Steve Barclay claims health unions have taken ‘conscious choice to inflict harm on patients’ – UK politics live

Health secretary’s comments leave union leaders ‘utterly shocked’ as ambulance staff strike begins

As my colleague Kevin Rawlinson reports on his ambulance strike blog, Steve Barclay, the health secretary, has defended the provocative language he used in his Telegraph article this morning. (See 9.19am.) When it was put to him that his comments would make relations worse, he told BBC Breakfast:

No, it reflects the very different action we’ve seen from these trade unions – the GMB, Unite and Unison – compared to what we saw from the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), where we agreed national exemptions in terms of what would be covered by the RCN, whereas the three unions striking today have refused to work with us on a national level.

It’s really insulting that the secretary of state has said that. They have not taken the decision to take strike action lightly. They feel they have been forced into this position because year after year the government has failed to listen to them.

I met representatives of the three unions on Tuesday. They promised that each ambulance trust where their members are striking would have sufficient cover to respond to the most serious emergencies. Yet even on the eve of the walkout, the cover arrangements were changing and the national picture was not clear. This has made contingency planning, including the deployment of military personnel who will be behind the wheels of ambulances on our streets, almost impossible.

We now know that the NHS contingency plans will not cover all 999 calls. Ambulance unions have taken a conscious choice to inflict harm on patients.