Sir Keir Starmer suggested that he would eliminate private healthcare and create a “ten-year plan” for the NHS, if he was Prime Minister.
Speaking to the BBC’s Political Thinking podcast, the Labour leader described how his mother – who worked as nurse and regarded the health service as her ‘lifeline’ – feared a move towards privatisation if ‘things got really bad’.
After a lengthy battle with Still’s disease (an incurable, autoimmune condition), Sir Keir’s mother Josephine passed away in 2015.
Sir Keir, who was the host of Nick Robinson’s show, said that her passion for NHS went so deep she held her son’s hands as she died in intensive care. She also urged him to not let his dad go private.’.
Public life is raging over how the health system should be organized and how to reduce massive wait lists.
Tony Blair’s methods of cutting these lists – by bringing in the private sector so that people could have operations – proved controversial within the Labour Party and led to allegations that he wanted to ‘sell off’ the NHS.
When asked what he would do if he was Prime Minister to reduce waiting lists, Sir Keir replied to Nick Robinson that ‘I would listen my mom in this. That’s why we have to create a better plan to fund the NHS, which is all about money.
Sir Keir Sterner has suggested that he will eliminate private healthcare in order to implement a proper ten-year plan for the NHS.
Speaking to the BBC’s Political Thinking podcast, the Labour leader described how his mother Josephine (pictured) – who worked as nurse and regarded the health service as her ‘lifeline all her life’ – feared a move towards privatisation if ‘things got really bad’
“But it’s more than just money. Technology can be used differently.
“Officially, the private sector has provided operations people have enjoyed at no cost, and it’s important to know how to answer this. My mother had a deep sense of NHS public service, and it runs deep in mine.
Pressed on whether he would ban private medicine, the Labour leader said: ‘I don’t think you can just stop it in one go like that, but you do need more resources, you actually – we actually need to rethink health.
“We would make a better country if health was addressed upstream. We could also take preventative steps in the communities. Make better use technology in hospitals. And, of course, have a proper ten-year funding plan for NHS. It would be much more productive to have a discussion on the NHS than about how much money is required.
Pressed on whether he would ban private medicine, the Labour leader said: ‘I don’t think you can just stop it in one go like that, but you do need more resources, you actually – we actually need to rethink health’
This is almost the same as the debate about private schools. “I want the NHS to succeed and our schools to excel so that no one feels the need to move to private school.
In an interview that aired earlier in the year with Piers Morgan on ITV, Sir Keir spoke about his parents.
Josephine was described by him as suffering from a condition called “A disease that affects your joints.” Some people experience it all the time. Mum said it happened again and it did.
This illness caused her to spend many years in the hospital. In 2015 Sir Keir explained that it was because she was so sick. She had to have her left leg amputated at this point in her life. She was unable to move. She was unable to use her hands.
“And she would have loved to be there. But by that time, she was in terrible shape, an awful, terrible place. My greatest regret is not having known her before our children were born. She was unable to move, speak, or be who she was by that time. She was already broken.
Sir Keir, who was in tears at the time, said that he had not been able to express all his feelings to his mother before her passing. He said, “I love you.”