Monday May 2 2022 | thetimes.co.uk | No 73772Farming communities quickly noticed
that Parish, himself a farmer, had been
photographed with his own combine
harvester, a Claas Dominator 76.
The theory went public when Colin
Slade, a Devon county councillor and
friend of Parish, told the BBC: “I know
what he was looking for and I can see
how that could go to something totally
different — a play on words.” Slade later
explained that he had not been told by
Parish what search terms he had used.
The MP, chairman of the Commons
environment committee, dedicated his
twelve years at Westminster to agricul-
tural issues. The scandal erupted on
Wednesday when it emerged that two
female Tories had seen a colleaguewatching pornography. Parish was
named on Friday and suspended by the
Conservatives. He defied calls to step
down but changed his mind within 24
hours. Apologising the following day,
the married father of two said it was
“not my intention to intimidate” but
admitted it was “absolutely wrong.”
The episode prompted renewed
scrutiny of parliament’s culture. Yester-
day Kwasi Kwarteng, the business sec-
retary, told Times Radio: “There are
bad apples... but that doesn’t mean
that the entire culture is extremely mi-
sogynistic or full of male entitlement.”
A woman must be selected, pages 6-
Don’t blame tractors! My rules for men,
Kevin Maher, TimesA record 2.7 million people have been
referred for cancer checks in the past
year after numbers declined drama-
tically during the pandemic.
NHS England said there were also
2,000 more patients receiving treat-
ment for the disease than at the start of
the coronavirus outbreak in 2020.
The total number of referrals for sus-
pected cancer rose from 2.4 million
before the pandemic to 2.7 million in
the 12 months to February.
Even in December last year, when
the Omicron wave was spreading
across Britain, there were 215,
checks, about 25,000 more than Febru-
ary 2020, the month before lockdown.
During the first year of the pandemic,
between March 2020 and February
2021, there were two million referrals.
Campaigners welcomed the num-
bers with caution but warned that
“despite these figures, Britain is facing
the biggest cancer crisis of its history”.
The NHS said it was meeting
increasing demand for cancer checks
by expanding its diagnostic capabilities,
including one-stop shops for tests,
mobile clinics and symptom hotlines.
Dame Cally Palmer, the national
cancer director for NHS England, said
that while there were still 30,
people who had not started treatment
due to the pandemic, the latest figures
suggested progress.
At one point during the pandemic,
urgent cancer referrals were 45 per cent
Ben Ellery, Venetia Menzies
Dozens of areas across the country
have banned house building after a
controversial ruling by the environ-
ment watchdog, The Times has learnt.
Up to 100,000 new homes have been
put on hold by the moratorium, which
affects large parts of Norfolk, Hamp-
shire, Devon and the North East. It
A girl’s best friend Princess Charlotte, who appears to have recently lost a milk tooth, with the family dog, Orla, in a photo
taken by her mother, the Duchess of Cambridge. It was released to mark her seventh birthday today Meghan setback, page 5Not since the Wurzels tried to woo a
young woman with their brand new
combine harvester has farm machinery
acquired such an amorous flavour.
Chatboards, Facebook groups and
friends of the disgraced MP Neil Parish
were speculating yesterday that the
pornographic material that ended his
career began with an innocent search
for a “Dominator” combine harvester.
The Tiverton & Honiton Tory, 65, is
quitting the Commons after watching
pornography on the green benches in a
“moment of madness”. He said he
found it by accident while looking at
tractors but then returned deliberately.THE DUCHESS OF CAMBRIDGEWas porn MP searching for a Dominator?
Henry Zeffman Associate Political EditorBoost for
cancer care
as referrals
hit record
below pre-coronavirus levels. A study
by the Health Data Research Hub for
Cancer estimated that as many as
35,000 deaths from the disease could be
linked to the pandemic.
Research by the cancer charity Mac-
millan found that more than 650,
people with cancer in the UK had expe-
rienced disruption to their treatment or
care because of Covid-19.
Cancer treatment was hit by the re-
deployment of hospital beds and staff
during the pandemic. People also chose
not to come forward because they ei-
ther feared being infected with Covid-
19 or did not want to burden the NHS.
“We are going further and faster than
ever before in our ambitions to diag-
nose more cancers at an earlier stage so
we can save more lives,” Palmer said.
“We have seen record numbers of
people coming forward for checks in
the last year, but we know there are still
at least 30,000 who haven’t started
treatment due to the pandemic, so it’s
vital that we keep referral rates high.”
Although the number of referrals has
reached a record high in the past year,
the proportion being seen within the
standard waiting time of two weeks is at
a record low: 83 per cent compared with
91 per cent pre-pandemic.
Sajid Javid, the health and social care
secretary, said: “The pandemic put un-
precedented pressure on the NHS and
it is positive to see more people coming
forward for treatment and record
numbers of people receiving life-saving
Continued on page 2, col 3But 1 in 6 patients miss standard waiting time
£2.20 £1.45 to subscribers
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INSIDE
TIMES
We’re partying
like it’s 2019
Ban on building work puts up to 100,000 new homes on hold
Oliver Wright Policy Editor threatens to derail Boris Johnson’s
election pledge to build 300,000 new
houses a year, with developers warning
of “stark” consequences for the indus-
try and local economies.
Officials in Michael Gove’s levelling-
up department are understood to be
“urgently investigating” measures to
try to counteract the extended ban im-
posed by Natural England last month
that now affects 42 local authority
areas. However, they have admitted it
will have an “immediate impact” on
new houses getting planning permis-
sion and could result in existing per-
missions being overturned on appeal.
It was “unlikely” that solutions would
be “readily available” to avoid the ban
that affects any new development. One
senior figure in local governmentdescribed the situation as “dire”, saying
councils had no choice but to suspend
all planning decisions and that it could
take two years to work around the ban.
The moratorium came into force
following a ruling by Natural England
designed to protect the health and bio-
diversity of wetland areas. It states that
the new developments in designated
areas should only be allowed if it can beshown they would not contribute to
increasing levels of nitrogen or phos-
phorus in rivers. These can reduce the
oxygen in the water, causing deaths of
invertebrates which in turn reduces
food supplies for protected bird species.
Such nutrients have become a prob-
lem because they are not always re-
moved at wastewater treatment works
Continued on page 2, col 52G