Labour must face down the BMA
Nonetheless, the Tory plan is the right one. The British Medical Association (BMA) has become the most militant trade union in the country, prepared to see sick patients suffer in pursuit of an unreasonable pay demand approaching 30 per cent.
The current five-day stoppage has led to the cancellation of thousands of procedures and more strikes are being threatened now that Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary, has ruled out offering any more money. The Tory approach involves offering full support to the Government to face down the BMA, which is more than Labour offered them when the boot was on the other foot.
The Conservatives are also proposing minimum service levels across the health service. Legislation to this effect was introduced in 2023 but was hardly ever used by the Tories. It needs to be properly enforced, yet Angela Rayner's workplace rights reforms are likely to make matters worse.
The third strand is to ban doctors from taking widespread strike action, as with police officers and soldiers. Since the latter are prohibited from striking on grounds of national safety it is perverse that doctors can stop work with impunity. Other countries like Australia and Canada do not allow this. Why do we?
Again, this will conflict with the agenda being followed by the deputy prime minister, which is merely encouraging militancy in the NHS. The Government needs to focus on what is best for the country, not for its trade union paymasters.
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