CONTRARY to earlier media reports Jeremy Hunt has been kept on as Secretary of State for Health by Britain’s new prime minister Theresa May.

The MP for South West Surrey, who recently became the longest serving Health Secretary since 1987, was believed to among the high-profile casualties of the cabinet reshuffle including Camberley MP Michael Gove and former chancellor George Osborne.

Mr Hunt was appointed Health Secretary on September 4, 2012, - putting him behind only Kenneth Robinson (four years and 14 days, 1964 to 1968), Anuerin Bevan (five years and 167 days, 1945 to 1951) and Normal Fowler (five years and 272 days, 1981 to 1987) in the list of longest serving health ministers.

His confirmation in the role of Health Secrertary comes amid a protracted industrial dispute between the Department for Health and NHS junior doctors over a new contract, and just days after Mr Hunt announced plans to impose the new contract this October after doctors rejected the Government’s final offer in a ballot last week.

Addressing the House of Commons after members of the British Medical Association union voted 58 per cent to 42 per cent against accepting the deal agreed by government and union negotiators in May, Mr Hunt said doctors would start moving on to the contract in the coming months regardless of the ballot.

He said the agreement came after more than three years of negotiations and several days of damaging strike action, and was strongly endorsed by the leader of the BMA’s Junior Doctors Committee, Dr Johann Malawana, who resigned in the wake of this week’s vote.

Mr Hunt said: “Unfortunately, because of the vote we are now left in a no-man’s land that, if it continues, can only damage the NHS. An elected government whose main aim is to improve the safety and quality of care for patients has come up against a union which has stirred up anger amongst its own members it is now unable to pacify.

“Protracted uncertainty at precisely the time we grapple with the enormous consequences of leaving the EU can only be damaging for those working in the NHS and the patients who depend on it.”

He also dismissed calls to re-open negotiations with the BMA, commenting: “We have been talking or trying to talk for well over three years. There is no consensus around a new contract and after yesterday’s vote it is not clear that any further discussions could create one.

"However, I do believe the agreement negotiated in May is better for junior doctors and better for the NHS than the original contract we planned to introduce in March. So rather than try to wind the clock back to the March contract, we will not change any of the new terms agreed with the BMA.”

Mr Hunt added the new contract will help the government deliver on its ‘seven day NHS’ manifesto pledge, as well as reduce the maximum hours junior doctors can be asked to work, introduce a new post in every NHS trust to make sure the hours asked of junior doctors are safe, make rostering more child and family-friendly and help women who take maternity time off to catch up with their peers.

“It is a matter of profound regret,” he continued, “that at a time of so many other challenges the BMA were unable to secure majority support for the deal they agreed with the government and NHS Employers.

“But we are where we are, and I believe the course of action outlined in this statement is the best way to help the NHS move on from this long-running contractual dispute and focus our efforts on providing the safest, highest quality care for patients.”