20 May 2014
The North West Green Party has warned that a vote for UKIP will put the future of the NHS at threat. The warning comes after the Greens uncovered a letter from UKIP's Deputy Leader and North West MEP, Paul Nuttall, that states “…the very existence of the NHS stifles competition”.[1]
The North West Green Party has produced an animated film which highlights the encroaching privatisation of the NHS by successive Conservative and Labour governments. It explains the party’s policy to keep the NHS in public hands, a policy which has high public support. The film, released only a few weeks ago has already been watched over 8000 times.
The Greens say UKIP are guilty of making up figures about the NHS to try to shore up their weak arguments. On an appearance on Question Time this year, Paul Nuttall claimed that for every nurse there are two managers. This claim has been taken apart by the fact checking service, Full Fact, with the true figure being that there are between 8 and 9 times as many nurses as there are managers [2].
Peter Cranie, the North West Green Party's European election candidate said: “There has been enough of a free media circus for UKIP who have fought this election without any real manifesto. It’s time to examine their policy and their intentions. These comments on the NHS make Margaret Thatcher look positive in comparison - she wouldn’t have dared threaten the NHS. UKIP is putting the very existence of the NHS under threat. They seem prepared to simply make up statistics to support their claims.”
He continued: ““In the UK we still spend only around 9% of GDP on health, about half what the Americans spend for their dreadful, unequal outcomes with mother and baby mortality rates at levels worse than much of the developing world. And we spend about 3% less on health than France and Germany, with their insurance-based systems.”
He concluded: “As Greens we stand for an NHS that is fully funded through progressive taxation. We are against the continued use of the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) schemes that have left some NHS Trusts facing bankruptcy. Sadly people now need to fight to protect their public services. We hope that people will vote Green in the European elections to send a strong message to the coalition, to Labour and to UKIP that our NHS is not for sale."
[1] http://www.paulnuttallmep.com/?p=712
[2] View the Green Party film here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsZojBhuy2Y&list=UUGN-NVD_FT_Kyv_VdUxzc7A
[3] https://fullfact.org/factchecks/nhs_nurses_managers_bureaucrats-29317
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