Theresa May was put on the spot by a doctor considering resigning over understaffing in the NHS and low morale caused by the health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, as she took questions from members of the public on an LBC radio phone-in.
The prime minister was told by Romeena from Leeds that healthcare professionals were finding it “near impossible” to provide safe care for their patients. The paediatrician said she was considering resignation after 12 years “because things have got so bad on the shop floor” and questioned why Hunt was still in his job following the doctors’ strikes.
“I’ve witnessed organ transplants being cancelled because there haven’t been enough nurses to provide post-operative care,” the doctor said. “Whatever the government is doing, it is clearly not enough – and you have reappointed as health secretary somebody who has demoralised the whole workforce.
“It seems like you stand up and support somebody who allowed junior doctors to go on strike, who seems to be allowing nurses to go on strike and that doesn’t fall in line with what the frontline of the NHS want to see.”
May dodged a question about whether she knew how unpopular Hunt was and maintained he had sorted out the row with junior doctors over their pay and conditions satisfactorily.
“What I would say is Jeremy Hunt has done a very good job in saying to everyone what we need to focus on is the quality of care,” she said, adding that she had experienced care as a type 1 diabetic.
The prime minister claimed the Conservatives had responded to a request from the NHS for £10bn by 2010 in real terms, although this figure is disputed, and that more money would be going to A&E departments because more people are going to be treated there.
May was hit with tough questions from members of the public over the state of public services, her record on failing to meet the Conservative target on immigration, low morale in the armed forces and insufficient help with childcare.
A listener called Sophia, who also worked in the NHS, said she was thinking of voting Labour because she was not yet convinced that May was helping the “just-about-managing” people with childcare costs of around £700 a month.
“I think it’s great you’ve increased it to 30 hours for three- and four-year-olds but there is a great gap there for two-year-olds,” the listener said.
May cited cutting the personal allowance and free hours of childcare for three and four years, but acknowledged there was “more work to do” when it came to helping just managing families with their costs.
Nick Ferrari, the LBC interviewer, interjected many times with follow-up questions, pressing the prime minister particularly on whether she would be raising taxes, as the party looks set to abandon its promise not to raise VAT, income tax or national insurance for the next five years.
She declined at least three times to say she would make that promise for the full parliament, saying: “We are a party that believes in actually trying to ensure we have low taxes … we have no plans to increase the level of tax but what I’m saying is that’s because we are party that believes in a low tax … as a government, we would go into government with no plans to raise the level of tax.”
May was confronted with remarks made earlier on Thursday by her predecessor, David Cameron, who said May needed to win a strong majority in the election so she could stand up to people in the UK and Europe who wanted an “extreme Brexit”. She said Cameron had been right about the need for the election but the reason for that was the requirement for “the security, the stability for five years of greater certainty that can take us through Brexit and beyond”.
The half-hour programme contained personal revelations from May, as she talked about being “very said” not to have had children with her husband Philip. “Of course, we are not the only couple that finds ourselves in that situation and when you do I suppose you just get on with life,” she said.
Asked if she would have been able to devote so much of herself to work if she had children, May replied: “I look at some of my parliamentary colleagues and people who have been in the cabinet who had children and yes, they do apply themselves, they are just very well organised. I think that is the key thing.”
And amid reported tensions with Philip Hammond, her chancellor, the prime minister raised some eyebrows by claiming that the most important Philip in Downing Street was the one who shared her flat in No 10 rather than the political occupant of No 11.
The prime minister did not shy away from talking about her faith in the interview; she said her Christianity helped her through the death of her father and mother when she was in her 20s.
She also discussed her love of cooking, saying she has more than 100 cookery books and would make Donald Trump a slow roast shoulder of lamb if the US president came to dinner.
Theresa May faces angry NHS workers during radio phone-in
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