Wes Streeting has strongly defended inviting former Labour Health Secretary Alan Milburn to meetings at the Health Department and sharing documents with him.
The current Health Secretary told Camilla Tominey on GB News: “I make no bones about the fact that in opposition and now in government, I've turned to Alan Milburn for advice.
“He has been with me in opposition and in government, helping to shape Labour’s reform agenda, advising me as the Secretary of State, and of course meetings that Alan Milburn has attended, that I have invited him to.
“I have chosen to share papers with him and every other attendee of meetings, nothing commercially sensitive, nothing inappropriate, but meetings because he's an outstanding former Health Secretary and I'm proud to have Alan Milburn’s support and advice.”
Asked if Milburn has a pass for the Department of Health, Streeting said: “I don’t know, actually…he's a former Health Secretary with an outstanding track record. And look, we can continue down this line of questioning. I'll continue to say the same thing.
“I am not remotely embarrassed or apologetic about having Alan Milburn involved in helping this Government to shape a reform agenda that would be able to deliver the same kind of results as the last Labour government.”
Camilla also asked if he was happy sharing official documents with Milburn and Streeting replied: “Alan Milburn is one of my advisors. He comes in to advise me as the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care.
“I've chosen to ask for Alan's help because he has an outstanding record as Health Secretary, a record that the Conservatives can't even begin to touch, a record that they trashed in their 14 years of disaster and incompetence.”
He also defended describing a review into children’s health as independent when the author, Lord Darzi, is a former Labour minister: “Lord Darzi is an independent peer and has worked with both Labour and Conservative-led governments.
“More importantly and fundamentally, he's someone with decades of experience in our NHS. That's where his loyalties lie.
“The reason I asked Lord Darzi to do this work is that in order to write the correct prescription for the NHS, we first need the doctor to provide us with the diagnosis and that's what Lord Darzi has done at breakneck speed.
“Lots of people said, ‘oh, is this going to be one of those reviews that takes years?’ No, in the last eight weeks, he's been hard at work.
“I gave his team unfettered access to data held by the Department of Health and Social Care by NHS England, and this week, he'll be publishing his report, and it's for him to publish his report and set out his findings.
“But having spoken to him this week about the headlines and read some of the reports in the newspapers today, it's pretty clear to people the gravity of the situation, the depth of the crisis in the NHS and that we need not just investment but reform to get our NHS back on its feet and make sure it's fit for the future.”
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