Stuart Andrew MP is the Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
This Friday, resident doctors will walk out once again and patients across the country will pay the price.
After a summer of strikes, broken promises and rising waiting lists, Labour has sent us back to square one. Strikes are back and families are left anxious and uncertain about whether the NHS will be there when they need it most.
I’ve seen the NHS at its best.
Working in the hospice sector, I witnessed how deeply families rely on doctors and nurses — often at the most difficult moments of their lives. They deserve confidence that care will always be there when it matters. But that confidence has been shattered.
When Labour came into office, they promised to ‘reset’ relations with NHS staff. Yet within months, resident doctors are striking again. The government’s weakness has emboldened the unions and left the NHS paralysed by chaos.
Let’s be clear about how we got here.
Labour’s solution was to hand out inflation-busting pay rises with no reform, no performance link and no long-term plan for the NHS workforce.
We warned them at the time that caving in to union demands would not deliver long-term stability. And now the consequences are plain for all to see. Strikes are back, patients will suffer and Labour has no plan to fix it.
These walkouts aren’t harmless protests. They are a direct threat to patient safety. Every cancelled appointment, every delayed operation, every child or parent waiting in pain is paying the price of Labour’s surrender to union power.
By giving in last year, Labour set a dangerous precedent: if you threaten disruption, Labour will cave in. The result is more disruption, more demands and no end in sight.
Wes Streeting talks tough but tough words mean nothing if you can’t back them up with action.
The country expects leadership and that’s exactly what the Conservatives are offering.
We’re setting out clear, decisive plans to end this destructive cycle of NHS strikes once and for all. That is why the next Conservative government would ban doctors’ strikes, just like we do the army and police. No patient should ever be put at risk by those entrusted to care for them.
We will introduce minimum service levels across the NHS. Patient safety must always come first, not union demands.
Labour’s Employment Rights Bill will make things much worse. By removing the 50 per cent turnout threshold in strike ballots, it will become far easier for militant unions to call for industrial action, putting patients at even greater risk.
Where Labour makes excuses, the Conservatives are offering solutions. We understand that the NHS cannot function if it becomes a hostage to militant unions.
Kemi Badenoch has shown what true leadership looks like. Not with slogans, but solutions. Kemi has made it clear that the NHS must work for patients, not politics. While Labour were busy writing blank cheques to the unions within days of taking office, we are doing the hard work. Pushing for serious reforms – linking pay to performance, improving retention and protecting patients.
That is how you protect both patients and public finances.
This latest round of strikes exposes the truth about Labour’s approach to government: weak, and short-sighted, and captured by the unions. They’ve handed control of our health service to those who are willing to use patients as bargaining chips. Every time the BMA threatens disruption, Labour folds.
The NHS cannot survive like this. It cannot continue to lurch from one crisis to the next, paralysed by political cowardice and union pressure. Britain deserves better. Our doctors and nurses deserve leadership. Our patients deserve a health service they can rely on.
The Conservatives are the only party with the backbone to take action, stand up to the unions and stand up for patients. We will support the government in facing down the BMA, because it is in the national interest to do so.
Labour faces a simple choice: back our plan to restore order and safeguard patient care or continue bowing to union pressure that puts self-interest ahead of the public good.
If this Labour government truly wants an NHS that works for everyone, there is only one answer: stop the strikes and put patients first.
Because the NHS cannot survive if it becomes a bargaining chip for militant unions or a shield for weak politicians. It must once again be a service that stands for patients, not politics.
It’s time to protect our health service, restore order, and put patients back at the heart of the NHS.
We Conservatives will always stand up to the unions and stand up for patients.
