Wes Streeting
MP for Ilford North · Labour · United Kingdom
“We hope for the best and plan for the worst in terms of the continuation of this war, but we are also actively working to prepare for conditions in which a ceasefire has been agreed by Ukraine, with Ukraine and, from our perspective, for Ukraine.”
“The threats we face are not only evolving; they are getting closer to home. Every day, the UK and our allies encounter espionage, cyber-attacks and military posturing by hostile states.”
“One discipline I have to bring to the Ministry of Defence, drawing on my experience at the Department of Health and Social Care and the NHS, is to ensure there is no culture of routine overspending, that we are improving productivity, that we deliver value for money and that we recognise that the money we are investing in defence comes wi…”
“With permission, I will make my first statement to the House as Secretary of State for Defence on Ukraine, the ongoing threat from Russia and the Government’s approach. It is not yet clear whether freedom or tyranny will define the 21st century. What is clear is that the United Kingdom will not be a bystander in that struggle.”
“I am grateful to my hon. Friend for raising that very serious and important issue. She will understand that, as a matter of policy, I will not comment on intelligence, but I will address the reports she has raised.”
“We know that this Prime Minister and this Chancellor are both fully committed to funding our nation’s defence, including meeting our NATO commitment of 3.5% by 2035 and setting out an earlier 3% commitment at the next spending review.”
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“I think that is a really constructive suggestion, and we will absolutely look at it. In reply to the right hon. Member for Tonbridge (Tom Tugendhat), who had left us but has just returned fleetingly to his place—it is an amazing skill he has—I think his question was about the availability of antibiotics in Tonbridge, not necessarily at a distribution centre. I would just reassure him that there are sufficient antibiotic stocks at the university, hospitals and the ambulance service, and we are working with local resilience partners to ensure effective distribution. However, I will pick up his point about Tonbridge, given the proximity and the likelihood that many residents will have been at the club in question.”
“Like my hon. Friend, I am a member of the NUS mafia in this place, and I well understand the enormous value that students’ unions bring to promoting student welfare and raising awareness. I think he is absolutely right about the risks of meningitis and other infectious diseases on university campuses, and to suggest that we should work with the meningitis charities, the NUS, student unions and others to see what more we can do not just in response to this outbreak in Kent, but more generally to raise awareness among groups of students, who, because of the nature of their studying and living conditions, can be more prone to the spread of infectious diseases.”
“I am extremely grateful to the right hon. Gentleman for raising that question and making that point. It sometimes feels that barely a month, if not a week, goes by in this job when I am not regularly exhorted to make a political decision overriding clinical advice. I think that is the wrong thing to do and it sets a dangerous precedent, particularly when others in this House might be minded to make ideological judgments about science and medicine that are neither good science nor good medicine. There is an important principle to defend here, which is that where we are making clinical decisions, they should be based on good, high-quality clinical advice on the basis of robust evidence and data. I give him the assurance that I will continue to follow clinical advice, and he is absolutely right to raise this particular point of principle.”
“I understand that people may wish to make individual choices, but the advice stands, and I would urge people not to allow themselves to be ripped off by those trying to exploit understandable public anxiety.”
“I thank my hon. Friend for the excellent work he does as a member of the Select Committee, and reassure him that we are taking the Committee’s letter and advice very seriously. I think he is right to ask us to look again at the 2023 strategy. I also reassure my hon. Friend that to price gouge or profiteer in this situation would be a totally immoral and irresponsible thing to do. More generally, we are not advising the public to pay for a vaccine. If it is decided that any vaccination is required, that will be offered on the NHS. The menB vaccine is already offered to infants, and the menACWY vaccine, for adolescents and young adults, is free on the NHS. That is the advice.”
“I am not sure about the point of prevalence, but we will look carefully at the genesis of this outbreak. Of course, in common with the point raised by my hon. Friend the Member for West Ham and Beckton (James Asser), we will think about what advice ought to be offered. As ever when it comes to travel advice, we rely on the evidence available, and with our partners at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, we regularly offer good travel advice to British citizens travelling abroad where there may be exposure to greater health risks.”
“I reassure the hon. Member that UKHSA is in close contact with all the devolved Administrations to make sure they understand the nature of this outbreak, what we are seeing and how we are responding, and we are also helping the devolved Administrations to manage risk through contact tracing. We will continue that regular contact.”
“I thank the right hon. Gentleman for his question. I can reassure him that, through partners in the NHS, we are ensuring that antibiotics are available to GPs to prevent students from necessarily having to return to Canterbury, especially if they have travelled a long distance to get home. There is obviously a widespread public awareness of the outbreak, so in all our NHS settings there will be a particular vigilance for these types of cases, which are rapidly reported. I am also reassured by the extent to which contact tracing with UKHSA is effective, and people are responding accordingly.”
