In four years. The bbc has been told that Sir Keir Starmer s Chief Of Staff received a Pay Rise after the election which means she is now paid more than the Prime Minister. Sue gray asked for and was given a salary of 170,000 3,000 more than the pm and more than any cabinet minister. 0ur political correspondent, henry zeffman, has more. I knew that there were tensions at the top of government and this Storys Existence in some way from Chris Mason and me attests to those, but my phone has practically blown up in the hours since we published this story yesterday, with people across Whitehall And Westminster who are furious at Sue Gray, keir starmer s Chief Of Staff. And let me explain why. It is not necessarily about her salary in absolute terms. There will be people out there who think that not only Sue Gray as prime Ministers Chief of staff, but the Prime Minister himself ought to be paid a lot more. Im sure they could earn lots more in the private sector or certainly in parts of the public sector, too. But at the same time that her pay increased, there are other more junior advisers working under her who have been complaining for weeks privately, but via us kind of now publicly, that their pay is being cut. So what that all speaks to is very real tensions at the heart of downing street, so early in this new governments ten year. This new governments tenure. Which i think raised questions about whether they will be able to get other things done if they are fighting over things like this. And all of that was among the questions put earlier by our colleagues on Bbc Breakfast to Jonathan Reynolds, the business secretary. Look, in terms of this story and officials pay more widely, there is a process that exists. It is a civil service process. It hasnt changed. It is wrong to say there is any kind of political input in there or people set their own pay bands, but there really is to be honest not much i can tell you. I dont even get to Sector Pay directly for my own advisers. Well, my question was a fairly simple one which was, do you i think it is odd that she is paid more . | i think there are and always have been officials that are paid more than politicians in our system and that hasnt changed. Business secretary Jonathan Reynolds speaking to Bbc Breakfast. So, where is this going to go next, henry . I should stress that there are a lot of people in here and theres a misplaced and deeply personal, malicious campaign against her. And look, it is clearly the case that the story that chris and i have been working on here, it does contain really personal briefing against her. It is quite unusual, certainly this early in a government. But whether it is fair or not, which isnt really for us to judge, it is clearly a problem for Sir Keir Starmer and one word keeps cropping up again and again in off the record exchanges that i have been having with my contact around westminster about this, and that word is unsustainable. There arent many people who think that this level of briefing from different factions within keir starmer s government can go on much longer. He is going, they think, to have to make some sort of move to draw a line under this. The Bank Of England will decide later whether to cut Interest Rates from five percent. The decision, expected at midday, comes after inflation, showing the rise in consumer prices, remained at 2. 2 Per Cent last month. The Central Bank in the united states lowered Interest Rates by half a Percentage Point Yesterday the first cut for more than four years. We will have live coverage of the announcement by the Bank Of England and discuss what it means for borrowers, businesses, save and more. Some libraries and public toilets could be forced to close as councils across england try to account for the soaring costs of homelessness. The government says ministers are working on a long Term Strategy to tackle the issue as a Record Number of families are now living in temporary accomodation. 0ur social Affairs Correspondent Michael Buchanan has been speaking to one of those families. This is our only social area, aside from the bedrooms, but we cant get five people in one room or the other really. So social interaction is a challenge. Kelly, her husband and three children have been living in this property in eastbourne since july. My husband sleeps here. My 15 year old son is on that bed over in the corner. Its temporary accommodation after the family were given a no Fault Eviction by the landlord. A set of Bunk Beds for my nine and ten year old girls, and a single bed, which is where i sleep. They could afford the rent on an alternative property, but ended up homeless as they couldnt find a guarantor. My dad, who was my guarantor, is no longer able to be my guarantor. Hes now retired and unless he has in excess of 58,000 in a savings account, he Cant Guarantor for us. Kellys property is mostly paid for by eastbourne borough council. Theyre spending 4. 