Labour’s plan to save the NHS – on a budget

Wes Streeting interprets his job as shadow health secretary as being a ‘public service role and an economic role’. ‘There is a direct relationship between the health of the nation and the health of the economy,’ he told a Policy Exchange event at the Labour party conference on Monday. Echoing the sentiment of his shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves, Streeting makes clear that while a Labour government would work to preserve the health service, it would approach NHS funding with iron discipline. And it doesn’t really seem like Labour would have much other choice. As one Tory MP remarked during the Conservative party conference: ‘What can Labour offer? They can’t offer more money – because we’ve spent it all!’

Resurrecting the NHS is possible, Streeting believes, and it isn’t about altering the funding system. He was careful about his language; rather than ‘reform’, Streeting eased into the conversation by discussing the need to ‘rewire the way we do healthcare in this country’.