Tory fury over return of disgraced Blair sidekick
Ousted former minister now drafted in to advise on NHS
DISGRACED former Labour health secretary Patricia Hewitt has been drafted in to advise the Government on making the NHS more efficient.
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said the New Labour- era minister will help him and Health Secretary Steve Barclay on operating new ‘integrated care boards’, which replaced clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) earlier this year.
Miss Hewitt, who held four frontbench roles under Tony Blair, faced a number of scandals before and during her time in government. She was suspended from the Labour Party in 2010 over political lobbying irregularities, and was forced to apologise over her links to a paedophile lobby group in the 1970s.
Last night one senior Tory asked: ‘Why on earth are we appointing a discredited Labour politician to lead a review of the NHS? We never, ever learn – we are constantly appointing opponents to do reviews which are then used to attack us.’
In 2014 Miss Hewitt apologised for having ‘ got it wrong’ when it came to dealing with the Paedophile Information Exchange (PIE) when she was general secretary of the National Council for Civil Liberties (NCCL). The two organisations were affiliated for eight years between 1975 and 1983.
A 1976 NCCL press release issued in her name proposed that the age of consent should be lowered to just ten in some cases, and that incest should be abolished.
Miss Hewitt later said: ‘I take responsibility for the mistakes we made. I got it wrong on PIE and I apologise for having done so. NCCL in the 1970s, along with many others, was naive and wrong to accept PIE’s claim to be a “campaigning and counselling organisation”.’
She was elected as the Labour MP for Leicester West in 1997 – 14 years after stepping down from the organisation – and was quickly promoted to government.
However, she faced a tumultuous two years as health secretary due to the introduction of a controversial junior doctor application scheme and slashing NHS spending to balance the books. Her achievements included implementing the ban on smoking in public places.
After being sacked by Gordon Brown – and taking roles with major firms such as BT and Alliance Boots – she was named as one of the MPs in the 2010 ‘cash for access’ scandal.
During a sting operation, she appeared to claim she was paid £3,000 a day to help a client obtain a seat on a government advisory group, and was subsequently suspended from Labour.
Mr Hunt also announced yesterday that Sir Michael Barber, who advised the Blair administration on education before taking a leading role in delivering public services, was being drafted back into government.
While Miss Hewitt will advise the government ‘on how to make sure the new integrated care boards operate efficiently with appropriate autonomy and accountability’, Sir Michael will help reform Britain’s current skills programme to raise standards for school leavers.
Sir Michael, an experienced educationist, worked for Mr Blair for eight years before taking roles with educational publishing firm Pearson and becoming chairman of the Office for Students watchdog.
He also became a partner at global management consultancy McKinsey & Company where he helped set up the firm’s public service practice.
‘We never, ever learn’