Veteran broadcaster Andrew Neil has sharply criticised Health Secretary Wes Streeting, questioning whether or not he ought to give attention to his present tasks moderately than manoeuvring for a possible Labour management bid. Speaking on Times Radio, Neil delivered a pointed six-word comment aimed toward Streeting: “Shouldn’t he get on with the day job?”
The remark got here throughout a dialogue about Labour Party dynamics and the continued pressures going through the NHS. Neil warned that whereas Keir Starmer’s authority throughout the celebration might have been weakened, Downing Street stays a “powerful propaganda machine” able to exploiting inner dissent.
Highlighting the pressing well being challenges, Neil pressured the persevering with disaster in NHS ready lists and hospital care.
He stated: “Isn’t he the Health Secretary? Don’t we have a winter NHS crisis? Don’t we have a problem that the waiting lists are still not coming down anything like fast enough?”
According to Neil, the ready checklist for NHS remedy has solely decreased from 7.4million to 7.2million.
He additionally emphasised that Streeting’s function comes with important duty.
“The single biggest problem the Government faces is getting its health service back on track, raising its productivity, and making it a much better service than it is,” Neil stated.
“Shouldn’t he get on with that rather than all this self-serving, solipsistic candidacy manoeuvring?”
Streeting, a outstanding determine in Labour’s Cabinet, has been broadly mentioned as a possible management contender, a place that has fuelled hypothesis about celebration manoeuvring forward of future elections.
Neil warned that making an attempt to steadiness management ambitions with a demanding Cabinet function may backfire politically, particularly given public scrutiny over NHS efficiency.
The broadcaster’s feedback underscore the pressures going through ministers throughout the winter interval, when hospitals are coping with excessive affected person demand, staffing shortages and a rising backlog of elective procedures.
With ready lists remaining traditionally excessive and providers struggling to get well from the pandemic, Neil argued that public and political priorities ought to centre on affected person care moderately than inner celebration manoeuvres.
In November, Mr Streeting denied plotting in opposition to the prime minister after management claims.
He stated briefings to the press in opposition to him have been “the worst attack on a faithful since Joe Marler was banished in The Traitors final”.
The Ilford North MP added: “Someone has definitely been watching too much Celebrity Traitors. They should swap to Countryfile.”
https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/2149476/andrew-neil-blasts-wes-streeting-nhs