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Rishi Sunak booed over cowardly attempt to blame doctors for NHS waiting lists

Rishi Sunak faced anger from the Battle For Number 10's live audience as he shamefully attempted to blame spiralling NHS waiting lists on underpaid junior doctors

Rishi Sunak was booed by a live studio audience as he tried to blame overworked junior doctors for ballooning NHS waiting lists.


Beth Rigby put it to him that the number of patients waiting to be seen by a doctor was at 7.21 million when Mr Sunak made his pledge to cut waiting lists - it now stands at 7.54 million.


"It's gone up," she pointed out bluntly.


"Yes it has I'm afraid, we've not made as much progress on cutting waiting lists as I would have liked, and that was something I was keen to do and it has proven more difficult for a number of reasons," said the PM.

"Obviously recovering from the pandemic is not easy but we are now making progress, and actually the number that you gave is just over 200,000 lower than it was a few months ago, and now-"

"It's gone up from when you made the pledge," said Beth savagely.

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Rishi Sunak was grilled on his time as PM on Sky News
Rishi Sunak was grilled on his time as PM on Sky News

"Yes it has, it has. I've been very clear about that, and now it's coming down because the plan is working, we've resolved the industrial action," stuttered Mr Sunak.

As Beth attempted to move the conversation on, he butted in to add: "You had a question earlier from, I think it was a junior doctor, and I think everyone knows the impact the industrial action has had, that's why we haven't made as much progress."


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"So it's the doctors' fault?" asked Beth as Mr Sunak looked rattled and a boo rang out from the audience.

Beth added: "The point is, when you made the pledge there were several NHS industrial disputes happening at the time, ambulance workers and nurses were on strike, junior doctors were balloted, and you still made the pledge and the numbers are up. Let's move on."

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