I think the other quote and the research was from Prostate Cancer Research, although take your wider point! I do think they make the arguments in good faith rather than just for a win per se, but obvs has been a lot of noise around this

In fairness, the PCUK quote in the article is pretty balanced (headline less so!): “We do not want a politically motivated screening programme... We will absolutely stand by the outcome of the NSC. If the science just isn’t there, then we already have the solution, and the solution is Transform.”

*and in all likelihood, longer NHS waiting times

I am obliged to report that when the No 10 spokesman gave this part of the statement there was a brief but heartfelt outbreak of laughter from journalists, one of whom later asked if the PM might thus be interested in a bridge he had to sell.

It would have been fundamentally dishonest, but politically defensible to do it at the 2024 Budget. Waiting until now means Labour takes all the political blame

Trying to trace it back, think a lot of this wave comes from this Daily Mail article: www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article... (a... spin... on C4s Mirror On The Industry report cdn-2.4sales.com/staging/2025...)

It just straightforwardly *insane* how much political chatter in the United Kingdom is about the next general election, an event that is a long way in the future, and how basically none of it is about 'uh, this policy agenda doesn't look adequate to the scale of the inherited problem'.

I think VPAG has been unhelpful here. HMT loves the budget certainty, but it hides the trade offs from ministers. I don't think anyone can argue it's sustainable in the long run to have NICE approved prices discounted by 20%+ through rebates