They say just 6% of those eligible will get - or currently receive - the drug in its first three years on the NHS, with millions buying it privately instead. The warning comes from the Commons' health committee, which wants obesity treated as a long-term and managed condition like diabetes. Mounjaro (tirzepatide) is one of the best known GLP-1 drugs, along with Wegovy and Ozempic, and is taken as a weekly injection. It works by suppressing appetite and making a person feel fuller for longer. MPs say its rollout needs to be ramped up dramatically as a "two-tier system" has formed between those who can afford to pay privately and those who can't. "The government must urgently reassess the pace of rollout of Mounjaro," the committee urged. "This should include making better use of the capacity of digital providers. "As a first step, the department should hold a summit on GLP-1 access with a range of providers and healthcare professionals to open a dialogue on how best to improve the rollout." The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) recommended Mounjaro to treat obesity in June 2024. Wegovy (semaglutide) has also been approved by the NHS. The NHS estimated 2.8 million people would be eligible for Mounjaro, at a cost of £15.2bn over five years, if all signed on for the drug in its first year of availability. Nice agreed to NHS England's request to introduce it gradually instead, and it's only being rolled out to 220,000 over three years. The MPs' report calls for a new framework to "include ambitious targets for the proportion of a local population that should be able to access GLP-1s". It says around 2.4 million packs of GLP-1 drugs are prescribed each month in the UK but the vast majority are being bought privately. Prices for a month's supply of Mounjaro range from about £150 for the smallest dose to about £350 for the highest. More from Sky News:GP practices to be offered £3,000 bonus for prescribing weight-loss jabsMounjaro and Wegovy 'may need to be continued for life' "Access to GLP-1 medication appears increasingly to be determined by ability to pay rather than clinical need," the MPs warn. "Given that obesity already follows stark lines of deprivation and inequality, failing to provide equitable access will entrench and widen those disparities, letting down the patients who need support most." An NHS spokesperson said it was "testing new ways to accelerate access, including new routes for starting these medicine". It said "a wide range of other support" for obesity was also available, "which has already helped tens of thousands of people achieve a healthier weight".

Spreading the cost over a multi-year contract may be tempting, but doing so with a major provider could cost you £1,000 more. In research shared exclusively with the Money blog, consumer champion Which? found: Buying the new iPhone Duo with EE, O2 or Vodafone on a four-year contract means paying £37 a month for their basic unlimited data SIMOver four years, this amounts to paying at least £1,146 more compared to using a cheap SIM from a virtual network. For example, Which? has seen unlimited data offered for as little as £15 a month on a one-month contract with iD MobilePlus, as all three networks use annual price increases, the SIM bill won't stay at £37 for long. After 31 March 2027, it will jump to £39.50 a month, then £42 a month after 31 March 2028. Find more consumer news and tips in our Money blog Looking just at the handset, you could end up paying £170 more with major networks, Which? found. With EE or O2, the total repayment for an iPhone Duo costs £2,169.36, while with Three or Vodafone it's £2,167.84However, you can buy an iPhone Duo directly from Apple for £1,999 or £66.63 a month for 30 months Lisa Barber, Which? tech editor, told the Money blog: "For those still looking to get their hands on the latest Apple launch, buying on contract will likely be a popular option, but our research has found this can come with a painful sting in the tail. "Not only do consumers pay more for the handset, but they also end up paying hefty monthly sums for data. Shockingly, we found you could pay over £1,000 more this way over a four-year period compared to a SIM-only deal." Here are Which?'s current recommendations for best-value high or unlimited data SIMs... You can still spread the cost Which? advises that it's always cheaper to buy the phone outright from a retailer than on a contract with a network. You'll end up saving money with the initial purchase and having control of the SIM portion of the contract. If you still want to spread the cost, the best thing to do is to look out for interest-free options. Of course, another way to save money is by either not going for the very latest model or by shopping in the refurbished market.

It coincides with a new report by MPs today that said Britain urgently needed new equipment to cope with the growing danger of wildfires, driven by global warming. The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) said the world would soon blow through the goal of limiting warming to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, reaching at least 1.7C even in a best-case scenario. This temperature threshold was a key part of the landmark 2015 UN Paris Agreement. It was designed to stave off increasingly frequent and intense extreme weather events, including heatwaves, droughts, wildfires and flooding. The outgoing UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said breaching the target does not mean further effort is futile. "Overshoot is not surrender," he said. "We can still keep it as small and as short as possible - and bring temperatures back below 1.5C by the end of the century." But reversing the trend would require far greater cuts to emissions than forecast. UNEP said emissions would have to fall by 45% by 2035, relative to 2025 levels, but are currently on track for only 11-15%. Leaders are due to discuss the topic at the UN COP31 climate summit in Turkey next month. Britain 'needs firefighting planes by January' Meanwhile a group of MPs today warned Britain is "woefully unprepared" for the threat of wildfires, after near-record blazes torched homes and national parks this summer. The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (EFRA) committee highlighted critical gaps in Britain's capabilities, including a total lack of dedicated firefighting planes and insufficient water supplies, with farmers and volunteers often having to pick up the pieces. Fires should be regarded as "part of our new reality", the MPs said, as they called for a new national wildfire strategy, along with an Australian-style public awareness campaign. While most UK fires are started by human activity, increasingly hot and dry summers driven by climate change are increasing the risk. MPs said firefighting aircraft should be brought in as soon as January 2027, adding that temporary bans on some barbecues would be needed at times, like the one introduced by Prime Minister Andy Burnham this summer. Committee chair Alistair Carmichael (Lib Dem) told Sky News: "This year's record-breaking summer of wildfires was the most devastating our country has ever seen, and Britain was shown to be woefully unprepared. "In too many locations our fire and rescue services didn't have the resources they needed, or even the water supply to stop fires spreading." Affected communities told the committee of the "cumulative, psychological toll" of constantly being on alert, and of people coughing up ash and black dust days after a fire. A government spokesperson said improving wildfire preparedness is a priority, and it has already launched a new pilot scheme of specialist firefighters. This week it is convening a summit of ministers, fire services and land managers to "understand how we can strengthen the response to this increasing risk".