“I hope that reassures people that, through contact tracing, the availability of antibiotics and the standing up of the targeted vaccination campaign, we are actively managing the risk of transmission, and that the risk to the general public is very low.”
“I am grateful to the hon. Member for his question. It is worth bearing in mind that the transmission of this particular disease is through close and prolonged personal contact. Therefore, the risk of transmission is much lower than other outbreaks of disease we have seen in this country in recent years, in particular respiratory diseases and some of the concerns people had around flu over the winter. We are actively contact tracing and making antibiotics available. It is for individuals to make their own judgments about their own risk of exposure, and what that means in terms of close personal contact. More generally, if students returning home from university are sat next to someone on a train, for example, that is not close prolonged personal contact.”
“As we modernise the health service, the NHS app and NHS Online will bring world-class healthcare to the most remote corners of our country at the touch of a button—lots done, and lots more to do.”
“Mr Speaker, on behalf of the Government and Labour Members, may I associate myself with your remarks? Members from right across this House will share those sentiments. As the Prime Minister made clear at Cabinet this morning, and as the Foreign Secretary is making clear in Kyiv, we will stand with Ukraine, whatever is thrown at it, until it has the freedom and security that it deserves. This Government are restoring the founding promise of the national health service: to bring quality healthcare to all, regardless of how much they earn or where they live. New funding for GPs is being prioritised for areas where the need is greatest, and we are sending more cancer specialists to rural hospitals.”
“I wholeheartedly agree with my hon. Friend. This Labour Government are introducing the first ever fair pay agreement for care workers. That is better pay and conditions for care workers, and more people recruited into the profession. It is backed by £500 million, and Scotland will receive extra funding through the Barnett formula. The question for the SNP is: where is the money going, and why is it not going into the pockets of Scottish care workers, as Jackie Baillie has demanded?”
“I join the Chair of the Health and Social Care Committee in paying tribute to Young Devon and the work it is doing. As she will know, I have enormous sympathy for the challenge she raises about medium-term certainty on funding. As was demonstrated on the Floor of the House yesterday by the Education Secretary, my Department and the Department for Education are working closely together to make sure we are better joining up education, health provision and support for young people. There is more to do. I accept the challenge that she sets down around medium-term certainty on funding; that is why we are doing more through, for example, the medium-term planning framework. I accept, in the spirit of this exchange, that there is lots done, but lots more to do.”
“We have 2,000 more GPs now than when Labour came into office, but the hon. Lady is right to say that we need to ensure that that provision and increased capacity are reflected throughout the country. Because general practices serving more deprived areas receive 10% less funding per needs-adjusted patient than those in wealthier parts of the country, we are reviewing and reforming the Carr-Hill formula to ensure that we can direct the right funding to the areas in greatest need, recognising that amid our rural communities, there is obviously not just plenty of affluence, but enormous pockets of disadvantage and deprivation. Whoever people are and whatever their background, the support and care that they need must be received in the right place and at the right time.”
“Cancer is the canary in the coalmine for the NHS. For far too many cancer patients, under the Tories, the NHS was not there when they needed it. Under Labour, an extra 213,000 patients have been diagnosed, or have received the all-clear on time. Much has been done, but there is much more to do. I pay tribute to the leadership of the Minister for primary care and prevention, my hon. Friend the Member for West Lancashire (Ashley Dalton), and to her national cancer plan. She has poured her heart and soul into that plan, all while living with and being treated for cancer. We are investing an extra £2.3 billion in diagnostic capacity to deliver 9.5 million more tests by the end of this Parliament. Catching cancer earlier, treating it faster and preventing it is how we will save more lives.”
“My hon. Friend is right that leukaemia patients are disproportionately diagnosed too late. We are working with GPs to ensure that they are better prepared to spot symptoms or concerning blood test results, so that we can cut out avoidable delays. The real difference, however, will come with the introduction of genomic testing at birth. That will allow the NHS to leapfrog rare cancers such as leukaemia, so that they can be caught early, or even prevented. Lots done, certainly lots more to do.”
“The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right; this is about not just diagnosis but faster access to treatment. We are meeting the faster diagnosis standard; performance was at 77.4% in December 2025, and we aim to improve that to 80% by the end of March this year. We have to go a lot further, a lot faster, on the commencement of treatment. Although I will be forthcoming about, and proud of, the progress that we are making and the targets that we are hitting, where we fall short—we are still falling far too short, when it comes to access to cancer treatment—we will acknowledge that, address it and make sure that we make more progress, more quickly.”
