Resident doctors’ strikes would be gift to Nigel Farage, warns Wes Streeting | Health policy

Wes Streeting has said resident doctors’ strikes would be “a gift to Nigel Farage” before a meeting with the British Medical Association this week where he will seek to avert industrial action.

The health secretary told a meeting of Labour MPs on Monday that ministers were “in the fight for the survival of the NHS” and if Labour failed, Farage would argue for it to be replaced by an insurance-style system.

Streeting will meet BMA officials later this week in an attempt to prevent five days of strikes by resident doctors, which are due to begin on 25 July.

Speaking at a meeting of the parliamentary Labour party, he said: “The BMA’s threats are unnecessary, unreasonable, and unfair. More than that, these strikes would be a gift to Nigel Farage, just as we are beginning to cut…