Today the NHS is experiencing its first ever all-out strike. I’m desperately sorry for anyone who relies on our health service who will be affected today or tomorrow.

A solution to this crisis can only come about if Jeremy Hunt finds the courage to listen and negotiate. Whatever brought us to this point, there is no other way forward.

But hubris and ideology now dominates every word Mr Hunt utters. Yesterday I sat in the Commons and was staggered to hear him say that he dis…regarded a cross-party solution simply because he heard about it first from a newspaper. Then Norman Lamb, former Lib Dem minister, said that the cross-party solution wasn’t perfect but it would give us a pathway to a negotiated solution. Unbelievably Mr Hunt said he was saddened that Norman hadn’t called his mobile phone to discuss it and dismissed his advice!