“The Prime Minister has made tackling violence against women and girls a priority across the Government and every public service must play its part. In the NHS, we will be supporting GPs to identify, support and refer victims and survivors to specialist services. That will include a specialist support worker for every GP practice to draw on and training GPs to spot the signs of domestic abuse and sexual violence. As part of the Government’s VAWG strategy, the Department will provide an additional £5 million for victim support services and up to £50 million to roll out specialist services for child sexual abuse victims.”
“I wholeheartedly agree with the hon. Member. The voluntary and community sector provides, and should continue to provide, support for victims. The voluntary sector does a brilliant job, in an environment that often feels safer and more inclusive, and we should welcome that. However, the existence of voluntary sector provision does not excuse the NHS from performing its duties. One change that I have led in the leadership culture of my Department is the recognition that investment in services for victims and survivors is a responsibility of the NHS and the DHSC, not of the Home Office, Ministry of Justice or others. We must take responsibility for meeting the needs of everyone. There is of course more to do on waiting times. I would be delighted to ensure that the hon. Gentleman gets the meeting that he asks for.”
“Today we are publishing a new GP contract. Backed by new funding, it will recruit more GPs and cut waiting times for appointments. The changes and modernisation will diagnose thousands more cases of lung cancer, protect children by boosting vaccination rates, and provide more people with weight-loss jabs on the NHS. That follows an extra £1.1 billion that we have invested in general practice this year, and builds on the 2,000 more GPs that we have recruited since the general election. After 14 years of decline, the Government are fixing the front door to the NHS, bringing back the family doctor, and ending the 8am scramble. Lots done, lots more to do.”
“I see the Chancellor most weeks. That is why record investment is going into our NHS, which is improving patient satisfaction with access to general practice, cutting waiting lists, and improving ambulance response times—all to fix the mess that the Conservatives left behind. And people should be in no doubt: given the chance, they would do it again. They opposed the investment, they opposed the reform, and they can never be trusted with our NHS.”
“I will never surrender to the tyranny of the low expectations of the Conservative party. We have cut waiting lists by 330,000 since we came to office; they are now at their lowest level in three years. We made progress despite strikes, we made progress despite winter pressures, and we have made progress despite every bit of investment and modernisation being opposed by the Conservatives. Instead of criticising our record, the shadow Secretary of State should apologise for his.”
“I apologise to the shadow Secretary of State for not having replied to his letter—let me make sure that I do that. There is no disagreement across the House on the substance of the issue. I am absolutely supportive of the project and I want to fund the research, but we have to make sure that the research proposal meets the standards and has the confidence of our funders. We are working with the team to try to get the proposal over the line, but that is the only obstacle here—it is certainly not a political decision.”
“The hon. Member highlights a real challenge that we have inherited: the disconnection between undergraduate education and training, and the jobs that are available. We are addressing that through our workforce plan. I want to place on the record my thanks to South Western Ambulance Service, which in December improved ambulance response times by just under 30 minutes for category 2 calls. There are still big challenges in the south-west, but the team deserve real credit for the improvement they have led.”
“Nothing is more sobering than hearing experiences of the life-and-death difference between the NHS being there for people when they need it and it not being there when they need it. People will be aware of a tragic case over the weekend involving a woman in her 90s in the Isle of Wight, which we are looking into. Ambulance response times are improving, but I do not pretend that they are good enough; we have done a lot, but there is a lot more to do, and the hon. Gentleman has painfully and powerfully underscored what happens when the NHS is not there for people when they need it. That is the NHS we inherited, and it is the NHS I am determined to change.”
“I am grateful to my hon. Friend for raising this issue. The NHS workforce plan will be published in the spring. I recognise the challenge he has set out, and we are determined to address it—we desperately need more midwives, and we certainly need good clinical leadership in this area. That is what the Government are working towards.”
“One rationale for both the 10-year plan and the medium-term planning we are doing across the NHS is to ensure better integration, with the principle of people receiving the right care in the right place at the right time. Decisions about local configurations are matters for local leaders, but we keep these things under review, and if the hon. Gentleman has concerns, he should certainly write to us.”
“I have also told NHS leaders that they need to step up when it comes to the conditions that their staff face. They cannot expect the Secretary of State to micromanage availability of hot food in their canteen, for example. However, there are workforce problems that only Government can solve. We have known for years that the treatment of resident doctors is often totally unacceptable and that the very real fears about their futures are wholly justified. Every time I have met a resident doctor, either formally or informally, they have told me without fail how their careers are blocked because there are far too many applicants for training places. Not only do I think that they have a legitimate grievance, but I agree with them.”