5 million on temporary accommodation this year. Half of all the money they receive in Council Tax is spent on homelessness. The soaring costs are leading to cuts. The Heritage Centre at Beachy Head is to close. Arts spending is being cut. Swimming pools and toilets could also go. None of these savings are easy for us to make, and i would prefer the government to be funding us in full for the cost of temporary accommodation. But as youve said, weve got to provide a balanced budget and in order to do so, without additional government support, were going to need to look at making some really difficult decisions. The cost of homelessness is forcing other councils to make cuts, too. In north norfolk, six public toilets are to be sold or closed. In east london, a number of libraries are set to close. Last year, councils in england spent 1 billion of their own money on temporary accommodation. Councils have a legal obligation to house the people that they are paying for, but the government doesnt fully reimburse their costs. And as demand for temporary accommodation has increased, so some councils are having to cut services to make ends meet. In manchester, the council are converting this former Childrens Centre into temporary accommodation. One of many efforts to control spiralling costs. They welcomed the governments plans to end no Fault Evictions, but are currently using their reserves to help pay their homelessness costs. As budgets in local authorities have gone down, and as Homelessness Pressures have gone up, because of a whole range of national challenges that weve seen around the housing market, around private sector evictions and around changes to the Benefit System over the last 14 years, local authorities are now left with a perfect storm. Ministers are said to be preparing a long Term Strategy to tackle homelessness. Untilthen, however, councils will have to struggle on, as indeed will the homeless families theyre supporting. I wake up every day wondering if Today Is The Day that ive got to pack up my family again and not know where were going to next, because ijust dont know. Were just living day by day and waiting to see what happens, and its mentally exhausting. Michael buchanan, bbc news. Maternity care in england needs urgent reform to prevent harm becoming normalised. The Care Quality Commission warns that there are widespread problems across the country and urgent action is needed. 0ur Health Correspondent, Catherine Burns has been following this story. Fiona designed this nursery when she was pregnant, picking out outfits for her baby, but her Daughter Aliona never lived to enjoy any of this. Things that i made for her birth announcement. Pictures. Fiona went into labour at home, her waters broke and she was worried because she didnt think her baby was moving as much as normal. She should have been assessed then, she wasnt. When she was in hospital, her baby had an abnormal heart rate. This should have been escalated, it wasnt. Baby aliona was pronounced dead within half an hour of birth. When they came over and said my name, ijust turned around to them and went, shes dead, isnt she . And they said, yes. And this Primal Scream is probably the only way i can describe it just came out of me with no sort of control over my body. A tiny piece of her hair. Leeds Teaching Hospitals has said its sorry that the care it provided was not at the standard it would expect, and that it has learned lessons from what happened. But stories like fionas are happening too often. You will stay. You are very welcome. 0ver recent years, weve seen high Profile Maternity scandals. Yesterday, bereaved families in nottingham heard a Progress Review on whats become the biggest investigation into Maternity Failings in nhs history. Almost 2,000 cases are being reviewed there. The healthcare regulator, the cqc, was worried about this, so it carried out a national maternity inspection. It focussed on about two thirds of Hospital Maternity units, any that hadnt been inspected since march 2021. Of the 131 units it inspected, not a single one was rated as outstanding for safety. 35 had good safety ratings, leaving 65 as either requires improvement or inadequate for safety. In other words, two thirds of Maternity Units are not safe enough. This report doesnt hold back, saying unless things change, poor Care And Harm will become normalised. But in some Ways None of this is new. There have been warnings about Maternity Safety for years now. Weve reported on this over and again, but still the problems remain. This Report Picks out certain key issues. Women not getting assessed quickly enough, trusts not learning from mistakes, not enough staff, discrimination based on race. It says, disappointingly, none of these problems are new. It is one of the biggest issues that keeps me awake at night, worrying about the quality of care being delivered today and the risk of Disaster Greeting women in labour tomorrow. He says trusts will be supported to make rapid improvements so all women can feel confident using maternity services. But Fiona And Other Families say, for things to improve, there should be a public inquiry into the state of Maternity Care. Catherine burns, bbc news. Lets talk more about this with our Health Correspondent nick triggle, whos with me now. We have had so many different reviews into Wear Maternity services have failed. Truth . Services have failed. Why hasnt anything services have failed. Why hasnt Anything Change . | services have failed. Treeiy hasnt Anything Change . Just over the last few years we have heard about major failings at Shrewsbury And Telford Maternity Unit and East Kent where investigators found that poor care could have contributed to the deaths of babies and others being left with life changing injuries and consistently Maternity Care is one of the key reasons for clinical negligence claims made against the nhs. Talking to the royal college of midwives, they point to staffing shortages. Around one in ten posts are vacant and that has been