Next with Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove, we turn to Rishi Sunak’s five priorities to know if he (Gove) wishes the PM had never tied the government to them.
Mr Gove replies definitively “no”, and says it’s “important to draw a distinction between ourselves and the opposition”.
He says Labour “don’t have a plan”, and points to Sir Keir Starmer dropping his flagship £28bn green spending pledge.
The move “[exposes] once again that he’s the jellyfish of British politics – he’s transparent, he’s spineless, he’s swept along by the tide”.
Trevor Phillips moves Mr Gove back to the Tory party’s record, pointing out that 7.6 million people are on hospital waiting lists, which is higher than when the PM promised to bring them down over a year ago.
Trevor puts to Mr Gove that the PM will fail, and the minister replies: “Industrial action has got in the way of us meeting those waiting lists.”
The aim is to get to a settlement satisfactory solution to all, he says, but adds that it is “impossible to ignore the impact of strikes on the delivery of care that patients need”.
Challenged, Mr Gove says he is “not blaming anyone” for the high NHS waiting lists and says he has “enormous sympathy” for the junior doctors.
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