LABOUR MPs have raked in more than £300,000 from donors linked to private healthcare firms as the party pushes for further NHS privatisation, the Sunday National can reveal.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting vowed before the General Election last year that a Labour Government would increase the use of the private sector in the NHS, vowing to “go further than New Labour did” and to form partnerships that “go beyond just hospitals”.
And now, since his party was elected with a huge majority on July 5, 2024, Labour MPs have registered £305,269 in donations from organisations or individuals with links to private healthcare, according to the register of interests – although some appear to have been received during the campaign and logged afterwards.
The biggest donor is Martin Taylor, who has given a total of £99,200.
The hedge fund manager’s firm Crake Asset Management holds £30 million in shares in US private healthcare insurer United Health, while The Ferret revealed in November last year that it has also bought shares worth more than £8m in HCA Healthcare – one of the leading private healthcare providers in the UK – since July.
Taylor is also Labour’s biggest donor overall in recent years – giving more than £6m to the party, its MPs and a Labour think tank since April 2020.
Labour Together – which helped Keir Starmer into power and purged the party of Jeremy Corbyn and the left-wing – received a further cash boost of £650,000 from Taylor in the second half of 2024.
The MP who received the most from the millionaire – and from donors with links to private healthcare overall – is Starmer ally and former Labour Together director Josh Simons.
The Labour MP for Makerfield was given £47,000 in November by the hedge fund manager to “support my work as an MP”, according to the register.
Simons made headlines after saying smuggler gangs helping people to cross the English Channel should be placed on a barge, adding: “And then ship the barge up to the north of Scotland for all I care. Who cares?”
Chancellor Rachel Reeves registered the second most donations with links to private healthcare since July 5 last year at £31642.
The Labour minister and MP received £12,929 from FGS Global, a PR and lobbying firm that has clients including United Health subsidiary Optum Health Solutions and Accord Healthcare.
This went towards the “cost of room hire, refreshments, security, photography, AV and other logistical costs” for a reception after her speech at the Labour Party’s conference in September.
The firm also paid for the services of a “campaign adviser” during the General Election at a value of £3,713.05.
Finally, she also accepted £15,000 to “support her office” from Tim Allen, a former Tony Blair advisor and founder of lobbying firm Portland Communications – which represents pharmaceutical industry clients including Vertex Pharmaceuticals, which refused to offer the NHS a drug for treating cystic fibrosis in 2019 despite offers of £500m.
Security Minister Dan Jarvis received the third most.
The Labour MP for Barnsley North accepted £30,000 from the OPD Group, which is listed as a company “controlled by” Peter Hearn – a recruitment executive whose firms work with “senior NHS executive recruitment and helps private healthcare providers recruit healthcare professionals”, according to EveryDoctor, a medic-led group which campaigns for a better NHS.
The firm donated a further £17,000 to Labour MPs in total.
Meanwhile, the second biggest donor with private healthcare links since July is Trevor Chinn, one of Labour Together’s founders who is also a senior advisor to CVC Capital Partners – which holds investments in several private health firms.
Another longtime Labour donor, Labour MPs have registered £50,200 in donations from Chinn since July – although some appear to have been accepted during the campaign.
Lobbying and PR firm PLMR – whose clients include recruitment agency Adecco, which provides temporary staff to the NHS – has donated £7603.30 for event costs for Labour MP Jack Abbott.
Its founder Kevin Craig, meanwhile, also stumped out a further £5124 for “telemarketing” for the Ipswich MP and a further unspecified £10000 donation.
Sovereign Strategy, a lobbying firm that notably represents private healthcare giant Novartis, paid £5,592.79 for Labour MP Rosena Allin-Khan to attend and speak at the 4th Global High-Level Ministerial Conference on Antimicrobial Resistance in November.
Clive Hollick, a Labour peer who holds shares in HCA Healthcare, donated £17,500 to various Labour MPs.
Lord Jonathan Mendelsohn – a sitting director at private healthcare company the Europa Healthcare Group – and the company he controls, Red Capital, have donated £32000 – including to Labour minister Sarah Sackman.
The Scottish Greens have expressed concern over the level of donations.
“Private health companies aren’t bankrolling the Labour Party because they are generous people or because they care about the NHS,” MSP Gillian Mackay said.
“They are doing it because they want to influence government policies and profit from them.”
She went on: “Wes Streeting’s appointment will have been music to the ears of private health companies. He’s already made it very clear that the Labour Government wants more private involvement in healthcare rather than less.
“Healthcare is a right, and should not be treated as a cash cow by companies who are more interested in making money than they are in patient care.”
Dr Julia Patterson, the chief executive of EveryDoctor, said it was “deeply concerning”
She added: “It's always difficult to track exactly how influence is built in Westminster, but with the NHS in a state of absolute emergency, and a new government that is eager to advance NHS privatisation, we need to ask exactly why these donations are being made.”
