While the NHS in Croydon is slipping back on one of its key performance measures, the health secretary has been busy positioning himself for a possible new job. ANDREW FISHER on the conflicted priorities of the Labour government
Eye on the prize: health secretary Wes Streeting has been rumoured to be after another job
At the General Election last year, the NHS was the top priority for voters. NHS waiting lists had risen from 2.5million in 2010 to 7.59million by July 2024.
In the past week, Wes Streeting, the health secretary, was celebrating that waiting lists had fallen to 7.39million by the end of September, down from 7.41 million in August. “The NHS is on the road to recovery,” Streeting declared.
So by September, when Labour had been in office for 14 months, waiting lists were down by 200,000. This is welcome, but at this rate of progress waiting lists would still be around 6.7million by the time of the next General Election 2029.
That would mean still far too many people waiting too long – with the devastating consequences for people’s health and quality of life.
In Croydon, things are going backwards on one of the key targets. In November 2024, at Croydon Health Services NHS Trust, 70.7% of patients were starting treatment within 18 weeks. By September 2025, only 68.3% of Croydon patients were receiving treatment within 18 weeks.
Croydon, however, remains in better shape than the 61.8% average from treatment within 18 weeks across England.
Now, given the extra funding that Labour has provided the NHS following last year’s Budget, it might take time for that to feed through. The gains made so far may accelerate in future years.
Slight recovery: there has been only a modest reduction in NHS waiting lists so far under the Labour government
That is plausible, but there are also considerable headwinds. Just this past week, resident doctors (what we used to call junior doctors) have been on strike over pay, which has seen many operations cancelled.
Streeting has described the industrial action as “reckless and irresponsible”, while the British Medical Association point out that “pay is still one-fifth down on the value that it had in 2008”, and there are “thousands of doctors who are unable to get into training posts, are unable to become the specialists and the GPs of the future that we need”.
And this week, there has also been a report by the House of Commons’ cross-party Public Accounts Committee that states that progress in meeting NHS targets has “stalled”.
The committee, which has a majority of Labour MPs, stated it was “not confident that the department [of health] is being realistic about the immense effort needed to reduce NHS elective care waiting times, and see a significant risk that digital solutions are being treated as a cure-all”.
Doctors in dispute: the strike by members of the BMA won’t help Streeting reduce the NHS waiting lists
The committee also expressed concern about the abolition of NHS England, because of “the risks to value for money raised by sudden policy changes that are not supported by sufficient funding and planning”.
There is also growing concern over rumours that a Private Finance Initiative will be launched to build new NHS facilities.
The first round of PFI – begun under John Major and massively expanded under the Blair governments – landed NHS hospitals with massive debts and tied into extortionate maintenance contracts, diverting NHS funding into the profits of private finance companies.
One of those campaigning against these proposals is Dr Simon Opher, the Labour MP for Stroud, and a former GP and former chairman of the Stroud Locality NHS. He has been protesting outside the Department for Health for the NHS “to continue to be publicly funded”.
Whether the NHS improves under Labour, and at what rate, is likely to be a make or break issue for the Labour government, and for health secretary Wes Streeting …
One eye on Downing Street …
Wes Streeting has other ambitions, according to several Labour MPs who have noticed his “manoeuvres” in recent weeks to position himself as successor to embattled Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
Even No10 has noticed Streeting’s ambitions, and anonymous sources briefed journalists about this last week. The clumsy way this was handled led to a backlash, that Downing Street staff were briefing against their own minister. Streeting went on the attack, decrying the “toxic culture” in No10. And Starmer apologised to Streeting.
There were rumours that Streeting and his allies could move for the leadership as soon as next week’s Budget, which was expected to land badly if Chancellor Rachel Reeves went ahead and, according to yet another rumour, broke Starmer’s Labour’s manifesto pledge not to raise income tax.
What is clear is that Labour MPs are reacting to public opinion surveys showing that Keir Starmer is the most unpopular Prime Minister in British polling history.
Whether Streeting, who only has a majority of 500 in his Ilford North constituency, is either a viable or the best candidate to replace Keir Starmer is less certain.
A cynic might suggest that seeking to topple Starmer sooner rather than later means that Streeting or any other candidate prevents the only Labour national figure who polls well, Andy Burnham, from being a challenger, as he is not currently an MP. Well, not yet, anyway…
Either way, Labour needs a health secretary focused on the job of fixing the NHS.
- From 2015 to 2019, Andrew Fisher was the Labour Party’s Director of Policy under Jeremy Corbyn
- Fisher is also the author of The Failed Experiment – and how to build an economy that works, and now writes columns for InsideCroydon, the i newspaper and is a regular pundit on BBC and Sky News programmes
As well as his column, Andrew is also conducting podcast interviews, in-depth and informed, with specialists and national figures, sharing their expertise with Croydon. They include an exclusive with Paul Holden, the author of the explosive new investigative book, The Fraud. It’s well worth a listen.- It’s available now on Inside Croydon’s Spotify channel
Andrew Fisher’s recent columns:
- Now even Mayor Perry agrees we need to Fund Croydon Fairly
- We have been betrayed by broken promises, deceit and scandal
- MP Reed caps off his high-profile week with a flood of protest
- Labour’s scandals and dramas reflected in Croydon politics
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