Latest news with #MrStreeting
Telegraph
11 hours ago
- Health
- Telegraph
Make assisted dying work, Starmer tells Streeting
Sir Keir Starmer has said he will make assisted dying work, in a rebuke to his Health Secretary who claimed there was no budget for it. Mr Streeting said at the weekend that the NHS did not offer a good enough palliative care service to provide people with choice at the end of their lives. But Sir Keir, who voted in favour of the assisted dying legislation, said it was his responsibility as Prime Minister to make the Bill 'workable'. In a rebuke to Mr Streeting, he said he was 'confident' the Government had done the necessary preparation. It marks a further deepening of the Cabinet rift. Critics of Mr Streeting argue he should prepare to implement the will of Parliament, rather than making interventions against the law. Last week the House of Commons voted narrowly to support Kim Leadbeater's Private Member's Bill, and it will now be scrutinised in the House of Lords. The Government is officially neutral on the bill, and MPs were given a free vote, which meant they did not have to vote along party lines. While Sir Keir is a supporter of the legislation, Mr Streeting is against it, partly on religious grounds. The Prime Minister was asked whether the will of Parliament should be implemented and the budget found during his trip to The Hague, where he attended a Nato summit. He replied: 'It is my responsibility to make sure the bill is workable, and that means workable in all its aspects. I'm confident we've done that preparation.' Critics accuse the Health Secretary of breaking the spirit of the government's neutrality by speaking out so openly about his opposition. In a lengthy message on Facebook after the Commons supported assisted dying by just 23 votes, Mr Streeting claimed that despite his opposition, he would 'make sure that we do a good job with it for the country'. But he quoted former Labour prime minister Gordon Brown 's position that 'there is no effective freedom to choose if the alternative option... is not available', referring to sufficient end-of-life care provisions. Mr Streeting wrote: 'The truth is that creating those conditions will take time and money. 'Even with the savings that might come from assisted dying if people take up the service – and it feels uncomfortable talking about savings in this context to be honest – setting up this service will also take time and money that is in short supply. 'There isn't a budget for this. Politics is about prioritising. It is a daily series of choices and trade-offs. I fear we've made the wrong one.' Campaigners in favour of the bill say it will give terminally ill adults the choice on how they want to die and prevent painful deaths, but critics argue it risks people being coerced into seeking an assisted death. The Terminally Ill Adults Bill was backed by 314 votes to 291 – a majority of 23, which was much lower than the 55 majority when the bill was first debated in November. If the House of Lords approve the bill later this year, ministers would have a maximum of four years to implement the measures, meaning it could be 2029 before assisted dying becomes available.
The Independent
11 hours ago
- Health
- The Independent
Starmer slaps down Wes Streeting after he claims there is ‘no budget' for assisted dying
The health secretary last week said he is concerned MPs made the wrong choice by voting through Kim Leadbeater's historic legislation last week. But asked about his remarks while on the plane to the Nato summit in The Hague, the prime minister - who voted for the Bill - decisively hit back, saying: 'It is my responsibility to make sure the bill is workable, and that means workable in all its aspects.' 'I'm confident we've done that preparation', he added. While Cabinet ministers were asked to avoid weighing in too heavily on the debate, as MPs were encouraged to vote with their consciences rather than on party lines, Mr Streeting became a vocal critic of the bill in the lead up to the vote. Posting to Facebook after opposing the legislation in the Commons, he warned that legalising assisted dying would take 'time and money' away from other parts of the health service. The health secretary said better end-of-life care was needed to prevent terminally ill people feeling they had no alternative but to end their own life. Mr Streeting also said he could not ignore the concerns 'about the risks that come with this Bill' raised by the Royal College of Psychiatrists, the Royal College of Physicians, the Association for Palliative Medicine and charities representing under-privileged groups. 'Gordon Brown wrote this week that 'there is no effective freedom to choose if the alternative option, the freedom to draw on high-quality end-of-life care, is not available. Neither is there real freedom to choose if, as many fear, patients will feel under pressure to relieve their relatives of the burden of caring for them, a form of coercion that prioritising good end-of-life care would diminish.' He is right', he said. 'The truth is that creating those conditions will take time and money. 'Even with the savings that might come from assisted dying if people take up the service – and it feels uncomfortable talking about savings in this context to be honest – setting up this service will also take time and money that is in short supply. 'There isn't a budget for this. Politics is about prioritising. It is a daily series of choices and trade-offs. I fear we've made the wrong one.' But he said his Department of Health and Social Care 'will continue to work constructively with Parliament to assist on technical aspects of the Bill' as it goes through the House of Lords after clearing the Commons with a majority of 23 votes on Friday. Assisted dying campaigner Dame Esther Rantzen urged peers not to block the landmark legislation. Dame Esther told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 'I don't need to teach the House of Lords how to do their job. 'They know it very well, and they know that laws are produced by the elected chamber. 'Their job is to scrutinise, to ask questions, but not to oppose. 'So yes, people who are adamantly opposed to this Bill, and they have a perfect right to oppose it, will try and stop it going through the Lords, but the Lords themselves, their duty is to make sure that law is actually created by the elected chamber, which is the House of Commons who have voted this through.' Dame Esther, who turns 85 on Sunday and has terminal cancer, acknowledged the legislation would probably not become law in time for her to use it and she would have to 'buzz off to Zurich' to use the Dignitas clinic. As it stands, the Bill would allow terminally ill adults in England and Wales, with fewer than six months to live, to apply for an assisted death, subject to approval by two doctors and a panel featuring a social worker, a senior legal figure and a psychiatrist.
