The speech made by Wes Streeting, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, in Liverpool on 9 April 2025.
Good morning conference.
Let’s start on a point of agreement.
The killing of 15 health and rescue workers in Gaza was an appalling and intolerable tragedy.
Healthcare workers in any context, in any part of the world, should never be a target.
The international community, or indeed any actors in any conflict, all have a responsibility to protect health and humanitarian aid workers and also to protect innocent civilians.
And it’s clear that in Gaza, as well as in other conflict zones around the world at the moment, the international community is failing and failing badly.
So I want to say, as a Unison member, I strongly support the sentiments expressed by our Healthcare Executive.
But on behalf of our government, we want to see a return to an immediate ceasefire.
We want to see aid in, people out of harm’s way, an end to this bloody conflict and a state of Palestine alongside a state of Israel, and the just and lasting peace that Israelis and Palestinians deserve.
I also have to say, having been to the West Bank with Medical Aid for Palestinians and seen first hand the work that they do supporting the health needs of Palestinians across the occupied Palestinian territories, they do brilliant work.
And I would fully endorse the sentiment of the motion in supporting them, and each of us putting our hands in our pockets to do that.
I’m proud to be here today as the first Health and Social Care Secretary to address a UNISON conference since Andy Burnham did 15 years ago—and proud to do so as a UNISON member.
My first ever parliamentary debate in 2015 was with UNISON, opposing the abolition of the NHS bursary. Since then, I’ve spoken on countless UNISON platforms across my time as Shadow Schools Minister, Shadow Child Poverty Minister, and Shadow Health & Social Care Secretary.
But today is different. This is the first time I speak to UNISON not as someone discussing what a Labour government should do, but what we are doing—delivering real change to transform society and improve working people’s lives.
Last July was historic. Labour returned to power with a thumping majority—only the fourth time in our history. It was a result made possible by UNISON’s support for Keir Starmer: helping to change the party, change the government, and now change the country. That victory brought 74 new UNISON MPs into Parliament, including Katrina Murray, Melanie Onn, Mark Ferguson, and my own PPS, Deirdre Costigan. Three UNISON MPs are now in the Department of Health and Social Care: Stephen Kinnock, Karin Smyth, and me.
We’re delivering the change people voted for. It’s not easy—and I know you’ll have questions and challenges. But we’re ready to engage. UNISON has always been a critical friend to Labour. The “critical” part is just as important as the “friend” part.
In the past nine months, nothing has shaken my conviction that we will get the NHS back on its feet and build a National Care Service worthy of the name.
Take Southport, for example. On July 29th, a senseless, mindless attack left children and adults bleeding, some dying, in a community centre. NHS staff responded with extraordinary courage—from paramedics and porters to receptionists and surgeons. But what happened next filled me with rage. Racist thugs attacked Filipino nurses, a Nigerian care worker’s car was torched, and GP surgeries had to close. These are people who came here to care for us. They represent the best of Britain.
Violence against NHS staff must end. One in seven NHS workers have suffered abuse. That shames us all. So today, I’m announcing mandatory national recording of incidents, data analysis to protect the most at-risk, and requirements for NHS trust boards to report on progress. Zero tolerance. Campaigned for by UNISON. Denied by the Tories. Delivered by Labour.
Too often, NHS staff are trained at great public expense, only to be driven out by poor treatment. Some end up working in Canada or Australia. We must retain talent and respect staff—through training, flexible working, and fair pay. That’s why we’re implementing a new digital system to fairly apply the Job Evaluation Scheme. A fair day’s work for a fair day’s pay. Campaigned for by UNISON. Denied by the Tories. Delivered by Labour.
I owe my life to NHS staff who treated me for kidney cancer. I’ll never be able to repay that debt, but I’ll try. You were there for me—I’ll be there for you.
We have a ten-year plan. The Conservatives left us with record waiting times and low satisfaction. Our mission: get the NHS treating patients on time, and reform it for the future.
We’ve engaged more than a million people in the biggest NHS consultation ever, including 3,000 staff meetings. The result, to be published this spring, will outline three goals:
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Shift care out of hospitals and into the community;
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Modernise the NHS with digital tools and technology;
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Build a preventative health service to tackle major killers.
This isn’t the staff’s fault. But we can’t fix it without you. I know how hard it is to fight a broken system. But help is coming. My message: stay and help us rescue it. We’re turning it around.
In nine months, we’ve already:
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Given NHS staff an above-inflation pay rise;
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Ended the resident doctors’ strikes;
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Invested £26 billion in health and care;
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Made the largest investment in hospices in a generation;
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Agreed the GP contract with £889 million in new funding;
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Reversed a decade of pharmacy cuts;
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Delivered 2 million extra appointments—seven months early;
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Diagnosed 80,000 suspected cancer cases early;
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Cut waiting lists for five months in a row.
On social care, we’ve delivered the biggest-ever increase to carers allowance—£2,300 extra a year—and introduced fair pay agreements as part of Labour’s Employment Rights Bill. That’s the first step in building a National Care Service.
And today, I can announce the first universal career structure in adult social care: four new job roles and millions in training investment.
Keir Starmer said his ambition is for his sister, a care worker, to be treated with the same respect as her brother, the Prime Minister. With Labour, she will be.
But we carry a huge responsibility—not just to NHS users, but to prove that the NHS can still deliver. On its 75th anniversary, most Britons were proud of the NHS. But 70% thought “free at the point of use” won’t survive the next decade.
Right-wing figures like Kemi Badenoch and Nigel Farage want to change that. Farage wants insurance-based models and to charge patients. Over my dead body.
We will always defend the NHS as a public service—free when you need it, no matter who you are.
Tories and Reform are willing us to fail. But the future of our party and our health service are bound together. The stakes are high. But the prize is huge: an NHS where workers are respected and patients get the care they deserve.
We can look back one day and say: we were the generation that rescued the NHS from its worst crisis and made it fit for the future.
Change has begun—and the best is still to come.
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