Wes Streeting interview: Failures in the NHS mean I still don’t know if I’m clear of cancer

Wes Streeting is waiting. The 39-year old was due to have a scan in August, to check whether he is clear of the kidney cancer for which he received treatment last year. But the shadow health secretary is among millions of people stuck in limbo, as NHS waiting lists swell to a record high.

Finally, the scan at Queen’s Hospital in Romford, east London, went ahead last month. But when he went to get the results, he was told that, in fact, there were no answers; the results have yet to be processed.

And so the Labour MP for Ilford North remains in stasis; his family anxious, while he describes himself as “frustrated” by the need for NHS reform that his own care exposes. “I don’t consider myself to be in the worst position,” he says – he feels “pretty certain” he will, eventually, get good news – “but there is a reason we do six-month follow-up scans for people like me, and my family are even more nervous than I am about it.”

What really “infuriates” the MP – who says he has been “mucked around” repeatedly by the NHS, but cannot praise the staff treating him highly enough – is the fact such failings are so unnecessary.

“I know the NHS is under immense pressure, but this is about the system,” he says. “We’ve got technology that exists now that can analyse scans more accurately than two experienced consultants at the top of their game. Even if we kept one of those consultants in the process, because we want the reassurance of a pair of human eyes on a scan, and to not just rely on artificial intelligence and machine learning, we could double the capacity to analyse scans.”

Instead, he waits – along with 7.2 million other people who are currently on NHS waiting lists, and millions more waiting for follow-up checks. Ministers’ talk of “ramping up capacity” to expand diagnostics is all very well, Streeting says, but means little to people like him, “who are waiting for the reassurance of knowing they are still clear of cancer; or indeed wanting to know if we’re not clear of cancer, and need to get back on the treatment pathway.”

For Streeting, the personal could not be more political. As health workers gear up for the most crippling strikes in NHS history – with nurses planning two walkouts, one on Thursday and another on December 20, and ambulance staff scheduling action on December 21 and 28 – Streeting says Labour will take on those holding back the service, including some of the most powerful health unions.

“I am just not going to allow vested interests and producer interests to stand in the way of the reforms that will deliver better outcomes for patients,” he says.

In particular, he singles out the British Medical Association (BMA), who he says treat him like “some sort of heretic” for highlighting “appalling” levels of access to GPs.

Last week, an analysis by Labour suggested that five million patients a month are unable to book a GP appointment when they try to make one. By way of response, the head of the BMA’s GP committee accused the party of “demonising GPs who are trying their best to deliver care”.

Labour’s plans for the health service include a major expansion in its workforce, including a doubling of medical school places, funded by the abolition of the non-dom tax status. 

“Given that we have committed to more staff, I cannot for the life of me understand why the BMA is so hostile to the idea that with more staff must come better standards for patients,” says Streeting. 

“Whenever I point out the appalling state of access to primary care, where currently a record two million people are waiting more than a month to see a GP, I am treated like some sort of heretic by the BMA – who seem to think any criticism of patient access to primary care is somehow an attack on GPs.”

Their “defensive attitudes” are “maddening”, he continues. “If anyone in the NHS thinks that they can demand more investment without demonstrating better standards for patients, they’ve got another thing coming. We are not going to have a something-for-nothing culture in the NHS with Labour.”

He was horrified when GPs recently voted to cut surgery core hours to 9-to-5. “I think the BMA does doctors no favours when they vote for motions that look like they’re living on a different planet and, worst of all, aren’t really thinking about the best interests of patients.”

And he says the union has been far too “dogmatic” in pushing back against his pledge to give all patients the right to have a face-to-face appointment. Figures from the Electoral Commission show Labour has accepted more than £15 million from unions involved in this winter’s strikes since Keir Starmer became party leader. 

But Streeting is adamant: “I’m certainly not frightened to take on vested interests. And I’m not afraid to tell the BMA or other unions ‘no’ – and I think people respect that honesty.”

