NHS Workforce Expansion

Jim Shannon Excerpts

Tuesday 28th February 2023 Commons Chamber

[Wes Streeting]

There are a couple of challenges with that approach. First—I want to be clear about this—having international students come to study at UK universities is a wonderful thing. It is wonderful for British students who mix with cohorts drawn from across the world, and it is wonderful because they contribute to the cultural and intellectual life of our universities, and of the towns and cities in which they live while studying here. It is a wonderful thing because they often return to their countries with fond memories of Britain, which is an extension of our soft power and diplomatic influence. Those are all great reasons why we should cherish, embrace and welcome international students, and it is why I hope the Home Secretary does not win the argument inside Government to restrict further access to international students. Finally, I should say that international students also pay an enormous amount to come and study here in the UK, and they subsidise home students.

I want to be clear about how much I welcome international students, but it is an absurdity that people are coming to this country to study in medical schools that have no British students. It is an absurdity, when we have a chronic shortage of doctors, nurses, midwives and allied health professionals, that we see straight-A students from our own country being turned away, while university medical schools are being told they can only recruit international students. That is the depths of stupidity that this Government are plumbing.

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

I commend the shadow Minister for his thoughts. The poaching of junior doctors by Australia, for example, for better pay and working conditions, as opposed to fractured shift patterns here, is a major issue. It is not just about expanding the workforce, to which he has referred; it is also about having a careful and concerted campaign to retain staff here. Does he agree that has to be part of the thrust of this debate?

[Wes Streeting]

I wholeheartedly agree with the hon. Member. I will talk about this later in my speech, but it is why the Government have to resolve this pay dispute with existing NHS staff. The danger is not that they walk out for another day of strike action, but that they walk out of the NHS altogether for countries that treat them better. What an absurd position to be in. It is also absurd, by the way, that we still have doctors retiring early for no other reason than that the pensions rules create an active financial disincentive to work up to normal retirement age, as many of them would like to do. It is completely absurd.