Police have launched a manhunt after a prisoner escaped while on a hospital visit from HMP Wormwood Scrubs.

Officers are looking for Graham Gomm after he escaped from guards on Wednesday night during a visit to Hammersmith Hospital, where he was receiving medical treatment.

The 63-year-old, who was on remand for burglary offences, was reported as having absconded in the early hours of Thursday morning.

The Metropolitan Police said it was scouring the area for Gomm, as well as known addresses that have links to him.

It is the second time in three years that a prisoner has gone on the run from HMP Wormwood Scrubs during a medical visit – in 2021 Manray Woolfall also slipped past his guards during a trip to hospital.

It comes as Shabana Mahmood, the Justice Secretary, has had to introduce an early release scheme that will see 5,500 prisoners freed 40 per cent of the way through their sentences, rather than halfway, in order to ease the prison overcrowding crisis.

‘Nothing to suggest threat to public’

In a statement, the Met said: “Police were alerted at around 1.18am on Thursday July 18 that Gomm had absconded. He was last seen wearing a grey T-shirt and grey tracksuit.

“Detectives are also concerned for Gomm’s welfare as he was undergoing medical care before he escaped. There is nothing to suggest that Gomm is a threat to the public.

“If anyone sees Gomm they are asked not to approach him but they should call 999.

“Information on his whereabouts can also be shared with police via 101 or post on X @‌MetCC quoting reference CAD0481/18JUL24.”

HMP Wormwood Scrubs is a category B men’s prison in west London which houses around 1,000 inmates.

A prison service spokesman said: “We are urgently working with the Metropolitan Police to recapture this prisoner and investigating how he was able to escape from hospital.”

Cancer patients have had radiotherapy appointments cancelled on Friday morning after a global tech outage hit the NHS.

Patients at Royal Surrey NHS Foundation were informed that it was unable to carry out planned radiotherapy treatments because the system it used had been impacted.

The hospital has declared a critical incident as it works to fix the issues affecting its services.

It is understood other hospitals’ radiology departments are also affected with scans unable to be read, while appointment booking services and medication prescribing systems are also down.

The NHS has already confirmed that GP services have been hit by the issue affecting Microsoft and cyber security firm CrowdStrike.

Around 3,700 GP practices are understood to be affected because they use the EMIS Web system – about 60 per cent of practices in England.

The system is used to book patient appointments and access medical records with patients also unable to view their own records on the NHS app as a result of the outage.

Critical incident declared

Royal Surrey said it had been forced to declare a critical incident because its system, Varian, that it uses to deliver radiotherapy treatments has been impacted.

A spokesman said: “This means we are currently unable to deliver our scheduled radiotherapy treatments. We have contacted our patients who were due to have radiotherapy this morning to reschedule appointments while we work to fix these issues.”

They said they “will directly contact patients who are due to have radiotherapy appointments if we are unable to deliver their treatments” but urged people to attend unless they hear otherwise.

The Christie NHS foundation trust, the largest cancer site in the UK, also said patients undergoing chemotherapy and immunotherapy are being affected by the outages.

The Manchester hospital said all patients should attend appointments unless contacted.

Meanwhile, GP appointment booking systems are down following the global tech outage, the NHS has confirmed.

Some hospitals are also struggling to access internal systems with appointment booking services and medication prescribing services understood to be affected.

Health officials said family doctors were struggling to access systems, with some practices unable to book appointments.

The main IT system used by primary care services is understood to have been hit by the problems, which have seen airports, banks and television channels knocked offline.

GP surgeries hit by the outage have said the issue “will have a big effect”.

Central Lakes Medical Group in Ambleside wrote on X: 

Another post by Pocklington Group Practice in the East Riding of Yorkshire said: 

The Wilmslow Health Centre in Cheshire wrote: 

The surgery added: “GP surgeries across the country affected by major IT outage. We anticipate this could last for many hours. Please bear with us during this challenging time.”

The Church Lane Surgery in Brighouse, West Yorkshire, posted on X that “our clinical system has not been working since 7am this morning.

“We have no access to patient clinical records so are unable to book appointments or provide information… This is a national problem and is being worked on as a high priority.”

Prof Kamila Hawthorne, chairwoman of the Royal College of GPs, said: “Our members are telling us that today’s outage is causing considerable disruption to GP practice bookings and IT systems – practices using EMIS IT systems appear to be particularly affected.

“Outages like this affect our access to important clinical information about our patients, as well as our ability to book tests, make referrals, and inform the most appropriate treatment plan.

“GPs and their practice teams will do what they can to minimise the impact on patients, working hard to ensure they still get the care they need wherever possible.

“We urge all patients to please bear with us and if their issue isn’t urgent then to try and wait until the outage has been resolved.”

One hospital also said patients could expect delays due to its “administrative services” being affected by the outage.

