William Hill have brought back their market on whether or not Jeremy Hunt will be Health Secretary on the 1st of January 2017 in light of the announcement this week of further strike action by junior doctors. Normally I’m loathe to back 1/6 bets, however I’m prepared to make an exception to get a 16% return in a little under 4 months for the following reasons.

i) On Thursday Theresa May described Jeremy Hunt as an excellent Health Secretary and accused The British Medical association of playing politics with the lives of patients.

ii) Support for the doctors’ strike has fallen by 17% whilst opposition to the strike has increased by 17% since February.

iii) Unlike before, some of the country’s most senior doctors have condemned the planned strikes.

So Hunt has the support of the new Prime Minister, public support is slipping from the Doctors, whilst some of the most experienced doctors in the country are publicly condemning the strike, all of this makes me think Hunt isn’t going anywhere, that’s enough for me to back him still being Health Secretary on the 1st of January.

If you want to back the other side of the bet, the poll that I cited earlier on, still has a majority of the public backing the doctors, and the same poll also found only 20% of the public supported Theresa May reappointing Jeremy Hunt as Health Secretary, whilst 51% opposed the reappointment.

TSE