MPs Vote in Favour of Private NHS Provision

Bill Walker, SNP MSP for Dunfermline, has called on Scottish Labour to clarify their position after 32 Labour MPs at Westminster, including Dunfermline’s Thomas Docherty, voted in favour of “an important role for the private sector in supporting delivery of NHS care”. 

Mr Walker said: “Thomas Docherty and 31 of his Scottish Labour colleagues in Westminster, including the Scottish Labour Party’s Deputy Leader Anas Sarwar and Shadow Scottish Secretary Margaret Curran, want to see private sector provision throughout the NHS. Can Scottish Labour now clarify if this is Labour policy in Scotland? 

“The Labour Party has joined the Tories and Lib Dems in wanting to sell off the NHS, but the SNP will continue to protect our National Health Service in Scotland.”

Bob Doris, SNP MSP and Deputy Convener of the Parliamentary Health Committee, has also voiced concerns. In a letter to Mr Sarwar, he writes:

“As Deputy Leader of Scottish Labour, it is surely the case that your votes and your actions represent the position of the Scottish Labour party on reserved and devolved areas. As the NHS is devolved in Scotland – a position which has ensured the Scottish Government can maintain the NHS as a public service in public hands – can you clarify if Scottish Labour would support an ‘important role for the private sector’ in Scotland’s NHS.” 

Mr Doris adds: “One of the advantages of decisions about Scotland’s NHS being taken in Scotland is that the Scottish Parliament has been able to protect the NHS from the worst of New Labour and Tory/Lib Dem privatisation at the same time as meeting ambitious targets for treatment, waiting times and hospital cleanliness. 

“Does this Labour policy apply to Scotland? Or were Scottish Labour MPs, under their new Scottish Labour leader saying one thing in London and hoping no one in Scotland would notice?”