Medical Training (Prioritisation) Bill: Amendment 9

What happened: On 27 January 2026, MPs voted on Amendment 9 to the Medical Training (Prioritisation) Bill. The amendment, tabled by the Conservative opposition, would have required that from 2027 British citizens on UK foundation programmes be given priority for interviews and places on specialty training programmes. The amendment was defeated by 378 votes to 91 -- a margin of 287.

Why it matters: The Medical Training (Prioritisation) Bill is designed to give doctors who trained in UK and Irish medical schools priority access to foundation and specialty training places in the NHS. Amendment 9 sought to go further than the government's Bill by specifying that British citizenship, not just where a person trained, should be the qualifying criterion for prioritisation from 2027 onwards. The defeat of the amendment means the Bill proceeds on the basis of where a doctor trained rather than their nationality. In practical terms, this affects thousands of doctors -- in 2025, around 12,000 UK-trained doctors competed for training places alongside approximately 21,000 internationally trained applicants.

The politics: The vote divided almost entirely along party lines. All 84 Conservative MPs who voted backed the amendment, and they were joined by 4 Democratic Unionist Party MPs, 2 Reform UK MPs and 2 independents. Labour, Labour Co-operative, the Liberal Democrats, the SNP, Plaid Cymru and the Green Party all voted against. The Liberal Democrats backed the government's Bill in general terms but opposed several Conservative amendments on different grounds, including concerns about ministerial powers to change eligibility without parliamentary scrutiny. Health Secretary Wes Streeting signalled scepticism about the Conservative amendment, suggesting its shift in position -- from earlier criticism of his approach to resident doctors' pay -- was cynically motivated.