Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has appointed James Murray as health secretary, following Wes Streeting’s resignation yesterday.
Mr Murray has been the MP for Ealing North since 2019 and has been chief secretary to the Treasury since September last year. He served very briefly on the House of Commons Health and Social Care Committee between March and May 2020.
He was also previously deputy mayor for housing in London, working alongside mayor Sadiq Khan. According to his parliamentary biography, he had a background working in management consultancy before entering politics.
In January, as chief secretary to the Treasury, Mr Murray launched a review into ‘wasteful duplication’ in government, which included healthcare among key areas. At the time, the Government said the review would establish how it could ‘deliver the shift of healthcare back to communities in a sustainable way across the NHS’.
Mr Streeting resigned from the Government yesterday, saying it would have been ‘dishonourable and unprincipled’ to stay in post having ‘lost confidence’ in Sir Keir’s leadership. It is widely expected that Mr Streeting will mount a bid for the leadership of the Labour Party, with fellow former health secretary Andy Burnham touted as another main contender.
His resignation came just one day after the King’s Speech announcement of the ‘NHS modernisation bill’, which is going to be the vehicle for delivering Labour’s plans for a neighbourhood health service.
↓King’s Fund chief executive Sarah Woolnough said the ‘ramifications’ of a health secretary change a day after the bill’s announcement were ‘acute’, adding that the new health secretary will face the choice of whether to carry on with the bill ‘in its current form’.
Dr Sarah Jacques, DAUK GP co-lead, decried the ‘chaos’ during a time when the NHS ‘desperately’ needs ‘stability and leadership’, but hoped the new health secretary will be ‘prepared to work with GPs and appreciate the genuine worth that we bring to the NHS’.
And the BMA said that resolving ongoing disputes with ‘all major doctor groups in England’ including GPs – must be ‘at the very top of the new health secretary’s in-tray’.
Meanwhile, a statement shared by GP Committee England chair Dr Katie Bramall on the resignation of Mr Streeting said: ‘Confidence and trust remains low across our burnt-out and bruised profession frustrated by a wasted opportunity for real change. Change that could have been felt by millions each day experiencing general practice being rebuilt and restored to where it was before the damage of austerity set in.
‘Instead, the promise to shift care from hospital to the community has only seen bankrolling NHS trust deficits to the tune of billions whilst primary care proportion of spend is lower than ever.
‘We have seen history repeat predictable mistakes; massaged figures in the resignation letter do not reveal mass patient confusion and patients removed from waiting lists against their knowledge or consent, only to seek GPs referrals straight back again to the start.
‘We have an opportunity now to resolve GP collective action across England – which need not cost a penny. I hope the new incumbent takes this opportunity.’
A version of this article was first published by our sister title Pulse
