Several years ago, I spotted Wes Streeting as a potential leader of the Labour Party. What impressed me were his verbal skills, his unflappability, his presence: in any conversation, his was the voice that somehow got most attention.
How things change. Now I know him better and see him for the smooth-talking windbag he is.
In 2022 he said “It isn’t true that the NHS is the envy of the world.”
How do you know that, Wes? The only people I’ve heard who dismiss the NHS are those who are in favour of privatising medicine and making lots of money. Wouldn’t you be better making the NHS more efficient rather than joining those who point to its weaknesses? The NHS is one of the greatest achievements of a British government. Get your shoulder behind the wheel, Wes, rather than sticking in a spoke that’ll slow it down further.
In 2024, Streeting said “It’s not good enough that the NHS uses every winter crisis and every challenge it faces as an excuse to ask for more money.”
So it’s not a lack of money that leaves us with virtually no possibility of being treated by an NHS dentist, an NHS optician? Or being put on a waiting list for a hip replacement that stretches out to the crack of doom? Yes, there are things in the NHS which could be improved. But pretending that it’s not grossly underfunded is right-wing rubbish.
Here’s what Guardian columnist John Crace thinks of Wes :
“No one is ever going to love Wes in quite the same way Wes loves Wes.”
There are lots of other critics who have spotted the snake-oil salesman behind the bland mask, but I think Crace has got it just about right.
It is difficult to think of Streeting as the occupant of No 10 without emitting a loud and panic-stricken scream.
Streeting has now resigned, Andy Burnham is being gifted a winnable seat in the north of England. The MP who has given up his seat will probably be handed a cushy job in the scroungers Parliament, the House of Lords. That’s where has been MPs or ones who have messed up go to live out their days on a rate no PIP claimant would ever get.