Jeremy Hunt just got busted telling outright lies about the junior doctors contract

Jeremy Hunt was “squirming” in his seat on national television on Tuesday after an interviewer exposed his claim that 500 doctors had signed up to the much-hated junior doctors’ contract to be an outright lie.
On the same day that almost 80% of junior doctors began day one of the first ever all-out strike in the history of the NHS, Hunt was taken to task by channel 4 reporter Cathy Newman for circulating this untrue statement in letters to the BMA and to the media.
Newman started by asking Hunt: “500 doctors have already signed up to the new contract. Do you stand by that?”
He looked visibly uncomfortable, shifting around in his seat as he tried to make excuses:
Well… the fill rates that when the new jobs are advertised under the new contracts are showing signs that we are getting broadly similar fill rates (sic).
Now that’s not the same as 500 junior doctors signing up though, is it Mr. Hunt?
Sensing that she had him on the back foot, Newman went in for the kill:
Read on...
But there are not 500 doctors that have signed up to the new contract as claimed by your department.
Hunt backtracked like crazy, saying:
Well… that’s the information that we received from Health Education England who are responsible for these things.
Twitter was set alight be these revelations, with some commentators congratulating Newman on one of the few mainstream media outlets to directly challenge Hunt as outlets like The Telegraph and the Daily Mail side with the Tories, churning out articles in a bid to turn the tide against junior doctors.
@cathynewman @Jeremy_Hunt As usual he can't answer a straight question. Well done for pointing out his lies about 500 signing new contract!
— Andy (@randrewbuchan) April 26, 2016
The @Channel4News interview today with @Jeremy_Hunt clearly demonstrated his lies (500 drs). Is there a public replay of this somwhere pls?
— Mr Steth MRCS (@MrSteth) April 26, 2016
@Jeremy_Hunt lies exposed about 500 doctors 'signing' contract on @Channel4News actually 'fill rate'. What a douchebag
— Dan Wilson (@mrdanfresh) April 26, 2016
What’s more, the offending text from the letter Hunt wrote to the Johann Malawana of the BMA on the 19th April in which he began asserting this ‘500 doctors’ figure got leaked onto Twitter for all to see:
Here is Jeremy Hunt's full reply to BMA letter. Repeats claim of 500 drs already signed up: pic.twitter.com/kTAoPdY9Kf
— Shaun Lintern (@ShaunLintern) April 19, 2016
This isn’t the first time that Jeremy has been caught out being liberal with the truth – later that day in an interview with BBC Newsnight he was also caught claiming that “many doctors don’t understand” the contract and that “The BMA were not prepared to sit around and discuss this in a reasonable way.”
Featured image via Wikipedia
We need your help to keep speaking the truth
Every story that you have come to us with; each injustice you have asked us to investigate; every campaign we have fought; each of your unheard voices we amplified; we do this for you. We are making a difference on your behalf.
Our fight is your fight. You’ve supported our collective struggle every time you gave us a like; and every time you shared our work across social media. Now we need you to support us with a monthly donation.
We have published nearly 2,000 articles and over 50 films in 2021. And we want to do this and more in 2022 but we don’t have enough money to go on at this pace. So, if you value our work and want us to continue then please join us and be part of The Canary family.
In return, you get:
* Advert free reading experience
* Quarterly group video call with the Editor-in-Chief
* Behind the scenes monthly e-newsletter
* 20% discount in our shop
Almost all of our spending goes to the people who make The Canary’s content. So your contribution directly supports our writers and enables us to continue to do what we do: speaking truth, powered by you. We have weathered many attempts to shut us down and silence our vital opposition to an increasingly fascist government and right-wing mainstream media.
With your help we can continue:
* Holding political and state power to account
* Advocating for the people the system marginalises
* Being a media outlet that upholds the highest standards
* Campaigning on the issues others won’t
* Putting your lives central to everything we do
We are a drop of truth in an ocean of deceit. But we can’t do this without your support. So please, can you help us continue the fight?