Salisbury District Hospital, in Wiltshire, said: “We are suffering some delays at our hospital with our administrative services due to the global IT outage. We ask patients and visitors to please bear with us as we use alternative methods.”

An NHS source said hospitals would feel the knock-on effect either way if systems they “interact with are offline”.

Patients are also unable to view their own medical records, which are available to view online on the NHS App after the services went down.

An NHS England spokesman said of hospital disruption: “There are … some issues with administrative systems in hospitals that mean staff are having to work manually from paper to manage certain tasks but in the majority of hospitals, care is continuing as normal.”

NHS cyber attack fallout

The global problems have caused many Windows operating systems to shut down.

Cyber security engineers examining problems in other sectors have pointed to a problem with Crowdstrike, a piece of antivirus software which appears to cause computers to crash.

The health service is still battling the fallout from a cyber attack thought to have been carried out by Russian hackers, which has affected hospitals.

More than 7,000 outpatient appointments and over 1,500 elective procedures have been postponed at King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust since the cyber attack on June 3.

Health officials said the problems are affecting EMIS Web, the national GP booking system. So far hospitals and 999 services are not thought to have been affected.

Solihull Healthcare Partnership in the West Midlands said there is a “national issue” with EMIS Web.

Writing on X, it said: “Unfortunately there is a national issue with EMIS Web – our clinical computer system. This will affect our ability to book/consult with patients this morning.

“We will update patients when we can. We apologise for the disruption.”

Doctors share tips

Doctors have been sharing tips online with each other to work around the IT outage affecting the EMIS service.

The service impacted is the one that GPs use to access patient medical records. It is thought to be used by more than half of GP surgeries across England.

Dr Nikki Kanani, the former NHS director of primary care, said GPs should use a separate system to keep patient notes manually and to upload later, as well as make use other “no-networked apps”.

“Tip: Use Tortus if you have it – can store all your consults locally and then cut and paste them later,” she wrote on X.

Others suggested entering “business continuity” mode and switching off “triaging systems”.

An NHS spokesman said: “The NHS is aware of a global IT outage and an issue with EMIS, an appointment and patient record system, which is causing disruption in the majority of GP practices.

“The NHS has long standing measures in place to manage the disruption, including using paper patient records and handwritten prescriptions, and the usual phone systems to contact your GP.

“There is currently no known impact on 999 or emergency services, so people should use these services as they usually would.

“Patients should attend appointments unless told otherwise. Only contact your GP if it’s urgent, and otherwise please use 111 online or call 111.”

Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary, urged people to “bear with” GPs during the disruption.

In a post on X, Mr Streeting wrote: “This is having a particular impact on GP appointments and electronic prescribing.

“Please bear with your local GPs if they’re grappling with this on top of normal pressures. My department is working closely with colleagues across Government.”

Julian Hartley, chief executive of NHS Providers, which represents hospitals, said the outage could result in operations being cancelled.

He said the lack of access to GP booking systems also meant A&E departments were likely to be deluged by patients who felt they had nowhere to turn.

He told the Telegraph: “We are aware obviously of a big impact on primary care. We are also hearing that in some hospitals electronic patient record systems are being affected so that may have led to cancelled operations.

“Lack of access to GP booking systems is likely to have a knock-on effect with more patients pitching up to A&Es.

“There are other impacts on some hospitals that we are hearing about – staff allocation software systems that manage rotas have been affected in some areas, which is obviously very difficult,” he said.

Businesses including Waterstones and Gail’s have been forced to return to accepting just cash after electronic payments were hit by a web outage.

Shops, cafes, pubs and even Parliament have been impacted by the global systems, forcing customers to use cash to pay for goods and services.

Waitrose told shoppers it was unable to process contactless payments as a global IT outage sparks chaos across the UK.

The middle-class supermarket was understood to only be able to process chip and pin payments or take cash in stores, before confirming its systems were back up and running. Customers reported being told that they would have to get cash out of nearby card machines to pay for shopping. 

A sign in a Waitrose in Petersfield was pictured saying the store was accepting cash payments only as all “card readers have failed”, with an apology for any inconvenience caused. A local radio station reported that queues had formed at an ATM round the corner as shoppers tried to get their hands on bank notes. 

The issues are understood to be linked to the worldwide IT outages that affected the NHS, global airports, banks and broadcasters on Friday. 

Politicians, aides and others in the centre of power were also being told to use cash for their food and coffees on Friday morning as news of the outage spread. 

Theatre fans may also face issues as the National Theatre, Shakespeare’s Globe and the Royal Shakespeare Company have told customers they cannot book tickets online. The Old Vic and Young Vic theatres were also experiencing issues.

