Tag: James Murray

The speech made by James Murray, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, on 11 June 2026.

I am really pleased to be here so soon after being made Secretary of State for Health and Social Care.

Today, in fact, is exactly four weeks since the Prime Minister called me and asked me to take on this role.

And I can tell you that, from the moment that phone call with the Prime Minister ended, my head – and my heart – have been filled with thoughts and feelings of how important a role this is and how much I want to do.

I have spent the last four weeks meeting as many people as possible – patients, staff, outside experts.

I have been taking finely balanced decisions with all the sensitivity they deserve.

And I have been reading reams and reams of policy papers and briefing packs from front to back.

As my advisers will tell you, I like getting my head under the bonnet.

And one reason for that is that I want to understand the challenges you are facing inside and out so that we can work together to move things forward.

In all the previous roles I have held in public office – whether as a council cabinet member, as a deputy mayor in London, or as a minister at the Treasury – I have learned that the most effective way to deliver is to work openly and collectively with all members of the teams I have led.

And it is in that same spirit that I have joined this team of 1.5 million people, who work in the NHS, and the 1.5 million more, who work in social care.

I want our workforce to feel valued and rewarded, where they come in for every shift with a sense of purpose and go home from every shift with a sense of achievement.

Because as political leaders we can set the direction of travel.

But it is only by working with leaders throughout the system, and those on the frontline, that we will see our commitments to the people we serve become a reality.

And I want to thank you for everything that you and your teams, clinicians and non-clinicians alike, have done over the past two years:

We have moved toward our 18-week electives improvement target; delivered 1.8 million dental appointments; offered online requests for GP appointments; cut waiting lists by more than 400,000; getting ambulance response times and four-hour waits in A&E down; and improving productivity across the health system.

I am especially pleased, with my former Treasury hat on, that these achievements have been possible with us living within our means for the first time in nearly a decade.

I know that you have been under considerable pressure to meet the ambitious targets that we have set you, to do it while keeping on top of the finances, and to do it in the face of strikes, an early flu spike, supply chain challenges, disease outbreaks and record demand.

And I don’t want to diminish how tough the organisational changes have been on you and your colleagues, especially those in my department, in NHS England and in ICBs.

I think it is easy to forget in talk of headcount and savings that what we mean are people’s jobs and livelihoods – and however necessary the changes are, that is certainly not lost on me.

But some people doubted our ability to make the progress we promised, and you are all proving them wrong.

You have risen to the challenge.

And the public are beginning to feel the improvements that you are making – whether that is on waiting times, urgent and emergency care, ambulance response times, or GP access.

It is no surprise that we have seen the biggest drop in dissatisfaction with the NHS since 1998 – and the first increase in satisfaction since before the pandemic.

And whilst we know there is a long road ahead, we have shown that by working together we can drive and deliver real and impressive progress.

For me to come into this role on the back of that growing sense of optimism and momentum, is a real gift.

My promise to you, is that I will work with you day and night to realise the opportunity that gives us to go further.

Now, in pursuing that goal, I do not want to waste a second.

Too often in the past, a change of Health Secretary has come with a change of priorities.

As a result, the service gets flooded with messages of what they need to focus on next, and progress gets delayed.

The lesson of the last two years for me is that you are at your best, and you are able to deliver fastest, when the message from the top is clear.

And so let me say clearly that the focus and targets of this government on electives, UEC, and access to GPs and dentists remain.

The Medium-Term Planning Framework remains.

And the 10 Year Plan remains.

The level of improvement required across the system in future years cannot be achieved through performance management alone.

What we have done in the first two years, on the back of record investment, is to make improvements while starting to modernise the NHS.

And now that we have stabilised the system, my job is to work with you not only to maintain and extend those improvements in performance, but also to put our feet to the floor on reform.

What I am bringing to this role is not a change of course but a change of gear.

I am determined that we accelerate our fundamental transformation and modernisation of the NHS by making sure that we make the fullest possible use of technology, digitisation and AI.

I know what benefits this can bring.

When I was responsible for tax collection at the Treasury – that made me popular I put HMRC on course to conduct 90% of interactions digitally by 2030.

