Wes Streeting: I won’t give in to doctors’ unions over NHS pay

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inbox Get our free View from Westminster email Get our free View from Westminster email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Wes Streeting hopes that soon he will be the new health secretary He added: “I think if I write another book, I want it to be about how we turned around the NHS.” Mr Streeting said that he believes the state of the NHS was a major reason Rishi Sunak braved the rain on Wednesday afternoon to announce an election. Asked how he would describe the sort of health secretary he wants to become, Mr Streeting said: “I will be a shop steward for patients as health secretary.” He acknowledges that while plans to use spare capacity from private medical providers and introducing weekend working on a voluntary basis will help bring down waiting lists, he will need to end the strikes to resolve the crisis. I think that is the hallmark of this prime minister – blame other people, takes no responsibility himself.” However, Mr Streeting, a former National Union of Students president whose family were Tories on his father’s side and Labour on his mother’s, is not afraid to bring together the two political traditions. If you’re saying to me, we shouldn’t use spare capacity in the private sector to bring down NHS waiting lists, what you’re basically saying is that working-class people who can’t afford to pay for those appointments, they should be waiting longer because of your principles.” He recently also annoyed some Labour activists by defending the decision to keep the two-child cap on child benefits even though he admits in his book that his mother needed benefits to put food on the table and coins in the electricity meter.