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MPs are to hold a Commons debate on whether Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt should be sacked.

A special Commons committee agreed to the debate after a staggering 219,276 people signed a petition opposing Mr Hunt’s plans for a 7-day NHS.

The Government petition said the Health Secretary had “alienated the entire workforce of the NHS” by “threatening to impose a harsh contract and conditions on first consultants and soon the rest of the NHS staff.”

It called for MPs to debate “a vote of no confidence in Health Secretary the Right Hon Jeremy Hunt.”

A meeting of the Commons petition committee has decided the petition will be discussed by MPs on Monday 14 September in Parliament’s Westminster Hall.

The committee also gave the go ahead for a debate on the 12 October on making the production, sale and use of cannabis legal.

The petition against Mr Hunt was set up by doctor Ash Sadighi and attracted more than 100,000 names on its first day alone.

The Health Secretary has angered NHS staff and medics with his plans for a 7-day NHS.

Britain’s top doctor warned this week that millions of patients face cuts to midweek services and unsafe care under the plans.

Dr Mark Porter accused David Cameron of “failing” to admit the truth about the risk to the sick, elderly and vulnerable or explain how he would fund his “headline grabbing promises”.

The PM’s plans could mean weekday services being “scaled back” for the first time in the history of the health service and tired medics forced to work dangerously long hours “at the expense of safe patient care,” he adds.

Dr Porter, chair of the British Medical Association, which represents 150,000 doctors, issued his stark warning in an exclusive interview with the Daily Mirror.

“The fact is the NHS is already overstretched and under sourced, doing more without extra staff and investment means something has got to give - and that could mean weekday services being scaled back,” Dr Porter said.

“If this is price of delivering more weekend services then David Cameron should be honest about it.