All posts tagged: John McDonnell

Pro-Starmer think tank Labour Together plans major overhaul after scandal – POLITICO

Pro-Starmer think tank Labour Together plans major overhaul after scandal – POLITICO

“I think we’re going to have a more traditional think tank mode,” she said. “But our mission remains for Labour to win and govern well, and there’s no shirking from that. We are proudly into the concept of winning in a way that sometimes gets lost elsewhere.” With more of Starmer’s closest allies becoming engulfed in the ongoing scandal about Peter Mandelson’s appointment as the U.K.’s ambassador to the United States, a group of MPs on the left of Labour have attempted to pin the blame on the organization. Last week, former Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell called for an independent inquiry into an organization which he argued was responsible for the “toxic culture” in Downing Street. “A lot of it is completely, utterly bonkers,” Phillips said in response. “I mean this idea that they are sort of trying to connect us with Mandelson. He has nothing to do with this. The idea that we should be blamed for literally every bit of Labour policy that’s happened at any point in history, that’s not right.” More …

Dozens of MPs oppose Streeting’s new power to say what NHS pays for drugs

Dozens of MPs oppose Streeting’s new power to say what NHS pays for drugs

Dozens of MPs are opposing Wes Streeting’s decision to award himself power to dictate what the NHS pays for drugs amid growing concern the move may be illegal. Thirty-one MPs have signed a House of Commons motion voicing their disapproval of the health secretary being handed the power to override the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s (Nice) judgment on how much the NHS should spend on individual medicines. They fear that the change is a “power grab” that undermines the role Nice has played since its creation in 1999 as the arbiter of which medicines constitute value for money for the NHS to buy – and thus which patients can receive – in England and Wales. Nice is widely viewed internationally as a model of how to protect against drug companies charging excessive prices. Labour, Green, Liberal Democrat, Independent, Scottish Nationalist and Plaid Cymru MPs have backed a “prayer”, tabled by the Labour ex-shadow chancellor John McDonnell. MPs can use a “prayer” as a way of showing they disagree with a statutory instrument …