Inflation in the UK has fallen to 4.2%. Get the full data over time - and see how it compares to pay
• Get the data

UK inflation dropped to a six-month low of 4.2% in December, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealed today - down from 4.8% for November 2011.

More precisely Consumer Price Index (CPI) measure of inflation stands at 4.2% for December. When looking at this drop it is important to remember that in September this year, when the CPI stood at 5.2%, it had never been higher in recorded history.

The Retail Price Index (RPI) measure of inflation stands at 4.8% down from 5.2% in November.

There are some important differences between these two main ways the ONS use to measure inflation. The government prefers the Consumer Price Index, which also includes services, housing, electricity, food, and transportation, but the Retail Price Index covers more items. The RPI includes housing costs and is used for many pay negotiations and used to be used for pension payments. We've included both here - just click on the links on the spreadsheet. You can get the full list of items in the inflation basket here.

We have also added in pay data - and you can see how inflation is racing ahead of average earnings.

We have gathered all the data for inflation since June 1948. Let us know what you can do with this data.

DATA: UK inflation since the 1940s - CPI and RPI
INTERACTIVE: how we visualised the data

Data journalism and data visualisations from the Guardian

• Search the world's government data with our gateway

• Search the world's global development data with our gateway

• Flickr Please post your visualisations and mash-ups on our Flickr group
• Contact us at data@guardian.co.uk

• Get the A-Z of data
• More at the Datastore directory
• Follow us on Twitter
• Like us on Facebook

• Inflation
• Economics
• Quantitative easing
• Financial crisis
• Deflation
• Economic policy
• Bank of England
• Government data
• Office for National Statistics
• George Osborne
• Mervyn King

London hearing to decide whether radical cleric should be freed after extradition to Jordan was blocked by Europe court

A radical Muslim cleric described as a grave threat to Britain's national security could walk free on Monday.

Abu Qatada, who is being held at Long Lartin high-security prison in Worcestershire, will apply to be released on bail as he fights deportation to Jordan.

Lawyers for the home secretary, Theresa May, are expected to oppose bail while British diplomats continue to seek assurances from the Jordanian authorities that evidence gained through torture would not be used against him.

Such evidence is the main reason Qatada, once described by a Spanish judge as "Osama bin Laden's right-hand man in Europe", won an appeal to the European court of human rights in January. The judges ruled that sending Qatada back to face terror charges without such assurances would deny him his right to a fair trial and be a "flagrant denial of justice".

May has vowed Qatada, held for six and a half years, will be kept behind bars while she considers all legal options to send him back. The Home Office has said he "poses a real risk to national security".

At a hearing in central London, Qatada's defence team will urge an immigration judge to release him. The judge, Mr Justice Mitting, has said: "Six and a half years of detention requires the eligibility for bail to be considered urgently.

"I accept that it's possible that negotiations with the Jordanian government may produce a rapid solution but past experience ... leads me to believe that is likely to be an unrealistic expectation."

The Special Immigration Appeals Commission (Siac) will hold a full bail hearing on Monday morning.

January's verdict is the first time the Strasbourg-based court has found that an extradition would be in violation the right to a fair trial as required by the European convention on human rights, which is enshrined in UK law under the Human Rights Act.

The home secretary has three months to lodge an appeal with the court's grand chamber.

The Henry Jackson Society thinktank has said the ECHR ruling "undermines national security" while the former home secretary David Blunkett said Qatada was "extraordinarily dangerous and we don't want him on our streets".

Qatada, 51, is also known as Omar Othman. He featured in hate sermons found on videos in the flat of one of the 9/11 bombers.

Since 2001, when fears of the domestic terror threat rose in the aftermath of the attacks, he has challenged and ultimately thwarted every attempt by the government to detain and deport him.

Law lords ruled almost three years ago that he could be sent back to Jordan and Lord Phillips, now president of the supreme court, said torture in another country did not require the UK "to retain in this country, to the detriment of national security, a terrorist suspect".

But the European went against that judgment, agreeing with a 2008 decision of the UK court of appeal that there were reasonable grounds for believing Qatada would be denied a fair trial in Jordan.

