Keir Starmer has announced he is abolishing NHS England during a major speech on cutting regulation and government reform. Health Secretary Wes Streeting is about to give a statement on the move in the Commons – watch and follow live in the Politics Hub.
Thursday 13 March 2025 12:11, UK
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Shadow health minister Dr Caroline Johnson is responding to the health secretary’s statement on behalf of the Conservative Party.
She starts by saying that it is “disappointing” that the PM announced that NHS England is being scrapped in a speech ahead of the Commons statement – something the Tory government also had a habit of doing until July.
On the substance, the shadow minister says the Tories “believe in a leaner, more efficient state”, and so they are “supportive of measures to streamline the management” and “do not oppose the principles of taking direct control”.
But she asks how targets in the health service will be met “as all this upheaval happens”, what the specific plans are for reforming healthcare provision, what the timeframe is for abolishing NHS England entirely, how many jobs will be cut, and how much money this move is expected to save.
Johnson goes on to say that the devolved Labour administration runs the health service in Wales, which she says has “the highest waiting lists and the longest waiting times”, and so asks “what lessons” the party has learned “from their failure”.
She also questions how clinical prioritisation will work with the health secretary taking more direct control, saying: “Will conditions that are less common and have less glitzy campaigns, less celebrity backers, suffer because the secretary of state now has political considerations?”
She also points out that Labour has promised to devolve more power, and asks how taking centralised control of the health service aligns with that aim.
Finally, the shadow minister says the impending hike in employers’ national insurance is “diverting funding away from the front line and to compensating the Treasury”, and also says their efforts will be harmed by the government’s “continued failure to tackle immigration”.
In response, Health Secretary Wes Streeting says they will be “working immediately to start bringing teams together”, and wants the “integration of NHS England into the department to be complete within two years”.
He says there are currently 15,300 staff in NHS England and 3,300 with the Department for Health and Social care, and they want to slash those totals by 50% to “deliver hundreds of millions of pounds worth of savings”.
Wes Streeting is now giving a statement in the Commons following Sir Keir Starmer’s announcement NHS England is to be abolished.
The health secretary starts by listing ways he says the Labour government is “turning the tide” on the NHS, including cutting waiting lists, agreeing a new contract with GPs and uplifting hospice funding.
“But there can be no doubt about the scale of the challenge ahead”, he says, saying there is “no money to waste” because of the inheritance Labour received from the Tories.
He cites Lord Dazi’s report into the health service which blamed the 2012 reorganisation of the NHS on many of its problems, including creating a “fragmented web of bureaucracy”.
“Today we are putting a final nail in the coffin of the Conservatives’ disastrous top-down organisation,” he says.
‘Worse care – but more expensive’
He adds there are more than twice as many people working in NHS England AND the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) today than 2010, adding that’s “twice as many staff as when the NHS delivered the shortest waiting times and highest satisfaction in history”.
“It delivers worse care for patients but is more expensive than ever before”, he says.
There are now two large organisations doing the same roles, he says, saying “bloated and inefficient bureaucracy can’t be justified”.
However, he says even if the Tories hadn’t left a £22bn black hole in the economy, the decision to scrap NHS England would still have been made.
There’s always a duty on ministers to get value for taxpayers and that is “not achievable” with the way NHS England and DHSC is currently set up.
He stressed the reforms are not a reflection on people working for NHS England.
After Sir Keir Starmer made the bombshell announcement that his government is scrapping NHS England, the health secretary is giving a statement to the House of Commons explaining the decision.
NHS England is the body which leads the National Health Service in England. It is responsible for delivering high-quality care, supporting staff, and ensuring value for money.
Watch Wes Streeting live in the stream above, at the link below, and follow updates here in the Politics Hub.
NHS England was established in 2013 by former Tory health secretary Andrew Lansley to give the NHS greater independence and autonomy – intending for it to operate at arm’s length from the government.
