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Profile: Steve Barclay

11/02/2023

Steve Barclay

BBC Radio 4 - Profile, Steve Barclay

The health secretary and former fusilier facing the flak over the NHS pay disputes.

Described by many as ‘a safe pair of hands’, can the health secretary find a way to end the strikes by health unions without adding to the Treasury’s headaches?

Health Secretary, Steve Barclay, spent his gap year serving with the Royal Fusiliers.  Now he finds himself in the line of fire from striking health workers, in a long-running dispute over pay.   His job is to somehow find a solution to the row, without adding to the Treasury’s headaches.

Can this rugby-loving sky-diver rise to the challenge?  Adrian Goldberg talks to family and friends to find out why some Whitehall officials tremble under his forensic questioning – and why he’s been likened to popular TV detective, Columbo.   

Presenter: Adrian Goldberg
Production team: Sally Abrahams, Diane Richardson and Beth Ashmead-Latham
Production co-ordinator: Sabine Schereck
Studio engineer: Graham Puddifoot      
Editor: Penny Murphy

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