WHEN Peace and Justice Project founder and Islington North MP Jeremy Corbyn warned the public by revealing evidence of the Tory government’s secret dealings with US companies selling off the NHS, the media labelled it “a Russian conspiracy.”

This so-called conspiracy has been debunked, with reports piling up on the effects of the Health and Social Care Act 2012 in opening the NHS to the private finance initiative.

But it seems that Labour’s current leadership is determined to follow in the Tories’ footsteps, with Keir Starmer declaring that nothing is “off limits” when it comes to the NHS.

When asked if the NHS would be safe in the hands of the opposition if it were to win the next general election, Corbyn said: “I’d like to think so, but I’m very worried — because our NHS is a very precious institution: healthcare, universal and free at the point of need.

“If we go into an election pledged to continue the private operation within the NHS and farming services out to the private sector, then that is a form of privatisation.

“And it’s not a big step away from not having a system that is actually designed to make a profit out of illness, whereas it should be a system designed to make sure everybody gets proper treatment.”

And that’s exactly why Corbyn said he was a part of the “SOS NHS” demonstration on Saturday.

The protest, as reported in today’s paper, called for the NHS to be reinstated as a fully public health service amid the insidious creep of private corporations into our medical care access.

In a recent article for the Guardian, shadow health secretary Wes Streeting said that the NHS needs “reform” — but both he and Starmer have been very vague about what this reform would look like. 

Corbyn said he did not know what Streeting could mean by his ambiguous language either.

“My idea of reform of the NHS would be to end the internal market, to get the privatisation out of it, to get rid of Centene and the other companies that are trying to take over our GP services,” he said.

Centene, a US corporate giant, is currently the largest single provider of GP services in England, subverting vital first-contact patient care into profit-centred businesses.

Corbyn said that reform should also include a national care service to help prevent families, especially women, with unpaid caring responsibilities from falling into poverty.

In his speech to the SOS NHS crowd, Corbyn highlighted how migration was crucial to the functioning of the NHS.

When asked if there was a link between the government’s anti-immigration Bill and the NHS crisis, he said: “The NHS has been built largely on migrant labour: the Windrush generation, the Irish that came over here to help and work in our NHS…

“This disgusting piece of legislation demonises every refugee, [even] those that eventually get through the system.

“Tomorrow they will be our doctors, our surgeons, our nurses, our scientists.

“Humanity needs to reach out to people who are victims of war, environmental disaster and human rights abuses — not put up barbed wire to try to deter them.”