Streeting delivers 'a hard message' to striking doctors

Wes Streeting has vowed he will be "a shop steward for patients" as health secretary, with a warning to striking doctors that he will not meet their huge pay demands.

- DAVID MADDOX

With an election on 4 July, Mr Streeting has attempted to outline what sort of health secretary he would be if Labour, as expected, is victorious but takes power in the face of record waiting lists caused by the Covid pandemic and exacerbated by ongoing pay disputes. And he comes with a message on why things need to change: "The NHS is not the envy of the world."

The shadow health secretary was speaking to The Independent ahead of appearing at the Hay Festival today in conversation with Independent editor-in-chief Geordie Greig about his biography One Boy, Two Bills and a Fry Up. Mr Streeting insisted that the book is "not my Obama book" in the way it is meant to promote him as a future leader. He added: "I think if I write another book, I want it to be about how we turned around the NHS."

Mr Streeting said that he believes the state of the NHS was a major reason Rishi Sunak braved the rain on Wednesday afternoon to announce an election. He said: "We know why Rishi Sunak has called the election now. It's because he knows there's another NHS winter crisis around the corner, while strikes that he's failed to resolve are still ongoing."

The last two winters have seen two of the worst crises for the NHS on record, with beds taken up by patients suffering the effects of flu and Covid. But Mr Streeting is also the face of one of the top six pledges - or first steps - on Sir Keir Starmer's pledge card promising to bring in an extra 40,000 appointments a week.

Asked how he would describe the sort of health secretary he wants to become, Mr Streeting said: "I will be a shop steward for patients as health secretary."