Medical Training (Prioritisation) Bill

Preet Kaur Gill Excerpts

Tuesday 27th January 2026 Commons Chamber

[Preet Kaur Gill (Birmingham Edgbaston) (Lab/Co-op)]

I welcome the Bill. I have long argued that a strong state must be rooted in work, contribution and fairness, and that principle stands behind the Bill. For too long, medical training pathways have drifted away from that principle. Taxpayers invest heavily in medical education, clinical placements and postgraduate training, but we have not been honest about who ultimately benefits from the investment. At a time when the NHS is under immense pressure, that is not sustainable.

The Secretary of State set out the scale of what we are dealing with. The taxpayer invests more than £4 billion every year in medical education, with more than £1 billion invested in undergraduate clinical placements, and more than £3.3 billion invested in postgraduate foundation and specialty training. That is public money, spent so that British patients have the doctors they need. However, since the lifting of visa restrictions in 2020, we have seen a fundamental shift in the way that medical training places are allocated. In the 2025 recruitment cycle, more than 25,000 overseas-trained doctors applied for training posts, and more than 15,000 UK graduates were competing for the same—nearly 13,000—round 1 and round 2 positions. As we heard from the Secretary of State, there are more than 47,000 applicants in 2026. That is a dramatic surge.

The Bill does one straightforward thing. It prioritises UK medical graduates for training posts, both foundation and specialty, where the NHS has already invested heavily. In my constituency, we see this clearly. University Hospitals Birmingham NHS foundation trust is one of the largest NHS trusts in the country. Just under 30% of my constituents work in the health sector. That figure is double the national average. We are home to the University of Birmingham medical school, one of the best in the country. The scale of public investment in training, supervision and infrastructure is enormous, and rightly so. However, the Bill recognises the basic truth that when the taxpayer pays, the public should see the return. Prioritising those who are most likely to work and stay in the NHS is not exclusionary; it is common sense. It is how we rebuild a health service that is resilient, staffed and fair.

[Dr Murrison]

I entirely agree with the Chair of the Select Committee that we need to keep Brits working in our national health service. Does she agree that we need to add to the priority list British nationals who, for one reason or another, are training in medical schools outside the United Kingdom—in Prague, in Malta, in Cyprus and in the Caribbean? The reasons why they are training in those places are many and varied, but they are British, and their intent is to practise in the national health service. However, they are being deprioritised by this measure.

[Preet Kaur Gill]

I am not the Chair of the Select Committee, and I think that the Secretary of State set out his position. This is really important. This is about UK taxpayers’ money being invested in training doctors, and we must ensure that UK trainees are able to secure training places once they graduate. That is the issue that we are discussing.

Let me be clear: this is not a criticism of international staff. The NHS would not and could not function without the dedication, skill and compassion of people from around the world, and we should say that plainly and with gratitude. Every day, they hold our system together. However, a mature, confident country can value that contribution while also saying that we cannot replace long-term workforce planning with a permanent reliance on overseas recruitment. That is not fair on British trainees, not fair on source countries, and not fair on the NHS. As we heard from the Secretary of State, the World Health Organisation has estimated that by 2030, there will be an 11 million shortfall in health workers, as every country competes for the same limited workforce. This Government understand that putting British workers first is not something for which we will apologise. It is what the public expect.

The Prime Minister has been clear: a serious Labour Government must align migration, skills and training policy with the national interest. We cannot simply be passive; we must shape our domestic workforce to ensure that the NHS can continue to function. The same principle should apply wherever we are overly dependent on skilled migration because domestic training was neglected for 14 years under the Conservatives. Investing in people in the UK, and expecting that investment to strengthen Britain, is not ideological; it is responsible government.

The powers conferred to the Secretary of State in this Bill are important. The Royal College of Radiologists’ 2024 census found that 83% of cancer centre heads of service in the west midlands were concerned about patient safety as a result of workforce shortfalls. In 2024, only 19% of clinical oncology training places in the west midlands were filled. Will the Secretary of State outline how he intends to use the powers in this Bill and work with the integrated care boards to ensure that access to training matches regional workforce needs and health demands?

Above all, this Bill is about respect—respect for the taxpayer, respect for the NHS workforce, and respect for a health service that must be planned for the long term, not patched up year on year. This is exactly the kind of reform that the public expect from a Labour Government who are serious about work, contribution and the future of our NHS.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Judith Cummins)]

I call the Liberal Democrat spokesperson.