On Sunday 20 October, the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg interviewed health secretary Wes Streeting. To many, it was a textbook example of ‘BBC bias’ in which Kuenssberg asked Streeting the hard questions she never asked the Tories:
Sunday morning
Wes Streeting trying to provide updates on progress and plans for Healthcare
Laura Kuenssberg demanding to know why they haven't fixed 14 years of NHS mismanagement and decline in 3 months
Usual bollocks #bbclaurak#BBCBreakfast
— Adrian Gosling (@digitalsunshine) October 20, 2024
We’ve reported on BBC bias more than most, and we agree that Kuenssberg treats Labour Party politicians very differently than Tory ones. However, the key bias isn’t her preference for one party over the other; it’s the normalisation of some ideas in tandem with the wilful exclusion of others:
There is an unanswered question that maybe someday a journalist will ask Streeting:
“Why not just put the money you are giving to the private sector into expanding NHS services?”
Cheaper
Safer
More effective
Why?
— Dr Dan Goyal (@danielgoyal) October 20, 2024
“Cheaper. Safer. More effective”
Bylines Scotland describes Goyal as follows:
Dr Daniel Goyal works as medical consultant in the NHS. He is also a senior lecturer and researcher in health systems at the University of Gibraltar, and a health equality activist.
He’s a host of The Debrief, which is a “podcast for frontline healthcare workers”. In an article published by Bylines Scotland on 18 October titled “Labour’s vision for the NHS is getting grim“, Goyal wrote:
It’s odd. I mean it really does stand out. On the one hand, we have a Labour Government that seems to understand – in broad terms – the major issues at the heart of the NHS crisis. Indeed, its own commissioned report highlighted quite clearly that the NHS is too small and is grossly under-resourced. Despite this, Labour continues to focus on “reform” and on pushing more NHS resources into the private sector.
Explaining his issues with this and Wes Streeting, he explains:
The issue is that the private sector exists in the UK simultaneously in two forms. One form is what you would expect: a private enterprise trying to build a customer base by offering a quicker and better service than the public service. Fine. The other is more peculiar: funding directly from the public purse. Not fine. I have some questions and comments.
The vast majority of private healthcare profit comes directly from the NHS budget. That is, we are paying private healthcare services directly from the public services budget. This is not the same as a private company securing government contracts to provide a public good. No, these are private companies generating profit from the budget assigned for our public national health service. Odder still, the NHS is paying private companies to undertake procedures and services the NHS itself provides. The obvious question remains unanswered: why not just use that money to expand the capacity of the NHS?
Noting that Labour is expanding private funding under the guise of bringing down record waiting lists, he further notes:
So the prevailing political logic is – and stay with me here – because the NHS doesn’t have the resources to stay on top of demands; NHS resources are being taken to provide these services privately, leaving the NHS with even fewer resources to get on top of the waiting lists.
Goyal wasn’t the only person reacting to the Streeting interview with the same question:
If NHS privatisation doesn’t benefit patients & doesn’t benefit the public purse – which is what the evidence indicates – then the only conclusion must be it benefits the private firms.
It’s not rocket science
So the BIG Question is: Why is Labour on the side of the profiteers? https://t.co/aTfm9s9dhh
— Marcus Chown (@marcuschown) October 19, 2024
Wes Streeting: the other big question
Wes Streeting also appeared on Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips. For many, the interview highlighted another question that journalists seem unwilling to ask:
In 2023 Rachel Reeves said the Tories freezing the tax bands was picking the pockets of ordinary people#trevorphillips asks, so Lab won't do that? Streeting says there are lots of decisions Labour don't want to make but will have to make.
Why have you ruled out a wealth tax? pic.twitter.com/ONS2uXKygC
— Saul Staniforth (@SaulStaniforth) October 20, 2024
Why not implement a wealth tax indeed? As Tax Justice UK notes:
Wealth inequality in the UK is surging, while millions don’t have enough to get by. All the while our underfunded NHS and public services continue to struggle. We need to tax the very rich more to save our society.
