Labour’s Shame: Senior Party Members Linked to Private Healthcare Interests
“The NHS will last as long as there’s folk left with faith to fight for it” – Aneurin Bevan
And at this rate, that’s looking like till the end of this parliament…
The cry goes up from surgeries and hospital corridors, from overstretched nurses and worried patients: Who is fighting for the NHS? The answer, more and more, appears to be: no one in Westminster.
The latest revelations from campaign group EveryDoctor uncover a web of financial ties so dense, so shameless, it reads less like democratic governance and more like a corporate prospectus. This isn’t just influence, it’s colonisation.
Your money funds the NHS. Your vote elects these MPs. Your family depends on public healthcare. Yet while you queue for hours in A&E, while your GP surgery struggles to offer appointments, while cancer patients wait months for treatment, the politicians you trusted to fight for the NHS are busy cashing cheques from the very corporations circling our health service like vultures.
The EveryDoctor investigation lays bare what many suspected: Westminster is not merely asleep at the wheel of NHS privatisation, it’s steering the vehicle. Politicians we entrust to defend public healthcare are bankrolled by the very corporations seeking to dismantle it. The scale is staggering. The betrayal, total.
When we vote for our MPs, we entrust them with our futures, our families’ well-being, and the principles of fairness that underpin the NHS. Yet research now reveals private healthcare interests have funnelled millions into the pockets of politicians. Not quietly. Not indirectly. Openly, with the expectation of influence.
This is your money being used against you. This is your government being bought. This is your NHS being sold, and the receipts are public record.
The Ever Growing List of MPs have received donations from people and companies linked to the private healthcare sector…
Tap or click the image to see their donations…
Donations to Government Ministers
Wes Streeting
Total Donations:Β£224,575
Yvette Cooper
Total Donations:Β£165,439
Lisa Nandy
Total Donations:Β£19,000
Rachel Reeves
Total Donations:Β£94,043
Steve Reed
Total Donations:Β£1,517
Shabana Mahmood
Total Donations:Β£136,168
Darren Jones
Total Donations:Β£91,797
David Lammy
Total Donations:Β£67,674
Bridget Phillipson
Total Donations:Β£5,450
Heidi Alexander
Total Donations:Β£20,000
Ian Murray
Total Donations:Β£10,071
John Healey
Total Donations:Β£52,941
Jonathan Reynolds
Total Donations:Β£2,950
Peter Kyle
Total Donations:Β£36,000
The Betrayal in Numbers
Private healthcare-linked donors gave more than Β£2.7 million to MPs over the past two years. To put that in perspective: that’s enough money to pay for about 90 NHS nurses for a whole year. Instead, it went into the pockets of politicians who are now deciding whether your local hospital gets funding or gets sold off.
The Labour Party, the party that built the NHS, the party that claims to defend it, received four times as much in donations from private healthcare interests as all other political parties combined. Four times. Let that betrayal sink in. While you struggle to get a GP appointment, while your elderly parents wait months for surgery, Labour politicians are cashing cheques from the corporations planning to profit from that misery.
We must ask why this is happening at the same time as the Labour government has chosen to divert billions more into the private healthcare sector. The government is pushing to expand the role of private providers in the NHS a move that could hand the sector an extra Β£2.5 billion a year in public funds. Coincidence? Hardly.
Wes Streeting: The Poster Boy for Corporate Capture
Health Secretary Wes Streeting was the biggest recipient of this largesse, pocketing Β£224,575 from individuals and companies with ties to the private healthcare sector. This is the man making decisions about your healthcare, your family’s healthcare, your community’s healthcare and he’s been bought and paid for by private healthcare interests.
Among Streeting’s benefactors is John Armitage, head of UK investment firm Egerton Capital, who donated Β£65,000. Egerton holds hundreds of millions of pounds in US healthcare stocks, including more than Β£169 million invested in pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly and Β£280 million in healthcare technology firm GE. When Armitage writes a cheque to Streeting, is he supporting public healthcare or protecting his investment portfolio?
