Health Secretary Wes Streeting has been grilled on GB News over criticism from within his own party that Labour has abandoned its core supporters.GB News host Camilla Tominey confronted Streeting with comments from Labour MP Dan Carden, who recently wrote that "people have had enough" of various failures under the current Government.READ THE FULL STORY HERE
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00:00Where's Streeting? Mr Streeting, you've lost 197 of the 285 seats you were defending.
00:07That's two-thirds. So you're now less popular now than you were in 2021,
00:14even though you're meant to be in a honeymoon period.
00:19Well, look, Camilla, I think as the Prime Minister said over the weekend,
00:24people voted for change at the last general election.
00:28And at the moment, people aren't feeling that change.
00:32And I think that's reflected in the results on Thursday.
00:36And, you know, if I think about the NHS, for example, where we are making real progress,
00:41waiting lists have fallen six months in a row.
00:43The two million more appointments we promised in our first year,
00:47we actually delivered seven months early. We're now standing at over three million.
00:50You know, if you're one of the people who's come off the waiting list, you'll be delighted.
00:54But if you're one of the seven million cases still on the waiting list,
00:58you're probably shouting at the telly at this very moment saying,
01:00don't tell me things are improving. I'm still waiting.
01:03So it's a good example, whether it's waiting lists, whether it's interest rates falling,
01:06whether it's wages rising faster and higher than inflation.
01:12These are moves in the right direction.
01:14Will people be feeling the benefits of that yet?
01:17No. So that's why the Prime Minister said he wants to go further and faster
01:21on delivering real improvements that people feel.
01:24Because if they don't feel it by the next general election,
01:27they will look for change elsewhere.
01:28Well, we'll get on to further and faster.
01:30Let's just read an alternative narrative to the one that you've just spun me there.
01:35People have had enough, enough of low wages and sky-high bills,
01:39enough of high streets being left to rot,
01:42enough of crumbling infrastructure and public services that don't work,
01:45enough of broken promises.
01:48Do you know who said that?
01:49It was your Labour colleague, the Labour MP, Dan Carden.
01:53So even your own colleagues think that you're doing a bad job.
01:58Well, I agree with Dan on every single word you've just read out there.
02:02I agree with him entirely.
02:03And I think that's the impatience people are feeling.
02:06That's why people are hungry for change,
02:08because all of those challenges,
02:10and there are many more that I could list besides,
02:12were challenges we walked into last July.
02:14And turning around the country with multiple and deep crises does take time.
02:21So the impatience that people are feeling, I feel,
02:23and that's one of the reasons why, you know,
02:25in my day-to-day work, I'm constantly driving to go faster.
02:31I'm always being told by people to slow down.
02:34You know, I'm going hard at layers of NHS bureaucracy at the moment,
02:37and I'm being told by people on our own side,
02:39oh, hang on a minute, just think it through a bit more,
02:42if we can go more slowly, we haven't got time to do that.
02:45How about this idea?
02:46How about this idea?
02:46You slow down on cutting pensioners' winter fuel.
02:49That has been your poll tax policy, hasn't it?
02:52It's universally unpopular, even with your own voters,
02:56and most people cited it as the reason they didn't back you.
03:00The winter fuel allowance is one of the worst Labour policies
03:02that's ever been announced, isn't it, Mr Streeting?
03:05Well, I'm not going to insult your viewers or the voters
03:09by pretending that winter fuel allowance hasn't been an issue on the doorstep.
03:13It has, and we've all heard that.
03:16In fact, I think pretty much everything that the Chancellor has done
03:19to raise the money needed to invest in public services,
03:22like the NHS, has been opposed by someone.
03:25We've had the same on things like getting rid of the VAT exemption
03:29for private schools, asking the wealthiest non-DOMs
03:33to pay more in their fair share of tax,
03:35the employer national insurance decision that we've made.
03:39We knew when we made those decisions that they risked being unpopular.
03:44We made those decisions because we thought they were the right decisions
03:46so that we can invest in our public services,
03:49turn the country around, get Britain out of the massive hole it was left in.
03:53So that's why we take...
03:55It's not because we want to be unpopular,
03:57or I want to be knocking on doors and someone having a go at me
04:00for something we've done.
04:01It's because we genuinely think they're the right decisions.
04:03It hasn't helped the economy, has it?
04:05The IMF has downgraded our growth forecast.
04:08Let's also move on to your colleague Lucy Powell.
04:10Doesn't this sum up the problem for Labour?
04:13And that's the fact that Lucy Powell, a government minister,
04:15the leader of the Commons,
04:17believes that if somebody points out the grooming gang scandal
04:20in which thousands of teenage girls were raped and tortured,
04:25somebody in Labour points a finger and says you're a bigot and a racist?
04:32I don't think that's what Lucy thinks and feels.
