Labour’s Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Wes Streeting’s Speech at Labour Party Conference 2025
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Labour's Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Wes
Streeting's Speech at Labour Party Conference 2025. "Thank you.
Conference. We stand on the shoulders of giants. What Bevan and
Attlee did in the aftermath of war was an act of courage, as well
as conviction. Facing down their opponents in the Conservative
establishment, they made a powerful choice, founded on fairness. To
create a National Health Service to provide the people of our
country with the care...Request free
trial
Labour's Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Wes Streeting's Speech at Labour Party Conference 2025. "Thank you. Conference. We stand on the shoulders of giants. What Bevan and Attlee did in the aftermath of war was an act of courage, as well as conviction. Facing down their opponents in the Conservative establishment, they made a powerful choice, founded on fairness. To create a National Health Service to provide the people of our country with the care they needed, not just the care they could afford. A promise that whoever you are, whatever your background, whatever your income, when you fall ill, you will never have to worry about the bill. I'm here today to defend that promise and, friends, we are in the fight of our lives. Not just for the NHS, or even for the survival of this government, but for everything we believe in. It is a battle of progressives against reactionaries. Patriotism versus nationalism. Hope not hate. Our country is being confronted with choices about who we are and what we stand for. And nowhere do those choices come together more starkly than our National Health Service. The founding principles of the NHS are now contested for the first time in generations. Farage wants to replace the NHS with an insurance system. His vision for healthcare is a system that checks your pockets before your pulse and asks for your credit card before your care. Well, it might be alright for mister moneybags. We know he can afford it. But what about those who can't? We should know by now, that man is a con artist, posing as the voice of the people while working for the interests of the powerful. And be in no doubt, it's not reform he's offering, it's retreat. He says we can't afford in this century the National Health Service we could afford in the last. Well, if that's the fight Farage wants, I say bring it on. So today, I am not here simply to defend a service, but to uphold our values. A publicly funded public service, free at the point of use. Back on its feet and fit for the future. Those are Labour's values, those are Britain's values and this is a fight we will win. But friends, we must win another fight too — one against the poison of post-truth politics. At Reform's conference, a discredited doctor claimed that the Covid vaccine gave our Royal Family cancer. And this man wasn't just some fringe figure — he's Reform's health advisor. These anti-vax lies have consequences. They've led to the return of diseases we thought we'd defeated. Measles. Whooping cough. Children dying from preventable illness in this, the 21st century. When Farage was asked whether he'd side with medical scientists, he said: “I wouldn't side with anybody.” Anti-science.
Nigel Farage is the snake oil salesman of British politics — and it's time to stop buying what he's selling. And it's not just the NHS he's coming for — it's the people who make the NHS. If you earn less than £60,000 a year and came from abroad — Farage wants you gone. The doctors, the porters, the nurses.
