With Labour’s landslide victory declared, Sir Keir Starmer took to the stage for celebration, and a promise: that “change begins now”. Nowhere is that more sorely needed than our health. Along with the premiership, Sir Keir has inherited a nation commonly referred to as ‘the fat man of Europe’ thanks to two thirds of British adults being overweight or obese; cancer treatment lags two decades behind the rest of the continent, and record numbers are too ill to work. The NHS, stretched to breaking point, would need 685 years to clear the current waiting list backlog according to May figures, with almost 7.6 million people awaiting treatment. No wonder that less than 25 per cent of us are satisfied with the NHS – a figure that was 70 per cent in 2010.
Labour will inevitably be hoping that the theme tune to their last electoral victory rings true: things can only get better. But there is no small challenge ahead for our new leaders, who must preside over an older generation experiencing more years of poor health, more doctors retiring early from burnout, and medical school place limits halting the flow of new recruits.
Here, three experts share the health priorities they want to see the new government take on.
Tim Spector
Geneticist and co-founder of ZOE health research company
“We have the worst health system in Europe, with the greatest levels of obesity, poor mental health and bad cancer outcomes, because we’ve failed over the last two decades to have any serious health policies on prevention – particularly around our diet, which is also among the worst in Europe, with almost 60 per cent of food being ultra-processed.
“The first thing the Government needs to do is admit the scale of the problem. Taxpayers are funding nearly £100 billion a year because of the consequences of poor diets, including three million people unfit for work – money that could be used on prevention or improving our economy.
“Government-funded institutions like schools, universities, care homes and hospitals should have limits of 10 per cent on foods that can be ultra-processed, the same as many Mediterranean countries. We can’t just rely on a future of Ozempic jabs. Politicians here appear to have given up due to the power of the Big Food lobby. These junk food firms make £30 billion a year, but the rest of the country is paying for it.
“I think the NHS should be taken out of political control. In most other countries, it’s not the domain of the political party to run their health service; it’s too important, and it shouldn’t be political. It would be far better to be run by an independent group that had 10-year plans and a budget that wouldn’t require politicians having to answer for everything. That might also help keep focus where it really matters – on doctors treating people and offering lifestyle advice – rather than wasting time in a medical system that has become very bloated, inefficient and bureaucratic.
“Unfortunately, our entire system that was once the envy of the world has become pretty rotten. The time has come to look to our neighbours for how they run their systems and what works, and not be frightened to borrow from them; nor be scared to change.”
Henry Dimbleby
Former government food tsar and co-founder of Chefs in Schools
“A group of schoolchildren told me the other day that they were depressed by the junk food landscape, but also resigned to it. I told them that when I was young, it seemed normal to smoke on the Tube. Change always feels impossible – until it happens.
“The positive news for Labour is that a lot of good health policies, particularly for children, have already been legislated for (though endlessly delayed). That includes the restriction of junk food advertising to children, and the restriction of buy one get one free deals on junk food. Down the line, I’d like to see an extension of the sugary drinks tax, as I set out in the National Food Strategy (a government-commissioned independent review) four years ago.
“Labour has already pledged to ban energy drinks for children under 16 due to their ‘dangerously high’ caffeine content, so that would be a step in the right direction.
“Ensuring children have access to nutritious food is fundamental. There is a huge amount of evidence to show that community eat well schemes, which prescribe fruit and vegetables to those living in poverty, are effective in increasing healthy eating and reducing stress on families, and the Government should also expand the Healthy Start programme (which provides a money card to those on universal credit with children under four, to be used on the likes of fruit, vegetables and pulses), and free school meals. They should push ahead too with mandatory reporting by large food companies on the volumes of high fat, salt and sugar foods (HFSS) they sell, and roll out more South American-style labelling of ultra-processed foods.
“I remain optimistic. Everything that Wes Streeting, formerly the shadow health minister, has said publicly (including that the Government should “steamroll” junk food firms into promoting healthier options) has suggested he takes this really seriously. But I admit that the fact a lot of this was not in the manifesto is cause for concern. Unless we solve this crisis, we are going to end up both a sick and impoverished nation.”
Kamila Hawthorne
Chairman of the Royal College of GPs
“One of the biggest problems we have at the moment is that patients can’t get access to the GPs they want, with around 17.5 per cent of people having to wait two weeks for an appointment. This is an issue of funding, and under-resourcing general practice. What we really need is more GPs so that we can offer more appointments and so for us, the solution is going to be about increased recruitment into GP training, and also increased retention of GPs who are otherwise leaving faster than they’re coming into the profession. That’s partly because they’re getting very burnt out by the increase in workload with numbers of GPs dropping, and it’s particularly bad in deprived areas.
“We also want to see a major initiative on staying healthy for longer. Our new key clinical priority is preventive medicine; thinking about how we prevent weight gain and unhealthy diets, and pushing through the initiatives that have been started on the likes of stopping smoking. Alcohol consumption also needs to be addressed.
“It is really quite astounding how many patients I’m seeing in their late 20s and 30s who have already developed a fatty liver, which is a marker for all sorts of other chronic illnesses, including Type 2 diabetes. There needs to be a commission looking at how we actually work with the public to reduce obesity for those who are already overweight, as well as how to prevent it in children and young people.
“The third priority for Labour should be addressing health inequalities. That’s about allocating resources equitably in the NHS so that deprived areas actually get levelled up, enhancing the GP workforce in those areas, and taking action to tackle social determinants of health. Without these things, inequalities will continue, and our health will be worse as a result.”
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