Sir Keir Starmer says NHS medics 'are up for' overtime plan despite lure of private work

Sir Keir Starmer has insisted doctors would sign up to his plan for extra weekend appointments to bring down England’s NHS waiting lists despite being able to earn more doing private work.

Sir Keir's overtime plan will enable the NHS to provide an extra two million operations, scans, and appointments in the first year.

His comments come as Labour Party members gather in Liverpool for its annual conference.

An extra £1.1 billion will provide NHS staff overtime to work evening and weekend shifts, so more procedures can be carried out.

The measure forms part of Labour's NHS proposals - including extra scanners and dental reforms - worth around £1.6 billion.

But it relies on NHS staff volunteering for extra shifts despite the lure of more lucrative private work.

Around 7.7 million people in England are waiting for NHS hospital treatment.

Sir Keir told the BBC that doctors "will probably got more [money] in the private sector", but he believed they would do overtime for the NHS "because they want to bring down the waiting list as well".

NHS staff "are up for this because they know that bringing down the waiting list will reduce the pressure on them in the long run", he added.

He told the Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme: "They want to do this just as much as we do and it is desperately needed.

"We need growth in our economy, we need to raise living standards across the country.

"We will never do that with the mess that this government has made of the NHS."

As activists gathered in Liverpool for what could be the final Labour conference before the general election expected next year, Sir Keir said the party would make the "positive case for change" with a pitch to swing voters that would "weld together" competence and the offer of fresh hope after 13 years of Tory rule.

He also vowed to scrap plans to forcibly remove asylum seekers to Rwanda even if the policy is deemed legal by the courts and such action reduces the number of unauthorised Channel crossings.

The Labour leader was clear he would reverse the "hugely expensive" and "wrong" scheme, which he said would only ever impact a very small proportion of migrants crossing the Channel.

On Monday, the Supreme Court will begin hearing the government's appeal against the ruling that the policy is unlawful as ministers struggle to achieve Rishi Sunak's pledge to "stop the boats".

Sir Keir was asked if he would terminate the plans even if the judges approve it and small boat crossings then decline.

"Yes. I think it's the wrong policy, it's hugely expensive," he said.

"It's a tiny number of individuals who would go to Rwanda and the real problem is at source.

"You're putting this to me on the basis that it's working, we've been told by the government time and again that even saying they've got a Rwanda scheme will reduce the numbers - that hasn't happened."

Instead Sir Keir said he would work with other countries to "smash the criminal gangs who are running this vile trade" of people smuggling.

"As a pragmatist I want a pragmatic plan that is actually going to fix this problem, not rhetoric which has got this government absolutely nowhere," he added.

Tory party chairman Greg Hands seized on the comments, arguing Sir Keir "failed to give another option" to Rwanda.

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