Labour health secretary Wes Streeting has taken another £55,000 from the ODP Group Ltd—which provides headhunting services to the NHS and private healthcare providers.

The firm’s owner, Peter Hearn, has longstanding links to private healthcare.

The donation

Millionaire recruitment mogul Hearn is the ultimate controller of the ODP Group. In addition to overseeing senior NHS recruitment, Hearn also works on recruitment for private healthcare providers. This dual role is particularly interesting, as the NHS and private providers are in competition for staff.

Lobbyists and firms with private healthcare connections have brought in over half a million pounds to Labour’s cabinet since 2023.

That’s on top of a £4m donation to the party from Quadrature Capital, which has significant investments in private healthcare. More broadly, MPs have accepted £2.7m in donations from private healthcare linked companies or individuals since 2023.

This is not the first donation Streeting has accepted from a Hearn-linked company. In 2023, he took £48, 000 from the OPD Group, according to the National (Scotland). in donations from another company Hearn controls. And the Financial Times has reported that, through seemingly shell companies, Hearn previously donated over £1m to Labour and prominent individual MPs like Streeting from between 2014 and 2023.

Labour is a “party for the rich”

Scottish Greens co-leader Gillian Mackay said that Labour is a party for the “rich,” betraying its working class origin story.

Once again, the Labour Party are showing the public that they are the party for the rich, leaving working people and families in the lurch. While Labour takes donations from those that profit from sickness and bad health, the Scottish Greens will continue to stand up for an NHS that is fit for purpose, that everyone can use and is free at the point of use Voters across Scotland have a chance on May 7 to finally end the status-quo, and vote for a party that will make change happen. A political system that finally works for people, not for profit.

SNP MSP Clare Haughey added:

It is high time the Labour Party came on clean on whether its health policy is being shaped by patient needs or lining shareholder pockets

It’s no wonder private healthcare-linked firms are donating to Streeting. The Labour prime minister said in January 2025 that the government will increase private provison of NHS services by 20%. But in some areas it has already increased by significantly more than that.

Featured image via the Canary

By James Wright

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