I thought this Tweet was particularly appropriate right now. Maybe Wes Streeting would like to stop living by dual standards:
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You would think there would be a live league table showing donations to all MPs, that could also be filtered to show donations from unions, political lobbies, oil, etc.
The Westminister Accounts come close at https://www.tortoisemedia.com/westminster-accounts-explore
Ian
thanks for the link. The donations seem to be about £60 million this year. As I wrote somewhere I would restrict them and substitute state funding. Sixty million is a bit less than £2 per UK tax payer. I suggest it’s a bargain.
They would try to find other ways no doubt to influence but it would a start.
thanks for the link – I scrolled through ‘https://www.tortoisemedia.com/westminster-accounts-explore’ site, and most of the MPs whose mug-shotes I viewed, have big smiles on their faces, one or two had sneers, but none of them looked worried or concerned, they all appeared content with their lot. Where is democracy when they can receive such ‘sweeteners’ ? MP for where I live has received plenty of funding from ‘Labour Friends of Israel, in the form of travel etc., but ignores his many of his constituents.
Wes Streeting was bought and paid for before he ever got into Government
I agree – cheap isn’t he?
My guess is that the main pay-off will be when he loses his seat and is offered a very well paid placement in the private health company – obvs with the aim of helping them land and expand and turning UK health into a replica of the USM(aga).
& UK serfs will vote for this – witness the support for Deform – which has a very similar agenda (UK serfs voting intentions: – a puzzled wrapped up in an enigma).
I really do not like this man, he has ‘You can buy me’ written all over his face.
Why is it that our politicians feel that it is their right to rent out our democracy to vested interests?
Shameless.
Pilgrim asks: “Why is it that our politicians feel that it is their right to rent out our democracy to vested interests?” I agree with your anger about the impact of lobbying, but I’d contest the word ” rent”. In the case of NHS it couldn’t be replaced once sold (and it’s clearly being set up to be privatised bit by bit), so it’s a disposal rather than rental. I’ll also contest the use of the word “lobbying”: that’s simply a decoy to disguise the fact that money has been paid to an individual, in this case a Cabinet Minister, to enable a private business to replace a national (i.e. public) asset with its own for-profit structure. You’d think the catastrophic privatisation of English Water might have sounded a warning.
Agreed
Excellent, thank you for passing this on. Good use of graphics!
Has anyone asked Wes Streeting why he accepts so many donations from people associated with private healthcare, and whether he think that might give rise to a risk, or at least a perception, of a conflict of interest with his ministerial position?
The sooner we have much stricter rules and limits on political donations, the better.
Isn’t it time someone addressed this to him in parliament? Probably not someone within the Labour Party…as alas… they now seem to be Tory. And, Richard, didn’t you write a blog not long ago where you found an article (was it the BMJ?) where quite a few MPs had accepted money from private healthcare firms for their election campaigns? Please remind me which blog post that was. Shouldn’t they all be named (and outed!!) as surely this means they want the NHS privatised? When those that voted them in do not.
I honestly can’t recall it. You would need to search via Google or here.
EveryDoctor have been working on this:
# List of MPs receiving private healthcare donations, with breakdowns of companies & amounts:
https://privatisation.everydoctor.org.uk/does-your-mp-receive-private-healthcare-related-donations/
# Report: “Which MPs have received donations from people and companies linked to the private healthcare sector?” https://privatisation.everydoctor.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/MPs-Interests-Report-Formatv1.4.pdf
# Open letter which you can sign: “Donations to MPs from sources linked to the private healthcare sector should be BANNED” https://everydoctor.eaction.org.uk/ban-donations-from-private-healthcare
Thanks
I support them
To be fair on Wes the high-paying lecture circuit only seems to welcome mass-murdering war criminals like Tony Blair so he has to use other methods to supplement his meagre income.
Squirts like Streeting, in high office, can be bought so easily and cheaply by ultra wealthy individuals to whom the sums involved are chump change.
They’re receiving donations, aka bribes, from individuals, companies and foreign governments to ensure policies and decisions favour the donors, their organisations and the foreign country not the UK public.
By no stretch of the imagination can the UK be considered a democracy under such circumstances. The UK government is a corrupt criminal organisation and the people and their concerns mean nothing to them.
Agreed entirely, AC Bruce: Apologies for repeating myself, but if Streeting worked in a County or City Council and accepted substantial payments to give commercial advantage to private individuals and businesses, he’d would probably go to jail. Outside of Parliament it’s called Bribery & Corruption, but he and his colleagues are beyond the reach of the law as long as the inducement is logged in the UK Lobbying Register. What’s logical or democratic about that? The UK boasts of its democratic history, yet it has no clear, written Constitution, governments with a large enough majorities can (and do) change laws to suit themselves, it has an Upper Chamber with no elected members, it comprises 4 nation states, but the 3 smaller devolved nations are effectively colonies with no clear right of secession, there is no adequate control of its media to prevent misrepresentation, etc, etc.
Agreed.
Comedian Robin Williams once said that “politicians should wear sponsor jackets like NASCAR drivers.”
Agreed
Late to the party again:
Image spotted in several places today. It makes a point, but the re-posters aren’t investigating further – and it only took me a few minutes to link some of the dots.
* OPD is ultimately owned by Peter Hearn.
* MPM is ultimately owned by Peter Hearn.
* Peter Hearn is owned by the god Mammon \sarcasm.
* Hearn is also a funder of Yvette Cooper. And Hearn incidentally funded my local MP in the General Election (which £15,000 somehow wasn’t properly declared…) Ms Alexander was instrumental in helping to save Lewisham Hospital in a previous constituency.
* Red Capital, owned by the Mendelsohns (who are members of the Israel lobby) funded Cooper as well as Streeting.
*John Armitage was a member of the Conservative funding machinery.
* Kevin Craig runs PLMR, which works closely with Trevor Chinn’s Labour Together.
* In November 2024 President Izaac Herzog personally awarded Trevor Chinn with the Israeli Presidential Medal of Honour for service to the state of Israel.
The South Australian Government has just banned political donations to fund elections, replaced with State funding for the next election.
https://www.premier.sa.gov.au/media-releases/news-items/sas-world-leading-political-donations-ban-now-in-force
We should do the same.
I’d go a bit further and say we MUST ban political donations across the whole UK if we want to retain any semblance of democracy. Likewise Westminster has to scrap FPTP. And there’s more….