Waterstones in Falkirk, Scotland, is only accepting cash according to its X account, but the bookshop chain has said the issues have not impacted all of its stores. A spokesman said: “Card payments will not work only if the bank of the customer is impacted. Otherwise, they will work. Obviously, we accept cash and gift cards as normal. Waterstones.com and all our online options work as normal.”

Wetherspoons and Co-op are also among retailers understood to be affected by the crisis with customers taking to social media to report their frustrations, although the pub chain’s app is now working again. Co-op insisted it had not “experienced any significant impact”. 

Reports online suggest Gail’s Bakery is giving away coffees free in some locations if customers are unable to pay with their cards. 

Other supermarkets including Morrisons also received reports of  issues with contactless payments, before they were resolved. Sainsbury’s, Tesco and M&S are understood to have seen no issues in its stores.

Hopeful visitors to London Zoo and Kew Gardens also risked being denied access, with both attractions only accepting cash or pre-booked tickets until payment systems were back up and running. London Zoo later said issues were resolved.

Meanwhile it was not possible to book tickets to visit Buckingham Palace and Windsor.  The Royal Collection Trust, which manages public visits to royal residences including the Palace of Holyroodhouse, issued a statement via its website that all ticket sales were halted. Visitors with prepaid tickets are unaffected.

Smaller businesses including Grimsby Garden Centre and London Fields Lido – an open air swimming pool – have also resorted to only taking cash.

It is not only the UK that has been affected. Self-service machines in Woolworths supermarkets in Australia are not operational and banks in the country are facing transaction delays. 

Pro-cash campaigners were quick to point to the chaos as one of the risks of moving towards a cashless society. Martin Quinn, campaign director at Payment Choice Alliance said: “With IT outages happening now at alarming regularity, businesses should be mindful of only taking card payments. However many supermarkets prefer to have self-service card only tills, which makes cash users feel like second-class citizens, a concerted effort is needed to return to using and accepting cash, because cash never crashes.”

It is thought the outage was caused by a software problem with a piece of cyber security technology, called Crowdstrike. The specific piece of technology, Crowdstrike Falcon Sensor, is used to protect against hacking threats, but engineers were quick to blame a problem with the system for causing the massive outage.

George Kurtz, Crowdstrike’s founder and chief executive, said: “CrowdStrike is working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts. Mac and Linux hosts are not impacted. 

“This is not a security incident or cyberattack. The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed. We refer customers to the support portal for the latest updates and will continue to provide complete and continuous updates on our website. 

“We further recommend organisations ensure they’re communicating with CrowdStrike representatives through official channels. Our team is fully mobilized to ensure the security and stability of CrowdStrike customers.”

Nigel Farage has claimed that a mass riot in Leeds represented the “politics of the subcontinent”, prompting a backlash from local Labour MPs.

Violence erupted in the Yorkshire city on Thursday night as a double-decker bus was set on fire and a police car was overturned.

The riot is thought to have broken out after social services took four children away from a family in Harehills, an inner city area, at around 5pm on Thursday.

Responding to footage of the unrest, Mr Farage, the Reform UK leader, said: “The politics of the subcontinent are currently playing out on the streets of Leeds. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

His remarks led to demands for an apology from Alex Sobel, the Labour MP for Leeds Central and Headingley, who said: “This is a situation you know nothing about, and no one has briefed you on.

“You are inflaming a situation with misinformation. Politicians have a responsibility to not exacerbate situations, particularly with no knowledge of them. I expect you to issue an apology.”

Mr Farage responded: “When will you and the Labour Party apologise for irresponsible mass migration?”

Richard Burgon, the Labour MP for Leeds East, said he had spoken to Harehills residents affected by the “very serious” scenes after returning to his constituency late on Thursday.

“They care passionately about their community,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “They want the disorder to end. They want those pushing misinformation from afar to stop.”

Lee Anderson, the Reform MP for Ashfield, echoed Mr Farage’s argument on Friday morning as he condemned the “disgraceful scenes”.

“Import a third world culture, then you get third world behaviour,” he said. “These animals need locking up for good. They are a product of our spineless namby-pamby establishment who have betrayed our great country.”

West Yorkshire Police said the disorder was “instigated by a criminal minority intent on disrupting community relations”, urging residents not to speculate on the cause.

Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, said late on Thursday night that she was “appalled at the shocking scenes” and attacks on police vehicles and public transport. Police vans were pelted with rocks and bricks as hundreds of people clashed with police.

Social media footage showed rioters smashing the windows of a police car before they flipped the vehicle onto its side.

In a separate video, widely circulated on TikTok and Facebook, a group of men could be seen setting fire to a large double decker bus using lighters. The vehicle was reduced to a charred wreck.

A spokesman for West Yorkshire Police said on Thursday: “At 5pm [on Thursday], police were called to … an address in Luxor Street, Harehills.

“Officers attended and found an ongoing disturbance, which involved some agency workers and some children. More people started to attend the location, and a decision was made to remove the agency workers and the children to a safe place.

