Once again, Wes Streeting is a rare voice of reason in the Labour Party. Speaking on Times Radio this morning, the Shadow Health Secretary said the NHS is a “service not a shrine”, adding that we should stop treating it like “a national religion” – Newsnight should take note. Streeting then made the claim that the NHS is “not the envy of the world“. Was it the £180 billion black hole budget or the all time record waiting lists that gave it away…

Streeting used his sermon on the the health service to claim “as only Nixon could go to China, I’d wager that only Labour can reform the NHS”. Wes may well have a point with his Nixon-esque aspirations. A Tory opposition would never get away with taking healthcare policy straight from the mouth of Nigel Farage.

Despite speaking sense on the fetishisation of a government department, he was less sure-footed on whether he supported the consultants’ strike. Apparently it’s difficult to say “no” to the question of whether he supports a strike of staff on six-figure salaries. “I’m a politician”, he admits…