And with more and more people able to meet their day-to-day tax needs through digital self-service, HMRC is now freeing resources that can help resolve the most complex cases that need a human eye.

AI tools are now being used to support evidence in criminal investigations, and voice recognition technology is being used to speed up taxpayers accessing support and to helping to write call logs to save on the costs of admin.

But one important barrier that we knew we had to overcome at HMRC – one that I recognise from many years in public service – is the risk aversion that too often limits innovation.

Too often the question is, ‘What if it goes wrong?’ – and of course that is an entirely legitimate question to ask, especially in health and social care where we are talking about profound consequences.

But I think we also need to balance that question by giving equal weight to another important question, ‘What if we don’t do this and leave things the same?’

I want you to have the confidence that I will back you in using new technology to improve the experiences and outcomes of patients.

I believe people expect their public services to be as easy and convenient to use as they get from the private sector – and it is our job to make that a reality.

Now I know that when challenging targets loom large and near on the road ahead, reform and modernisation can get pushed further from view.

Modernisation is seen as a promise for tomorrow, rather than a way of tackling the challenges of today.

And let me be clear that the challenges of today are very real.

All of us in this room know that for all the progress that we’ve made, things still aren’t good enough for far too many people in far too many parts of the country.

As we meet here, there will be someone who can’t get through to their GP to make an appointment, someone off work and in pain who has been waiting too long for treatment, someone in crisis who can’t get the support they need, and someone stuck in a bed in the humiliating and undignified surroundings of a corridor.

But the NHS cannot simply manage its way out of the current pressures.

It must transform its way out of them.

The simple truth is that the NHS will only become sustainable in the long term if it changes the way care is delivered.

The choice is not between reform and recovery; the task is to use reform to accelerate recovery.

And you are showing us the way.

The community wellness team in South Cumbria that cut emergency admissions by two thirds, did so by identifying a small group of high need patients responsible for a disproportionate share of hospital bed days – they are demonstrating how creating neighbourhood services will reduce the demand on A&E not just a decade from now but over the next few years.

Likewise, the eTriage tool being used by Royal Berkshire and others to reduce the number of face-to-face appointments, shows that new technology will not just improve the speed and convenience for outpatients a decade from now but, again, will do so over the next few years.

The Health and Growth Accelerator pilots to boost people’s health and get them back to work show how preventing sickness will improve the nation’s physical and economic health not just a decade from now but over the next few years.

In the same way that investment and modernisation are two sides of the same coin, delivery and reform are not separate agendas.

In fact, as the targets become more and more ambitious, it will be nigh on impossible to meet them if the system stays the way it is currently working.

Tomorrow must come to the aid of today.

And so I want to make sure that, at the centre, we use the modernisation and reform agenda to step up delivery straight away, and at the same time create new ways of working that give you the platform to innovate and drive improvement locally.

We have already made a start on that with the NHS Modernisation Bill, the changes we are making to ICBs, and the creation of Advanced Foundation Trusts and Integrated Healthcare Organisations.

I do not want to tie your hands in red tape.

I want you to be free to innovate, to be creative and to get on with what works, because I know that delivery does not happen from behind a desk in Whitehall.

Indeed, more often than not the system is way ahead of us.

North East Ambulance Service now delivers the fastest response times across all six national standards and is reducing pressure on emergency departments by increasing ‘hear and treat’ rates and improving handover times.

Princess Alexandra Hospital has significantly reduced elective waiting times by, among other things, expanding diagnostic capacity, introducing an ‘advice and refer’ model, and working with patients and primary care to redesign pathways.

These are the kinds of enterprising initiatives that are going to make the NHS better for patients, better for staff, and better for taxpayers.

I very much hope to see more of them and to make sure we help spread them and embed them throughout the system.

The real challenge is not choosing between short-term performance and long-term sustainability but ensuring that each reinforces the other.

Now, we all know the NHS matters deeply to people right across our country, because of how deeply it touches all of our lives.

For my part, the NHS came to my rescue when I was diagnosed 18 years ago with a serious and rare neurological condition that threatened my ability to run, to write, and to talk.

It is only thanks to the support of the NHS that I am able to stand here today, as the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care.

The NHS gave me a second chance at life – and I will fight for it every single day with the strength that it has given me back.

