Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting sets out his stall to voters in Sunderland

Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting said “we have got to give change a chance” when explaining why he feels people in Sunderland should vote Labour at the next general election.

The opposition frontbencher was among key speakers at the Labour North Conference in Newcastle this weekend.

In an interview with the Sunderland Echo, he admitted his party needed to build bridges in its traditional heartlands after the last disastrous General Election result under Jeremy Corbyn.

“We know that in 2019 the Labour Party had become disconnected with people across the country, but particularly people in the North East, and with people that had stuck with Labour through thick and thin,” he said.

“What’s happened since 2019 is a leadership with Keir Starmer, Rachel Reeves and Angela Rayner that has genuinely listened and changed the Labour Party so it is ready to change the country again.”

In his speech to members and delegates, Mr Streeting lamented the pressures facing health services in the region, not helped by ongoing strikes.

He mentioned that 54,000 people are waiting longer than 12 hours in A&E, up 12,000 from last year.

Mr Streeting said: “What we’ve seen in recent weeks in South Tyneside and Sunderland is appalling. 

“It risks patients who do need A&E having second thoughts and maybe not attending when they should. 

“I don’t blame NHS leaders locally for this at all, because what we’re seeing here is reflected right across the country. An NHS which isn’t there for people when they need it and leaves people waiting too long.”

He added: “I remember the good old days when 24 hours in A+E was just a TV programme, now it is the miserable reality for people.”

Quizzed on how he and the Labour Party would improve this if they were to win the next election, the Shadow Health Secretary said: “Our plan to get the NHS back on its feet and fit for the future involves delivering two million more appointments a year to cut waiting lists, that’s £1.1billion into the pockets of hard-pressed NHS staff to get the extra evening and weekend clinics. 

“It is something which has been proven to work. It works in the hospital I can see from my office window in parliament, but it needs to work in hospitals right across the country, not just London.”

He added: “We have also got a plan to double the number of CT and MRI scanners to diagnose faster and get people treated quicker and improve outcomes.”

He also detailed how a Labour government would reform the dentistry industry and try and get more dentists out of private practice and back in the NHS. 

He added: “These policies taken together represent the foundations of a serious 10 year plan which won’t just get the NHS back on its feet, but make sure it’s there for us in the long term, free at the point of use, as a public service and there for us when we need it.”