• Abu Qatada
• European court of human rights
• Torture
• Human rights
• Human Rights Act
• Foreign policy
• Terrorism policy
• UK security and terrorism
• Global terrorism
• Theresa May

Bonus Season report estimates pay and bonuses worth more than 10 times average earnings could raise £1.7bn a year

Companies that pay huge bonuses could be punished by having to pay extra corporation tax, the TUC has said. The move could generate billions of pounds for the exchequer if it is applied to pay and bonuses worth more than 10 times average annual earnings (£26,200). The TUC said it could raise around £1.7bn a year if it was confined to the banking and financial services sector. Companies are taxed on profits after expenses, which included staff costs. A TUC report, Bonus Season, uses data from the Labour Force Survey to show the total pay and bonuses to staff earning more than £250,000 is £6.8bn. It found that over a third of employees earning more than £250,000 a year in the UK work in banking and finance.

• Executive pay and bonuses
• Tax and spending
• TUC
• Trade unions

Harry Potter star describes Nick Clegg 'whipping boy' of Tories and says he will vote Labour

Daniel Radcliffe has announced that he is no longer a supporter of the Liberal Democrats after emerging as one of the party's most high-profile celebrity backers ahead of the last British general election, and will probably vote instead for Labour under its "genuinely leftwing" leader, Ed Miliband.

In what is turning into a hemorrhaging of support for the Lib Dems among a list of celebrity backers it unveiled in the run-up to last year's vote, the star of the Harry Potter franchise described party leader Nick Clegg as a "whipping boy" for the Conservatives. He also hit out at the "homophobia" of some of the US Republican presidential candidates.

Colin Firth, another actor and A-list Hollywood star declared in December that he was ending his support for the Lib Dems. The party has also lost the support of Bella Freud, the fashion designer, and Kate Mosse, the author.

Radcliffe made the comments in an interview that will be published on Monday in the latest issue of Attitude magazine, the same forum he used in 2009 to announce that he would "almost certainly" be using his first ever vote in a general election to vote Lib Dem.

Asked if he is happy with the Lib Dems's place in the coalition, he said: "No, of course not. Nick Clegg asked to meet me after that Attitude interview and we talked about issues such as gay rights and faith schools.

"I was initially supportive. For me it was good that the Lib Dems would be fighting our corner. But he has become a whipping boy and it seems to me that he has been totally used by the Tories - anything they don't want badly reflected on them they reflect on to him."

The actor, who is estimated to have a £30m fortune, cited "so many concessions" by the Lib Dems' on education and taxes. He added: "I think, if you make a lot more money than most people - like I do - you should pay more tax and subsidise people who work just as hard as you, but don't earn as much."

Radcliffe, whose current film, The Woman in Black, was estimated to have made $21m at the US box office during its weekend opening, said he "will probably be going to Labour".

He said: "From what I've seen of Ed Miliband, I really like him and he speaks for what I believe in. I think he's genuine, genuinely leftwing, and will act as such if he gets in."

The actor — who is straight — also used the interview to call for gay marriage, relationship education in schools that would cover both gay and straight relationships, and attacked some of the US Republican presidential candidates.

Radcliffe said that he wished more educational establishments, especially in the US, were not in thrall to religion, stating: "I'm not religious, I'm an atheist, and a militant atheist when religion starts impacting on legislation. We need sex education in schools.

He went on to say that he has been "disgusted, amazed, stunned" by candidates seeking the Republican presidential nomination, such as Rick Santorum or Michele Bachmann, who have been openly hostile to gay rights.

"But they disgusted me less than candidates like Rick Perry, who made that ridiculous advert wearing 'the Brokeback jacket', and I think pretend to be homophobic just to win votes." .

Asked if he wished that Barack Obama would publicly back gay marriage, he replied: "Yes, I do, but can he really? Of course he's in favour of it, but he has to be careful about saying so. I'd rather have someone like him in the White House than the alternative."

• Daniel Radcliffe
• Liberal Democrats
• Nick Clegg
• Labour
• Ed Miliband
• Conservatives
• Harry Potter
• Republican presidential nomination 2012
• United States
• Republicans
• US elections 2012
• US politics

Commonwealth countries of Antigua-Barbuda and St Vincent-Grenadines among those supporting blocking British ships

A group of Caribbean countries have agreed to back Buenos Aires and block any ships flying the Falklands flag from docking in their ports, Argentina's foreign minister Hector Timerman has said.