It’s responsible for delivering high-quality care, supporting staff, and ensuring value for money.
Its website states it has a “wide range of statutory functions, responsibilities and regulatory powers”, which include working with the government to agree funding and priorities for the NHS and overseeing the delivery of safe and effective services.
NHS England employs about 13,000 people.
Why has it been scrapped?
The prime minister said abolishing the body will bring management of the NHS “back into democratic control”.
This move will put the NHS “back at the heart of government where it belongs,” he said during a speech in east Yorkshire on Thursday, “freeing it to focus on patients, less bureaucracy, with more money for nurses”.
He added that the NHS will “refocus” on cutting waiting times at “your hospital”.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting said: “This is the final nail in the coffin of the disastrous 2012 reorganisation, which led to the longest waiting times, lowest patient satisfaction, and most expensive NHS in history.
“When money is so tight, we can’t justify such a complex bureaucracy with two organisations doing the same jobs. We need more doers, and fewer checkers, which is why I’m devolving resources and responsibilities to the NHS frontline.”
What will happen now?
NHS England will be brought back into the Department of Health and Social Care.
The department said the reforms would reverse the 2012 reorganisation of the NHS “which created burdensome layers of bureaucracy without any clear lines of accountability”.
Board members stepped down days before
In the days before Starmer’s announcement, NHS England said three leading board members were stepping down at the end of the month.
Chief financial officer Julian Kelly, NHS chief operating officer Emily Lawson and chief delivery officer and national director for vaccination and screening Steve Russell will leave their roles in the coming weeks.
At the time, NHS chief executive Amanda Pritchard – who is also stepping down – said the board members made their decision based on the upcoming changes to the size and function of the centre.
Next, the prime minister is asked how “two giant ships can collide in the North Sea” – as happened near the British coast on Monday.
Sir Keir Starmer begins his answer by acknowledging those who are responding to the collision.
He says that the cause of the crash has “yet to be determined”.
“But we have to get to the bottom of it.”
Asked about the collision again, Starmer says the situation is “reasonably contained”.
Watch a recreation of the collision below:
Next to ask a question of the prime minister is our political editor Beth Rigby.
She starts by asking about both his plan to cut NHS England and the thousands of accompanying jobs, his comments about the expanding size of the state that seem to signal further job cuts to come, and his plans to make billions of pounds of savings by cutting welfare.
She asks if he stands by his pledge not to return to austerity.
Sir Keir Starmer replies directly: “There is no return to austerity. I said that to you before the election, and we’re not going to austerity.”
On welfare, the PM defends his rumoured plans to cut the bill by billions, saying: “We must support those that need support, but equally we must help who want to get back into work, into work. And at the moment, the system doesn’t do that.”
He says one in eight young people are not in work or training, which is “just not defensible” and reform is needed.
And what of Trump’s tariffs?
Secondly, Beth asks the PM if he hopes to achieve a deal with Donald Trump to get the tariffs on the UK steel industry removed, or if he simply cannot trust the US president.
He replies: “Obviously I am disappointed to see global tariffs in relation to steel and aluminium.
“But I am going to take a pragmatic response to this, because we are negotiating and talking about an economic deal and agreement as we speak.
“And my strong view is that is the better way to deal with the trade that we want between our country and the US.”
Starmer adds that “all options are on the table”, but he wants to “be pragmatic” and “keep ensuring we keep our eyes on the prize”.
Sir Keir Starmer is now taking questions from the media.
He’s asked by the BBC how soon he can turn things around in the government.
The prime minister says Labour are “frustrated we can’t get things done as quickly as we need to”.
“I’ve not known a moment like this where the international instability is having such a direct effect on what happens back at home,” he adds.
‘We already had enough to do’
Starmer says the government already had “enough to do” with the economy and the NHS in turmoil.
“I’m not standing here saying it’s the fault of somebody else,” he adds, repeating his insistence that he’s not criticising the civil service.
