Steve Barclay is the new Health Secretary. This is a fascinating move for both political and policy reasons. The first is that it is an admission by the Prime Minister that his current Downing Street operation is not working: Barclay was the chief of staff brought in to ‘get a grip’, and there has manifestly not been much of that. The second is that Barclay is, to put it mildly, a hawk on health spending. He was a Health Minister before becoming Chief Secretary to the Treasury, and formed an extremely sceptical view of the health service and its ability to waste money while in that position.
Barclay’s biggest challenge, of course, is the enormous waiting lists that the NHS is dealing with
By the time he moved to the Treasury, he was prepared to push back against requests for funding for the health service – including the vaccine programme, which was not signed off officially for ages on the basis of ‘value for money’.
Comments
Join the debate for just $5 for 3 months
Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for $5.
UNLOCK ACCESS Just $5 for 3 monthsAlready a subscriber? Log in