THE SNP have pledged to introduce a bill in a bid to “protect the NHS” within the first 100 days of the General Election.
Stephen Flynn, the party’s candidate in Aberdeen South, said the move was necessary as Labour are planning “massive privatisation” of the health service should they come to power.
He has claimed that Starmer’s party is “far more interested in selling the NHS than saving it” in a piece for the Daily Record.
The move comes after shadow health secretary Wes Streeting vowed to go “further” than Tony Blair in making use of the private sector in a bid to ease NHS pressures.
Writing in the Record, Flynn said: “The Labour Party isn’t hiding it anymore either – massive privatisation of the NHS is now their plan.
“That’s why after the election, in the first 100 days, SNP MPs will bring forward a new law at Westminster to keep the NHS safely in public hands.
“A new SNP law that will bind the hands of the UK Government – ensuring our health service is fully protected as publicly owned, publicly operated, and with its services publicly commissioned.”
Flynn also gave his thoughts on Streeting in his column, saying he had been “hinting at his privatisation plans for the best part of two years”.
“He has openly discussed ‘holding the door wide open’ to private interests in the NHS, and private healthcare investors have said the Labour Party would “kick-start private sector investment much more proactively than the Tories were able to do”.
Labour have so far denied claims that allowing independent hospitals to operate on NHS patients free at the point of need amounts to privatisation.
Scottish Labour’s deputy leader Jackie Baillie (above) was left fuming with Flynn’s comments and claimed her party “will always fight” for the NHS.
“It is rank hypocrisy for the SNP to try and position themselves as the defenders of our NHS when they are responsible for the chaos engulfing services in Scotland.
“Under the SNP, more and more people are being forced to pay for private healthcare in order to escape massive waiting lists, with private hospital admissions in Scotland rising four times faster than they are in England.”
