform UK can truly deliver on these promises.

Farage’s past record with the Brexit Party, including questions around campaign spending and financial transparency, adds an element of skepticism to his calls for government accountability.

During the Brexit Party’s campaign in 2019, there were concerns over the transparency of donations and how funds were managed, raising doubts about the party’s own financial oversight.

Farage and Bull are clearly positioning themselves as challengers to the political establishment, but their ability to follow through on these ambitious claims is still very much unproven.

The party’s performance in local and national elections has yet to demonstrate they can translate their grassroots momentum into real political power. 

Furthermore, their policy proposals, particularly on cultural issues and nuclear energy, may not be as universally appealing as they would hope.

The next general election may well test whether Reform UK can build on its current momentum or if they will struggle to break through the dominance of the Conservative and Labour parties.

Gisèle and her husband retired from Paris in 2013, moving to the picturesque town of Mazan, and were happy and in love. However, shortly after moving 200 miles from her children, Gisèle began to fall ill, having memory lapses and blackouts due to the drugs her husband had been spiking her with. Oblivious and convinced she had Alzheimer’s, she visited specialist after specialist, all with her seemingly supportive husband by her side, who she relied on heavily. 

Dominique maintained his perfect image, despite knowing exactly why she was unwell, cooking her meals every day and seemingly being her rock during her medical crisis, until he was caught filming up women’s skirts for the second time in 2020 (He had been fined previously for this). Upon this, his house was searched and 20,000 pornographic images were found on his devices, the majority of which were numerous men having sex with one woman unconscious: his wife, Gisèle.

This investigation into potential abuse is what caused Gisèle to realise her loving marriage was a lie, that she was a victim of a decade of sexual abuse. She had discovered her husband had been drugging her since 2011 with Temesta, a drug he was prescribed for anxiety, perfecting the dosage and obtaining hundreds of tablets from their pharmacy. He had been raping her for two years in Paris, filming her, before they moved to Mazan, where his behaviour escalated. He began meticulously planning assaults under a group chat named “Without her Knowledge”, inviting dozens of men to join his fantasy. He would instruct these men not to wear cologne and to park further from his house to avoid raising suspicion, after bringing an oblivious Gisèle her favourite ice-cream laced with drugs, creating a chilling, false sense of comfort with her.

He and 50 other men were charged with aggravated rape and sexual assault, with video evidence from his hard drive named, “Abuse”.  He was also charged with attempted rape of one of his friends’ wives, taking indecent photos of his daughter, Caroline Darian, and his daughters-in-law, Aurore and Celine. Dominique admitted to his crimes, crying in court, and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Of the 50 defendants found guilty, 46 were guilty of rape, two of attempted rape, and two of sexual assault. They were charged with sentences lasting 4-20 years.

What makes this trial so different, and how did it affect the women’s rights movement in France?

Gisèle decided to waive her right to anonymity, with the reasoning that she wanted shame to move from the victim to the rapist. She said, “I want any woman who wakes up one morning with no memories of the night before to remember what I said. So that no more women can fall prey to chemical submission. I was sacrificed on the altar of vice, and we need to talk about it.” 

This trial sparked the debate as to whether consent should be built into French law, as currently, the legal definition of rape is “any act of sexual penetration of any kind whatsoever or any oral-genital act committed against another person or against the perpetrator by violence, coercion, threat or surprise”.  

Her trial raises two key questions: What needs to change surrounding rape culture in France if 50 men from the same village (Mazan) were willing to have sex with an unconscious woman, and what does this trial mean for rape and consent laws in France? 

Many women in France also share in this train of thought, outraged and disgusted by the crimes. Many brought flowers, shouting “Be brave”, and “We are with you”, creating an empowering feminist movement during such a brutal trial. It raised awareness of the fact that there is no “type” of person who could be a rapist – to the outside world, Dominique appeared as the perfect family man, who had been committing the most brutal of crimes completely undetected for a decade. Furthermore, the 51 men involved in the abuse of Gisèle came from completely different walks of life – from firefighters to a journalist and a DJ. They have been fittingly named “Monsieur Tout-Le-Monde”, or Mr Everyman, as they walk among us as family and friends. The case may leave women questioning whether they are ever truly safe, even amongst the people they love and trust the most.

However, despite the trauma Gisèle has faced, her trial has caused the laws surrounding rape in France to be reassessed. France’s new justice minister, Didier Migaud, recently came out in support of updating the law to include consent, as has President Emmanuel Macron, despite France blocking the inclusion of a consent-based rape definition in a European directive in 2023.

Gisèle’s strength, bravery and determination for justice are inspirational to women across the globe. It is her taking back her power, shifting the focus from the abuser to the survivor, and has inspired women across Europe to take a stand against abuse. In response to the press surrounding her trial, she has said, “I hear lots of women, and men, who say, ‘You’re very brave’. I say it’s not bravery, it’s will and determination to change society. This is not just my battle, but that of all rape victims.”

It’s safe to say this trial marks a turning point in French law and has changed the conversation surrounding sex and consent across Europe.