LABOUR shadow minister Andrew Gwynne has rejected Tory claims that the party is unreformed and insisted that it is ready for government.

He told GB News: “The fact of the matter is, the Labour Party under Keir Starmer has changed. We’re ready for government. We’re serious about governing.

“We’re putting together the policy framework for the next Labour government and we’ve got the Tories on the run.

“After 13 years, this tired, clapped out government, they can have as many rebrands and reshuffles as they want.

“They are tired, they’re out of ideas. They’re clapped out, and the Labour Party is fighting fit, and we’re raring to go.”

Asked if Labour can reduce NHS waiting times, in an interview during Breakfast with Isabel Webster and Eamonn Holmes, he said: “It would be better under Labour because remember where we were in 1997, a very similar picture.

“We inherited an NHS on its knees, we inherited record waiting times, record waiting lists. And in the 13 years of that Labour government, through investment, through reform, we drove down waiting times and waiting lists to historic lows, we had a guarantee that you would be seen [by a consultant] within 18 weeks, not 18 months.

“That’s the kind of ambition we need for our country again. So what we’ve said is in the short term, we would use extra capacity across the health and care system, including in the private sector as we did before, while we build up that capacity in the NHS, training those extra doctors, nurses, health care workers, and professionals that we need to put the capacity back into the NHS, and to put the NHS back on a sustainable footing.”

On strikes in the NHS, he said: “These are Rishi Sunak and Steve Barclay’s strikes. All they’ve got to do is sit down and negotiate. That’s all we’re asking.

“That’s all the unions are asking is to sit down and have talks come to a compromise. The unions have their position, the government has their position and actually, there’s a large area where common ground can be found.

“But that takes the leadership of Rishi Sunak and Steve Barclay to sit down and negotiate if they did that the unions have already said they would call off the strikes. Why won’t they?”

Commenting on president Zelenskyy’s visit to the UK, he said: “I think it’s a momentous day. Look, we, across the political spectrum, stand fully with the Ukrainian people and indeed with the Ukrainian president, who has faced some of the most atrocious hostilities from the Russian state since the invasion.

“The illegal invasion of Ukraine is something that we don’t just all strongly object to. We are being practical with our assistance to Ukraine.

“It is brilliant that President Zelenskyy can come to the United Kingdom today to see some of his troops being trained up, to address Members of Parliament. It is a historic occasion.

“And it reaffirms the totality of the United Kingdom across the whole of the political spectrum, standing alongside the people of Ukraine, and with them until they get the freedom from the oppression of Russia and the aggression of Russia.

“We stand with Ukraine is the message that should ring out from Westminster today.”