They include the Commonwealth countries of Antigua-Barbuda and St Vincent-Grenadines, along with Cuba, Nicaragua and Dominica, Timerman said.

Argentina received strong support for its blockade at a meeting in Venezuela of a left-leaning bloc of South American and Caribbean nations.

The Ecuadorian president, Rafael Correa, said: "It is time for Latin America to decide sanctions against this mistaken power that pretends to be imperialist and colonialist in the 21st century.

"I think we have to apply more forceful things. We have to talk about sanctions."

Argentina hopes that diplomatic and economic measures will pressure Britain to comply with UN resolutions encouraging both countries to negotiate the islands' sovereignty. Britain has refused so far.

Hugo Chávez, the president of Venezuela, said: "If it should occur to the British empire to attack Argentina militarily, Argentina won't be alone this time.

"Venezuela is no power, but we've got some weapons and the will to face any imperialist aggression."

Tensions have risen as the 30th anniversary of Argentina's invasion nears.

• Falkland Islands
• Americas
• Military
• Defence policy
• Foreign policy
• Argentina

Three gloomy reports will put pressure on Bank of England to pump £50bn more into economy when it meets this week

The beleaguered state of the UK economy has been underlined by three separate reports revealing that Britain's one million small and medium-sized businesses were facing their most difficult year since the recession of 2009.

Sharp declines in bank lending to smaller firms, and a collapse in confidence across the sector outlined in the reports will add to concerns that the economy is about to enter a second recession in three years, analysts said.

The gloomy reports will also put pressure on the Bank of England to pump an extra £50bn into the economy when it meets on Thursday.

Mervyn King, governor of the Bank of England, has indicated he could support an extra boost to the £270bn quantitative easing programme if there were evidence of a further tightening in bank lending and a deterioration in the economic outlook.

Several other members of the nine-strong monetary policy committee are expected to vote in favour, including the economist Adam Posen, who believes an extra £75bn could be justified.

The European Central Bank has also faced calls to ease monetary policy to offset cuts in public spending and rising unemployment across the eurozone. The bank, which has allowed European banks to borrow £500bn since the start of the year in response to the deepening euro crisis, could cut interest rates further to ease borrowing costs, analysts said.

Most economists expect the Bank of England to sanction further quantitative easing despite positive figures from the services and manufacturing sectors last week that showed a steady expansion over December and January.

According to the Markit/CIPS UK services PMI poll, services firms, which make up more than two-thirds of the economy, were more optimistic about the outlook and had the strongest growth in new business since last July.

Businesses in the sector, which includes hotels, restaurants, banks and transport, gave cheer after official figures showed the economy contracted in the fourth quarter of 2011 but they hired new workers at the fastest pace for almost four years.

However, a report by economic forecasters the Ernst & Young Item Club is expected to dampen the mood. It said bank lending this year would be the lowest since the recession of 2009.

The Item Club expects total bank loans – after expanding by an estimated 4.3% in 2011 – to contract by 2.2% in 2012, with just 0.9% growth forecast in 2013.

Bank lending is considered a crucial measure of economic health and a fall this year could cripple many businesses that have struggled to keep their doors open since the recession.

Neil Blake, its senior economic adviser, said: "We have been warning about the impact bank de-leveraging could have on the economy for some time, but this is the first time there will be an annual contraction in total loans since 2009, when the UK economy was still suffering from the immediate effects of the global financial crisis."

A separate report, by the accountancy body ICAEW, found that business confidence had fallen at a record rate, and firms were planning to cut investment.

Job creation plans also stayed subdued, though small and medium-sized businesses were more likely than larger ones to hire people in the next 12 months, the report said.

Michael Izza, chief executive of ICAEW, said: "At the moment it is hard to see where growth will come from and the chancellor, George Osborne, needs to use the forthcoming budget to give businesses reasons to be more confident about the future – and unlock potential investments."

Osborne is understood to favour a boost to quantitative easing by the Bank of England to offset his austerity measures.

He came under fire last week from opposition MPs for sticking to his plans after the Institute for Fiscal Studies said he could spend at least an extra £10bn without undermining confidence in the UK's fiscal outlook.

