It was immediately apparent that the new Labour government is prepared to carry on administrating capitalism in the same way as its Tory predecessors.
The NHS is certainly not safe with Wes Streeting, as Minister of Health, repeating his promises to use the private sector to cut the backlog. Any criticism of this is labelled as coming from “middle-class lefties” in Streeting’s own words. In an interview with the Guardian newspaper, he went on record to say that his hands were tied by the lack of capacity in the NHS and that there should always be a door open to working with the private life sciences and medical tech sectors.
Back in 2022 he made clear how he was going to proceed, in an interview in the Tory paper the Daily Telegraph. He said then that he would fight “hostile” unions in the health service. He singled out the British Medical Association (BMA) the doctors’ organisation for particular attention.
He then went on to spell out that further privatisation of the NHS would be implemented by Labour, and that the NHS must either “reform or die.” In an article in the Guardian newspaper in the same year he stressed that “We would also be using spare capacity in the private sector to bring down waiting lists. Private providers have capacity for 130% of the procedures they were doing for the NHS before the pandemic, but the government hasn’t utilised it”.
Streeting is looking back to the Blair government and its increased use of private companies within the NHS during the 1990s and early 2000s. He further backed up his determination to bring more privatisation to the NHS in an interview with Nick Robinson of the BBC where he said that using private companies was “effective” under Blair and then Gordon Brown and that it was “popular with patients”(!). He went on to say in that interview that “No doubt the next Labour government may have to use private sector capacity to bring down NHS waiting lists, and I won’t shirk that for a minute to get people better health outcomes.”
In the Telegraph interview Streeting said that the wage demands of both nurses and ambulance workers were “obviously unaffordable.” Later his boss Keir Starmer commented on a radio phone-in that nurses’ demands were “more than can be afforded.”
Streeting is a career politician who rose to the heights of the Labour Party via the traditional route of many other careerists, the National Union of Students. He was twice President of the NUS and supported his predecessor Gemma Tumelty’s reforms of the NUS governance structures, seen by many as an attack on any democracy within it. Streeting supported the introduction of university tuition fees as President.
Like Starmer, Streeting is a strong supporter of NATO saying that Labour’s “unshakeable support” for NATO proved that it could be trusted with national security. He commented that “I think there are no longer any doubts that Labour – which has a long tradition of standing up for our armed forces – is a party that will back our military, will stand up for peace and security in Europe and also recognises the role Britain plays on the international stage to protect democracy and freedom from tyrants like Putin.”
Streeting’s register of interests shows that he accepted donations totalling around £175,000 from two donors with links to private healthcare firms. On February 6th, Streeting took £48,000 from OPD Group Ltd, which is listed as a company “controlled by” Peter Hearn. He had previously received £12,000 from OPD on December 6th, 2023, and another of £35,475 from a second firm controlled by Hearn between February 28 and September 8, 2023. Hearn ‘s firms is a recruitment executive whose firms work with “senior NHS executive recruitment and helps private healthcare providers recruit healthcare professionals,” according to EveryDoctor, which campaigns for a better NHS.
In addition, on four occasions in November and December2023, Streeting accepted a total of £65,000 from John Armitage, a hedge fund manager with more than $500 million invested in UnitedHealth, the largest private health insurer in the world by revenue. Armitage had previously given Streeting £15,000 on April 12th , 2023.
It is clear that Streeting will come into conflict with both NHS workers and users of the health service. It is vital that maximum unity is forged between health workers, be they junior doctors, nurses, midwives, ambulance staff, or so-called ancillary workers. Petty differences need to be overcome as well as the artificial divisions caused by membership of a host of different unions. In addition, NHS workers need to look towards creating solidarity from NHS users’ groups. Streeting wants to continue with the policy of degrading the NHS, in line with the policies of previous Labour and Tory governments. He must be resisted.