Sir Keir Starmer

• WELL Sir Keir Starmer has finally done it: I have just resigned from the Labour Party (again!) after his stupid comments over the weekend about bureaucracy in the National Health Service.

I worked my whole life in the private sector and can assure you there is plenty of bureaucracy in most large organisations. But that is not the problem in the NHS right now, Sir Keir.

Staff wages and working conditions are, with today’s reports confirming that public sector pay rose at half the rate of pay in the private sector, with both sets of workers actually seeing a reduction in pay if inflation is taken into account.

Does Sir Keir not see these issues as important? And if he doesn’t, what hope is there for any change?

Sir Keir’s comments about bureaucracy in the NHS could have come from anyone in the Tory party as a distraction or excuse for their actions over the last decade or more, and has echoed around the pages of newspapers, well known for their balanced coverage of anything Labour talks about (that’s irony folks).

Siding with the Tories and undermining the NHS staff striking for better wages and conditions after a decade of Tory cuts is bad enough, but has Sir Keir already forgotten that the hard work of everyone in the NHS – including the “bureaucrats” – helped millions of us survive one of the biggest medical emergencies this country has ever experienced?

Sir Keir Starmer’s misplaced and unnecessary comments would be insulting and utterly stupid in an editorial from a right-wing newspaper but coming from a Labour leader they are downright ignorant, stupid, and nasty.

Yes the NHS could be more efficient. But first, right now, it needs proper funding to overcome a decade or more of Tory underfunding and attack. If Sir Keir truly cannot see this, what on earth is he there for?

Just one thought to end on: how is that the public sector has “bureaucracy” but the private sector has “management”?

DAVID REED
Eton Avenue, NW3