The Prime Minister says he wants to counter corporate power - now we need action
Today, in a speech to Labour Party Conference, the Prime Minister set out a number of ambitious commitments to address the problems the country faces, and named one of the primary causes - the privatisation of public services and the co-option of power by the private sector. Many of these problems come back to our health and the NHS.
The biggest headline was a commitment to the creation of a National Care Service - modelled on the NHS, to help lift the burden that inadequate social care places on the health service and its staff. Just Treatment has long called for properly publicly funded social care to tackle just this problem, and give both care workers and the public the dignified service we all deserve.
We will watch closely to ensure the plans laid out truly match the founding principles of the NHS - free at the point of use, publicly owned, and publicly run - with those most able to pay contributing accordingly through taxes.
Burnham also spoke about how politicians have failed young people. We fully agree. For years our Mad Youth Organise leaders have lived with the consequences of economic and political decisions that put corporate interests ahead of their own.
He promised an end to the deadly waits for adequate mental healthcare young people face. But also raised the prospect of benefits reforms that would place conditions on essential support. With so many scarred by an uncaring, brutal system we will be demanding that his rhetoric on young people isn’t used to mask an underhand attempt to balance the books on the backs of the vulnerable. And we will press for the corporations responsible for driving the youth mental health crisis to be held to account and made to pay.
He also committed to action on unaffordable and inadequate housing and the damage it does to our health. Part of a pattern where commercial and social determinants undermine our health - while a small few profit.
Burnham spoke about the UK becoming a trusted leader in AI - but if his government persists in entrusting NHS patients’ data to a spy tech firm that celebrates their support for a country undertaking a genocide, then that trust has no chance of being secured. If his words of pride about Britain standing up to fascism are more than simply words, then he must end Palantir’s contract in the NHS and all public services.
Finally the PM committed to set out a 10 year plan for the country later this year. That plan has to address the root causes of the injustices NHS patients are facing:
A failing democracy that pays more attention to corporations than people
An underfunded health system being exploited and fragmented by privatised healthcare companies and pharmaceutical corporations
An economy that is worsening interconnected crises of housing, employment, environment, and health - fueling the rise of the far right
There were a number of promising commitments in this speech - but in the coming weeks decisions on the Palantir contract, the budget allocation to the NHS, and his response to calls for a review of the dangerous US-UK deal on drug pricing will tell us a lot about whether he will follow them up with the action NHS patients desperately need.