Labour drops the “NHS is not for sale” from its manifesto

The Labour Party decided to remove the phrase the “NHS is not for sale” from its general election manifesto. That’s despite the party’s conference in October concluding that the phrase would be in the manifesto.

Labour NHS for sale?

The Labour’s National Policy Forum (NPF) document stated:

Under Labour, the NHS is not for sale. Labour will always protect our NHS as a publicly funded service, free at the point of use, and will secure healthcare for all.

Instead, the party’s manifesto reads that the NHS “will always be publicly owned and publicly funded”. What that doesn’t rule out is shadow health secretary Wes Streeting’s plans to increase private provision of services within the NHS. This can only increase costs for the public because then profit eats away at NHS budgets.

In Labour’s manifesto, it states “Labour will use spare capacity in the independent sector to ensure patients are diagnosed and treated more quickly”.

Streeting has also said the NHS is not a “shrine”, branding NHS funding a “heavy… price we’re paying for failure”. What he doesn’t mention is that the alternative – more privatisation of healthcare – is by definition more expensive because of the introduction of profit.

This is clear from a spending comparison between the UK and the largely for-profit system in the US. The US system costs far more than double per person on healthcare compared to what we spend in the UK. Over 40% of American adults have medical debt.

“Worrying sign”

Speaking about Labour’s manifesto change, chair of Labour-affiliated group the Socialist Health Association Mark Ladbrooke said:

It’s a worrying sign. One of the problems with the way… the NHS is described is that people say the NHS is a system funded by the taxpayer and free at the point of use. But they’re not saying who’s actually providing the healthcare and the service. This is part of that trend. It doesn’t say whether the NHS is actually providing the service or simply commissioning the service.

A Momentum spokesperson said of Labour NHS plans:

Like the public, the labour movement is united behind a fully publicly owned, publicly run National Health Service. But Wes Streeting and Keir Starmer are instead doubling down on the private sector. To truly get the NHS back on its feet and make it fit for the future,

Labour should be pledging to kick out the profiteers and insert a major cash injection, as NHS staff have been crying out, not repeating the failed Tory recipe of privatisation and underfunding.

The NHS is under immense pressure. Yet Labour is not specific about any additional funding it would receive.

Instead, it looks like we’re facing more of the corporate recipe for privatisation. As Noam Chomsky summarises, “there is a standard technique of privatisation, namely defund what you want to privatise… then they don’t work and people get angry and they want a change. You say okay, privatise them”.

A fully public NHS is the cornerstone of a civilised society. We must defend it.

Featured image via Guardian News – YouTube