{"id":80274,"date":"2025-02-18T07:56:02","date_gmt":"2025-02-18T07:56:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/?p=80274"},"modified":"2025-02-18T08:57:14","modified_gmt":"2025-02-18T08:57:14","slug":"streeting-rotten-to-the-core","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2025\/02\/18\/streeting-rotten-to-the-core\/","title":{"rendered":"Streeting: rotten to the core"},"content":{"rendered":"

Paul Kavanagh is a daily columnist in The National newspaper in Scotland, for whom I also write. He is usually known as Wee Ginger Dug, after the dog he once owned. He delivers forthright views on the Scottish political scene and on UK politics as a whole. This came from the email<\/a> column he wrote for subscribers last night:<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Labour Health Secretary Wes Streeting, who is responsible for the NHS in England, has said\u00a0he is \"very sympathetic\" to the idea of bringing private investors into the NHS<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Asked about more competition between NHS hospitals, and with private hospitals, Streeting told BBC Radio 4\u2019s Today programme on Monday: \u201cWell, we\u2019re definitely committed to using the independent sector spare capacity to bring down NHS waiting lists faster.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do think that there is a role for financial flows and incentives \u2013 that\u2019s built into our reform plan as well.\"<\/p>\n

He added that he was open to PFI (Private Finance Initiative) deals in order to build more hospitals. PFI agreements entered into by the last Labour government have been widely criticised as providing poor value for money, primarily serving to funnel public cash into private companies.<\/p>\n

Since he began his political career in 2015, 60% of the registered donations accepted by Streeting have come from people and companies linked to private health. Streeting has received a total of \u00a3311,400 in donations, so it is scarcely surprising that he has staunchly defended the use of private healthcare to bring down NHS waiting lists.<\/p>\n

There's that Labour \"change\" for you.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I am hoping both he and my editor, Laura Webster, will forgive me for the lengthy quote: I could see little to prune. The words used are those required to deliver the message that Streeting\u2019s approach stinks of the type of corruption that he will always deny but which spells out bought influence to secure gain nonetheless. After all, why else did those donors think their money was well spent?<\/p>\n

Streeting is rotten to the core and is, as a result, everything that Starmer's Labour Party is all about.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Paul Kavanagh is a daily columnist in The National newspaper in Scotland, for whom I also write. He is usually known as Wee Ginger Dug,
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