B

Baroness Merron (Lab)

Speaking in the House of Lords on 15 December 2025

Debate

Resident Doctors: Industrial Action

Contribution

I am grateful to my noble friend, and I share his view. I am sure he will be very familiar with this, but it is worth reminding ourselves that in the Statement we are debating, the Secretary of State said last week: “On jobs, I have much more sympathy with the BMA’s demands. I have heard the very real fears that resident doctors across the country have about their futures; it is a legitimate grievance that I agree with”. As the Secretary of State outlined and my noble friend referred to, we have inherited “training bottlenecks that … leave huge numbers of resident doctors without a job … UK graduates” used to compete “among themselves for specialty roles; now, they are competing against” the rest of the world. “That is a direct result of the visa and immigration changes made by the previous … Government post-Brexit, and … compounded by the” then Government’s “decision to increase the number of medical students without also increasing the number of specialty training places”.—[Official Report, Commons, 10/12/25; col. 429.] This has not just come about, and I am grateful to my noble friend for reminding us of the history of this.

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