WATCH: GMB’s Susanna Reid Shreds Tory Minister For ‘Odd’ Principle Of Refusing Talks With Striking Junior Doctors

ITV’s Good Morning Britain host Susanna Reid left the Environment Secretary Steve Barclay stumbling for words as she grilled him on the government’s refusal to talk to junior doctors while they have a strike scheduled.

Junior doctors are currently staging a historic six-day walkout, the longest in NHS history, amid a dispute over pay. Reid sought to understand why the government would rather see an already stressed National Health Service (NHS) struggle through a major strike than come to the table.

“Can you just explain, in detail, why there is this principle that a lot of people find odd – you will not sit down with the junior doctors while they are striking?” she asked.

Barclay, previously served as Health Secretary under Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, and would have been a central figure in driving the crisis to this stage.

Barclay responded: “The health secretary was sitting down with the junior doctors. It is the junior doctors who walked away from the negotiation committee to cause the strikes in a way that the consultants haven’t…”

Reid pushed again: “They say they’re open to negotiations. Can you explain why you won’t sit down with the junior doctors?”

As the interview heated up, Barclay argued that the junior doctors “haven’t shifted” in their position, demanding a substantial 35% pay raise.

The host continued: “You have a principle of not doing [talks] while strike action is going ahead. But while strike action is going ahead is when the NHS is in its most perilous position in its history. Why won’t [current Health Secretary Victoria Atkins] sit down with them now?”

Nearly half of all NHS doctors are junior doctors. Sky News reports that several healthcare trusts have even declared critical incidents in their absence.

Barclay repeated his line that negotiations would only resume if the strikes were called off. He went on to accuse the British Medical Association (BMA) of politicising the issue, especially during critical times such as the busiest week of the year for patients and the Conservative Party conference.

Reid, realising she was getting nowhere, said: “I do not understand why you won’t do it while the strikes are going on.”

Raising the point Reid used on Wednesday’s Good Morning Britain, Novara Media editor Ash Sarkar inferred that it was the government that was politicising the issue.

“What the government wants is to be able to create a villain out of doctors unions,” she said, “and I think that that’s getting harder to do.”