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'Don't sell off the NHS - fix it instead': Bernie Sanders warns Brits privatisation 'will make things much worse'
23 February 2023, 18:51
Bernie Sanders has warned that the UK should not try to emulate an American healthcare model built on private insurance companies.
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The leftwing senator and former presidential candidate told LBC's Andrew Marr that Britain should try to fix the NHS, which he labelled an "extraordinary achievement", rather than change to another healthcare model.
It comes after waves of strikes among NHS staff, who claim they are overstretched and underpaid, although nurses have recently paused planned industrial action.
Meanwhile, as NHS waiting times spiral, former health secretary Sajid Javid, advocating for a system where some people would pay to see their GP, told LBC earlier this year that the NHS would cease to exist without reform, although he said he was "not interested in the US model".
Bernie Sanders says politicians must stand with the working class
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer also said on Wednesday that he would reform the NHS.
Mr Sanders said on Wednesday: “Do not look at the American model. Please do not. Build on what you have, improve what you have. Healthcare is a human right, that’s what it is. And that was established here in 1948 – that was an extraordinary achievement and I understand your system has problems.
"Deal with those problems, but don’t think that insurance companies and privatisations are going to make the situation much better, they are only going to make things much worse."
Mr Sanders was speaking after Jeremy Corbyn, the left-wing former Labour leader, was barred by his successor Sir Keir Starmer from standing as an MP again for the party, after having the whip suspended in 2021.
Mr Corbyn's ban was met with outrage by some on the left, and the Islington North MP himself called Sir Keir's move "a flagrant attack" on democracy.
Mr Sanders said: “It does seem a little bit strange to me that somebody who has been in the Labour Party his entire life, who was leader of the party, brought, as I understand it, hundreds of thousands of people into the party, is now told that he can’t run.”
He added: “I do know Corbyn – and I think is he vindicated'? Here is a guy who Inspired a lot of young people for anew vision for society – a lot of working class people, and his willingness to stand up to big money. And I think that is worth a lot of respect?”
Mr Corbyn has been vocally and visibly supportive of the strikes that have disrupted much of everyday life for many British people in recent months, as workers in several industries push for above-inflation pay rises.
But Sir Keir has been more equivocal on strikes, attacking the government for industrial action but refusing to support the walkouts explicitly himself.
Mr Sanders, who in September appeared at a rally organised by British transport unions, said: “I don’t know how you have a political party that stands for anything if they don’t stand with the working class of this country….
"I think why so many people get demoralised and alienated from the political process is that they see the people at the top doing phenomenally well and they say who is standing with me? Who is worried about the future of my kid?.. Who is worried about whether I can pay the rent?
“And you need in my view, political parties in the United States, in the UK, all over the world, who say: You know what, we are prepared to take on powerful special powerful interests, we are going to stand with the working-class, with the unions.”
