Hopes fade for a Ukraine peace deal, Wes Streeting does battle with Doctor’s union, Leeds stun Chelsea with 3 - 1 win

On today's Smart 7, hopes fade for Ukraine peace deal, West Street does battle with doctors and much more. It's Thursday 4th December, it's National Sock Day and happy birthday Jeff Bridges. Wednesday marked a full week since Chancellor Rachel Reeves rolled out the 2026 budget and while many of us may already have forgotten what was in it, apart from looming tax rises because of income tax threshold freezes. The controversy over the Chancellor's numbers shows no sign of abating. The head of the Office of Budget Responsibility, Richard Hughes resigned over a budget leak but the opposition have been infuriated by both the Chancellor's budget calculations and the amount of information leaked in advance. At Prime Minister's Question Time, Tory leader Kemi Badenok was once again calling for the Chancellor's resignation. Prime Minister Keir Starmer has consistently backed the Chancellor and he wasn't in the mood for Badenok's continued pursuit of Reeves. I was very proud to lead this party at the budget last week where the Chancellor set out that we would protect the NHS, create the conditions for economic stability, not repeating the mistake of austerity and bearing down on the cost of living. We're fixing the mess that they left and I'm very proud to be doing so. This week has seen the hopes for a peace plan for Ukraine crumble as Vladimir Putin refused to give way during a meeting with US negotiators in Moscow. House envoys Steve Wittkoff and Jared Kushner got a tour of Moscow but five hours of talks with the Russian leader yielded no progress at all and they now head back to Florida to meet with a Ukrainian delegation. In the meantime Putin has avoided further sanctions and gained more time for his troops to push forward on the battlefield. Wednesday did see the EU finally move towards unlocking frozen Russian assets in a loan which would allow Ukraine to replenish weapon stocks and UK Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper was in Brussels for a NATO meeting with £10 million of fresh funding for Ukraine's energy infrastructure. And we will continue to show our support for the Ukrainian people, for the sovereignty of Ukraine and for a just and lasting peace with the security of Europe and the security of NATO at its heart. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has a warning though that US patients is running out. Some of these people have this notion that our policy should be just continue to fund Ukraine and unlimited amounts for as long as the war takes. That's not realistic and we can't sustain the scale and scope of it and I also think it's realistic for Russia to continue this war. There was no sign of a Christmas ceasefire in the ongoing battle between the British Medical Association and Health Secretary West Streeting on Wednesday. The resident doctors are due to head out for another five day strike starting on December 17th as they continue to look for another pay rise to make up for what they describe as pay deflation stretching back to 2008. The BMA hasn't engaged in fresh talks with Streeting even though he says he is open to discussion around other supports including training. Tuesday had seen Streeting refer to the BMA as the Grinch who stole Christmas and on Wednesday he was at it again criticising BMA leadership. Their own representatives far from saying isn't it great, look at what our members have done, look at the modernisation, look at the improvement in patient satisfaction, they are sat in the corner like moaning minis when actually their members are doing a really good job. A new report from the charity Inquest published on Wednesday shows that 97 women have died in custody in the last decade and that incidents of self-harm are at an all time high in the nation's women's prisons. It comes as controversy continues over the mistaken release of prisoners with Justice Secretary David Lammy admitting that two men are still at large after being accidentally released. He was blaming overcrowding and outdated systems and says that the number of incidents are diminishing. Charlie Taylor, his Majesty's Chief Inspector of Prisons told the BBC that the government needs to take the issue seriously. People are getting out before they are supposed to be leaving prison and if God forbid they go on to commit a serious further offence that is of course an enormous concern. The public rightly expects that if people are sent to prison they are sentenced for a period of time and they get out when they are supposed to get out, whether that's early or whether that's late. Still to come on today, Smart 7 in association with Metro leads spring a Premier League surprise and we find out if you are ready for a psychosexual pop thriller. There were six Premier League games on Wednesday night with plenty of action at both ends of the table. Gaston Villa pulled off a 4-3 win at Brighton to climb to third, while Crystal Palace picked up a 1-0 win at Burnley. Wolves lost at home to Nottingham Forest, while Arsenal beat Brentford 2-0 to go five points clear at the top. Liverpool face Sunderland at Anfield, but Arn's slot side struggled and the game ended in a one all draw. The big surprise of the night was Leeds beating Chelsea 3-1, a result that saw Daniel Farks side move out of the relegation zone. Kate Winslet has won pretty much every honour as an actress, but now she's turned her attention to writing and directing. Her directorial debut Goodbye June is about to drop on Netflix with a script that was originally written by her son Joe Anders and tells a story of a family reuniting for Christmas as they gather around their dying mother's hospital bed. The cast includes Toni Collette, Helen Mirren and Timothy Spall and Winslet told Chris Evans that she wanted to make a movie that meant something. You may think you've heard of every possible genre of movie by now, but there's a new one on the way and it's the psychosexual pop thriller. The film in question is called Mother Mary and stars Anne Hathaway and Michaela Cole as it traces the story of a Lady Gagoresque pop star who became estranged from her friend and fashion designer as she became more successful. It's a full on experience with Jack Antonoff, Charlie XCX and FKA Twigs providing the soundtrack while Anne Hathaway sings and performs, Things Get Dark and director David Lowery says it's a weird, weird film that has echoes of Bram Stoker's Dracula, it's due to hit cinemas on the way.