Jeremy Corbyn has accused Keir Starmer of “betraying the foundational purpose of the NHS” by expanding the role of the private sector.
He has also hit out at the Labour Party for ‘abandoning’ working-class voters on the winter fuel allowance and two-child benefit cap claiming it will “regret” its choices.
His intervention comes as Keir Starmer announced he will give private hospitals an additional £2.5 billion to provide up to a million extra appointments, scans, and operations a year.
However, Mr Corbyn, now an independent MP, said the move by the Labour government is “repeating the mistakes of the last” Labour administration under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, which also faced backlash for relying on the private sector.
Wring in The Independent, the former Labour leader said: “During the general election, I stood on a platform that pledged to defend a fully public, fully funded healthcare system. We knew Labour’s decision to drop its previously held manifesto promise that ‘the NHS is not for sale’ was no accident. We said the future of our NHS was on the line – and we were right.”
He added: “To the prime minister and health secretary, welcoming privatisation is proof of their commitment to pragmatism. ‘We will not let ideology…stand in the way’. To anyone who knows the reality of privatisation, their dogmatic refusal to look at the evidence is the very definition of ideology itself.
A privatised health service leads to worse quality care, higher mortality rates and a reduction in staffing. Privatisation has even been linked to higher rates of patient infections, in part because cleaning staff are typically the first to be cut in the name of efficiency. There is only one beneficiary of privatisation: investors and shareholders making money out of people’s ill-health.”
In response, a Labour spokesperson said: “The last Labour government achieved the shortest waiting times and highest patient satisfaction in history. Through our Plan for Change, this Labour government will pull every available lever to cut waiting times from 18 months to 18 weeks. That includes paying for patients to be treated free at the point of use by the independent sector, where spare capacity exists.
“If your ideology forces NHS patients to wait longer for healthcare, there’s something wrong with your ideology. Thanks to 14 years of Conservative neglect, patients are in misery waiting up to 18 months in pain – they can’t wait any longer.”
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