How Enoch Powell helped make the NHS

Who are the giants of the NHS? Just off Central Lobby in Parliament is a bronze bust of Aneurin Bevan, the man who set up the health service in 1948. I have a rose named after him growing in my garden. When Britain marks the 75th anniversary of the health service today, Bevan’s name will be everywhere as the man who gave this country taxpayer-funded, state-organised, universal healthcare. 

The name you’re less likely to hear is Enoch Powell. Few even know that this Conservative politician was minister for health. Few know much more than one line of one speech, which he knew would ‘go up like a rocket’, and which destroyed both his reputation and the political discourse around immigration for decades. But Enoch Powell is one of the giants of the health service, too. The mark he made on it is arguably as tangible as Bevan’s. 

I discovered this when I was researching my book, Fighting for Life, which covers the 75 years of the NHS.