{"id":62788,"date":"2025-08-13T00:01:17","date_gmt":"2025-08-13T00:01:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/62788\/"},"modified":"2025-08-13T00:01:17","modified_gmt":"2025-08-13T00:01:17","slug":"if-labour-win-power-in-scotland-what-will-they-do-to-our-nhs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/62788\/","title":{"rendered":"If Labour win power in Scotland, what will they do to our NHS?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n But today those are values we constantly have to defend, often from choices being made at Westminster<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n

\n So long as Scotland remains under Westminster control, our health service will never be fully safe from the push towards privatisation.\n<\/p>\n

\n As a registered mental health nurse for more than 36 years, who still works in our NHS, and as convener of the Scottish Parliament\u2019s Health<\/a>, Social Care and Sport Committee, I have seen first hand the challenges our NHS faces, from recovering after the pandemic to tackling waiting times and supporting our dedicated workforce.\n<\/p>\n

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\n Yet too often, our ability to respond to these challenges is hindered by decisions taken by a UK government, whether Tory or Labour, that answers to private donors before it answers to the people of Scotland. Westminster continues to hold the purse strings. It controls trade deals that could open the door to further private sector encroachment.\n<\/p>\n

\n And it is Westminster that dragged us out of the European Union<\/a> against our will, with disastrous consequences for medical research, access to vital medicines, and staffing shortages.\n<\/p>\n

\n Under a Labour UK Government<\/a>, we are witnessing the continuation of creeping privatisation. In England, outsourcing to private healthcare firms has reached record levels, and alarmingly, that same influence is now creeping into Scottish Labour<\/a> itself.\n<\/p>\n

\n Figures revealed that Scottish Labour MPs have received almost \u00a3200,000 in donations from organisations or individuals linked to private healthcare companies.\n<\/p>\n

\n Half of all Scottish Labour MPs, including Ian Murray and Minister Kirsty McNeill, have benefitted from these donations.\n<\/p>\n

\n The largest single donor? Labour Together Ltd, a think tank formerly run by Keir Starmer<\/a>\u2019s chief of staff, and funded by individuals with direct interests in private healthcare investment across the UK and beyond.\n<\/p>\n

\n When Labour\u2019s Health Secretary Wes Streeting<\/a> (pictured) says he wants to \u201chold the door wide open\u201d to private investment in the NHS, and has himself taken over \u00a3220,000 from healthcare linked donors, it\u2019s not hard to see whose interests are being prioritised.\n<\/p>\n

\n No-one should be under any illusions, this isn\u2019t about fringe influence. This is about the heart of Labour policy, being shaped by those with a financial stake in a privatised healthcare system.\n<\/p>\n

\n And here\u2019s the crucial question: if a Labour Party<\/a> led from London so deeply tied to private healthcare were ever in government in Scotland, what would they do to our NHS?\n<\/p>\n

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\n If they are prepared to open England\u2019s health service to the market, and already take money from those who profit from it, what guarantee could the people of Scotland ever have that our NHS would remain truly public? The SNP<\/a> will always oppose any attempts at the privatisation of Scotland\u2019s NHS.\n<\/p>\n

\n But as long as Westminster has the power to legislate over key areas, including trade agreements, regulatory frameworks, and funding models, Scotland\u2019s NHS is never fully safe, not from the Tories<\/a>, and not from Labour.\n<\/p>\n

\n The truth is stark. Our NHS is only as safe as the government that controls the levers of power. And at Westminster, the trajectory is clear, toward a system where profit edges out public service.\n<\/p>\n

\n That\u2019s why independence matters. It\u2019s about having the power to protect what we value most, and to make decisions in line with Scotland\u2019s priorities, not Westminster\u2019s.\n<\/p>\n

\n With independence, we can guarantee that Scotland\u2019s NHS remains publicly owned, publicly operated, and free at the point of need. We can safeguard it not just for today but for generations to come.\n<\/p>\n

\n Clare Haughey is SNP MSP for Rutherglen and previously served as Minister for Mental Health and for Children and Young People. She is currently convener of Holyrood’s\u00a0Health, Social Care and Sport Committee.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"But today those are values we constantly have to defend, often from choices being made at Westminster. So…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":62789,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[102,2960,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-62788","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-healthcare","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62788"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62788\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}