Streeting and Starmer blaming the Tories for the NHS won’t hold forever
In two months Sir Keir Starmer MP and Wes Streeting MP have already completed numerous rites of passage for a new Prime Minister and Secretary of State for Health.
But there’s one part of the job where there is an obvious, and deliberate, delay.
Every Downing Street administration I’ve covered has been stunned at how fiercely No 10 gets the blame for almost all of the country’s ills. This government is trying to stave that off for as long as possible by shouting from the rooftops, ‘It’s not us, guvnor!’
You shouldn’t be surprised. The clues were in the campaign, Chancellor Rachel Reeves repeating her mantra that, if victorious, Labour would receive the “worst economic inheritance since World War Two”.
Since taking power, the government’s message has been relentlessly focused on what they say is the dire state of the economy, the dreadful state of our prisons.
A big review of the NHS is due, so prepare to hear from Wes Streeting about the terrible condition of parts of the health service, too.
