Streeting and Farage spar over NHS fees as SoS vows to ‘take on the populists’

Wes Streeting has sounded the alarm over Reform’s threat to Labour and the “corpses of progressive political parties” across Western liberal democracies, and become embroiled in a row with Nigel Farage over potential NHS fees.

The Health Secretary used a speech at a Fabian Society conference on Saturday to warn that not embracing “legitimate” criticism of state institutions  “opens the door to the right to attack the very principle of collectivism”.

Streeting also suggested Labour “had basically said to a whole bunch of men in this country, ‘oh no, sorry, our equalities agenda isnt for you'” despite issues like male suicide, and argued Labour needed a “genuine”, inclusive equality agenda.

Public service failures ‘fertilisers of populism’

Much of the speech centred on the health service.

Problems in public services are “one of the fertilisers of populism” in breeding cynicism about the potential for change, Streeting warned. He argued improving the NHS would be a “potent antidote”.

He said the government wanted to be a “light on the hill for progressives around the world”, in response to a question about Donald Trump’s presidency.

In a wide-ranging speech, he also went strikingly on the offensive against Reform and Nigel Farage, arguing the USA showed delivery was “not enough” and Labour must also “take on the populists’ arguments and defeat them in the battle of ideas”.

READ MORE: Wes Streeting: Social media trolls saying I want NHS privatisation ‘boil my blood’

He was cheered by Fabian supporters at the Guildhall in the City of London as he ignored two hecklers while he reeled off Labour’s achievements in power so far. One protester was dragged out of the room by security officials.

At one point he also reeled off individual cabinet members’ successes, notably including the now-former Transport Secretary Louise Haigh for setting up Great British Railways.

Farage is an ‘alternative candidate for PM’

He called Reform leader Nigel Farage one of two “alternative candidates for Prime Minister”, some polls showing Reform polling near level-pegging with Labour, and warned: “The populist right are coming for us.”

He said: “Cutting the longest waiting times from 18 months to 18 weeks by the next election will mean achieving something the NHS hasn’t done in a decade.

“And if we do it, it will represent an act of resistance against the status quo of managed decline. We will have helped remake the case for progressive politics, changing the lives of working people in the face of populist cynicism. We can defeat Farage by turning around the NHS.”

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Streeting highlighted past comments by Farage supporting an insurance model of healthcare, and warned Reform would “put the NHS as a universal service, free at the point of use” at risk.

Farage hit back and was forced to promise the NHS will “always be free at the point of delivery” under Reform. He accused Streeting of being scared enough of Reform to start “lying”, but Streeting quoted a past interview back at him:

“For all the coverage of Nigel Farage in recent weeks, all the speculation about whether he could become Prime Minister, there has been almost no reporting of what he would actually do in office.”

He said: “I can’t think of a more potent antidote to Farage’s miserabilism, than proving the cynics wrong and getting the NHS delivering world-class care for patients again.

“In just the past four months, thanks to the investment and reforms we are making, this Labour government has taken almost 150,000 patients off the waiting list and counting.”

Labour will help some patients go private

He added that Labour would give all patients “the same choice, control, and convenience that is currently just the preserve of the wealthy”.

If the wealthy are told to wait months for treatment, they can shop around. But working-class people can’t.

“Labour’s reform agenda is placing power in the hands of the many, not the few, giving all patients the same choice as the wealthy enjoy.

“If there is a private hospital that can treat patients faster than the NHS, they will soon be able to choose to be treated there, paid for by the state.”

Labour told men ‘our equalities agenda isn’t for you’

Streeting spoke passionately too about Labour being the party of equality, racism experienced by NHS staff, and trying to tackle particular ethnic minorities’ greater risks of certain health problems, as well as ensuring trans patients are “respected”.

But he also attacked an “ideologically driven, gimmicky gesture politics” around equality, diversity and inclusion and what he called the “nonsense” of “anti-whiteness”, as well as warning Labour’s equality agenda should not be derailed by “the politics of sociology seminars”.

“How did we go so wrong when the party founded by and for the working class basically said to a whole bunch of men in this country, ‘oh no, sorry, our equalities agenda isnt for you’. Really?”

“If you know that you’re more likely to die from suicide as a young man, how do you  think those people feel if then they see that the agenda that should be speaking to them…says ‘actually, we’re about anti-whiteness’…or ‘sorry, we can’t talk about that because we’re about women’s health now’.

“We want to make sure that an agenda that’s about equality of outcomes is genuinely about equality of outcomes.”

He suggested it had “contributed to the reaction…to an agenda that should be fundamentally inclusive”.

‘The centre left can forget our purpose’

Streeting added: “Beating the populist right will require us to be honest with ourselves.

“Sometimes, the centre left can forget our purpose. It is not to blindly defend institutions because we share their values.

“Western liberal democracies are littered with the corpses of progressive political parties, who found themselves defending the indefensible.

“The left finds it easy to acknowledge market failure, but can find it harder to acknowledge state failure. A failure to accept and embrace legitimate criticism of state institutions opens the door to the right to attack the very principle of collectivism.”

‘No-one’s saying, ‘come on down, Carla Denyer”

In a Q&A after the speech with journalist Lewis Goodall, Streeting said he was frustrated with a debate about whether “the press office is doing a good enough job”.

“The whole point about communication is the communication can only be as good as the message.”

Later on he criticised the fact Farage got “so much airtime” with just five MPs, compared to the Green and Lib Dem leaders. He suggested it seemed like Farage had a “superpower”.

While he said criticising the media was like criticising the weather, Streeting added: “No-one’s saying, ‘come on down, Carla Denyer…step forward, Prime Minister Ed Davey.”

He also said “you can’t just sell policies,  you have to sell ideas”, and make the case for active government and politics itself  as a “force for good”.

Asked about the Prime Minister’s communication skills, he said Starmer’s “superpower” was coming from outside politics, even though it was “often see as a weakness”.

“He doesn’t have a great deal of patience for political game-playing, pointless political theatre. He holds some of the way in which politics is conducted in contempt, because he seens it as an obstacle to delivering real change for people.”

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