KEIR Starmer has been offered the “opportunity to shadow First Minister John Swinney”, which the SNP said would give the Prime Minister a chance to “learn”.
The SNP made the offer in response to the news that resident doctors in England are set to go on strike. The British Medical Association announced earlier this week that medics will walk out for four days from 7am on Monday, June 15.
The strike will be the 16th by resident doctors in England since 2023. The Scottish Government has avoided any actions north of the Border by making pay deals with the NHS staffers, most recently in January 2026.
Michelle Campbell, a nurse and now SNP MSP for Renfrewshire North and Cardonald, said the “SNP’s record of no doctors' strikes in Scotland’s NHS continues and is a clear demonstration of what can be achieved through fair and open negotiations”.
She went on: "This week alone long outpatient waits in Scotland fell for the eleventh consecutive month while we also exceeded our target of 150,000 additional appointments and procedures – with over 168,000 being delivered.
“John Swinney is relentlessly focused on our NHS, delivering our first GP walk-in centre this week and securing a pay deal for our hard-working doctors – that’s what you get with John Swinney’s strong leadership firmly on Scotland’s side.
“Rather than troubling himself with the Labour Party civil war, Keir Starmer should take up our offer of shadowing the First Minister and learn how to get a grip on the crisis ripping through England’s NHS.”
Labour have been asked for a response to the offer.
The upcoming strike in England was called an hour after the British Medical Association’s first talks with new Health Secretary James Murray, who was appointed after Wes Streeting – who the SNP called a “wannabe prime minister” – resigned from the UK Government.
Streeting had offered residents doctors a 4.9% increase in average basic pay from 2026 to 2027, which he claimed would have left resident doctors 35.2% better off than four years ago.
Murray said he had been “clear” with the medical union that a 33.4% pay rise for resident doctors over the last four years made its demands for further increases “unrealistic, unaffordable, and unsustainable”.
Resident doctors in England last went on strike over Easter in April.
On Friday, a YouGov survey of almost 5500 people found 52% opposed the industrial action compared with 37% who were in favour.
However, the majority of people who voted Labour in 2024 still support resident doctors (51%) along with Green voters (61%).
Half of Liberal Democrat voters opposed action compared with 39% who were behind strikes, with opposition rising to between 78% and 82% among Conservative and Reform UK voters.
Dr Jack Fletcher, the chair of the British Medical Association’s resident doctors committee, previously said that strike action has been effective at bringing the Government to the negotiating table in the past.