And I need your help to do that.

I want to work with you to implement the 10 Year Plan.

To quicken the pace of reform by embracing technology, digitisation and AI.

To innovate and take the right risks – and to know that, as you do so, I will be by your side.

We are going in the right direction and we must not ease our foot off the pedal for a second.

I am looking forward to working with you very much, and I cannot wait to see what we can achieve together.

Thank you.

The comments made by James Murray, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, on 11 June 2026.

My thoughts are with the families who have suffered such unimaginable loss. These deaths are a heartbreaking reminder that measles is not a harmless childhood illness. 

Measles can lead to serious complications that can be fatal, and the MMR vaccine, which has saved countless lives, remains the best protection we have against this highly infectious disease. 

I urge all parents and carers to check that their children are up to date with their vaccinations as it is never too late to catch up – even if you miss a dose. By ensuring our children are vaccinated, we not only protect them but also help safeguard the most vulnerable in our communities.

The speech made by James Murray, the Labour MP for Ealing North, in Westminster Hall, the House of Commons on 9 February 2023.

It is a particular pleasure to serve in this debate with you, Mr Sharma, my parliamentary neighbour, as Chair. I congratulate the hon. Member for East Dunbartonshire (Amy Callaghan) on securing the debate and raising this important health issue. I am pleased to be here on behalf of the Opposition and I thank all hon. Members for their contributions. People have spoken powerfully about the impact that skin cancer can have on people’s lives, and on friends and family.

There is consensus among hon. Members present about the importance of sunscreen products and their growing importance in our lives. While these products have perhaps historically been associated more with travel to warmer climates, the past year has demonstrated how susceptible we are to heatwaves and the intense periods of direct sunlight they can bring to the UK.

I echo what other hon. Members have said today. Organisations including Cancer Research UK have long made clear that the amount of UV exposure over someone’s entire lifetime is one factor that contributes significantly to the risk of skin cancer. According to the research, melanoma is the fifth most common cancer in the UK, with 16,000 cases a year, of which almost nine in 10 cases are preventable. It is vital that people can access sunscreen products when they need them.

As we heard earlier, high factor sunscreen products are already available on the NHS prescription list for a few specific conditions, and are exempt from VAT when dispensed through pharmacies. However, we are only too aware of the crisis facing our NHS and the difficulties people can encounter trying to secure an appointment with an NHS GP. That may restrict access to prescriptions, especially in cases where a repeat prescription is not available.

In her response, it would be very helpful if the Minister could share with us any information she has on the number of people receiving sunscreen products as a prescription on the NHS, and how many receive their prescription free of charge. It would also be helpful if she could update us on the average waiting time to obtain an NHS GP appointment. I am sure that the Minister will also set out the Government’s position in response to the call from the hon. Member for East Dunbartonshire. The Opposition appreciate that expanding the scope of VAT release is a complex consideration that can add pressures to public finances.

There is a wider point about the affordability of sunscreen and other products that consumers may need to buy, as my hon. Friend the Member for Reading East (Matt Rodda) said. As the cost of living crisis has deepened, costs for ordinary households have risen to record highs. The Office for Budget Responsibility has predicted that living standards will be worse at the end of this Parliament than they were at its start. It has also outlined that real post-tax household income is expected to fall by 4.3% in 2022-23—the biggest fall since comparable records began nearly 70 years ago.

Finally, I would be interested to hear from the Minister what discussions the Government have had with sunscreen product manufacturers and retailers to determine what steps can be taken to ensure that such products are affordable for consumers. I would be grateful if she could also set out what support those manufacturers have said they may want or need from the Government to help make sure this can be achieved.

The speech made by James Murray, the Labour MP for Ealing North and Shadow Minister, in the House of Commons on 6 December 2022.

There can be no doubt that the NHS is in crisis. We have heard shocking stories today from hon. Members about what their constituents are having to endure. Each and every one of these deeply distressing stories helps to confirm the devastating impact of the Conservatives’ neglect of the NHS. Patients deserve so much better than this Government and everyone who works in the NHS deserves so much better, too, for the invaluable work they do.

