Tory MP Stuart Andrew has said that doctors would be “banned” from striking under a Conservative Government.
Speaking to GB News, the Shadow Health Secretary has declared the five-day strike action by resident doctors “totally unacceptable”.
Members of the British Medical Association (BMA) have begun their latest five-day walkout in a dispute over pay.
Hitting out at the strike, Mr Andrew told GB News: “It is totally unacceptable that the BMA, yet again, are going to take resident doctors out on strike, and it’s particularly awful right now because we have so many new cases of flu patients in hospital.
“This is a moment at which the doctors should be in the hospitals caring for those patients.”
Highlighting the scale of the impact of the walkout on patients, the Tory MP stated: “The reality is the figures that we’ve been looking at are suggesting that about nearly 9,000 appointments will be lost each day during these strikes.
“That’s 9,000 individual people who were expecting to have treatment, who are expecting to have operations, and had psyched themselves up for that are now not going to have them, and I think that is appalling.”
Criticising the Government for their “inflation-busting” pay rise given to resident doctors last year, he fumed: “I welcomed the statement that Wes Streeting made in Parliament about the improvement in places for UK doctors.
Shadow Health Secretary Stuart Andrew has told GB News the Tories would ‘ban’ doctors from striking if they get into power
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GB NEWS / PA
“He said that we would have to bring in emergency legislation, and I made the offer that we would work with him to achieve that.
“But the reality is that an inflation busting pay rise was given by the Government last year, but without any conditions or any reforms whatsoever. So it was inevitable they were going to come back for more.”
Stressing that the country simply “cannot afford” to pay doctors another 26 per cent, Mr Andrew told GB News: “Let’s just remember that the way that these payments are made are done in different ways.
“So there is a basic amount, but then there are obviously add-ons as people get more and more qualified.
“But they got 29 per cent, and without any conditions they now want 26 per cent. What about all the other staff within the NHS?
Resident doctors have begun their first day of strike action in a dispute over pay
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PA
“The country simply couldn’t afford to give those sorts of figures to all of the staff, and it is a bit hypocritical, because the BMA themselves are in dispute with the people they employ. They offered them a two per cent pay rise.”
He added: “This is not acceptable. There are patients suffering. That’s my priority, and I believe that they should get back to work, because there are patients in our hospitals who need treatment, and there are people now who are at home, who are expecting to be treated today and over the course of the next few days who are not going to get those treatments.”
Asked how the strikes can be ended, Mr Andrew vowed: “As a party, we have made it clear that if we get into Government, we will ban doctors from striking, just as we do with the police, with the army, with our prison service, because they’re critical services, and we that’s why we would introduce that ban.
“But I’m afraid that things probably are going to get worse. They will ask for a mandate, because things will get worse because the Government are bringing in the Employment Rights Bill, which actually reduces the thresholds that unions need to ballot their members for strikes and they get rid of the minimum service levels that mean that you don’t get the proper service levels within our hospitals.
Mr Andrew told GB News that the latest round of resident doctor strikes are ‘totally unacceptable’
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GB NEWS
“I’m fearful that things will get worse, but we’ve got that’s why we say very clearly, very strongly, we’ve got to have a backbone. We’ve got to show leadership, and we should ban doctors from striking.”
Delivering a message to striking doctors during Prime Minister’s Questions today, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer condemned the walkout.
He told MPs: “My message to resident doctors is don’t abandon patients, work with us to improve conditions and rebuild the NHS.
“But, Mr. Speaker, they [Conservatives] left the NHS absolutely on its knees, waiting lists through the roof and confidence, absolutely rock bottom.
“I take no lecture for them on industrial harmony. More days were lost to strike action on their worst than any year since the 1980s.”