Chuka Umunna, the shadow business secretary, said: "It is particularly worrying that business expectations for capital investment have fallen for a third successive quarter. Low business confidence is hitting Britain's future growth potential and discouraging firms from investing for the long-term, with over half of businesses surveyed operating below capacity.

"Vince Cable's promise that the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills would be the 'department of growth' has been exposed as little more than empty rhetoric, as ministers have failed to adopt an effective plan for growth or take meaningful steps to support businesses and our key sectors.

"Labour's five-point plan would get the economy moving again, including by bringing forward long-term investment projects and temporarily reversing last year's damaging VAT rise."

• Small business
• Economics
• Economic policy
• Bank of England
• Recession

Websites now pose bigger risk than prisons, says report, prompting call to clamp down on 'unregulated' material

The internet now plays a part in most, if not all, cases of violent radicalisation and is a more significant recruiting ground than prisons, universities or places of worship, according to report by a cross-party group of MPs published today.

The Commons home affairs committee says internet service providers need to be as effective at removing material that promotes violent extremism as they are in removing content that is sexual or breaches copyright.

The committee discloses that a new Home Office counter-terrorism internet referral unit has received 2,025 complaints since it was set up in 2010. About 10% of the offending websites or web pages have been taken down as a result.

But the MPs say far more needs to be done, including more action to take down extremist videos and a new code of practice to draw the line on material promoting violent extremism.

The MPs' focus on the influence of the internet comes as judges prepare to sentence this week the four men found guilty of plotting a pre-Christmas terrorist attack on the London stock exchange after being inspired by the radical preacher Anwar al-Awlaki.

The nine-month inquiry found that the internet played a greater role in violent radicalisation than prisons, universities or places of worship and was now "one of the few unregulated spaces where radicalisation is able to take place".

The report stresses, however, that no single pathway leads to radicalisation and emphasises that direct, personal contact is also significant. It adds that although convicted terrorists have attended British universities and prisons there is seldom evidence that they were radicalised there. The report says recruitment activities have retreated to private homes as the authorities have targeted public arenas.

The MPs, however, heard in private an assessment from Charles Farr, the Home Office's head of the Office of Security and Counter-terrorism, that "sympathy for violent extremism is declining rather than increasing". The MPs contrast this with the situation in 2007 when MI5 said there were "at least 2,000 people" in the UK who posed a threat because they supported terrorism – a figure that had increased by 400 the previous year.

The MPs do conclude that there may be growing support for nonviolent extremism within the Muslim community, fed by feelings of alienation and a sense of grievance, and this is a challenge for society and the police.

They recommend that tackling Islamophobia and demonstrating that the British state is not antithetical to Islam should constitute a big part of the official Prevent strategy designed to counter the ideology that feeds violent radicalisation.

The MPs talked to the radical preacher Abu Hamza in the maximum security unit at Belmarsh prison in London, who told them the main drivers of radicalisation were grievances, especially concerning Palestine and Afghanistan, a sense that the prophet was being mocked, guilt and capability.

He said unemployment was not a source of grievance.

Keith Vaz MP, the committee's Labour chairman, said: "The conviction last week of four men from London and Cardiff radicalised over the internet, for a plot to bomb the London stock exchange and launch a Mumbai-style atrocity on the streets of London, shows that we cannot let our vigilance slip. More resources need to be directed to these threats and to preventing radicalisation through the internet and in private spaces. These are the fertile breeding grounds for terrorism."

• UK security and terrorism
• Terrorism policy
• Keith Vaz
• Global terrorism
• Internet

Rail services offer worse value for money and are more expensive than those in other European countries, report says

Britain's railways have been judged worst for fares, efficiency and comfort in a study of rail services in Europe.

The report by the thinktank Just Economics said UK rail services were less affordable, less comfortable, slower, more inefficient and more expensive than those in France, Germany, Spain and Italy. Frequency of trains was the only area in which the UK performed better.

"In terms of bang for buck, not only does the UK come bottom of the index of outcomes but it also spends a relatively large amount of money to achieve this woeful result. This means that it also comes bottom of the value for money league," said the report.

"Our under-performing railways carry a considerable cost both for passengers and for the public purse. Our calculations show that a more affordable, more comfortable and faster railway would generate a staggering £324bn in social value (£9.2bn a year) between now and 2050. This is the equivalent of £7 of value per average journey in that period.