pretty consistent for the past few years. This report by the Care Quality Commission also talks a lot about buildings and equipment. We know from that report last week into the wider nhs, there is ageing infrastructure in the nhs and they talked about ward being full and one occasion where a mother and her baby had to be keptin mother and her baby had to be kept in Storage Cupboard after an emergency cesarean, equipment i didnt wear, Operating Theatres that werent available when they were needed in emergencies. So there are some deep rooted problems in terms of staffing, buildings and equipment that are at the heart of this problem. We heard the Health Heart of this problem. We heard the Health Secretary Heart of this problem. We heard the Health Secretary wes the Health Secretary Wes Streeting in the report saying this is a huge concern to him so what is a government saying they will do about it . He called it they will do about it . He called it a they will do about it . He called it a national shame and said the government will be working closely with those trust that are struggling but there is a significant number, nearly two thirds are failing on safety. 0ne nearly two thirds are failing on safety. One of the things the regulator has called for, and this is unusual for the regulator to do . Is greater investment in services. We are yet to hear whether the government will put any money in this year. The budget is set for this year but we are going to get a Spending Review next year which will set out what the Health Service is going to get in the coming years. One option would be to ring Fence Funding for Maternity Care to make sure that if they do increase the budget it specifically goes on this one area of care instead of perhaps getting swallowed up in other parts of the Health Service. Thank you very much. The public vastly overestimates how much Asylum Seekers account for uk immigration, leading to skewed perceptions that make the debate on migration unbalanced, according to new research. Lets speak to sunder katwala, director of british future, a uk based Think Tank who produced the immigration attitudes tracker study. What have you found . This is a survey we do regularly, weve been doing it for the last nine years, tracking how attitudes change over time. One of the things we asked people this time was to split up their different flows of immigration, how much do they make up of white people they come to the uk and so for asylum, which is 7 of immigration, the average guess was 37 . People over estimated that five fold. They overestimated the amount of family migration, underestimated the amount of Work Visas and Study Visas as a show of immigration. Lastly; Work Visas and Study Visas as a show of immigration. Show of immigration. Why do Eo Le Show of immigration. Why do peeple get show of immigration. Why do peeple get it show of immigration. Why do peeple get it so show of immigration. Why do people get it so wrong . Show of immigration. Why do people get it so wrong . I show of immigration. Why do | people get it so wrong . I think one of the people get it so wrong . I think one of the reasons people get it so wrong . I think one of the reasons is people get it so wrong . I think one of the reasons is there people get it so wrong . I think one of the reasons is there is l one of the reasons is there is a lot of political debate about Asylum And Channel crossings, it is an important issue, there is a physical lack of control and because it is politically argued about, the rwanda scheme, the general election, it is on the news a lot where as other forms of immigration, people coming in with a basis for social care, the nhs, students are much larger numbers but not the same level of political argument about them, not the same amount of news and you hear much less about it. So it is not surprising that people think the thing that politicians argue about and is on the media law, must be very big, even though it is less shared than those other flows. There we find that people have a very balanced approach. Most people, 55 of people say they think that overall numbers for fall, when you go through the different things that they were cut, they wouldnt cut nhs visas are care visas. Some would cut Student Visas but some wouldnt. People who wanted the numbers reduced, which is over half the country but not everybody, are very reluctant to produce the largest flows so people end up wanting to select and control perhaps more than just to bring the numbers down. Perhaps more than ust to bring the numbers down. The numbers down. Thank you very much thank you very much. Thousands of pharmacists across england, wales and Northern Ireland are to be balloted on whether to reduce services and cut opening hours, in a row about Government Funding. The national Pharmacy Association says its the first time in history that it will hold such a vote. Heres more from our health editor, hugh pym. 0livier runs a small group of pharmacies near reading. They can regularly open for up to 60 hours a week, but that could be cut to just a0 the minimum required under a Government Contract if theres a vote in favour of Protest Action over funding. Work outside that contract, including some emergency contraception, Substance Misuse services and free Medicine Delivery would be suspended. He says feelings are running high about funding lagging behind rising costs. The last thing that we want is to take industrial action, but our members at