Medical Training (Prioritisation) Bill: Amendment 1

On 27 January 2026, the House of Commons voted on Amendment 1 to the Medical Training (Prioritisation) Bill, which would have required British citizens who trained for their medical degree outside the UK to be prioritised for NHS Foundation and specialty training places alongside UK-trained graduates. The amendment was defeated by 310 votes to 88. The Bill creates the first statutory framework for allocating postgraduate medical training places in the NHS, requiring that UK medical graduates and a defined priority group are considered before other applicants. As drafted, the Bill defines a "UK medical graduate" as someone who trained mainly in the British Islands. The Conservative amendment sought to extend prioritisation to British citizens regardless of where they completed their degree, covering cases such as a child of armed forces personnel who trained while a parent was posted abroad, or a student at the Malta campus of Queen Mary University of London who received a UK medical degree. Conservative MPs voted almost unanimously in favour, joined by the Democratic Unionist Party, Traditional Unionist Voice and Ulster Unionist Party. Labour and Labour and Co-operative MPs voted unanimously against. Reform UK had no vote recorded for any of its eight MPs. The vote sits within a broader pattern of Conservative amendments to the Bill that day; a related division on Amendment 9, covering similar ground on British citizen prioritisation, was also defeated by 378 votes to 91.