From Bevan to Streeting: How Labour is Privatising the NHS

Labour’s NHS Transformation: A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing

In a move that would make Nye Bevan turn in his grave, the Labour Party seems hell-bent on finishing what the Tories started – the slow, insidious privatisation of our beloved National Health Service. Under the guise of ‘reform’ and ‘reducing waiting lists’, our supposed defenders of the working class are laying out the red carpet for private healthcare vultures to feast on the carcass of our public institutions.

In reality, Labour’s so-called transformation of the NHS is a Trojan horse, smuggling private interests into the sanctum of public healthcare. Wes Streeting, our supposedly noble Health Secretary, trumpets his crusade to slash waiting lists. But his chosen weapon? Outsourcing patients to private hospitals. It’s a sleight of hand worthy of the most cunning conjurer: use public money to fatten private wallets, all under the banner of efficiency.

What’s conspicuously absent from this grand plan? Any meaningful investment in the lifeblood of the NHS – its people. There’s nary a whisper about training new doctors and nurses, resurrecting the vital bursary scheme, or reviving the vocational training that once saw young nurses splitting their time between college and wards. These initiatives, you see, would be too much like a cure rather than the sticking plaster Streeting seems to prefer.

This approach is akin to treating a gaping wound with a designer bandage – it might look impressive, but it does precious little to address the underlying injury. Instead of bolstering the NHS from within, nurturing its workforce and expanding its capacity, Labour seems content to outsource its responsibilities, along with its patients.

The tragedy is that this short-term fix will likely exacerbate the very problems it purports to solve. By funnelling resources into private healthcare, we’re not expanding the pool of medical professionals; we’re merely shuffling them around, often at a premium. It’s a zero-sum game where the only winners are the private healthcare providers, laughing all the way to the bank.

But let’s peel back this onion of deception. These private hospitals Streeting is so keen on aren’t the bastions of medical excellence he’d have us believe. They’re parasites, feeding off the system. They don’t employ their own doctors or nurses. Oh no, that would be too much like honest work. Instead, they contract NHS staff, to carry out job-by-job operation by operation contracts. It’s a vampiric relationship, draining the lifeblood from our public health service.

And who’s whispering sweet nothings of privatisation into Streeting’s ear? None other than Alan Milburn, that blast from New Labour’s past. Milburn, the architect of the disastrous Private Finance Initiative, a scheme that’s been bleeding the NHS dry for decades. This is the man Streeting proudly claims as his advisor. It’s like asking a fox to guard the henhouse and then wondering why all the chickens have disappeared.

Streeting told Camilla Tominey on GB News: “I make no bones about the fact that in opposition and now in government, I’ve turned to Alan Milburn for advice.

“He has been with me in opposition and in government, helping to shape Labour’s reform agenda, advising me as the Secretary of State, and of course meetings that Alan Milburn has attended, that I have invited him to.

“I have chosen to share papers with him and every other attendee of meetings, nothing commercially sensitive, nothing inappropriate, but meetings because he’s an outstanding former Health Secretary and I’m proud to have Alan Milburn’s support and advice.”

Asked if Milburn has a pass for the Department of Health, Streeting said: “I don’t know, actually…he’s a former Health Secretary with an outstanding track record. And look, we can continue down this line of questioning. I’ll continue to say the same thing.

“I am not remotely embarrassed or apologetic about having Alan Milburn involved in helping this Government to shape a reform agenda that would be able to deliver the same kind of results as the last Labour government.”

Tominey also asked if he was happy sharing official documents with Milburn and Streeting replied: “Alan Milburn is one of my advisors. He comes in to advise me as the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care.

“I’ve chosen to ask for Alan’s help because he has an outstanding record as Health Secretary, a record that the Conservatives can’t even begin to touch, a record that they trashed in their 14 years of disaster and incompetence.”