“A crowd started to gather and more officers were requested to attend the area, where some pockets of disorder were occurring.

“More officers have been deployed to the area to assist with the management of this incident. Some road closures are also being implemented, and people are advised to avoid the area at this time. No injuries have been reported and enquiries are ongoing at the scene.”

Leading Democrats are plotting a presidential campaign without Joe Biden leading the ticket.

The 81-year-old US president is under pressure to step aside and “pass the torch” to a younger candidate, following weeks of criticism from his own party regarding his mental faculties. 

Senior Democrats, including Chuck Schumer, the Senate Majority Leader, have indicated to party donors that they are actively planning their next steps in case Mr Biden decides to drop out, sources close to the matter told The Wall Street Journal.

Mr Schumer and Nancy Pelosi, the former house speaker, have reportedly both told Mr Biden that his bid for reelection could endanger the party’s electoral chances in both chambers of Congress.

Now, top Democrats believe he could pull out as soon as this weekend after becoming “more receptive” to pleas for him to stand aside in recent days.

Allies of Kamala Harris are said to be quietly working behind the scenes to ensure that she is positioned to take the top spot on the ticket if Mr Biden does step down.

“Two or three days ago, people were quiet. And now, as of yesterday especially, people were like, ‘We need to be ready,’” one person involved in the discussion told Politico. “They are young in their infancy, but they have grown stronger by the hour.”

Ms Harris is now selling out donor events, including for a July 27 rally in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, where tickets cost between $100 and $12,000.

However, allies have acknowledged that scepticism remains within the party, including among senior Democrats, about her ability to win the presidency in a contest against Donald Trump, the former president .

Attacks are coming from Republicans who claim Ms Harris has not been honest about Mr Biden’s health and ability to lead.

A detailed report compiled by Democrats including voter surveys indicated that such assertions could damage Ms Harris’s ability to campaign.

The data, which forecast an Electoral College landslide loss, has caused alarm in the party’s leadership, leading to renewed calls both publicly and privately for the president to withdraw.

The data reveals that Mr Biden is not only trailing in all the swing states but is also behind or running neck-and-neck in traditionally Democratic states such as New Hampshire, Minnesota, New Mexico, Virginia and Maine. In New Jersey, he is leading by just 2.9 percentage points.

A total of 28 per cent of those who supported Mr Biden in 2020, along with 52 per cent of swing voters, believe that Democrats in office have been dishonest about the president’s mental health.

On Wednesday, Mr Biden tested positive for Covid-19 and is self-isolating at his home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, where allies hope he will have time to consider his position.

Kevin O’Connor, Mr Biden’s doctor, said on Thursday that the president’s symptoms were “mild” and that he had received a dose of Paxlovid, an antiviral medication.

According to the New York Times, Mr Biden has become more receptive to the idea that he may have to stand down.

US media reports said Mr Biden’s tone had changed behind closed doors, and he was now “willing to listen” to those making the case for him to end his campaign.

He has admitted that he “screwed up” in a disastrous television debate against Mr Trump on June 27 and that he does not “speak as smoothly as I used to”, but claims that concerns about his health are unfounded.

Some of Mr Biden’s closest allies at the top of the Democratic Party have begun to turn on him and now believe that he cannot beat Mr Trump.

As well as Mr Schumer, party grandee Ms Pelosi said Mr Biden looked likely to lose to Mr Trump and may cost his party their control of Congress if he remains in the race.

On Thursday, Barack Obama, the former president, became the latest senior figure to express concerns about his age.

He told several allies he was worried about Mr Biden’s poll ratings and believes he should seriously consider standing down to protect the party and his legacy, according to multiple reports in US media outlets.

Mr Biden is said to be personally hurt and betrayed by the number of leading Democrats who have turned against him, with sources telling NBC that he feels angry at how the party has tried to push him out.

“Can we all just remember for a minute that these same people who are trying to push Joe Biden out are the same people who literally gave us all Donald Trump? In 2015, Obama, Pelosi, and Schumer pushed Biden aside in favour of Hillary; they were wrong then, and they are wrong now,” the source said.

More than 20 sitting Democrats have gone public with their concerns, while donors have suspended contributions to Mr Biden’s campaign and celebrity backers including George Clooney have called for him to leave the race.

New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez chimed in on Friday morning, warning that many of those calling for Mr Biden to exit the race also want Ms Harris removed from the ticket.

“If you think that there is consensus among the people who want Joe Biden to leave… that they will support Vice President Harris, you would be mistaken,” she said.

She added that Democratic leaders needed to be “fully honest” with voters. “If they’re going to come out and say all their little things on background, off the record, but they’re not going to be fully honest, I’m going to be honest for them. I’m in these rooms. I see what they say in conversations,” Ms Ocasio-Cortez said.