Wes Streeting has defended Labour’s plans to use the private sector to tackle the NHS care backlog, arguing that failure to do so would result in a “betrayal” of the working class who cannot afford to to pay for care.
The shadow health secretary said his approach was “pragmatic but principled” as he this week doubled down on his comments about “middle-class leftists” who he said risked putting ideological purity above patient care.
However, in an interview with the Guardian, he insisted that the NHS would be privatized ‘over my dead body’, adding that his longer-term ambition was that no one would be forced to pay and that the NHS would not be dependent on private care. .
Streeting has raised suspicion among some Labor MPs, health unions and NHS campaigners over his embrace of private healthcare as a way to tackle the backlog. which amounts to 7.6 million treatments in England alone.
But he said he had “had enough” of the binary view which ignored the fact that after 14 years of Tory rule there was now a two-tier system, meaning some people could afford to go private to be seen more quickly , while those who couldn’t stay behind.
“From a left perspective, it is not right that people who are poorer do not have access to faster health care,” he said. “It goes against everything I believe in as a Labor politician. As someone who may now live a middle-class life but has working-class roots, that is a betrayal of the people I grew up with.”
He said a Labor government would use the private sector “for as long as necessary” to get people visible faster, blaming the Tories’ inability to adequately invest in staff, technology and capacity.
“In the longer term, my ambition is to make the NHS so good that no one feels forced to go private, and to ensure that the NHS has the capacity it needs so that it also doesn’t have to pay for people to go private. ” he said.
But he reiterated his criticism of the left of his party. “I will never allow ideological pet peeves to come at the expense of patient care,” he said.
“The argument I will unapologetically make is that the people who say we should not use the private sector to reduce waiting lists will have to be honest about the fact that they are targeting people who cannot afford to go to the private sector, tell them that their Left principles tell them to wait longer.
“They can’t use the usual ‘get out of jail free’ card by saying ‘we want investment in the NHS’. Of course we all want investment in the NHS, a Labor government will deliver investment in the NHS, but it takes time to rebuild that NHS capacity, and people need to be honest about that.”
Streeting has repeatedly underlined how his priority as health secretary would be to reform the NHS. But he said: “The lesson of the last Labor government is that it is investment and reform that delivers results… We have done it before and we will do it again.”
He said the economic legacy of a Labor government would make investment difficult – but said shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves had consistently prioritized the NHS when it came to spending priorities.
Streeting said he was “not indifferent” to arguments that sending people privately could cost the NHS more, but suggested his hands were tied by the lack of capacity at the service.
He argued that there should always be a door open for collaboration with the private life sciences and medical technology sectors. “If we can combine our country’s leading scientific and technical minds with the care and capacity of the NHS, then the sky is the limit,” he said. “I’m tired of this binary view.”
Streeting defended his criticism of “middle-class leftists” in the Sun newspaper this week, saying he was prepared to argue about how Labor needed a pragmatic approach to the NHS to ensure its survival.
“I took on my critics who accuse me of privatizing the NHS, and they are mostly left-wing, middle-class. I say this as a working-class person who is now middle-class left.
“I don’t think it’s a derogatory term. These are the people who are most outraged by what I say. I enter into the discussion and ultimately I want to win it. I don’t think people should be offended by what I said.
“My argument is both a principled and a pragmatic one to not just save the NHS, but to ensure it remains there for us as a free public service at the point of use.”
He stressed that Labor remains a party of progressive values, despite some criticism from the left over its stance on issues such as Gaza and the climate crisis, which has led to some core voters turning away from the party.
“For the Labor Party it has always been a moral crusade to make our country a fairer, more equal and more just society, but we are not a debating society. We must be a party of government that is able to exert and achieve influence. change.
“I don’t think people on the left should take a Labor victory at the general election for granted – we’ve seen too many false dawns already… If you’re serious about moving the country forward, that does mean you have to take a broader consensus must be built and sometimes compromise.
“I don’t think that’s a dirty word in a country torn apart by the most right-wing Conservative party in modern history.”