NHS Industrial Action

Lord Sentamu Excerpts

Tuesday 2nd December 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness McIntosh of Pickering (Con)]

My Lords—

[Lord Sentamu (CB)]

My Lords—

[Lord in Waiting/Government Whip (Lord Katz) (Lab)]

My Lords, it is the turn of the Cross Benches.

[Lord Sentamu (CB)]

My Lords, yesterday, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury gave an interesting report, repeated here, and we had a 40-minute debate. The Chancellor had four objectives, one of which was to reduce waiting lists, not to increase anybody’s pay. Doctors going on strike will increase waiting lists. What will the Government do, knowing that the Chancellor cannot, under her fiscal rules, spend unbudgeted expenditure? Who will persuade the doctors that theirs is a lost cause?

[Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)]

The noble and right reverend Lord is right that communication and talking are critical. That is why the Secretary of State has repeatedly made it clear that the door is open to have those conversations, recognising the challenges that doctors have faced, whether that is bottlenecks in training or money being taken out by compulsory payments for joining the Royal College of Physicians, and all those things. As we have heard, our absolute priority is to reduce waiting lists, putting the patient at the centre of the NHS. That is the mission we are on, and we are determined to deliver it.