Tearing families apart. Our friends. Our neighbours. Last week, I received a letter from a consultant at Great Ormond Street children's hospital. He has spent three decades here caring for children, but now tells me that Reform's policy is making him consider leaving our country. He wrote: “Please use your office to ensure that those who have made their lives here in good faith can continue to care for patients without fear.” Fear. So as our country's Health and Social Care Secretary, let me address him and his colleagues directly. Thank you. Thank you for your service. Farage says go home. We say you are home. I've got your back. We've got your back. And at the next election, we'll send Farage packing. But here is the challenge we've got – Farage is counting on us to fail. He wants to say if a Labour Government can't deliver on the NHS, then it's time to do away with Labour and the NHS. Well, I've got bad news for you, Nigel. Delivering on the NHS is what Labour Governments do and this Labour Government is delivering the change we promised. We promised two million more appointments, we've delivered five million. We promised an extra 1,000 GPs, we've delivered 2,000. We promised to cut waiting lists and they are falling for the first time in 15 years. 6,500 more mental health workers. 7,000 more doctors. 13,000 more nurses and midwives. The cancer diagnosis standard – met. GP satisfaction – up. Waiting times – down. That is the difference a Labour Government makes. And we're only just getting started. And if you want to see that difference, just look across England's borders. While we're investing in AI, robotic surgery, digital devices and services, Scotland doesn't even have an NHS app. In Labour-led England, waiting lists are down. In Labour-led Wales, waiting lists are down. But in SNP Scotland, waiting lists are up after 18 years of nationalist failure. Shameful. So whether it's English nationalism with Reform, Scottish nationalism with the SNP or Welsh nationalism with Plaid, we'll take them all on. With Anas in Scotland and Eluned in Wales, together we'll rebuild our NHS as a Great British success story. But none of the progress we've made was inevitable. It has been hard won in the face of cynicism and timidity. Every major change has been met by a chorus of caution – “slow down”, “don't rush into it”, “it's all too difficult”. Tomorrow, we are reforming general practice, so patients can request appointments online at any point during the day. Many GPs already offer this service, because they've changed with the times. Why shouldn't booking a GP appointment be as easy as booking a delivery, a taxi or a takeaway? And our policy comes alongside £1 billion extra funding for general practice and 2,000 extra GPs. Yet the BMA threaten to oppose it. In 2025. Well, I give you this warning. If we give into the forces of conservatism, they will turn the NHS into a museum of 20th century healthcare. We will always stand up for the interests of patients and we won't back down. Now, it's true we had a dire inheritance at the last general election. The worst since 1945. A broken economy, broken public services and broken trust in politics itself. But we have an even more powerful inheritance in our Party. Hope. Optimism. Courage. It's how the 1945 generation remade Britain after the war. And the test of our generation is to show that same courage to prove that Britain is still capable of doing big things. Giving people hope again. We're not here to manage decline. And my ambition is not just to recover the NHS, but to rebuild it to meet the challenges of the 21st century. So let me tell you what our 10 Year Plan for Health means. It means giving patients more power, more choice and more convenience – for the many, not just for the privileged few.
It means early diagnosis and prevention. And modernisation isn't a betrayal of Bevan's legacy — it is its fulfilment. Because as the great man said: “The NHS must always be changing, improving.” The truth is this – the next 10 years won't bring just a decade's worth of change in healthcare. It will bring centuries' worth. Medicine is being transformed before our eyes. We now have genetic tests that can predict a child's risk of illness before they ever fall sick. We are on the brink of vaccines that could one day cure cancer. Weight-loss jabs could help us finally defeat obesity. And this isn't just a medical revolution. It is an industrial revolution — a technological revolution — one that will shape the next century of jobs, industry, and public health. And governments across the world face a choice. It is not a choice between stop and go. Change is coming — whether we like it or not. No, the real choice is this – will this be a revolution for the few or for the many? Take just one example — weight-loss jabs. The wealthy talk about how they've transformed their health, their confidence, their quality of life – half of House of Commons tea room talk about that fact, though not in my case But seriously, what about the millions who can't afford them? That is a return to the days when health was determined by wealth. When some had access to the best care money can buy while others waited, and suffered. And I say never again. Because our historic duty — and our modern mission — is to ensure that the best science, the best healthcare, the best innovations — are available not just to some but to all. So we will make the UK the home of the next generation of medical breakthroughs — discovered here, developed here, and delivered here on the NHS. Science is changing society — and we've got to change with it. Because when the NHS was founded, the average working person lived to just 65. They worked. They retired. And they died shortly after. But today, many of us can now look forward to something our grandparents only ever dreamed of – a life after work. The same is