"We also estimate that the social, economic and environmental benefits of achieving a modal shift from road to rail – in terms of reduced congestion, accidents and emissions – could potentially reach £154.8bn by 2050.

"When we combine this estimate with our previous figures showing improved outcomes for passengers, we calculate that the total social value of the strategic shift that we propose in this report is in the region of £479bn."

The report was released ahead of the government's response to the McNulty review on the future of the railways, which is expected to be published shortly.

Bob Crow, leader of the Rail Maritime and Transport union, which commissioned the study, said: "This latest research shows that the failures of privatisation are costing the UK hundreds of billions of pounds in social value.

"Instead of addressing that issue and looking at the cheaper and socially beneficial alternative of a publicly owned railway, McNulty proposes more cuts and even longer gold-plated franchises for the private train operators.

"Now McNulty and the train operators want to roll that model out across Europe, smashing up rail services from the North Sea to the Mediterranean."

The report's author Eilis Lawlor added: "Our research puts figures on what anyone who has been to France or Spain already knows – the UK's railways are poor value for money.

"Instead of profitability being the primary measure of success, the wider benefits of the railway need greater consideration.

"The government should act decisively and make an objective and transparent assessment of the best way to organise Britain's railways so as to maximise social, environmental and economic value."

• Rail transport
• Transport
• Transport policy
• Rail transport
• Europe
• Trade unions

Diabetic mothers-to-be have high risk of giving birth to children with congenital abnormality, study says

Women who have diabetes are almost four times more likely to have a baby with a birth defect, research reveals.

One out of 13 mothers-to-be with either Type 1 or Type 2 of the disease on giving birth have a child with a major congenital abnormality as a direct result of their condition. Overall for such women, the risk of having a child with a birth defect of whatever kind is 7%, according to the journal Diabetologia. The risk of having a baby who has a birth defect is 2% in females without diabetes.

Researchers led by Ruth Bell from Newcastle University reached their conclusions after studying 401,149 single-baby pregnancies between 1996 and 2008 in the north of England, 1,677 of them pregnancies of diabetics.

Diabetic women from poorer backgrounds, or who did not take folic acid, were at higher risk, they found.

Iain Frame, the research director at Diabetes UK, which funded the study, said it had identified that the mother's blood glucose level at time of conception was related to her risk of having a baby with a birth defect, such as a heart abnormality. Diabetic women considering becoming pregnant should alert their medical team so that steps can be taken to minimise the risk. In addition, women who are diabetic should make sure to use contraception so that they do not become pregnant unexpectedly, Frame said. This is because some drugs taken by Type 2 diabetics – 90% of the UK's 2.9 million patients diagnosed with the disease – can cause problems for a developing foetus, and in such cases the women need to take higher than usual doses of folic acid, he said.

"Although it has been known for some time that maternal diabetes is associated with an increased risk of foetal anomalies, this study has, for the first time, quantified the relative risk," said Justin Warner clinical lead for the National Paediatric Diabetes Audit, which is led by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health.

"This highlights the importance of good diabetes control in mothers at the time of conception and the need for careful diabetes monitoring if pregnancy is being considered."

Young women with diabetes need to be educated about the risk of having a child with an abnormality if they become pregnant, he said.

NHS staff should try to stabilise the health of diabetics who may become pregnant, and reduce the risk of birth defects by using insulin pump therapy and continuous monitoring of glucose levels, the authors suggest. Such women do get offered specialist preconception care, "but uptake remains low, and women from ethnic minority groups, socially deprived areas, and with Type 2 diabetes are less likely to attend", the study says.

A Department of Health spokeswoman said: "We know that diabetes brings increased risk of complications during pregnancy and that the best way to avoid the complications is through good planning and making sure that the diabetes is well controlled before and during pregnancy."

The Change4Life campaign was encouraging people to adopt healthier lifestyles, which would help prevent diseases such as diabetes in the first place, she added.

