The following article outlines Labour’s Shadow Secretary of for Health & Social Care, Wes Streeting’s moves  to help Sir Keir Starmer further privatise the NHS, It was  was first posted by Squawkbox.

WES STREETING HAS BETRAYED THE NHS

 And in 2018, he launched ‘disgusting’ tirade in predecessor Abbott’s face

Starmer’s sidekick promoted despite his history – by boss accused of covering up ‘criminal’, ‘sadistic’ abuse of domestic violence victims. Both have taken money from donors with private health interests and Starmer has attacked immigrants working in the NHS

Wes Streeting has today betrayed the NHS, all who work in it and the millions who rely on it. Speaking to yet another Tory rag, he has said today that he was willing to fight the health unions desperately battling for the jobs, pay and working conditions of their members, in order to push through ‘reforms’ – that word so loved of Tories as cover for cuts and privatisation – rather than restore the NHS to the true, comprehensive public service it is meant to be.

And there is no reason to think Streeting means it any differently to the Tories. Despite receiving successful cancer treatment, he has already pledged more of the NHS privatisation that has crippled the health service and sucks away huge sums of money and resources that could be used to provide treatment and he supports the ‘Americanisation’ of the NHS through the mis-named ‘Accountable (or Integrated, depending which buzzphrase is in favour) Care Organisations’ that will slash hospitals and incentivise those that remain for withholding treatment and spending less.

The reaction of a BMA council member

And for more of a measure of the kind of person that currently inhabits the supposed ‘opposition’ health brief, lest anyone should forget, in 2018 Streeting launched a ‘disgusting’ and ‘disgraceful’ tirade in the face of Diane Abbott – herself a former Shadow Health Secretary – that left the veteran parliamentarian and first Black female MP ‘shell-shocked’, because she had said something in the Commons chamber that he didn’t like.

Streeting tried to use libel lawyers to force Skwawkbox to remove the article. It remains online and he has never attempted to take the matter to court, where his actions would have been the subject of sworn testimony by eyewitnesses.

Despite this and other wrongs, such as his recent foul use of dementia as an attack on Jeremy Corbyn – supposedly ‘in jest’ – Keir Starmer promoted him to and still keeps him as his Shadow Cabinet health spokesman.

This is unsurprising, since both Streeting and Starmer have accepted large amounts of cash from the same donor with huge private health interests. Starmer has attacked the number of immigrants working in the NHS – who are vital to it – has reneged on his leadership campaign promise (along with all his others) to fully renationalise the service, and gives Streeting free rein to talk the kind of treacherous nonsense he has come out with today.

And where Streeting’s tirade left Diane Abbott shell-shocked, Starmer has been accused by a whistleblowing former parliamentary staffer of repeatedly ignoring and covering up alleged sadistic and criminal abuse and exploitation of vulnerable domestic violence victims by a right-wing MP’s reported lover. Even the right-wing MP confirmed, under oath, that Starmer had been fully aware of what whistleblower Elaina Cohen said was happening to the frightened women.

Starmer is not fit to run a country and Streeting is not fit to be anywhere near the running of the NHS – so they’re a perfect fit for each other.

11.12.22

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also see:

The public sociologist

Aneurin Bevin on the Socialist ambitions of the NHS – Editorial Board, Tribune

BBC News changed headline to make Keir Starmer look slightly less racist – Stephen Topple, The Canary

The Great Merger – the rise of oligarchical politics – Media Lens