This week, Keir Starmer and Health Secretary Wes Streeting announced their plan to abolish NHS England, which Starmer has said will ‘cut bureaucracy’ and bring management of the NHS ‘back into democratic control’. Today on Sky News, Streeting told Trevor Phillips that the size of NHS England had doubled since 2010, when the NHS had ‘the highest patient satisfaction ever’.
Streeting claimed that his restructuring would save hundreds of millions of pounds, and create a ‘smaller, leaner, more efficient head office’. Labour will also make big job culls elsewhere in the NHS, and Phillips asked Streeting whether it was right that the NHS’s 42 integrated care boards were being asked to cut their running costs by half. Streeting said that previous financial plans for the year had projected an overspend of £5 billion, and that the NHS has been ‘addicted to running up routine deficits.’
Streeting: There is an ‘over-diagnosis’ of mental health problems
Labour will also make cuts to disability benefits as part of their efforts to reduce the welfare bill. Plans include stricter eligibility criteria to claim Personal Independence Payments, and a potential freeze on PIP inflation rises, although Labour appears to be rowing back on this part after an internal backlash. Streeting was elusive on this when talking to Laura Kuenssberg on the BBC, saying, ‘the moral of the story is wait for the plans’. He did, however, agree with the sentiment that some mental health disorders are over-diagnosed, and claimed that too many people with health conditions were being ‘written-off’. Streeting said the government would recruit more mental health staff and provide mental health support in primary schools to give people ‘resilience and coping skills’, and said that ‘employment support’ combined with mental health support was a very powerful way of helping people stay in work.
Streeting: ‘Some of these DEI roles have really lost their way’
On GB News, Camilla Tominey asked Wes Streeting why the NHS was advertising for a diversity, equity and inclusion manager role on a £122,000 salary if the government wanted to bring down costs. Streeting said that he and new NHS England chief executive Jim Mackey are ‘slamming the brakes on overspending’, but that it has ‘taken a little while for some people in the NHS to get the message’. Streeting went on to argue that some diversity, equality and inclusion work is very important, referencing the fact that ‘poorer people are much more likely to die than rich people’, men die earlier than women, and that black women die more often in childbirth than white women. However, Streeting claimed he wanted to put a stop to ‘well meaning but totally misguided’ approaches to DEI.
Laura Trott: Pupils ‘love’ smartphone bans
Shadow Education Secretary Laura Trott has tabled an amendment to the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill to ban the use of mobile phones in schools nationwide. Speaking to Laura Kuenssberg, Trott claimed previous guidance that phones shouldn’t be used in classrooms ‘hasn’t worked’, and said it was time to ‘make it law’. Kuenssberg asked why headteachers shouldn’t have the freedom to decide what works best for their schools. Trott suggested that ‘teachers, parents, and pupils’ are asking for this ban, and said students in schools which have already introduced a ban say they feel safer, and have the ‘freedom to learn’. Kuenssberg asked if the amendment had a chance of passing a vote. Trott said she had to ‘make the argument’, and claimed it would make a ‘massive difference’.
Finland President Alexander Stubb on Ukraine ceasefire: ‘The chances are abysmal’
Lastly, Laura Kuenssberg spoke with Finland President Alexander Stubb, after a week in which Starmer accused Putin of deliberately ‘dragging his feet’ over a ceasefire. Stubb told the BBC that it was too early for Finland to commit to concrete ways in which they could assist if a ceasefire was achieved. Stubb suggested that ‘Putin doesn’t want peace’, and that Russia still wants Ukraine to ‘cease to exist’, which is why it was crucial to ‘arm Ukraine to the teeth’, and increase pressure on Putin with more sanctions. Kuenssberg asked whether Donald Trump was being ‘played’ by Putin. Stubb said, ‘don’t underestimate the capacity of… Donald Trump to negotiate a deal’, and added that he was sure ‘we’ll be moving in the right direction’.
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