Streeting defends allowing former health secretary to attend Government meetings

The Health Secretary faced questions in the House of Commons over the work of Alan Milburn.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting was accused of sidestepping questions from the Opposition during an urgent question in the House of Commons (Jeff Moore/PA) (PA Wire)

Wes Streeting has defended allowing former Labour health secretary Alan Milburn to attend meetings in the Department of Health despite having no official role.

Health Secretary Mr Streeting told MPs that he decides who to hear from in meetings, whose advice he seeks and what to share with them, amid Conservative questions over whether Mr Milburn has access to sensitive information.

Mr Streeting was accused of sidestepping questions from the Opposition during an urgent question in the House of Commons, which followed a report from The Sunday Times highlighting Mr Milburn’s attendance at meetings.

Speaking in the Commons, Mr Streeting said he was “confronted with the worst crisis in the history of the NHS” when he took office after the general election.

He said: “This Government is honest about the scale of the crisis and serious about fixing it, and that means we need the best available advice, it’s all hands on deck to fix the mess that they (the Conservatives) left.

“And if a single patient waited longer for treatment than they needed to because I’d failed to ask for the most expert advice around I would consider that a betrayal of patients’ interests.

“I decide who I hear from in meetings, I decide whose advice I seek and I decide what to share with them, and I also welcome challenge, alternative perspectives and experience.

“The right honourable Alan Milburn is a former member of this House, still a member of the Privy Council and a former health secretary. He doesn’t have a pass to the department and at every departmental meeting he has attended, he has been present at the request of ministers.”

Shouts of “So what?” could be heard as Mr Streeting listed Mr Milburn’s experience, including his work as health secretary to give patients the choice on where they are treated and who treats them.

Mr Streeting went on: “He made the tough reforms that drove better performance across the NHS and along with every other Labour health secretary delivered the shortest waiting times and highest patient satisfaction in the history of the NHS.

“That’s his record, that’s Labour’s record, that’s the kind of experience I want around the table as we write the reform agenda that will lift the NHS out of the worst crisis in its history, get it back on its feet and make it fit for the future once again.”

Conservative former health secretary Victoria Atkins, now serving as shadow health secretary, said it was a “shame” Mr Streeting “needs all that help and experience”, adding: “The rest of us have just got on with the job.”

She noted the department manages “incredibly sensitive information”, ranging from the development of healthcare policy to the handling of market-sensitive information on vaccines and medication and rules regarding patient confidentiality.

Ms Atkins highlighted Mr Milburn’s private health sector interests, adding: “Given the risks of conflicts of interest – and that is the point of this UQ, not (Mr Streeting’s) inexperience – has Mr Milburn declared his business interests to the department and can (Mr Streeting) reassure the House on how these conflicts are being managed?”

Ms Atkins also claimed: “This is just more evidence of cronyism at the heart of this new Labour government.”

Mr Streeting criticised Ms Atkins’ record as health secretary, claiming: “In the two-and-a-half years I was the shadow secretary of state for health and social care, she was the fifth and among the worst.”

He faced repeated shouts of “answer the question” as he criticised the Conservative Party’s record, with Mr Streeting adding: “What she is implying in this question is that as health secretary she never sought the advice of people who didn’t work in her department, which would explain quite a lot actually.”

Mr Streeting said the Conservatives used to “hug him close when they were cosplaying as new Labour” as he said a former Tory health secretary asked whether Mr Milburn would chair a health body.

He noted: “Alan sensibly turned him down and labelled the reorganisation ‘the biggest car crash in the NHS’, which just goes to prove that Alan Milburn has got sound judgment and is worth listening to.”

Tory former minister Kit Malthouse accused Mr Streeting of deciding “attack is the best form of defence”.