• Diabetes
• Health
• Children
• Pregnancy
• Health & wellbeing
• Women
• Medical research
• Health policy

Labour leader Ed Miliband urges cross-party campaign to block Andrew Lansley's health reform bill

Originally published in the Guardian on 6 February 1960

Not every MP loves the newspapers but all are fascinated by them, and there was a big Friday turn-out to hear Mrs Margaret Thatcher, in a commanding maiden speech, put before the Commons her bill to buttress the rights of the press at local council meetings.

She got her second reading (by 152 votes to 39) and also the gallant support of the Minister of Housing and Local Government, although Mr Brooke is still inclined to rely more on what he calls his "code of good conduct" to persuade the few publicity-hating councils to mend their ways. He is going on with his code whatever the ultimate fate of this bill, and thinks – as many other members think too - that if there are legal rights for the press these should also be extended to the general public.

Not everybody thought the newspapers should have more rights and some extreme views were expressed about their nature and function. Are they snoopers or guardians of liberty? Noble watchdogs or curs of low degree? The provincial reporters mainly involved, men normally obsessed with the struggle to keep their pencils sharp and to carve out a half-hour for lunch, will be amazed when they read how dramatic is their impact on our legislators.

Mr Edelman, for instance, saw them as giant-killers, slayers of potential local dictators who might otherwise flourish in the dark. "There are at least as many village Hitlers as village Hampdens," observed Mr Edelman, himself a journalist though hardly a village one. Someone on his own side of the House remarked with a visible shudder that on some dark night you might also meet a village Wilkes.

Mrs Thatcher's main aim is to stop councils from throwing out the reporters by suddenly turning themselves into committees. She wants the press to attend, as of normal right, all committees which have substantial delegated powers of their own, but she provides no new sanction against any local authorities that may choose to disobey. No mayor or town clerk will be standing in the stocks as a result of her bill.

Yet already, according to Mr Reynolds, who led the objectors, the bugle has sounded from parish and city and county and top officials are rallying to their books to find ways of getting round the bill in case it should find its way to the statute book.

The menaced town clerks had at least this amount of encouragement from Mr Brooke: it would be "grievous," he thought, if local government officers were hindered from advising their councils through fear of their words - at present, it would seem, mere whispers – becoming the subject of public controversy.

There was plenty of disagreement, but it was by no means on party lines. Mrs Castle, for instance, gave rousing support to the bill, and Mr Wise was one of the Tories who opposed it. Mr Wise, who was making his first speech since he returned to the House after a fourteen-year absence, was the one member who really brought the debate home. The rights of reporters at local council meetings may be slender enough, but they are solid compared with the rights of those of us who perch precariously in the Commons press gallery. We have none at all.

• Margaret Thatcher
• Newspapers
• Press freedom

Labour leader to say that official NHS statistics prove that the coalition's reorganisation of NHS is directly affecting patient care

Ed Miliband will claim on Monday that the total number of nurses working within the NHS has been cut by 3,500 since the general election, and could fall by a further 2,500 by the end of this parliament.

The Labour leader will say that official NHS statistics prove that the Tories' reorganisation of the health service is directly damaging frontline patient care.

At the same time, Labour will argue that the funds set aside to pay for the costs of the health bill's reorganisation would protect all 6,000 nursing jobs if parliament chose in the coming weeks to abandon the reorganisation.

The claims could prove to be damaging to the government, under attack from the health profession for its proposed reforms. They come in a difficult week for the health secretary, Andrew Lansley, during which the bill will return to the Lords, where it can expect to come under attack by peers of all political persuasions. Labour is keen to maintain pressure on the Tories after an improved performance by Miliband in which he was widely praised for his attacks on David Cameron over City bonuses.

The number of full-time qualified nurses fell from 281,431 in May 2010 to 277,915 in October 2011, a fall of 3,516, according to data from the NHS Information Centre which have been released by Labour. The figure refers to the change in "qualified nursing, midwifery and health visiting staff". The Royal College of Nursing has identified 5,000 nursing posts at risk, comprising both qualified nurses and healthcare assistants; Labour believes half these posts are qualified nurses.

Miliband will visit staff and patients at the Princess Royal university hospital in Kent on Monday, and is expected to say: "In tough times and with little money around, the very first priority should be to protect the frontline NHS.

"Instead, we have a government blowing a vast amount of money on a damaging back-office reorganisation at the same time as it is cutting thousands of nurses, with more than 3,000 already gone. Labour's priority is protecting the frontline, not a pointless and damaging reorganisation of the NHS.