The arch-moderniser says he is also prepared to take on those in the NHS – and indeed in his own party – who stand in the way of NHS reform. “I think there’s always a danger in the Labour Party that because we created the NHS, we’ve been a bit too reluctant to criticise the performance that we see in the NHS. We can’t afford to be romantic and misty-eyed about it – this is a service not a shrine.”

Streeting believes the crisis currently facing the health service is existential.

“Unless we take the right long-term decisions for the future of the NHS, the NHS won’t exist as it does today. I think it is as stark as saying, ‘reform or die’.”

“I am really terrified about the state that the NHS is in,” he continues. “We, in Parliament, asked the public to sacrifice a hell of a lot of their lives and liberty in order to prevent the NHS from collapsing. And we did that. We succeeded throughout the pandemic. And now, I think the NHS has collapsed.

“Look at the ambulances taking eight hours, if not more, to reach pensioners who’ve fallen in the street and broken their hips and shoulders, or the fact that, when people dial 999, they can’t be sure that an ambulance will arrive at all. 

"The fact that we had that awful case in Rotherham, of a boy [five-year-old Yusuf Mahmud Nazir] dying of pneumonia and tonsillitis, having been turned away from hospital because there weren’t enough beds. I think it’s every family’s worst nightmare at the moment, that this winter, they will need to dial 999 or go to accident and emergency.

“This is the first time in the history of the NHS that we have not been sure that emergency medicine will be there for us if we need it.”

In a landmark speech last month, Streeting warned that the public will lose patience with the NHS if ministers keep throwing “ever increasing taxpayers’ money” at it, without fundamental reforms. “The NHS exists to serve patients, not itself. I’m not prepared to pour money into a black hole,” he declares now, calling for sweeping changes – some of which may see fierce resistance.

He wants the NHS to “sweat the assets” of its facilities, and improve access to services round the clock. As well as a major expansion in the workforce, Labour would vastly increase use of the private sector for NHS patients. In another recent speech, Streeting said Labour would have gone further than the Tories have in using private hospital beds for NHS patients, taking “hundreds of thousands” more off waiting lists.

The MP has also promised to overhaul diagnostic systems, harnessing advances such as the aforementioned analysis of scans by machines.

“This country is sitting at the top of the tree when it comes to life sciences technology and data – we can actually revolutionise the model of healthcare in this country using prediction and prevention and highly-targeted precision medicine, which I think has the potential to transform health outcomes in this country and make Britain truly a world leader.”

But the current state of the health service means such an overhaul will take years, he says.

“What we will inherit after the next general election, if we’re successful, will be a far worse position than the one we inherited in 1997, both in terms of the state of the public finances and also the state of the NHS.”

The party has committed to drawing up a 10-year modernisation plan during its first 100 days in power. “And that means reform will have to do much more of the heavy lifting,” says Streeting. “It means that we’ve got to hit the ground running, with a serious plan from day one.”

When nurses walk out on Thursday, with demands for a 19 per cent pay rise, it will be the first national strike in the 106-year history of the Royal College of Nursing. It will also be the first of a wave of crippling NHS strikes, with junior doctors due to ballot on strike action in January, following the action planned by paramedics and other ambulance workers later this month.

Streeting accuses ministers of “reckless behaviour” and “spoiling for a fight” by refusing to enter pay negotiations. He admits, however, that no government could afford the pay the demands being made by nurses. “That headline demand is not one that I would be able to meet and it’s not a demand, therefore, I would make,” he says. “Where I do think the Government has fallen recklessly, dangerously short of public expectations is failing to negotiate at all.”

A Labour government, he says, would open pay discussions and “prioritise” the lowest paid workers, which could include young medics. “For junior doctors, I think things are tough. And one thing I’ve said to the profession is that I’m especially concerned about pay among people in lower bands, whether that’s the lowest paid staff, in nursing, midwifery, allied health roles, and some of the support staff around hospitals. I really worry about the lower pay bands. Not least because we’re seeing some of those staff leave the NHS altogether, because they’re earning more in retail.

