Farage and Badenoch want NHS to fail so they can seize power, Wes Streeting warns
Farage and Badenoch want NHS to fail so they can seize power, Wes Streeting warns
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Nigel Farage's Reform UK and Kemi Badenoch's Tories want the NHS to fail so they can seize power from Labour, Wes Streeting has warned. And he said delivering on Labour's promises was not enough to beat them - they must be prepared to take on their arguments and defeat them.
The Health Secretary's stern intervention comes amid concerns Labour's focus on long-term delivery over quick fixes had created a vaccum that allowed populist, right-wing "easy answers" to thrive and grow. This week Reform UK achieved their highest poll numbers - topping a national poll for the first time since 2019, before they changed their name from the Brexit Party.
In a speech to the Fabian Society, Mr Streeting said the state of the NHS has bred cynicism about the future of free healthcare in Britain - and in the power of politics to deliver change. "It creates the conditions in which the populist right thrives," he said. "That is why the Conservatives and Reform are rolling the pitch for Labour to fail on the NHS.
"They want us to fail. Because if we don’t turn the NHS around, they will have the chance to beat us at the ballot box and overturn 76 years of universal healthcare, publicly funded, free at the point of need.". Mr Streeting said both Kemi Badenoch and Nigel Farage had floated the idea of charging for NHS treatments in the past.
