Reporting today from @thefabians 2022 new year conference, their first ever hybrid one. Half of the delegates are here in person and half online. #fepsfab22 
Keir Starmer has taken to the stage for his keynote speech. He’s expected to set out an NHS reform plan that will lead to a health system focused on “prevention as much as cure”: labourlist.org/2022/01/starme…
Starmer gets applause as he says Tory MPs should have known from the start that Boris Johnson was not fit for office, and says they now "bicker and fight each other on WhatsApp" instead of addressing NHS challenges. #fepsfab22
"Broken promises cost lives," says Starmer on the NHS. He repeatedly refers to people having to spend money to get care in the private sector due to NHS waiting lists. "We would act on the principles of prevention and early intervention." #fepsfab22
"Wes Streeting will be setting out the details for our plan for living with Covid in the days to come," says Starmer. #fepsfab22
"People live for much longer now with conditions that once would have killed them. I'm delighted we're an ageing society... people get to live for so long." But "an older society needs a different health system" – "one that is as much about prevention as it is about cure".
"It's obvious that the health service and the NHS need more money. But that's not all it needs," Starmer says. "The NHS also needs reform so it works in a different way." Health is "more than hospitals and surgeries": it's where we live, the air we breathe.
"Labour would make wellbeing matter as much as economic output," Starmer declares. During his leadership campaign, he said Labour would use a set of national wellbeing indicators in addition to measures of economic growth: labourlist.org/2020/02/i-woul…
Starmer gives an example of "prevention in action": Labour banning smoking indoors and cigarette advertising. Now he says Labour in power could address high blood pressure and cholesterol with preventative measures (does not say which).
"The NHS is not getting better at the moment. There is no plan. There is no strategic thinking," Starmer says. "It’s got to change and only the Labour Party has the permission to make that change."
Starmer says Labour would:
Tackle the immediate crisis
Bring down waiting times
Make mental health as important as physical health
Shift the focus to prevention as well as cure
Look after the NHS so it can look after us
Tackle the immediate crisis
Bring down waiting times
Make mental health as important as physical health
Shift the focus to prevention as well as cure
Look after the NHS so it can look after us
On partygate, Starmer says Johnson's "moral authority to lead" has been "hugely undermined" by his latest excuse – that he didn't realise it was a party, but once he "finally twigged he might be at a party" in 2020 he should have sent staff back in. KS suggests this is a big flaw
"It's in the national interest that he goes," says Starmer of Johnson – "very important that the Tory Party does what it needs to do and gets rid of him"
In response to pro-EU questioner disappointed by his "make Brexit work" line, Starmer says: "Lamenting the decision in 2016 is history. I’m afraid we are out and now we have to make it work."
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