Labor plans to replace NHS England chairman with party loyalist

Labour is set to sack the chairman of NHS England if it wins the election and replace him with a party loyalist to help implement plans to revive the “broken” health service.

The party is considering replacing Richard Meddings with former health secretary Alan Milburn, former home secretary Jacqui Smith or Sally Morgan, who served as Tony Blair’s political secretary.

Labor wants to install a senior figure from its last time in power to give it more influence over NHS England, which became independent of the government as a result of changes introduced in 2012 by the then Conservative health minister, Andrew Lansley.

Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary, is keen to ensure that a new chair of NHS England will help him deliver on his ambitious promises to ensure the service meets targets for key waiting times – in emergency departments and for planned hospital treatment – ​​by the time of the next election in 2029.

Plans to sack Meddings after the election are an open secret in the NHS. The three leading candidates to replace him all have or have had significant roles in the NHS. As Health Secretary in 1999-2003, Milburn was an architect of a number of radical changes introduced by Labour, including the creation of foundation trusts, which are semi-autonomous from government.

Jacqui Smith served as a junior health minister in the early days of her ministerial career from 2001-2003, before Blair’s successor, Gordon Brown, appointed her Home Secretary in 2007 – the first woman to hold the post. She was previously chair of the University Hospitals Birmingham (UHB) trust and is now chair of Barts Health Trust in London, two of the largest NHS providers.

Lady Morgan, who was Blair’s director of government and political relations from 1997 to 2005, was chair of the Royal Brompton and Harefield specialist Heart and Lung Trust in London. She is now vice-chair of Trust of Guy and St. Thomaswhich merged with her former trust in 2021.

Meddings was appointed by then Health Secretary Sajid Javid on a four-year contract in January 2022, taking over the role two months later. The former Treasury board member and Teach First vice-chairman pledged to donate his £63,000 salary to charity upon his appointment.

He is widely seen as a “Tory banker”. However, colleagues say he is neither a member nor a donor of the Conservative Party and he shares Labour’s analysis that recent governments’ underinvestment in the NHS and failure to tackle chronic staff shortages have left the NHS unable is to respond adequately to the growing demand for care that an aging population, Covid and poverty have helped create.

Milburn has maintained a close interest in healthcare since Labor lost the 2010 election, including in his role as an adviser to PricewaterhouseCoopers. One source said Milburn, as a former health secretary, could be accused of ‘backseat driving’ if he became the new chairman of NHS England.

Smith is “really excited about the role and is committed to it”, sources say. However, she was criticised for taking a leave of absence from the UHB Trust chairmanship in 2020 to take part in Strictly Come Dancing, at a time when the NHS was struggling with the Covid pandemic.

Morgan was made a peer in 2001, was chair of education regulator Ofsted from 2011-2014 and has been Master of Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge since 2019.

Whoever Labour appoints will have to help improve relations between NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care. Insiders say the relationship is “at an all-time low” after a series of behind-the-scenes clashes in recent years between NHS England chief executive Amanda Pritchard and health secretaries – most notably Steve Barclay – over the service’s funding and priorities.

A source said: “Labor believes they need to repair that damage and that NHS England needs new leadership and a Labor person who would work well with Wes would be the best way forward.”