UK’s Tories on life support as NHS teeters

Zahawi tax allegations make things worse for government trying desperately to change the narrative amid growing public anger

Rod Stewart is a pop star who takes more enjoyment nowadays from playing with his vast model railway set-up than he does from taking to the stage in front of thousands of screaming fans. He has made his money and at 78 years of age, yes, his hips don’t lie. He hasn’t quite got the swagger of decades gone. He is sufficiently wealthy to be mostly retired, living just outside London’s M25 motorway, and has paid his dues and taxes.

So, you can image the surprise when viewers tuned into a call-in segment on a recent Thursday on Sky News heard the gravelly-voiced Scot call in to condemn the Conservative government and bemoan the sad state of affairs in the UK’s National Health Service (NHS).

He said he was appalled by the abysmal condition of the NHS, one where ambulances don’t come, accident and emergency departments have long waiting queues, and where beds are as rare as hen’s teeth. The system is broken, ambulance workers, nurses, support services — even doctors — are in some sort of industrial action. And they have the overwhelming support of the public. Stewart offered to use his funds to pay for scans and viewers were urged to call the TV station if they needed one.

On the same day that Stewart made his phone call, a coroner’s inquest in Surrey — a county that is prime Conservative territory — heard the terrible story of a woman in her 30s who died alone at home. Her mummified body was discovered three years after her death. She had mental health issues, was estranged from her family, and was supposedly under the care of the NHS.

Can Sunak reset the government’s agenda?

And on the same day too, Rishi Sunak assembled his cabinet in Chequers. The daylong gathering was an attempt to reset the agenda of government. Reset? Heck, Sunak has only been in office since September, but such is that state of chaos in the UK right now, that fourmonth period is pretty much three times longer than the reign of Sunak’s predecessor, Liz Truss.

How ironic that it came on a day when Nadhim Zahawi, the Conservative party chairman and a member of cabinet too, faced intense calls to step aside. It’s been revealed that he paid His Majesty’s revenue vollectors some £5 million in penalties and taxes over his business dealings. There are questions too over his property dealings, and Zahawi didn’t do himself any favours by threatening legal action against journalists who raised the issue over the last 24 months. Oh, and he was Chancellor of the Exchequer when he paid the fine.

But the bigger question is what Sunak knows and when he knww it. After all, he was Chancellor of the Exchequer while the initial press questions were asked about Zahawi’s affairs — and senior political figures are generally kept in the loop when such questions are put to officials, lest there be political fallout from the stories.

But back to Stewart, who told Sky News that he had been a long-time supporter of the Conservatives. “Change the bloody government,” he said when asked how to fix the NHS. This current one, it seems, is on life support, and the prognosis isn’t good…