Ahead of the first wildfire resilience summit in England today, Downing Street has announced a series of measures to assist frontline firefighters and help make landscapes more resilient to wildfires. The plans include equipping the RAF's Chinook helicopters and A400M planes to fight fires and help crews battle blazes in hard-to-reach areas, providing the first military aerial firefighting capability based permanently in the UK. It comes in a year that has seen record heat across Europe help kill more than 50,000 people, a new study has found, with nearly two-thirds of those blamed on human-caused climate change. According to figures from the National Fire Chiefs Council, there have been 1,132 wildfires in England and Wales this year - up by more than 300 from 2025. More than a dozen homes were destroyed after a wildfire ripped through an area of Stourbridge in the West Midlands in August, while major blazes also broke out in places such as Dunwich Heath in Suffolk and parts of the New Forest in Hampshire. The incidents occurred during what the Met Office said was the hottest summer on record, which included five separate heatwaves and an emergency alert being sent to people's mobile phones across England and Wales in August, warning of a very high national wildfire risk. 'I will never forget it' Prime Minister Andy Burnham, who will meet with fire chiefs, local leaders and experts at the summit, said new measures were needed because "we cannot put people through another summer like this one". Mr Burnham added: "I stood in Stourbridge and watched families lose everything. "I will never forget it. Our firefighters were heroes that day, but heroes shouldn't have to fight with one hand tied behind their backs." In addition to military aircraft, the government said it would provide frontline firefighters with wildfire-specific protective equipment, which is lighter and more breathable than the current kit designed for tackling fires in buildings. It also said preventative measures would be put in place, such as restoring dried-out peatlands to act as natural firebreaks, and offering financial support for farmers to dig ponds and remove burnable materials in high-risk areas. More from Sky News:Government updates its 'be ready checklist' for emergenciesWhy worldwide website crisis could be just the beginning The government said it would also look at "tougher restrictions or product bans to stop starting fires when the risk is high". Other measures include an AI unit to spot and fight fires faster, and improved wildfire forecasts to help raise public awareness. Housing and communities secretary Angela Rayner described the wildfires this summer as "unrelenting", but insisted the government was working to "build a stronger, more resilient national response to wildfires for the future". Earlier this week, the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs committee released a report warning that wildfires are "part of our new reality" as climate change increases their frequency and severity. Meanwhile, a study in an upcoming issue of Nature Health found that more than 50,000 people in Europe had died this summer from heat - a record high. Researchers modeled heat-related deaths for different age groups in 854 European cities during repeated heat waves in June, July and August and found that 50,391 people died from warmer temperatures, and of those, 32,619 died because of the extra heat caused by the burning of coal, oil and gas, the study in an upcoming issue of Nature Health said. Belgium, France and Spain have all experienced devastating wildfires this year, with thousands of people being forced to temporarily evacuate their homes.

The Oxford University team detected clear biological differences between those who developed the disease and those who didn't. They also found proteins linked to more aggressive, life-threatening cases of prostate cancer. Those involved in the study were followed up for about 16 years as scientists measured more than 6,000 proteins in their blood. Nearly 1,000 people who went on to develop the disease were part of the research, as was a random sample of 1,573 men. Twelve proteins were identified that were linked to prostate cancer diagnosed more than 15 years later. These included GZMK, which is produced by immune cells involved in recognising and destroying abnormal cells. Researchers said this suggests the body may be reacting and dealing with the cancer long before it's diagnosed. Seven proteins linked to aggressive prostate cancer were also identified, including ANKRD1, which was found in cancers that spread or caused early death. "By measuring thousands of proteins in blood collected years before diagnosis, we can begin to investigate how men who later develop aggressive prostate cancer may differ from men who do not," said study author Dr Zhe Huang, an epidemiologist at Oxford Population Health. Dr Huang said the results could help improve the understanding of aggressive prostate cancer and find markers to "improve how we assess risk". One in eight men will be diagnosed with the disease in their lifetime, according to Prostate Cancer UK, and about 12,000 in Britain die from it every year. Many cases progress so slowly they do not cause significant problems or early death, but some can be very aggressive. The study also found genes already known to be important in prostate cancer - such as ERBB3, KRAS and NRAS - were linked to aggressive cases diagnosed around a decade later. More from Sky News:One man diagnosed with prostate cancer in UK 'every eight minutes''Concerning' rise in cancer cases among adults under 50 The findings also said more research was needed before proteins could be used as a test for the disease. Professor Prabhakar Rajan, from Queen Mary University, said it did not yet show a protein-based blood test could reliably identify who will get aggressive prostate cancer. Cancer Research UK director of research, Dr Iain Foulkes, said: "While there is more work to do, discoveries like this could pave the way for better ways to identify men at risk and, ultimately, prevent aggressive prostate cancer before it develops."