Telegraph
12-06-2025
- Health
- Telegraph
Family doctors could run hospitals under NHS shake-up
The plan will give more power to NHS foundation trusts, which were created under the last Labour government and hailed by Mr Streeting as 'one of the most successful reforms in the last 25 years'. He said it would 'reinvigorate' and 'reinvent' the model, which could now include them running GP services, and will see them take on more responsibility for how to run healthcare in their local areas. It comes after the NHS was given a record £29 billion funding injection in Wednesday's spending review, with officials declaring the health service had been the 'winner', while other public services lost out. Mr Streeting said that it was right to think 'that's a hell of a lot of money' but that think tanks were also right in saying it 'is nowhere near enough'. 'The truth is both are right. It is objectively a substantial settlement that puts wind in our sails,' he said. 'The investment alone isn't enough.' 'A lot of money, but not enough' Matthew Taylor, the chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said: 'Redesigning services is essential to the future of the NHS and many providers are already breaking down their traditional silos to offer patients truly personalised and integrated care. 'The extra funding announced at the spending review is very welcome and as Mr Streeting says, it is both a lot of money and not enough,' he said. 'Our members will welcome Mr Streeting confirming he will support them to make the difficult decisions needed to redesign services. This is something we have been calling for and will be a weight off the minds of many system and provider leaders. 'We also welcome his announcement that the upcoming 10-year plan will put an end to central control and place more power into the hands of local leaders to lead and innovative to benefit their populations.'
Telegraph
13-05-2025
- Health
- Telegraph
Streeting: I'd rather tax the rich more than bring insurance into NHS
The Department of Health and Social Care is one of several departments that has received 'ringfenced' funding in this year's spending review, which will be announced by Rachel Reeves next month. Mr Streeting also said Reform was 'genuinely' Labour's 'main opposition' after the collapse of the Conservative vote at the local elections earlier this month. Leaflets sent to voters by Labour during the campaign were designed to look like medical bills, detailing a £75,000 charge for NHS services including a GP appointment, MRI scan and ambulance trip. Mr Streeting's comments will raise concerns that the Government will put up taxes in the next four years to pay for NHS services, which he said were facing an 'existential' crisis. He said: 'The principles of the NHS are contested. The crisis makes it existential, [and] so do the challenges. 'And so it's my job and the job of this Labour Government to get the NHS back on its feet, to get it out of the worst crisis in its history, but also to make it sustainable for the long term, fit for the future, and to defend the principles upon which the NHS was founded.' Jokes about private schools During Monday's event, Mr Streeting also joked about private schools that have complained about the end of charitable relief on VAT and business rates. Taxing private schools more will raise £90 million a year for the Treasury by 2029, but parents and teachers have said it will lead to the closure of schools and more pressure on the state sector. 'There was a point at which almost every day there was some kind of terrible case study of someone who was going to kind of struggle to go on all of their family holidays because of changes to private school fees,' Mr Streeting said. 'Private schools were going to be shutting in enormous numbers. 'You mean the same sort of numbers there have been over the last decade, when you've been doing inflation-busting increases on your own school fees? Come on, guys, keep it credible.'
