Health secretary Wes Streeting’s focus should be on the possible doctors’ strike from 17 December. But, as usual, he’s been attacking his opponents instead. However, picking a fight against Green leader Zack Polanski was a very bad idea.
— Zack Polanski (@ZackPolanski) December 11, 2025
Right-wingers have nothing, so they’ve been misrepresenting what Polanski apologised for long ago, before entering politics. But Polanski isn’t playing their game. He’s switching the debate to where it needs to be: political corruption in favour of big business. And that’s pretty much a tagline for Streeting, as Polanski pointed out.
Rather than supporting doctors or negotiating in good faith with them, Streeting has been publicly opposing their union action. He has also been insulting the British Medical Association (BMA). The BMA website says that, rather than sounding like a progressive:
Streeting sounds more like his Conservative predecessors Steve Barclay and Victoria Atkins, labelling doctors taking legitimate industrial action as ‘morally reprehensible’
Former BMA resident doctors committee co-chair Vivek Trivedi noted Streeting’s duplicity, insisting that:
He seems to be going against everything he said before.
This is hardly surprising, however, when we consider all of the money Streeting has received from private-health interests. As the Canary reported previously, Streeting:
And as the Good Law Project said in 2024:
More than 60% of the registered donations accepted by the health secretary come from people and companies linked to private health.
This is part of a glut of money from private-healthcare lobbyists flooding the UK parliament.
People know this is unacceptable, and unnecessary
Comparing the support for Polanski’s post to the support for Streeting’s, it seems public opinion is overwhelmingly on the side of the Green leader. Streeting’s attacks may please hardliners on the right; but if he wants to expand his support base, silence would be better.
Hey @wesstreeting instead of getting ratiod on X dot com why don’t you credibly sort out the thousands of doctors locked out of training. https://t.co/JBV4tcEFwe pic.twitter.com/3nyzmWY8Ap
— DoctorsVote (@DoctorsVoteUK) December 11, 2025
As Polanski points out, meanwhile, the Greens are providing a hopeful alternative to Labour’s shameful behaviour:
While Labour attacks and takes cash from private healthcare donors, we’re building something else entirely: hope.https://t.co/0qbagSvIYp https://t.co/7Os2LMj6lC
— Zack Polanski (@ZackPolanski) December 11, 2025
Greens have long been calling, for example, to:
protect our NHS from creeping marketisation and privatisation, and ensure that NHS services are both publicly paid for and publicly provided
And in their 2024 manifesto, they slammed NHS underfunding and committed to fighting for:
They also promised:
An immediate boost to the pay of NHS staff, including the restoration of junior doctors’ pay, to help with staff retention.
People don’t want a private health system. But Tory-Labour governments have consciously pushed us in that direction against our will.
We’ve had decades of backdoor privatisation thanks to the dominance of neoliberal austerity politics. The political establishment made ordinary people pay the price for the super-rich’s financial crisis after 2007/8 by slashing health spending. And all of this has only served to increase our suffering.
Things don’t need to be this way. And by being so openly shady, Wes Streeting is making the choice easier for people. If you want the elitist plunder to continue, he’s your man. But if you want a better health system, and fair pay for doctors, the Greens are the biggest party offering that right now.
Featured image via the Canary
By Ed Sykes
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