We all know that from the experience we have in our constituencies, as we have heard so powerfully today. My hon. Friend the Member for West Ham (Ms Brown) spoke powerfully and in detail about the impact of vacancies in the NHS, particularly in maternity services, in her constituency and the surrounding areas. My hon. Friend the Member for Coventry North West (Taiwo Owatemi) spoke about the role of community pharmacists and the wider struggles that NHS workers face. She was speaking with particular authority, given her background in the NHS before becoming an MP. My hon. Friend the Member for Ilford South (Sam Tarry) spoke about the severe impact of vacancies and exhaustion in nursing after 12 years of the Conservatives.

My hon. Friend the Member for Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle (Emma Hardy) spoke about the impact that workforce shortages were having, even before the pandemic, on crucial radiotherapy services in her constituency and beyond. My hon. Friend the Member for Streatham (Bell Ribeiro-Addy) spoke about the scale of the crisis that we face in NHS recruitment and retention. My hon. Friend the Member for Leeds East (Richard Burgon) rightly mentioned those shameful attacks by Conservative Ministers on nurses.

My hon. Friend the Member for Bristol South (Karin Smyth) spoke with great experience, having spent three decades working in the NHS, about the growing crisis of retention over the past decade. My hon. Friend the Member for Worsley and Eccles South (Barbara Keeley) spoke about the NHS crisis and set it in the context of the Government’s unfair decision in the recent autumn statement. My hon. Friend the Member for Halifax (Holly Lynch) gave a wide-ranging and powerful speech that drew attention to the genuine sense of fear among people across the country at the prospect of not being able to access vital NHS services. My hon. Friend the Member for Wirral West (Margaret Greenwood) made it clear that the staffing crisis in the NHS is the failure of 12 years of the Conservatives.

Madam Deputy Speaker, that is the truth. The Conservatives have spent 12 years running down the NHS and letting our economy fall further and further behind, but, make no mistake, this is not inevitable. After 1997, Labour not only grew the economy 1.5 times the rate that the Conservatives subsequently managed, but delivered an NHS to be proud of, and we are proud of our record.

Although the challenges now are even greater than they were in the late ‘90s, if we take office at the next election, we will, again, deliver a modern, sustainable NHS that is fit for the future that we face. We know that, to make the NHS fit for the future, it needs a prescription of reform and sustainable funding from a growing economy. For our economy to grow, we need to start getting our public services back on track, too. As my hon. Friend the shadow Health Secretary set out, one of the first steps that a new Labour Government will take to get the NHS back on track is to deliver a workforce plan that addresses the root cause of the crisis it is in.

Under our plan, we would double the number of medical school places to 15,000 a year. We would double the number of district nurses qualifying each year. We would train 5,000 new health visitors a year and we would create 10,000 more nursing and midwifery clinical placements each year, too—all part of a long-term workforce plan for our NHS.

Steve Brine

On the doubling of the number of medical school places, can the hon. Gentleman tell me what the cost of that is, especially as the shadow Chancellor is so handily sitting next to him? It would be helpful for those of us on the Select Committee to put the price tag on that one.

James Murray

All the pledges that the Opposition make are fully costed and fully funded. [Interruption.] If the hon. Gentleman waits one second, I will address that point. Today is about political choices. It is not just a political choice of whether we invest in the NHS; it is a political choice of how we pay for it. That is why we have made it clear that, to pay for our NHS workforce expansion plan, Labour would abolish the unfair, outdated non-dom tax status. Non-dom tax status is passed down through people’s fathers and it costs the public purse £3.2 billion a year, while failing to support economic growth in the UK. Under the current arrangements, a small group of high-income people who live in the UK are able to avoid paying tax on their overseas income for up to 15 years. We would abolish that 200-year-old tax loophole and introduce a modern scheme for people who are genuinely living in the UK for short periods. We believe that if a person makes Britain their home, they should pay their taxes here.

Paul Bristow

My hon. Friend the Member for Winchester (Steve Brine) asked the hon. Gentleman a very specific question about the exact cost of doubling the number of places at medical school. Is the hon. Gentleman able to confirm the exact cost of that—not the non-dom cost, but the exact cost of doubling the number of medical places?