The prime minister points to the existence of “arms-length” bodies and regulations getting in the way of government – like NHS England, which he’s just announced he’s scrapping.
“The power of government is gone,” he says, and he seems keen on bringing it back.
Sir Keir Starmer has just confirmed plans to abolish the “arms-length body” NHS England.
He says this will bring management of the NHS “back into democratic control”.
This move will put the NHS “back at the heart of government where it belongs,” he says, “freeing it to focus on patients, less bureaucracy, with more money for nurses.”
The prime minister adds that the NHS will “refocus” on cutting waiting times at “your hospital”.
NHS England is the body which leads the National Health Service in England. It is responsible for delivering high-quality care, supporting staff, and ensuring value for money.
Health is a devolved matter, so the prime minister cannot abolish the equivalent bodies for Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.
Sir Keir Starmer continues his speech in east Yorkshire, declaring: “I believe in the power of government. I’ve always believed in the power in government, and I’ve seen it at its best.”
He points to the state’s response to the riots last summer in the wake of the Southport murders, saying he saw a response that “was dynamic, it was strong it was urgent”, describing it as “active government”.
But he says that is not felt across the country.
The PM says the state currently employs more people than it has for decades, but says he does not see “good value everywhere”, and it is “weaker than it has ever been”.
“Overstretched, unfocused, trying to do too much, doing it badly, unable to deliver the security that people need,” he says.
He goes on to argue that people want “active government” to make the “big decisions” and allow them to “get on with their lives”.
“We don’t want a bigger state, a more intrusive state, an overexpanding state, a state that demands more and more of people as it itself fails to deliver on core purposes, so we’ve got to change things.”
‘The best of the best on AI’
Technology is part of the solution, Starmer argues, saying: “If we push forward with digital reform of government, and we are going to do that, we can make massive savings – £45bn of savings.”
He says ministers are “going to get the best of the best on AI working across government”, and deploy them into every department to modernise them.
Having just criticised the Civil Service, Starmer says: “This is not about questioning the dedication or the effort of civil servants – it’s about the system we’ve got in place, and that system in the end was created by politicians.”
He again criticises “blockers” holding the country back
He says 139 homes are being “held up” in one part of the country because an assessment of the speed of cricket balls was not done by a qualified assessor, and “jumping spiders” are “stopping an entire new town”.
To that end, the PM declares that Labour will scrap regulations to ensure that the government’s pledge of building 1.5 million homes by the end of the parliament can be met.
For businesses, he sets a new target of cutting compliance costs for businesses by a quarter.
Our deputy political editor Sam Coates has taken a look at how the government plans to get Britain building:
Sir Keir Starmer is in east Yorkshire this morning, where he is delivering a major speech on his plans for government reform.
The prime minister begins by re-emphasising Labour’s election pledge: “Change.”
He says: “That wasn’t just about an offer to the British people, it was actually a statement about the world that we now live in.
“Because we’re in a changing world, and I think we can feel it every day.”
He points to global instability “developing before our very eyes”, and the impact this has on working people.
On Ukraine, Starmer says he “profoundly believes that if we don’t secure a just peace and a lasting peace, then that insecurity will continue”.
That means, the PM says, higher prices and higher bills for people in Britain, with the cost of living crisis “going on for even longer”.
‘We must go further’
Starmer says the “fundamental” goal of politics at the moment is to take “tough decisions on security”, which is why the UK is raising defence spending to 2.5% of GDP in the next few years.
“You’re not strong if your energy security is exploited by [Vladimir] Putin,” the prime minister says.
“And you’re not strong if you lose control of your public finances, and you can’t build your industries.”
Starmer says NHS waiting lists have been coming down for five months over the winter months, but says we now need “greater urgency to go further and faster”.
He says “every pound that we spend… must deliver for working people”, which means reforming government, bringing it closer to local communities, to ensure it’s working at “maximum power”.
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