“So, that would be my immediate focus – to think about some of the lowest paid staff and how we help them through the cost of living crisis.”

This may put him at odds with shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves, who has been more tight-lipped, refusing to say just last Thursday whether striking nurses would receive a higher pay offer under a Labour government.

Should Labour win the next election – and Streeting is confident of victory, though at pains to say the party is not “cocky” about it – few believe health secretary will be the summit of his ambitions. Although he only entered Parliament in 2015 – winning his Ilford North parliamentary seat from the Conservatives – he has been tipped as a future Labour leader, in the Blairite mould.

His own backstory sounds like the stuff of fiction. Streeting’s grandfather was in and out of prison, with a “string of convictions for armed robbery”. His grandmother got caught up in the crimes and ended up sharing a cell with Christine Keeler (of Profumo fame), while pregnant with Streeting’s mother, Corinna.

Corinna herself was still a teenager when she gave birth to Wes, in Stepney, east London, in 1983. She split up from his father (who was also in his teens) soon after the birth, and Streeting has admitted that, despite overcoming those disadvantages to get into Cambridge, he arrived at the university “with a bit of a working-class chip” on his shoulder.

The devout Christian also struggled to come to terms with his sexuality, coming out as gay while studying there. (He has been in a relationship with fiancé Joe Dancey, a communications consultant, for 11 years.)

After becoming president of the National Union of Students, he worked for the Blairite campaign group Progress before becoming an MP. He was then promoted to the shadow cabinet by Keir Starmer in May 2021. Even his cancer diagnosis (in the same month) didn’t stop his rise: he was given the role of shadow health secretary six months later.

The MP insists he has never held individual NHS staff responsible for all the failings he has experienced since his initial surgery, which involved the removal of his kidney.

“The staff are lovely,” he says. “They really care. When I went in the other day, and they couldn’t give me my results, they were so apologetic. And I said, ‘Look, it’s not your fault. It’s the system.’ And I think I’m where most patients are; deeply frustrated with the NHS and really anxious about the NHS’s future, but completely supportive of and sympathetic towards the staff.”

Talking to staff about their experiences at work is really upsetting, he adds. “You can see how dedicated they are to patients. They’re slogging their guts out, and they go home at the end of long shifts, knowing that what happened during their working day wasn’t good enough, but they couldn’t have worked any harder.

“I think that’s where leadership matters, it’s where change of government matters.”

Since his return to work after surgery, the NHS has lurched from crisis to crisis, with record waiting lists in the wake of the pandemic, a doubling in long waits for cancer patients, and now the forthcoming industrial action. As a result, Streeting has gained increased political exposure, which, in turn, has led to the talk about his future as a possible party leader.

“We are in all likelihood going to win the next general election,” he says, referring to the polls that put Labour firmly ahead of the Tories. “But we’re not complacent about that. We’re not cocky about that. We are determined to win voters’ trust.”

And what of his own future? Asked directly if he would hope one day to end up running the country, he says the chance of electoral victory means the question seems “even more bonkers” than it did when rumours circulated last summer.

“I think Keir would be an outstanding prime minister. I think he’s serious. I think he’s got a serious team and a serious plan,” he says.

“I hope that, when I look back on my career in politics, that I can have as a crowning achievement being the person who gripped the NHS crisis, and put the NHS on the path to be fit for the future. If that is my only achievement in politics, that will be a life well spent. As to a future beyond that … I mean, who knows? I’ve seen enough snakes and ladders in Westminster in recent months, and years, to know not to make predictions.”

There is, at most, two years until a general election, and Streeting fears that, before that, the NHS could face its worst winter ever – a situation which may boost Labour's chances of success even more.

“What you will not hear me saying in the run-up to the next general election is that the NHS is the envy of the world,” he says. “We know it’s not true, patients know it’s not true, staff know it’s not true – and politicians know it’s not true.”