"We're calling for the bill to be scrapped, and for some of the money set aside to fund this reorganisation to instead be made available to the NHS to protect the thousands of nursing posts either already cut or set to be cut in the coming years.

"It is a clear and simple choice for the government: by stopping this damaging reorganisation we can fund 6,000 nurses."

The attack by Miliband comes as Labour launches the next stage of its campaign against the government's health bill. Labour, Liberal Democrat and cross-bench peers are discussing joint strategies to torpedo further elements of the bill when it begins its report stage in the Lords on Wednesday.

They are training their sights on the parts of the bill that would open the NHS to a greater role for the private sector.

Writing in the Observer, Miliband said: "It is not too late to stop this bill.

"We have three months to prevent great harm being done to the NHS. Now is the time for people of all parties and of none, the professions, the patients and now peers in the House of Lords to work together to try to stop this bill."

The worst option, he added, would be for the government to press ahead with the reforms merely to save face.

The latest action to amend the bill – which would devolve commissioning to GPs and open up service to more competition – comes despite the government offering a string of concessions when it put down 136 amendments. Last year, the government set aside nearly £1.8bn to pay for the costs of the health bill reorganisation that could only be used once it is enacted.

Labour is calling for £750m of the money set aside for the reorganisation to be used instead to fund 6,000 nursing posts over the spending review period, replacing the 3,500 nurses that have already been lost and protecting a further 2,500 posts that research suggests will be lost in the coming years.

The list of professional bodies which have come out in opposition to the bill include the Royal College of Nursing, the Royal College of Midwives, the British Medical Association, the Royal College of GPs, the Royal College of Radiologists, the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy and the Royal College of Psychiatrists.

Health minister Anne Milton said that Labour's accusations were wrong.

"Since the election we've cut admin staff by 15,000 and the total number of clinical staff has remained the same.

"If we were not proceeding with modernisation in NHS by the end of this parliament there would be £1.5bn not available to support services and front line staff."

• NHS
• Health
• Nursing
• Health policy
• Public services policy
• Ed Miliband
• Labour
• Liberal-Conservative coalition
• Conservatives

Party to call on the government to spend money on offering post-service support to soldiers through charities

Labour is to call on the government to set up a £1m fund to monitor the mental health of veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts and allow charities to bid for the money.

The move follows concern expressed by armed forces charities about the timelag between service personnel leaving the services and experiencing mental health problems and that current support is focused on people still in service. Labour says it does not want those who have served to be "forgotten" after 2014.

The fund would come out of part of the savings obtained by cutting the number of senior ranks in the armed forces. There are more admirals than ships in the navy and proportionately more officers in the UK military than in other countries. The number of army brigadiers, and commodores in the navy and RAF has risen by a third since 1990.

The Guardian reported earlier this month that 20 posts of the ranks of brigadiers and commodores are to be abolished. Labour says more should go.

Jim Murphy, shadow defence secretary, said : "We must prevent an epidemic of invisible injury. The country owes it to all those who have served to provide real post-service support. With thousands having experience of Iraq and Afghanistan legacy issues are more important than ever."

He added: "Imbalances in our forces by making real savings at the top. This is a real priority for Labour."

Labour's defence spokesmen referred to comments by the organisation Combat Stress which says a significant minority of servicemen and women suffer from mental ill health as a result of their experiences.

Research suggests that of the 191,000 personnel who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan, about 7,600 people (4%) could develop post-traumatic stress disorder. Another 37,600 people (19.7%) may be battling other debilitating mental health problems, such as depression, mood disorders and anxiety.

On average veterans wait 13.1 years between leaving the armed forces and seeking help from Combat Stress, showing the delay between a traumatic event taking place and the impact on mental health.

According to the Royal British Legion, the armed forces are facing a "perfect storm" of health and welfare needs in coming years as the legacy of Afghanistan and Iraq combine with defence cuts and strains on public sector support.

By 2020, Legion research estimates that 1.8m in the armed forces community will be living with long-standing illness; 800,000 will be isolated socially, having little contact with family or friends; and 700,000 will be living below the poverty line.

• Military
• Defence policy
• Mental health
• Health
• Post-traumatic stress disorder
• Depression