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.
Comments