Criminal charges must follow for those behind the Gosport hospital deaths scandal

NHS in dock

THE monstrous scale of the Gosport hospital scandal defies belief.

It must trigger a mass of criminal and disciplinary charges.

From the doctor who prescribed those morphine overdoses to those who delivered them and those responsible for the horrifying cover-up at every level.

At least 656 victims, many with years or decades to live, were snuffed out.

All were betrayed by the NHS, police, CPS and the General Medical Council, which failed to strike off Dr Jane Barton even after laying blame at her door. So many would be alive today had the first nurses’ warnings in 1991 been acted on.

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt’s long-standing aim over the past six years — increasing transparency to eliminate negligence and error — is fully vindicated.

The health service is, in the main, an admirable institution. But it also gave us serial killer Harold Shipman, the Mid-Staffs ­outrage, the baby deaths at Bristol and Morecambe, and now hundreds killed in Gosport as staff closed ranks.

Too many people treat the NHS like a ­religion, too sacred for serious reform.

Maybe now they’ll finally see its flaws.

Brexit reprieve

LABOUR, with Tory rebels, almost killed Brexit. Thank God they failed . . . the consequences for our democracy are unthinkable.

As it was, backbench ringleader Dominic Grieve buckled.

Shame on his Remainer acolytes who still backed his amendment which would have crippled the Government’s negotiating position.

Shame on Labour too. Leave voters must never forget their support for this wrecking clause which would have opened the door to a reversal of Brexit.

So much, then, for the Withdrawal Bill. There is a bigger battle coming.

Next month these rebels will try to keep us in a customs union with the EU. It would be catastrophic, leaving us helplessly following Brussels’ orders, unable to trade globally on our own.

Remainers know that.

Their plan is to secure a half-in, half-out Brexit so disastrous it forces Leavers to rethink.

And indeed it WOULD be a calamity — because it would not be Brexit.

For now, Theresa May has lived to fight another day.

But it is coming at her fast.

Back at EU

WE welcome Sajid Javid’s plan to charge EU nationals £65 for the registration papers to remain here after Brexit.

Don’t get us wrong.

The Sun is happy for them to stay.

And we don’t much care what the fee is, so long as it covers the cost to taxpayers.

But Brussels, in its relentless ­campaign to dishearten Britain, wants to force us all to buy a £50 tourist visa to visit Europe after Brexit.

After two years of feebly soaking up such threats, and the EU’s sneering abuse, it’s high time we pushed back.