“Before Christmas, I had a doctor in my constituency advice surgery in tears as she described the way she had been treated by a previous employer. This is no way to treat the people who kept us going when everything else stopped, so we are taking action. Trusts are now implementing the 10-point plan for resident doctors and my Department, together with NHS England, is developing new staff standards to create better working practices and better conditions. We have awarded above-inflation pay rises to everyone working in the NHS for this year and last year, which is beginning to recover the pay erosions seen under the last Government. We have begun 2026 with constructive talks with the British Medical Association’s resident doctors committee, as we seek to broker industrial peace.”
“There is no sugar coating the fact that staff morale is still too low, and the way that some of our NHS workforce is still treated and the conditions in which too many of them still work are nothing short of a national disgrace. Not only is it a stain on our NHS, but it shames us as a country when those who care for us in our hour of need suffer bullying, harassment and racist abuse; have nowhere to rest, go to the toilet or get changed; cannot get a hot meal on a night shift; have limited flexible working options; must book holiday a year in advance; need to log in seven times just to use a PC; spend time form-filling rather than looking after patients; and face basic errors with pay and contracts.”
“The progress we are seeing is a reminder that nothing positive for the people who use the NHS ever happens without the people who work in our NHS. Our investment and modernisation are starting to restore confidence and renew belief among frontline staff; with that, hope, optimism and ambition are returning too. That is why, outside of the pandemic, staff retention is at its highest in a decade and vacancies are at their lowest since records began in 2017. There is lots done, but, as we know, there is so much more to do. I will always be honest about the state of our national health service—what is going well and where we need to improve.”
“The NHS is on the road to recovery, not least because of the herculean efforts and dedication of NHS leaders and frontline staff who, even in the depths of winter, are delivering outstanding episodes of care, hour after hour and day after day. Among the encouraging signs of year-on-year improvement are waiting lists falling at their fastest rate in three years—down more than 300,000 under Labour—and quicker ambulance response times, shorter waits in A&E and speedier cancer diagnoses for more people. December was the busiest month in NHS history for 999 calls, but despite that, and regardless of industrial action and winter pressures, ambulances arrived at heart attack and stroke patients nearly 15 minutes faster compared with last year.”
“I beg to move, That the Bill be now read a Second time. I begin by thanking the Leader of the House, the Chief Whip, their counterparts in the other place, colleagues in my Department and in the NHS, the Bill team and parliamentary counsel, who have moved mountains to prepare this Bill in double-quick time. I once again place on the record my sincere thanks to my counterparts in the Governments of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland—as well as the respective Secretaries of State for those nations—for the spirit in which, regardless of party, they have helped us to bring the Bill forward. Last but by no means least, I am enormously grateful to Jackie Baillie, Labour’s deputy leader in Holyrood, for her wise counsel.”
“UK graduates used to compete among themselves for foundation and specialty roles. Now they are competing against the world, because of the visa and immigration changes made by the Conservative Government post Brexit. The situation is compounded by the previous Administration’s total lack of workforce planning, which saw more students going to medical school without the number of specialty training places being increased. That is why we see the training bottlenecks that resident doctors face today.”
“I certainly do have sympathy with that argument. We have begun to move the system in the right direction in terms of giving applicants greater preference in placements, but it is not lost on me that the system of rotations, placements and jobs means doctors are moved around the country and families are uprooted. The frictional cost of relocating from one place to another is a challenge that resident doctors in particular face. I do not think that an amendment to the Bill is the right vehicle in which to address that issue, but I am sympathetic to the arguments that the hon. Member makes, and I am sure he will make them again during this afternoon’s proceedings. We will take his arguments seriously and look to work together with the BMA and others to act to improve the experience of training, rotations and jobs.”
“I will give way to the hon. Member for Henley and Thame (Freddie van Mierlo) and then to my hon. Friend the Member for Hitchin (Alistair Strathern).”
“Students studying in Malta will not be prioritised in the Bill, but they will still be able to make applications. Queen Mary University’s Malta website is clear that Queen Mary does not administer the UK foundation programme and cannot control whether or on what basis applicants are accepted into the programme, and no one is guaranteed a post on qualification.”
“I will make some progress because, with respect, I have not yet set out the measures that we are to debate today. Let me take the intervention from my hon. Friend the Member for Hitchin, then I will set out the Government’s rationale and take further interventions.”
