A LABOUR minister has ducked a question on her party’s extensive links with private healthcare firms.
SNP MP Seamus Logan asked about Labour’s connections with for-profit health companies, highlighting an investigation showing that the Health Secretary had taken £372,000 from such firms over the last decade.
The Good Law project has calculated that Wes Streeting has taken £58,000 people and companies linked with private healthcare companies since entering Government last July.
Speaking at Scotland Questions in the Commons on Wednesday morning, Logan said: “With cuts to public services coming down the line, is the Secretary of State or the minister worried about the influence of private health donors on his Cabinet colleagues?”
Scotland Office minister Kirsty McNeill replied: “[He] says there have been cuts to public services.
“Let me put on record once again: this Labour Government pledged to end austerity and we have, with a record settlement for Scotland’s public services, money that has been squandered by the SNP Government such that we are still in a situation where nearly one in six Scots are on a waiting list, whereas south of the Border, waiting lists have fallen for the fifth month in a row.
“That’s the difference a Labour Government with a plan and willingness to fund it makes.”
Speaking after the publication of the Good Law Project’s latest probe into Streeting’s links with private healthcare, executive director Jo Maugham said: “Those backers are not stupid and this is not a remarkable coincidence. What do those backers think they are getting for their money? It’s our NHS and we have a right to know.”
