Hunt tackles Trump over the NHS
MPS rally to defend healthcare in Britain and deride US president’s claim that it is ‘going broke’
JEREMY HUNT, the Health Secretary, issued a public rebuttal of Donald Trump’s criticism of the NHS yesterday.
In a war of words triggered by the US president, Mr Hunt said that no one critical of his handling of the NHS would rather live under the American healthcare system.
His response on Twitter, Mr Trump’s preferred mouthpiece, followed the claim that Britain’s universal healthcare system was “going broke and not working”. Mr Hunt was backed by No 10 and even Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader, as British politicians once again clashed with Mr Trump.
Since taking office last year, Mr Trump has criticised Britain’s security service, Theresa May and Sadiq Khan, the London Mayor, through his Twitter account. He recently said he would be prepared to apologise for his most recent spat with the UK Government, after retweeting false claims from a farright group and being rebuked by Mrs May for doing so.
But after this, he tweeted to the Prime Minister: “Don’t focus on me, focus on the destructive Radical Islamic Terrorism that is taking place within the United Kingdom. We are doing just fine!”
Unlike Britain’s healthcare system, which is free at the point of use and provided by central government, America’s system is built on various forms of insurance. Yesterday, as Mr Trump criticised the approach of the Democrats on healthcare he also dismissed the quality of the NHS.
Mr Trump tweeted: “The Democrats are pushing for Universal Healthcare while thousands of people are marching in the UK because their U system is going broke and not working. Dems want to greatly raise taxes for really bad and non-personal medical care. No thanks!”
Mr Hunt responded within an hour: “I may disagree with claims made on that march but not ONE of them wants to live in a system where 28m people have no cover. NHS may have challenges but I’m proud to be from the country that invented universal coverage – where all get care no matter the size of their bank balance.”
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman backed Mr Hunt, saying: “Jeremy is the Health Secretary and he speaks for the Government,” adding that Mrs May “is proud of having an NHS that is free at the point of delivery”, and that in an international survey, the NHS was rated “the best in the world”.
Simon Stevens, head of the NHS, also hit out at Mr Trump, saying Britons were committed to a national health service that cost half that of US healthcare.
At a Public Accounts Committee hearing on NHS cyber security yesterday, he told MPS: “I think we would suggest that tweet got the wrong end of the stick and in fact people in this country don’t want to ditch our NHS… they want to keep it and strengthen it.”
Mr Stevens continued: “So our invitation in the NHS, should the president be visiting later this year, would be to spend time with brilliant doctors, hospitals, technology experts, scientists, and hear about the cataract services, the hip replacements, the modern scanners, the world-first liver and heart transplant, the genomic revolution all under way here in the NHS.”
Mr Corbyn disagreed with Mr Trump’s comments, adding: “People were marching because we love our NHS and hate what the Tories are doing to it.
“Healthcare is a human right.” Other MPS tweeted their derision, including Labour’s David Lammy, who called the president an “absolute prat”.
He said: “Oh do put your phone down you absolute prat. Healthcare in this country is a human right and millions of us will defend it until our dying breath.”
It is thought the president made his claims about the NHS after watching one of his favourite television shows, Fox and Friends, a daily morning news and talk programme on the Fox news channel, which was broadcasting Nigel Farage’s view on the weekend’s NHS marches at the time he tweeted.
Mr Farage said the NHS was “pretty much at breaking point”, and that it needed “absolutely fundamental reforms”.
After his NHS tweet, the president wrote: “Thank you to @foxandfriends for exposing the truth. Perhaps that’s why your ratings are soooo much better than your untruthful competition!”