“As a result, we now have the ridiculous state of affairs where UK medical graduates, whose training British taxpayers fund to the tune of £4 billion a year and who want to carve out a career in their NHS, are either being lost abroad or to the private sector. If we do not deal with that, the scale of the issue and the resentment it causes will just get worse. More taxpayers’ money will be wasted, more British medics will turn their backs on the NHS, and patients and our NHS will ultimately suffer.”
“That is right. I have to say, many of my counterparts around the world cannot fathom how we ended up in this situation in the first place. They certainly do not do as we have been doing, investing so much in their home-grown talent only to then see that talent compete on equal terms with anyone from anywhere else in the world. Let me set out why we need this Bill. There are workforce problems that only Government can solve. We know that the treatment of resident doctors has been totally unacceptable for years and we see the training bottlenecks that resident doctors face today. In 2019, there were around 12,000 applicants for 9,000 specialty training places. This year, that has soared to nearly 40,000 applicants for 10,000 places, with nearly twice as many overseas-trained applicants as UK-trained ones.”
“The Bill supports the Home Secretary to reduce an over-reliance on overseas talent and labour, which contributes to levels of net migration that even bleeding-heart liberals like me can see are too high. That is the issue that the Home Secretary seeks to deal with.”
“I will say two things to the hon. Gentleman. This Bill does not in any way detract from the fundamental point that the NHS has always been an overseas recruiter and we have always been fortunate to draw on global talent from around the world who come and give through their service, their taxes and their wider contribution to the national health service and our country. We will continue to welcome that and people will continue to be free to apply. In future, they will apply on terms that are fairer to our own, home-grown talent. There is nothing in what the Home Secretary proposes that will stop people who come through our universities and have the skills that we need to contribute to our health and care system applying for jobs and settling and making the UK their home.”
“My hon. Friend is right about the measures in the Bill. He is also right about the importance of our relationship with Malta, which is long-standing and deep, and this Government place enormous value on that. We will, of course, keep the workings of the measures in the Bill under review. He is also right to say that the Bill provides flexibility to the Secretary of State to adjust, as our needs may demand.”
“If some Opposition Members want to defend that record and dismiss the morality argument, I would point out that that position is naive on economic grounds. Competition for medical staff has never been fiercer. The World Health Organisation estimates a shortfall of 11 million health workers by 2030. Shoring up our own workforce will limit our exposure to such global pressures without depriving other countries of their own home-grown talent.”
“As I have said, I am proud of the fact that the NHS is an international employer, and it is no coincidence that the Empire Windrush landed on these shores in 1948, the very year our NHS was founded. We are lucky that we have people from around the world who come and work in our health and care service. Since Brexit, however, under the last Government, we have begun to see something much more corrosive, with the NHS poaching staff from countries on the World Health Organisation’s red list because their own shortages of medical practitioners are so severe. The continued plundering of doctors from countries that desperately need them while we have an army of talented and willing recruits who cannot get jobs is morally unacceptable.”
“We set UK medical school places based on future health system needs. We cannot control how many places the overseas campus universities create, whether they are UK-based universities or not. Prioritising those graduates in the way that the right hon. Gentleman suggests would undermine sustainable workforce planning. It would also undermine social mobility and fair access. Those campuses are commercial ventures; they receive no public funding and students are generally self-funded. The nature of prioritisation is that we set priorities, and these are the priorities that this Government are setting out. We must break our over-reliance on international recruitment.”
“As I have said, the position we have set out is founded on fairness. The basis on which people have applied to these universities has made it clear that the universities cannot guarantee places and that overseas applicants studying at UK universities’ overseas campuses can still apply. There is nothing to prevent those people from applying, but when it comes to prioritisation, we are prioritising UK-trained medical graduates from UK-based universities who have undertaken their training here in the UK. I think that is the right priority to draw.”
“With respect, I think the hon. Gentleman has got his chronology slightly wrong. As shadow Health Secretary, I proposed that we should double the number of undergraduate medical school places. That policy was poached by the then Conservative Government, who made modest progress with it. We then came into government, looked at their long-term workforce plan and concluded that it was not a particularly long-term workforce plan, and we are revising it as we speak. The number of medical school places will be determined by future need. We will publish our long-term workforce plan in the not-too-distant future.”
“The hon. Member puts her finger right on the issue at the heart of the Bill. That is exactly the challenge we want it to address. The Bill is not a panacea—it does not solve all the problems—but reducing competition for specialty places from around four to one to less than two to one, as the Bill will do, will make it far more likely that people who have undertaken their training here in the UK will stay here and contribute to our national health service. Of course, there is much more to do on career structure, pay and conditions, but we will go as fast as we can and as far as the country can afford. We recognise that we need to keep the great people we have invested in, because doing so is in their interest and in our national interest.”