Private hospitals coming to the NHS’s rescue? Labour should know better

‘To go private without introducing a major reform of the for-profit sector is taking a massive risk.’ Wes Streeting, who suggested private hospitals could help the NHS. Photograph: Lucy North/PA

You can only assume that Wes Streeting’s recent embrace of the private hospital sector as a solution to the current health crisis stems from naivety about how UK private healthcare works, or is part of the Labour leadership’s attempts to turn it into a party of the centre right.

It is certainly not based on evidence.