The Socialist Health Association’s Esther Giles responds to Chancellor John Healey’s Labour Party Conference speech.

When one strips away the warm rhetoric about red ties and miners’ lamps, the overriding message from John Healey’s speech this week was that “fiscal discipline” was first and foremost in his priorities. And that “fiscal discipline” meant adhering to former Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ Treasury rules. He said that the October budget would be based on “fiscal discipline” in order to provide businesses with Breathing Space and to Give Hope.

Healey confirmed that the Government would invest in three maritime projects to strengthen national security and drive growth. There is nothing new in these plans- with the exception that the business of building the shipyards will be restricted to British suppliers- and so will be much more likely to drive growth and build employment and skills in Britain. We hope that other public procurements will go the same way. 

We want the same approach to be taken with the Palantir contract for the NHS. We call for the break clause to be exercised in February 2027, and the contract transferred to a UK-based firm, or ideally, to build an in-house alternative using something like the Greater Manchester locally-built data platform. The former Science Minister, Patrick Vallance, previously suggested that future tech investments would be handled differently, including putting British companies first. Since these data contracts are already budgeted, they will not fall foul of the Treasury investment rules.

Healey made no mention of investing in the NHS. Apart from a reference to Reeves’ success in reducing NHS waiting lists – which are actually rising and still over 7 million – and the NHS’s role as a “foundational institution”, he stated, in relation to ‘debt’ that the “cost of the nation’s debt is …the money that we can’t spend on the NHS.”

This last statement, coupled with his emphasis on complying with “fiscal rules” and that “there is no money” suggests a tough budget for the NHS in October. The NHS is an essential investment in the nation’s health and is a top priority for the many who need it – including getting people well and back to work. Investing in the NHS would create meaningful work for our population, thus delivering on Government aims to improve skills and opportunities for young and older people alike. 

We call on the Government to end the internal market in the NHS, return it to a fully publicly funded and provided service, and to provide the services that the population needs in the context of a fully functioning welfare state. This is the investment that the nation needs.

Esther Giles is Treasurer of the Socialist Health Association.

Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Save_our_NHS_(49874977626).jpg Source: Save our NHS Author: Ronnie Macdonald from Chelmsford, United Kingdom, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.