Ministers should have resolved the junior doctors’ strike to reduce NHS waiting lists more quickly, said Penny Mordaunt.
The Commons leader argued the only way to end the walkout by medics was “getting round the table and discussing pay”. She made the comments at a hustings event, a recording of which was passed on to The Times.
Mordaunt, who is seen as a future Tory leadership candidate if she keeps her Portsmouth North seat at the general election, was responding to a question about NHS strikes.
• NHS waiting lists rise in fresh blow for the Tories
A man at the Churches Together hustings on Wednesday spoke of the need to reduce hospital waiting lists and said, “Resolving the dispute with junior doctors seems fundamental to such [a] reduction.”
Mordaunt expressed frustration with the failure to reach a deal with striking junior doctors, who are due to walk out again from 27 June to 2 July — just days before the general election.
“I wish we had resolved that, because it would have made a big difference to waiting lists,” said Mordaunt. “The only way we resolve that is by getting round the table and discussing pay.”
Rishi Sunak pledged in January 2023 the government would reduce waiting lists. But the total number of people waiting for treatment rose from 6.06 million to 6.32 million 12 months later. The numbers have recently begun falling, and extra-long wait times of over 65 weeks have fallen considerably.
A Labour source said Sunak had failed to meet his pledge to cut waiting lists and added: “Now even members of his own cabinet are clear he should have been proactively negotiating to end strikes and deliver for patients. Change only happens when you vote for it.”
Government sources said it would have been impossible to meet the junior doctors’ demands, which include a 35 per cent pay rise. They added that it would have set an unaffordable benchmark for other striking NHS workers and public sector workers.
Keir Starmer has ruled out offering a 35 per cent pay rise but said a Labour government would “get into the room and negotiate with the doctors and come to a settlement”.
