Tories Praise Wes Streeting’s Plans For The NHS

Wes Streeting arrives in Downing Street (Credit: MARTIN DALTON/Alamy Live News)

4 min read2 hr

Conservatives have praised Wes Streeting at their annual party conference, saying the Labour Health Secretary has shown "political courage" by recognising that "the NHS model isn’t working properly”.

George Freeman, the Tory MP for Mid Norfolk who has twice served as science, innovation and technology minister, was asked about the Labour government’s healthcare plans at a Monday fringe event on life sciences research.

“The new government have made very clear there’s a lot of continuity. I’m pretty cheered,” the Conservative MP replied.

He said that he had been in discussions with Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Science Secretary Peter Kyle about life sciences research and the health innovation economy.

“I’m talking to Keir and Peter Kyle and others. They have been kind enough to say this is one of the areas they don’t view as part of the broken inheritance.”

Speaking at the UCB-sponsored event on Monday, Freeman argued that the NHS needs reform driving at "localisation of integrated care".

“Wes Streeting is on this: he has recognised that the NHS model isn’t working properly. It’s not a lack of money – of course it needs more money, but that isn’t the thing – it’s centralised. Very, very heavily centralised.

“In the Labour Party there was a big debate when they formed [the NHS]. I’d have loved to have been a fly on the wall. Half of them said it should be a local, integrated, patient pathway service – key word…

“The Bevanites said, ‘No, it’ll be a national health service, we’ll take it to London, it’ll be unstoppable.’ I understand why – because they were worried it would be drowned at birth as a project.

“Well, it has become this huge unstoppable machine. We’re pouring billions in, in London. Not enough of that is coming out on the ground in our communities. My prescription would be radical localisation of integrated care – and Wes is on that. I think he’s going to be pushing it.”

The Conservative MP, who worked as an entrepreneur in the life sciences before entering Parliament, denied that plans to localise, integrate and innovate would amount to privatisation of the NHS.

“We’re not even beginning to really harness the genius of the health innovation sector in our healthcare system. I would happily go to the barricades for that.

“It’s not privatisation. What we have at the moment is nationalisation of disease. People are being let down and it’s not necessary,” he said.

“I applaud Wes Streeting for having the political courage. I think only Labour can really say this. The NHS is sort of their thing. And I applaud him.

“I really hope that we can get behind him and show that if you can localise, democratise, decentralise, personalise, digitalise, you will cut out vast swathes of well-intended but basically obstructive bureaucracy.”

Freeman made the case that NHS patients should be given control of their data, enabling them to use their medical record to gain access to research, and the government should embark on a digitalisation project to faciliate that aim.

“One of the exciting things in the new team is that Peter Kyle and Wes Streeting are very, very close political friends and allies; shared an office,” he said.

“You can see in Peter’s comments about DSIT [Department for Science, Innovation and Technology]: the first thing he said he wants it to be is a department to help harness the digitalisation of public services.

“There’s quite a lot else Peter needs to do, but that is a very powerful signal that he and Wes Streeting have got a strong commitment to the digitalisation of health, for both data transparency and adoption.”

At the Tory Party conference this week, leadership candidate Robert Jenrick similarly called for the Conservatives to give Streeting their support.

"If Wes Streeting, who likes to talk the talk, comes forward with genuine reforms which would boost productivity, improve the quality of care for patients, and which are demonstrably in the national interest, I think we should back him,” Jenrick said.

Andrew Mitchell, the shadow foreign secretary, also told PoliticsHome last week that he is “very supportive” of Streeting’s approach to the NHS.

“I'm very supportive of what Wes Streeting is saying about the need to look at the structures and improve the structures of the NHS,” Mitchell said.

“The Conservative government put a lot of money into the NHS, the record is there for all to see… We should say to the Labour Party, if you're going to look fundamentally at the National Health Service and how it should change, we won't oppose just for the sake of opposing.

“We will give you a fair wind to come up with your proposals and we will judge them accordingly. I'm not one of those who is seeking to attack Wes Streeting or the Labour Party on the NHS.”

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