true for so many disabled people. Surviving with conditions that would have cut their lives short thanks to breakthroughs in medical science that allows them to not only survive, but to thrive. But friends — that hope demands action. Because if we want to match longer lives with better lives, then we must build a social care system to meet their needs. We have already begun to make that change. We've delivered the biggest uplift in carers' allowance since the 1970s — an extra £2,000 for family carers. Because their work is not just loving — it is life-saving. We have installed new home adaptations in the homes of more than 15,000 disabled people. Not just giving them new rails and chair lifts, accessible kitchens and bathrooms, but safety, dignity, independence and quality of life. And today, I can announce we will go further. Because we will no longer accept a system built on poverty pay and zero-hour insecurity. We will back the first-ever Fair Pay Agreement for care workers, not just in law but in practice — starting with £500 million to deliver better pay, terms and conditions for care workers across our country. Because the people who care for our loved ones should never struggle to care for their own. And Conference, let's also be clear about how this change has come about. They're sat down there. UNISON and GMB, who stood up for care workers when no one else would. Friends, you can go back to your members and tell them with pride this is the difference that Labour unions in government make. Thank you. And there's someone else who has made a real difference, too. Who understands the struggle care workers face because she was one. She brought that experience to the Cabinet table as the care worker who became our country's Deputy Prime Minister. Angela Rayner – this achievement is yours. Thank you. And we want her back as well. We will definitely make sure she sees that. We need her back. Conference, I say this to you now — and to every family, every carer, every older and disabled person watching. So long as I hold this office, it will be the mission of this Labour Government to build a National Care Service worthy of the name. And finally, we'll address the inequality in our National Health Service and our nation's health. Because if we fail to invest in public health and prevention, we will face a future where people are living longer lives — but in poorer health. And in the places with the deepest need, the NHS is at its most stretched, and the health of the people at its poorest. In the poorest parts of our country there are an extra 300 patients per GP – 300. Waiting. Suffering. And the injustice doesn't stop there. A Black woman in this country is twice as likely to die in childbirth than a white woman. A child born in Blackpool will now live 10 years fewer than a child born in Hampshire – 10 years. That is the unjust price paid by those who lost the lottery of life. And I stand here today as someone who beat those odds – the exception to the rule who grew up on a council estate in poverty, had a great state education, made it to one of our country's best universities and now sits around the Cabinet table as part of the most working class Cabinet in history. But Conference, that's not enough. It is not enough for a few to beat the odds. Our party exists to change those odds for everyone. So the challenge of our generation is not just to add years to life, but to add life to those years. So as we rebuild the NHS, we are starting first where the need is greatest. As we reinvest billions saved from cutting waste, as we recruit new GPs, and as we build a new generation of Neighbourhood Health Centres, they won't go to the places with the loudest lobbyists, but to the communities with the deepest deprivation. And we all know the biggest health inequalities are entrenched years before patients walk through the doors of the NHS. They are caused by poverty – poor diets, damp homes, dirty air. So this Labour Government is tackling the sickness in our society. We are feeding the next generation — with primary school breakfast clubs, so every child starts the day with a full stomach and a hungry mind. We are cutting pollution and cleaning up the air our children breathe to preserve our planet for their future. We are helping families heat their homes this winter with a warm homes discount that reaches millions more. We are guaranteeing sick pay from day one — because no one should have to choose between getting better and getting paid. And with the expansion of free school meals, we are lifting 100,000 children out of poverty. The Tories didn't do it.
That is the difference a Labour Government makes. Now we know some will say: “The challenges are too great, too expensive. It's too hard.” But throughout our history, it has always been Labour — always — that rose to meet the moment. It was Labour that built the NHS out of the ashes of war. It was Labour that saved it in 1997. And it falls to Labour to save it now. We asked our country to put their trust in us, not because the challenges are easy, but precisely because they are hard. And modernisation is not a technocratic exercise — it is a moral mission. Because we do not believe in two-tier healthcare.
We are making the NHS fit for the future. A service that sees people sooner.
A service rebuilt in the image of our values – universal, publicly funded, free at the point of use. Available to all, owned by all, working for all. Those are my values. They are the NHS's values. And they are Britain's values. And Conference, I'll just end with this. The fight against poverty and injustice, reactionaries and nationalists, prejudice and hatred. This is our fight. It has always been our fight. So we will not flinch. We will not fail. We will rebuild our national health and rebuild Britain. For our time. For all time. For everyone. Thank you, Conference." |