Imagine waiting hours for an ambulance when you suffer a potentially life-threatening stroke or heart attack. Imagine working as a paramedic facing another real terms pay cut in these conditions. That’s the reality of our NHS in Tory Britain in 2023. Over half of ambulance workers have seen patients die due to ambulance and A&E delays. People aren’t dying because NHS workers are striking. NHS workers are striking because people are dying.

Ambulance staff across our NHS walked out today as part of the first paramedics’ strike action since the 1980s. I joined some of them on the picket line at Waterloo Ambulance Station to show my support. After a decade of neglect, the situation in NHS emergency care is the worst it’s ever been. Ambulance workers deserve our full solidarity in their fight for the resources they need to save lives.