Streeting defends this unholy alliance with all the zeal of a convert. He’s “not remotely embarrassed or apologetic” about Milburn’s involvement. Well, he bloody well should be! Milburn’s track record reads like a privateer’s charter. From his time as Health Secretary to his lucrative post-government career with private healthcare firms, Milburn has never met a public service he didn’t want to sell off.

Remember, this is the man who signed deals with American healthcare companies back in 2002, claiming it was to keep the elderly out of hospitals. In reality, it was the thin end of the wedge, the start of a creeping privatisation that’s been eating away at the NHS ever since. In reality, it was another step towards dismantling the socialist principles upon which our NHS was founded. It’s private health care funded by the public.

Let’s not forget Milburn’s cosy relationship with Bridgepoint Capital, a private equity firm with significant investments in private healthcare. Or his role as Chair of PwC’s UK Health Industry Oversight Board. With friends like these, who needs enemies?

And now, here we are, with Labour supposedly the guardians of our NHS, inviting this Trojan horse right into the heart of health policy. It’s a betrayal of everything the NHS stands for, a slap in the face to every nurse, doctor, and patient who’s ever relied on our public health service.

This isn’t transformation; it’s capitulation. It’s an admission that the party once proud to have created the NHS now lacks the vision or will to truly reform it. Instead of the radical reimagining our health service desperately needs, we’re offered a reheated serving of market-driven solutions that have consistently failed to deliver.

As George Orwell so presciently warned, “The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.” Today, we find ourselves unable to distinguish between Tory and Labour when it comes to NHS policy.

While Streeting preaches the gospel of efficiency, we’d do well to follow the money trail. It leads us straight to the coffers of private health firms, who’ve been more than generous with their donations to Labour’s front bench. And who’s sitting pretty atop this pile of corporate largesse? None other than our crusading Health Secretary himself.

These aren’t mere donations; they’re investments. Each pound is a down payment on future profits, a bet that Labour will continue to carve up the NHS and serve it on a silver platter to these corporate vultures. It’s lobbying dressed up as philanthropy, influence peddling masquerading as civic duty.

Streeting, of course, would have us believe there’s no connection between these donations and his enthusiasm for outsourcing. But one doesn’t need to be a cynic to smell the stench of quid pro quo. It’s the same old story: money talks, and in the corridors of power, it’s shouting from the rooftops.

This isn’t just a conflict of interest; it’s a full-blown collision. How can we trust the judgement of a Health Secretary who’s in hock to the very industry he’s meant to be regulating? It’s redesigning for maximum profit and minimum.

The scale of these donations should shock us, but in our jaded political landscape, it’s met with little more than a shrug. We’ve become so accustomed to the revolving door between politics and big business that we barely notice when it spins.

But we must notice. We must care. Because every pound donated by these health firms is a pound invested in dismantling the NHS as we know it. It’s a down payment on a future where healthcare is a commodity, not a right, where profit margins matter more than patient outcomes.

This isn’t just about Streeting or Labour. It’s about the very soul of our healthcare system. Make no mistake, this isn’t about reducing waiting lists or improving care. It’s about ideology, Tory Ideology. It’s about dismantling the NHS piece by piece, outsourcing it to the highest bidder. It’s New Labour’s unfinished business, and Streeting seems all too eager to finish the job.

The NHS doesn’t need more middlemen or profit-driven interlopers. It needs investment, it needs staff, and above all, it needs a government willing to fight for its founding principles. Anything less is not just a failure of policy, but a betrayal of the very idea of public healthcare.

The enemy isn’t at the gates anymore. Thanks to Streeting and his ilk, they’re sitting pretty in the boardroom, deciding the fate of our health service. It’s time we called this out for what it is: a sell-off, pure and simple. The NHS deserves better. We deserve better. And it’s high time Labour remembered whose side they’re supposed to be on.

We all know it: the NHS will be sold out. This will be yet another Tory legacy under Starmer’s Labour government.

Paul Knaggs