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Morning,
Just under a year ago the head of NHS England, Simon Stevens, ordered a nationwide MoT on health and social care services.
Forty-four regions were asked to draw up Sustainability and Transformation Plans (STPs) for their areas.
These STPs - immediately dubbed Secret Tory Plans - are now starting to be published and they make grim reading for Jeremy Hunt.
So far four of the 40 have been released and they paint a portrait of country struggling to provide decent health and social care in the face of severe financial constraints.
Three of the regions - Birmingham and Solihull, Central London and South West London - say they need £2.4billion between them over the next four years in order to maintain services.
Few expect the other 40 STPs to offer a more optimistic assessment.
Labour is also holding an opposition day debate today on the cuts to pharmacies.
The Tories are slashing funding for the high street chemists by more than £200million over the next two years, potentially forcing hundreds out of business.
Critics claim it is a false economy as it will put further pressure on GP surgeries and A&E.
It is also hard to see how these cuts, along with the reductions in public health spending, will help Jeremy Hunt achieve his ambition to ease pressures on hospitals by focusing on prevention. Were it not for the EU referendum the big political event of the year would have been the publication of the Iraq Inquiry.
In the end this landmark report was caught up in the wake of the post June madness which saw a change of Prime Minister, a coup in the Labour Party and the formation of a new Cabinet.
There is a chance to revisit the Inquiry’s findings when its chair Sir John Chilcot gives evidence to MPs today.
Don’t expect much illumination, despite his Blimpish demeanour Sir John is a canny old bird with an agile mind and will use all the skills he accrued as a senior civil servant to avoid as much as possible creating news. It is Prime Minister’s questions today.
Jeremy Corbyn will not be happy with the latest polling which shows little change in Labour’s standing.
Patience may be the key here.
Voters will want further evidence that Labour is more united and singing from the same song book before concluding they could be a government in waiting.
Corbyn also needs to find ways of punching through a narrative dominated by Brexit.
As usual we will be running our live blog on the PMQs exchanges with a snap verdict and sketch. If you want to get in touch my email is jason.beattie@mirror.co.uk and you can follow us @mirrorpolitics on Twitter.
Thanks,
Mirror Politics | 
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