The Labour Together Scandal
Perhaps most damning is the role of Labour Together, an organisation previously run by Keir Starmer’s now chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney. This supposed “think tank” donated more than Β£1.4 million to Labour candidates ahead of the election. Where did this money come from?
The biggest funder is Martin Taylor, whose hedge fund Crake Asset Management holds over Β£15.8 million in shares in United Health one of the largest private hospital operators in the US and parent company of UK-based health services firm Optum. Another major funder is businessman Trevor Chinn, a senior advisor to private equity firm CVC Capital Partners, which owns stakes in dozens of private healthcare companies across the UK, Europe and Asia.
This isn’t just political donations, it’s an investment in future returns. These aren’t philanthropists supporting democracy; they’re shareholders buying influence.
The Tory Rot Runs Deep Too
Lest we think this is purely a Labour problem, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch received Β£40,000 from billionaire hedge fund manager Alan Howard, whose firm Brevan Howard Asset Management has invested millions in private healthcare firms including United Health and Cardinal Health.
Conservative MP Richard Fuller, a shadow Treasury minister, holds a second job as an advisory director at Bahraini venture capital firm Investcorp, earning Β£25,000 a year for just 15 days’ work. That’s equivalent to a full-time salary of over Β£430,000. Investcorp’s portfolio includes companies providing services to private GP practices in the US and operating private hospitals in India and Germany.
Already Cashing In
More than Β£300,000 in donations came from companies already making money from providing services to the NHS. These aren’t hypothetical future beneficiaries, they’re already at the trough.
Multimillionaire recruitment tycoon Peter Hearn donated Β£313,304 to several Labour MPs through companies he owns. Hearn made his fortune through recruitment firms that have faced criticism over senior executives they’ve helped place in the health service. Chief Secretary to the Treasury Darren Jones was provided with a free member of staff by management consultancy firm Baringa worth Β£34,356. Baringa has secured contracts worth more than Β£6.7 million from the Department of Health since 2020.
The Lobbyists’ Gravy Train
MPs received almost Β£100,000 from lobbyists whose clients include private healthcare companies. Chancellor Rachel Reeves accepted a free campaign advisor from political lobbying firm FGS Global worth more than Β£17,000. The same firm then lobbied the government on behalf of Optum, the UK subsidiary of US private healthcare giant United Health.
Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson and Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds accepted Β£5,900 in sponsorship from lobbying firm Public First, whose clients include the Independent Healthcare Providers Network, an industry group representing private health firms operating in the UK.
What This Means for You
When private healthcare companies and investors give money to politicians, they expect something in return. This could mean:
- More NHS contracts going to private companies instead of being delivered publicly
- Less money available for public healthcare as profits are extracted
- Decisions that benefit profit-making companies instead of NHS patients and hardworking staff
- The gradual hollowing out of universal healthcare based on need, not ability to pay
Your NHS is Not For Sale – But It’s Being Sold Anyway
You built the NHS with public money. You vote for these politicians. You depend on this healthcare system. Yet you’re being robbed in broad daylight by the very people you elected to protect you.
The evidence is undeniable: our political system has been corrupted by private healthcare money. Labour promised change but delivered the same Westminster auction where your health service goes to the highest bidder. These politicians haven’t just failed you, they’ve betrayed you for cash.
But here’s what they didn’t count on: you’re paying attention now. The corruption is in plain sight. The receipts are public. The game is exposed.
Fight Back
- Demand answers from your MP about their healthcare industry connections
- Share this evidence with everyone you know your family, your neighbours, your colleagues
- Support campaigns for transparent political funding and conflicts of interest rules
- Remember these financial relationships when you vote and make sure they remember you know
- Use the links above: Join the resistance against this corporate assault on your NHS
They sold your NHS while pretending to protect it. They took corporate money while claiming to serve you. They rigged the game while telling you democracy was working.
The corruption is complete. The evidence is overwhelming. The choice is yours: accept this betrayal or fight back. Share the hell out of this, let them know you know…contact your MP and demand accountability…
With thanks to the EveryDoctor investigation team…
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