Politics

Gordon Brown: ‘This will be end of the NHS if the Tories have their way’

Gordon Brown has warned that we could be looking at the end of the NHS following Sajid Javid’s proposals.

The former prime minister said the Tories were “testing the water” with plans laid out by the former health secretary to bring in means-tested fees.

He said: “The direction in which the Conservatives are travelling is already clear. The sick would pay for being sick.

“Charging would lead to the better-off sections of the population taking out private insurance – creating a two-tier healthcare system.”

Brown also pointed to the doorstep support most Conservative MPs gave health workers during the Covid-19 pandemic, but how willingly they have dismissed them post-pandemic.

“Today’s Tories may have clapped NHS nurses and health workers at the height of the pandemic.

“But now they are not only opposing decent remuneration for them but also contemplating a more privately financed healthcare system”, he said.

In a blistering thread he reminded voters that the part of government initially opposed the introduction of the NHS having attempted in 1944 to impose charges and private insurance.

The former PM says they haven’t changed their tune since, calling for them to turn their focus instead to reform and modernisation.

Read the full thread below:

Related: ‘This is dangerous’: Sunak chairs NHS crisis meeting packed with private health CEOs

Jack Peat

Jack is a business and economics journalist and the founder of The London Economic (TLE). He has contributed articles to VICE, Huffington Post and Independent and is a published author. Jack read History at the University of Wales, Bangor and has a Masters in Journalism from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

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