The vote by junior doctors to accept a 22 per cent pay rise has been welcomed by the deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats.
Daisy Cooper also said Parliamentary rules on what expenses can be claimed by MPs may need to be reviewed in light of the row about gifts accepted by the Prime Minister.
On the resolution of the dispute on junior doctors’ pay, she told GB News: “It's a good first step that this dispute has been resolved for now.
“The fact of the matter is that our NHS is haemorrhaging staff. We're losing doctors and nurses to other sectors in the UK, but also to health services around the world.
“If we want to rebuild our NHS, if we want people to be able to get the care they need when they need it, then we've got to retain our workforce. And part of the answer for that, not the whole answer, but part of the answer is pay.
“But as I say, it's just the first step. What we Liberal Democrats want to see is a really ambitious Budget in October. We want the Labour Government to use the Budget…to save our NHS and care services.
“As part of that, we want to see an increase in day to day spending, not by taxing struggling families, but by reversing the tax cuts for the big banks and closing the loopholes in Capital Gains Tax so the wealthiest pay a little bit more.
“But we also want to see borrowing to repair our crumbling hospitals and GP surgeries too.”
Asked about the row over gifts accepted by Sir Keir Starmer, she said: “There are so many strange rules that even I'm discovering in Parliament about what is and isn't permissible.
“Maybe it's part of what the modernisation committee that's just been established in Parliament needs to look at, some of these rules, and work out whether they're out of date, whether they need to be changed.
“What I can say for now is that whilst the rules permit this, what's really important is that people follow the rules by declaring their interests. But let's have that debate, and let's see whether the rules need to be changed.”
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