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Your support makes all the difference.MPs of all parties failed to raise today’s junior doctors’ strike once at Prime Minister’s Questions in the House of Commons.
David Cameron was subjected to half an hour of questions on the day of the strike but neither he, nor Jeremy Corbyn, nor any backbencher from any party raised the subject.
Mr Corbyn mainly asked Mr Cameron questions about the housing crisis – especially how young people would be able to afford to buy homes.
The closest any politician came to implicitly mentioning the medics’ stoppage was Mr Corbyn wearing a pro-trade union badge on his label reading “heart unions”.
The badge was however a nod towards the campaign to stop the Government’s proposed anti-trade union laws, rather than direct reference to the strike.
Some MPs did visit picket lines at hospitals earlier this morning, according to pictures and messages they posted on Twitter.
There are no urgent questions or statements about the strike scheduled for later today, meaning the main platform for discussing it in Parliament has been missed.
Labour’s lack of will to capitalise on the strike in the Commons comes despite a very high proportion of the public blaming the Government for it.
An Ipsos MORI poll for the Health Service Journal found 64 per cent of people believe the Government is to blame for the strike, while 13 per cent say junior doctors are.
The strike is one of few national stoppages in recent history with widespread public support.
The industrial action is being taken over a new contract proposed by Mr Hunt which would re-define anti-social hours and make it cheaper for hospitals to roster doctors on weekends and evenings.
The Government says this will improve care at the weekends and evenings but junior doctors worry that it will affect patient safety by encouraging unsafe shift patterns, and also that doctors who work the very longest hours will lose out financially.
A Department of Health spokesperson said this morning: “This strike is completely unnecessary. It is very disappointing that tens of thousands of patients and NHS staff have been inconvenienced by the BMA.
“We have now agreed the vast majority of the contract detail with the BMA but it’s a great shame that they have broken the agreement we made with ACAS to discuss the outstanding issue of Saturday working and pay for unsocial hours.”
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