Shameful gains

While the Tories may argue that NHS privatisation can secure funding for the beleaguered health service, a new Unite dossier reveals that the only funding the Tories care about is lining their own pockets.

In a shocking expose, Unite found that 71 coalition MPs – 64 Tories and seven Liberal-Democrats – had links to private health firms which will benefit from the Tories’ NHS reforms.

All 71 MPs listed in Unite’s dossier, including top leaders such as prime minister David Cameron, health secretary Jeremy Hunt, deputy PM Nick Clegg and business secretary Vince Cable, voted in favour of the 2012 health and social care act, which opened the NHS to billions in contracts from private firms.

These same MPs have benefited to the tune of hundreds of thousands of pounds in donations, share options, and other deal-sweeteners from the private health care industry.

Unite general secretary Len McCluskey said of the dossier’s findings, “The sheer scale of this conflict of interest is staggering, but it is the ongoing sell-off of our NHS that makes this the real scandal for our democracy.

“From lobbying links to investments and in some cases direct donations, scores of coalition MPs who voted for the NHS sell-off had links to the very private healthcare companies which stood to profit,” he added.

Former health secretary Andrew Lansley, who was the chief architect of the act that prepared the NHS for future sell-offs to private firms, received a ÂŁ21,000 donation in 2009 from John Nash, the former chairman of Care UK.

Lansley’s successor after his 2012 sacking, current health secretary Jeremy Hunt, followed in his forerunner’s footsteps—Hunt received more than £20,000 from hedge fund baron Andrew Law, a big investor in private health care.

Law has also donated over £1m pounds to the Tory central office between 2008 and 2014, including two donations directly to Hunt’s constituency.

And if you think money won’t necessarily buy influence, think again.  Their brazen nepotism is shameless – prime minister Cameron, for example, made nursing and care home tycoon Dolar Popat a peer shortly after he came to power in 2010.

Popat, on his part, has donated more than £200,000 to the Conservative party, including a £25,000 gift registered only a week after the Tories’ health reforms were revealed last July.

Unite’s research has also found that Popat’s wife, who now runs the nursing and home care company, TLC Group, has reaped over £4m thanks to the new commissioning groups set up in the health and social care act.

Despite the clear conflict of interest, Lord Popat was allowed to vote on the bill that made the act a reality.

Other Tory and Lib-Dem beneficiaries of the private health care industry lying in wait to destroy the NHS include:

•  Work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith has share options in hygiene tech firm Byotrol, which sells products to the NHS.

•  Leader of the commons William Hague accepted £20,000 from MMC Ventures, part-owner of The Practice plc, which runs 60 GP surgeries.

•  Culture secretary Sajid Javid received £11,000 from Moundsley Healthcare Ltd.

•  Deputy PM Nick Clegg accepted a £5,000 donation to his constituency office from Alpha Medical Consultancy.

Additionally, seven Tory MPs have received funding from Robin Crispin Odey, whose hedge fund Odey Asset Management part-owns health giant Circle. Aside from running the first fully privatised NHS hospital at Hinchingbrooke, Circle have won a ÂŁ120m contract to run musculoskeletal services in Bedfordshire.

McCluskey went on to argue that the dossier proves the extent to which the Coalition government is hell-bent on privatising the NHS.

“Since the vote to sell-off our NHS, over £13bn pounds of our local services have fallen into private hands. It is time to scrap the health and social care act and veto the NHS from TTIP,” he said.

For a full list of MPs’ links to private health care, see Unite’s dossier available here.