James Murray

I thank the hon. Gentleman for his intervention. I have set out that scrapping the non-dom status would raise £3.2 billion, and that our workforce expansion plan would cost £1.6 billion, so we would be well able to afford that measure from the amount of money that we have raised from scrapping this outdated, unfair tax loophole.

Non-dom status should have no place in our modern tax system. It is unfair. When the Government are making working people pay more tax, it is simply wrong to allow wealthy people with overseas income to continue to benefit from an outdated tax break. It is also bad for UK business: the loophole prevents non-doms from being able to invest their foreign income in the UK, as bringing it here means it becomes liable for UK tax. Abolishing non-dom status would end that barrier to UK investment—and, as I have said, raise £3.2 billion, money we would use to put towards priorities including expanding the NHS workforce.

To be honest, we would have thought abolishing non-dom status, replacing it with a modern system and using the money to strengthen the NHS and economy would be a no-brainer. What is it about this Conservative Government, led by the right hon. Member for Richmond (Yorks) (Rishi Sunak), that makes them so reluctant to close that loophole? Last week, during the rushed debates on the Government’s autumn Finance Bill, I asked Treasury Ministers to confirm whether the Prime Minister had been consulted on the option of abolishing non-dom status and whether it was ever considered as an option for last week’s Finance bill. I also asked whether, when the current Prime Minister was Chancellor, he had ever recused himself from discussions on the matter, for obvious reasons.

I put these questions to Treasury Ministers on three separate occasions last week, but they refused each time even to acknowledge the questions, never mind answer them. For a Minister to overlook a set of questions once might be an oversight, but to ignore them three times looks like something else. Perhaps the Minister will today show that they have nothing to hide by answering the questions I have raised.

In the autumn statement and last week’s Finance Bill, the Chancellor chose to leave non-dom status untouched, while picking the pockets of working people, including nurses, with stealth taxes such as freezing income tax thresholds and pushing up council tax. Today, the Secretary of State for Health only mounted a brief defence of non-dom status; I wonder whether his colleague from the Treasury will, in her closing remarks, repeat some of the defences that Treasury Ministers tried to set out last week.

Last week, Ministers tied themselves in knots trying to find a justification for the £3.2 billion tax break for non-doms. They tried to pretend that the Government’s investment relief is working, when only 1% of non-doms invest their overseas income in the UK in any given year, and last week they tried to win praise for ending permanent non-dom status, while keeping quiet about the new loophole they created, which allows people to use trusts to retain non-dom benefits permanently.

The truth is that, unless the Conservatives vote with us today to abolish non-dom status once and for all, the British people will be clear that no amount of reason or common sense will get this Government to come round. The British people need a fresh start and a new Labour Government that would take those fairer choices on tax to support the stronger NHS we so desperately need.

The NHS is an achievement we share together as a country and one that we all have a personal relationship with. We all want to know that when we have medical symptoms, concerns or needs, the NHS will be there for us. We want to know it will be there as a publicly funded service, free at the point of use, able to provide us with the high-quality help we need. That is what I wanted to know in my early 20s, when I started to notice symptoms of what would later be diagnosed as myasthenia gravis, a rare neurological condition that caused muscle weakness throughout my body.

After the best care I could have hoped for from my brilliant consultant and his team and colleagues at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in Queen Square, I have been symptom-free for many years now, but the memory of first feeling those symptoms and then finding my way towards the right treatment sticks with me. I would never want anyone to feel symptoms like mine and not be sure whether the NHS would be there to help.

We all know stories like that. We all need the NHS to diagnose and treat us when we are worried. We all need to be able to turn to the NHS so that we get that treatment in good time. We all connect with the NHS through our own lives and the lives of our family and friends. That is why the NHS matters so much to us all and why we are so determined to deal with the crisis the NHS is facing and to make sure it is ready for the modern challenges we face.

At the heart of our vision for the country are stronger public services and stronger economic growth. We know that getting public services back on track will support a growing economy, which will in turn support modern, sustainable public services. Before us today we have a chance to end the unfair 200-year-old tax loophole, which lets a small number of people avoid tax on overseas income, and use the money saved to fund one of the biggest workforce expansion plans in the history of the NHS. That is the choice in front of us today, and I urge all MPs to do the right thing by backing our plan.