Labour will take on “middle-class lefties” who are opposed to Labour’s plans to use the private sector to reduce NHS waiting lists, Wes Streeting has said.
“We will also use spare capacity in the private sector to cut the waiting lists,” the shadow health secretary said. “Middle-class lefties cry ‘betrayal’. The real betrayal is the two-tier system that sees people like them treated faster — while working families like mine are left waiting for longer.”
He said that he would ignore the “howls of outrage” in response to his comments and that he believed the present situation was a “disgrace”.
“Those who can afford it are paying to go private, are being seen faster, and their outcomes and their life chances and their quality of life will be better,” he told Today on BBC Radio 4, following on from his article for The Sun . “Those who can’t afford it are being left behind. Those tend to be people from working-class backgrounds like mine. I think that’s a disgrace.
“That’s why as the howls of outrage pour in, as they already are on my social media mentions this morning, I take it as water off a duck’s back. I don’t think I could look someone in the eye who is waiting for months and months, sometimes over a year, in pain and agony for treatment. I couldn’t look them in the eye and tell them that they should wait longer because my principles trump their timely access to care. Everyone in the country should get timely access to care and they shouldn’t have to worry about the bill.”
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He also said that Labour wanted to build a cross-party consensus on social care funding. In 2010, Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton, who was then prime minister, described Labour’s plans as a “death tax”.
Theresa May attempted to overhaul social care but her plans backfired before the 2017 election and were ditched. Boris Johnson also pledged to reform social care funding as prime minister but was unable to do so before he was forced to quit.
“We have also got to set out a different kind of politics around social care for the long term as well,” Streeting said. “We definitely need a more grown-up conversation about this.
“We have got to end this endless cycle where politicians from both of the main parties torpedo each other’s plans. I would hope that the next Labour government won’t just provide an answer to the immediate crisis in social care but will set out a long-term direction for investment and reform that can command consensus across the divide and last for generations, as we did on the NHS in 1948.
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“Whether or not the Conservative Party will be in a reasonable state to have a reasonable conversation I don’t know. One thing is certain — Rishi Sunak won’t be there. When you look at the cast of clowns looking to succeed him it could get so much worse than this.”