They add:
The UK is home to an extraordinary number of billionaires – their wealth has increased twelvefold in thirty years. While the world’s ten richest men recently doubled their fortunes in the space of two years.
This has an obvious knock-on effect for society, as Tax Justice UK explains:
The NHS, our schools, emergency services and local councils are all crying out for more funding to keep their essential services running. These things aren’t ‘nice to haves’, they’re necessary. We need more tax revenue to keep them running.
There’s speculation that Labour will raise capital gains tax in its budget, which already has some multi-millionaires complaining they’ll leave the country. What’s important to remember, though, is that if trade or economic activity takes place within our borders, we can tax it, so it really doesn’t matter where these people live.
Tax Justice UK has plenty of ideas that go much further than a slight bump to capital gains tax, as they explain:
- New taxes on wealth: We’re campaigning for a new wealth tax: a 2% levy on individuals who own assets worth more than £10 million. It would affect 0.04% of the UK population. And we’re campaigning to apply national insurance to investment income, raising up to £24 billion a year.
- Reform existing taxes on wealth: Those who get their income from stocks, shares and other assets often pay far less tax than those who work. We campaign for the tax rates on these forms of income to be equalised with income tax. So we all pay the same rates. It could raise £16.7 billion a year. Additionally we campaign for National Insurance to be applied to all forms of income, not just work. This would raise an additional £10.2 billion a year.
- Clamp down on tax havens: Hundreds of billions of pounds are lost every single year to tax avoidance via tax havens. We campaign for global action against tax havens. We’re demanding more transparency – and global minimum rates of tax, so countries aren’t undercutting each other.
Private in public
For context, Phillips is a former Labour politician who was previously suspended for “alleged Islamophobia”. None of these points are specifically relevant to the Streeting interview, but it does highlight the revolving door between politics and media – a revolving door which also opens on to the private sector.
Speaking of that, in September there was much coverage of Labour getting into bed with politician-to-private-sector-bigwig Alan Milburn. As we reported at the time:
This is what GB News host Camilla Tominey asked health secretary Wes Streeting:
Why have you been inviting Alan Milburn to meetings in the Department for Health, and apparently – according to the Sunday Times – sharing official sensitive documents with him, when he’s completely unelected; he’s unappointed; he’s unaccountable to the electorate, and yet he’s got a multi-million pound stake in a consultancy firm which advises on health matters?
Oh shit, that sounds bad – let’s see how Streeting answered:
Alan Milburn has an outstanding record as health secretary under the last Labour government.
Oh, okay – so he’s not just some random multi-millionaire with a vested interest in privatising healthcare; he’s a multi-millionaire with a vested interest in privatising healthcare who leveraged his political connections to get where he is today.
So that’s fine.
That’s not an extra level of corruption.
It’s not NHS revolving-door cronyism, or some other phrase we just made up.
No one’s fooled by Wes Streeting and Labour
People aren’t fooled by Labour’s rhetoric on public services; especially as Labour in opposition attacked the Tories for their stance on privatisation and austerity. The result of Labour trying to pull the wool over voters’ eyes?
❗️NEW: Poll suggests HUNG PARLIAMENT 😲
🟥 LAB 28% (-7)
🟦 CON 25% (+1)
🟪 REF 19% (+4)
🟧 LD 13% (+1)
🟩 GRN 7% (-)Via @techneUK, 16-17 Oct (+/- vs GE2024) pic.twitter.com/CE7FVcdMrd
— Stats for Lefties 🍉🏳️⚧️ (@LeftieStats) October 19, 2024
It’s hard to see Labour performing better come the next election. We know their plans for the NHS and other services won’t make improve things, because they already failed under the Tories. In other words, things can only get worse.
Maybe the real question journalists like Laura Kuenssberg should ask Streeting is which private health company he plans on working for after he gets booted out of office.
Featured image via embedded BBC video
