Labour slams Public Health England decision as “desperate attempt to shift the blame”

Labour has condemned the government’s decision to scrap Public Health England as a “desperate attempt to shift the blame after years of cutting public health budgets”.

Shadow public health minister Alex Norris responded this afternoon to Matt Hancock’s confirmation that the public body will be closed down as part of a plan to create a new National Institute for Health Protection.

The Labour MP described the announcement as a distraction from the need for an effective test, track and trace programme and said that it “gave no answers on what will happen to other vital areas of public health” under the remit of PHE.

Commenting on the statement, Norris said: “The structural reorganisation that Matt Hancock has announced today is a desperate attempt to shift the blame after years of cutting public health budgets, when the real shift we need is towards an effective local test and trace system that delivers mass testing and case finding.

“Matt Hancock himself was responsible for Public Health England and in setting PHE’s priorities last year – ministers didn’t even mention preparing for a pandemic. This announcement gave no answers on what will happen to other vital areas of public health like addiction, obesity and sexual health either.

“We went into this pandemic with health inequalities widening and life expectancy going backwards for the poorest. We have seen that Covid-19 has thrived on these inequalities, disproportionately impacting the poorest and Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities. A strong public health sector is needed more than ever.”

Hancock told the public today that the new National Institute for Health Protection will be responsible for dealing with pandemics, as well as working against the threats of biological weapons and infectious diseases.

The government has said that the body will from this week subsume parts of PHE, the joint biosecurity centre and the NHS test and trace programme. Hancock revealed that Baroness Dido Harding will temporarily head-up the organisation.

PHE has been blamed by ministers for the suspension of community Covid testing and tracing in March – but senior sources have reported that all decisions made then were in partnership with government advisers.

Shadow Health Secretary Jon Ashworth called the decision “desperate blame shifting”. He tweeted ahead of Hancock’s appearance: “A structural reorganisation mid-pandemic is time consuming, energy sapping; it’s risky, indeed irresponsible”.

He added: “And what an insulting way to treat hardworking staff who heard about this from a paywalled Sunday newspaper leaving them with questions and worries about their jobs.

“The shift we need is towards a local test and trace system delivering mass testing, that finds cases, uses local expertise to trace and supports people to isolate with security.”