Wes Streeting to criticise Nigel Farage’s ‘miserabilist, declinist’ vision of Britain

Wes Streeting will say the government will prove Farage and others on the populist right wrong on the NHS. Photograph: Ben Whitley/PA

Wes Streeting is to criticise Nigel Farage for pushing a “miserabilist, declinist” vision of Britain, arguing it is time to start fighting a battle of ideas against the rightwing populists.

In a speech on Saturday the health secretary will say failing public services have been a “fertiliser of populism” because they have bred cynicism about the ability of politics to effect change.