04:35That's exactly what happened.
04:36It's a dog whistle issue.
04:37She's...
04:38She's rightly apologised for what she said on Radio 4 on Friday night
04:44and said, you know, she's made a genuine mistake.
04:47She's genuinely sorry.
04:48What did she get...
04:49I've been in those sorts of debate programmes before where people...
04:53What mistake did she make?
04:55Well, I've been in those debate programmes.
04:57I've been...
04:57Well, she shouldn't have said what she said to Tim Montgomery.
05:00Why did she say it?
05:00That wasn't the right response to fair and reasonable points he was making.
05:04Well, because she's human and we make mistakes.
05:07And I've been in those debate formats before
05:09where sometimes in the heat of debate,
05:11you say something that you didn't mean
05:13or it comes across in a way that you didn't intend
05:15and you really wish you'd rather not have said it and that's...
05:18Well, she meant it.
05:18No, no, no, hang on a minute.
05:19No, no, no.
05:20She turned to Tim Montgomery, who you and I know well,
05:23who's quite a moderate righty.
05:25She pointed at him and she accused him of dog whistle politics
05:28because he raised quite legitimately
05:30the grooming gang documentary on Channel 4.
05:33How on earth is that mistaken?
05:35It's precisely that attitude
05:37that allowed large numbers of largely Pakistani men
05:41to rape white teenage girls in this country for years.
05:45Well, there's no doubt.
05:49And I think the Alexis Jay report,
05:51Louise Casey's work and others do highlight
05:54that that has been a factor in these crimes
05:58not going properly investigated,
06:00not going properly reported.
06:02And it's one of the reasons why this government
06:04is making sure that we are recording ethnicity data,
06:07not just in terms of future offences,
06:10but previous offences.
06:11We've asked every police force in England and Wales
06:13to reopen those cases where no further action
06:17was recommended to look again
06:19to make sure that no stone was left unturned.
06:22And we've also given victims the chance
06:25to go to the independent panel
06:27for them to look at things
06:28if they don't think it's been investigated.
06:30That used to be the case for historic cases.
06:33We've opened it all.
06:34So we do take it really seriously.
06:36We're not afraid of pointing out
06:37where there have been particular ethnic factors
06:42in some of these crimes,
06:44patterns in communities.
06:45But Lucy Powell,
06:46we're not leaving any stone unturned here.
06:48She's apologised to save her own political skin.
06:52If this was a Tory and you were in opposition,
06:54you'd be calling for her resignation within minutes.
06:57Point one.
06:58Point two,
06:59she should apologise to Tim Montgomery
07:01and the grooming victims.
07:05Well, as I say,
07:06she's apologised very publicly.
07:08I think it's a sincere apology.
07:10I was in touch with Lucy last night.
07:12I think she's genuinely sorry.
07:14And I happened to pass Tim Montgomery
07:16this morning in Sky to pass that on as well.
07:18So, you know,
07:20as I say,
07:21we're all human.
07:22We do make mistakes.
07:23I've made mistakes in the past.
07:25I'm bound to make mistakes in the future.
07:26When we do make mistakes,
07:28it's important we just own it,
07:29apologise and move on.
07:31And that's what we've done.
07:32All right.
07:33Well, quick question,
07:34because we're running out of time
07:35and we're competing with a choir in the background.
07:37So, well done, Mr Streeting.
07:38The North East London Foundation Trust
07:41has issued official guidance
07:43describing anyone with gender critical views
07:45as a TERF,
07:47which is a derogatory term to describe such people.
07:50They need to pull this guidance immediately.
07:52It also says it's unlawful
07:54to exclude trans women
07:55from women-only spaces.
07:57Well, that's not what
07:57the Supreme Court has just ruled.
08:01Yeah, in fact,
08:02the NHS is updating
08:03all of its guidance
08:05in light of the Supreme Court ruling,
08:08which we will abide by.
08:10This guidance is wrong, then, isn't it?
08:12And I will be looking at that particular guidance
08:13at the North East London Foundation Trust
08:15because I struggle to see
08:17why such guidance
08:18was written in the first place.
08:19You know, I'm afraid it has become
08:22a daily feature of my job
08:24as health and social care secretary
08:26to deal with problems
08:29that really shouldn't have been there
08:30in the first place,
08:31but that's the job I signed up for.
08:33I'm getting on with it without complaint.
08:36We are making progress,
08:37but I know that people need to feel it,
08:39they need to see it,
08:40and they need to,
08:42whether they're working in the NHS
08:43or using the NHS,
08:44need to genuinely feel like
08:46things are getting better.
08:47They are objectively getting better,
08:49so there's much more to do.
08:51Light at the end of the tunnel,
08:52but a lot of road ahead.
08:53OK. Mr Streeting, thank you.