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Wes Streeting has a hell of a nerve.
The Health Secretary has apparently complained that “an “ugly” racism reminiscent of the 1970s and 1980s has become worryingly commonplace again in modern Britain and NHS staff are bearing the brunt of it,” according to The Guardian.
But haven’t politicians like Streeting been stoking that racism – to distract us all from their own misdemeanours?
According to The Guardian, “Streeting told how he has been “shocked” hearing NHS staff, especially those working in A&E, recount growing levels of harassment, aggression and violence when their care gets delayed.
“Advising the public to brace themselves for the NHS in England getting overwhelmed in the coming weeks because of a triple whammy of flu, Covid and strike action by doctors as winter descends, he admitted that patients would be put in danger as a result of becoming stuck on trolleys or in the back of ambulances – situations that are known to heighten the risk of harm and death.
““Even if you’ve got a long wait, which I know is frustrating, or you feel like you’ve been sent from pillar to post, which sadly does happen, there’s no excuse for taking that out on staff,” Streeting said.
““But the thing that has shocked me most of all is that the rising tide of racism and the way in which kind of 1970s, 1980s-style racism has apparently become permissible again in this country. I’m really shocked at the way this is now impacting on NHS staff,” he said.”
Let’s get something absolutely clear:
Politicians across the spectrum have been leaning on anti-migrant narratives for years: first as a deflection from austerity’s consequences, then to excuse public service collapse, and now, under Labour as well, to cover for under-investment and system failure.
That’s right: under Labour as well.
Streeting’s words might sound like moral leadership, but they ring hollow when you look at how his own party has spent the past year chasing the same xenophobic headlines the Tories used to rely on.
Under Keir Starmer, Labour has embraced the “tough on immigration” posture, talking about “smashing the gangs”, “stopping the boats”, and even sending asylum seekers to third countries — all rhetoric designed not to solve the problem, but to outflank the right in the headlines.
(And they all failed too, just to make matters worse.)
The key point is: none of these plans were meant to work. They were gestures to reassure voters who’ve been fed years of fear about migrants, not policies to manage migration humanely or effectively.
And every time Labour parrots Tory framing — that migrants are a threat, a burden, a crisis — it legitimises the very prejudice Streeting is now condemning.
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By refusing to challenge the right-wing narrative and instead competing within it, Labour – the party to which Streeting belongs – normalised the idea that migration is inherently a problem.
That’s what gives permission for the “ugly racism” Streeting claims to abhor to flourish again — in the streets, and in NHS waiting rooms.
Don’t get me wrong – Streeting may be genuinely horrified by the resurgence of open racism — but it’s the direct result of a political culture that’s spent more than a decade normalising hostility, of which he is a part.
The tabloids and the right-wing press have pushed stories about “health tourism”, “migrant crime”, and “foreign workers taking jobs” until they have been accepted as common sense to people who are struggling and looking for someone to blame.
It’s a process called ‘The Big Lie’ – if you repeat a lie often enough, people will eventually believe it.
So when NHS workers — often brown or black, often foreign-born — are on the receiving end of verbal or physical abuse, it isn’t some spontaneous relapse into the 1970s.
It’s a predictable consequence of rhetoric that politicians have refused to challenge, or have even used themselves to look “tough” on immigration.
Racism is back because immigration has been used by politicians as a distraction from their own failures.
Streeting’s late moral outrage is fine, but if he and others don’t also call out the political machinery that made racism “socially acceptable” again, then they’re only condemning the symptom, while being part of the cause.
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Streeting condemns rising racism – but politicians like him helped create it
Share this post:
Wes Streeting has a hell of a nerve.
The Health Secretary has apparently complained that “an “ugly” racism reminiscent of the 1970s and 1980s has become worryingly commonplace again in modern Britain and NHS staff are bearing the brunt of it,” according to The Guardian.
But haven’t politicians like Streeting been stoking that racism – to distract us all from their own misdemeanours?
According to The Guardian, “Streeting told how he has been “shocked” hearing NHS staff, especially those working in A&E, recount growing levels of harassment, aggression and violence when their care gets delayed.
“Advising the public to brace themselves for the NHS in England getting overwhelmed in the coming weeks because of a triple whammy of flu, Covid and strike action by doctors as winter descends, he admitted that patients would be put in danger as a result of becoming stuck on trolleys or in the back of ambulances – situations that are known to heighten the risk of harm and death.
““Even if you’ve got a long wait, which I know is frustrating, or you feel like you’ve been sent from pillar to post, which sadly does happen, there’s no excuse for taking that out on staff,” Streeting said.
““But the thing that has shocked me most of all is that the rising tide of racism and the way in which kind of 1970s, 1980s-style racism has apparently become permissible again in this country. I’m really shocked at the way this is now impacting on NHS staff,” he said.”
Let’s get something absolutely clear:
Politicians across the spectrum have been leaning on anti-migrant narratives for years: first as a deflection from austerity’s consequences, then to excuse public service collapse, and now, under Labour as well, to cover for under-investment and system failure.
That’s right: under Labour as well.
Streeting’s words might sound like moral leadership, but they ring hollow when you look at how his own party has spent the past year chasing the same xenophobic headlines the Tories used to rely on.
Under Keir Starmer, Labour has embraced the “tough on immigration” posture, talking about “smashing the gangs”, “stopping the boats”, and even sending asylum seekers to third countries — all rhetoric designed not to solve the problem, but to outflank the right in the headlines.
(And they all failed too, just to make matters worse.)
The key point is: none of these plans were meant to work. They were gestures to reassure voters who’ve been fed years of fear about migrants, not policies to manage migration humanely or effectively.
And every time Labour parrots Tory framing — that migrants are a threat, a burden, a crisis — it legitimises the very prejudice Streeting is now condemning.
Support Vox Political!
With social media algorithms acting as gatekeepers – allowing users to read only what their owners want them to, sites like Vox Political need the support of our readers like never before.
You can help by making a donation:
https://Ko-fi.com/voxpolitical
By refusing to challenge the right-wing narrative and instead competing within it, Labour – the party to which Streeting belongs – normalised the idea that migration is inherently a problem.
That’s what gives permission for the “ugly racism” Streeting claims to abhor to flourish again — in the streets, and in NHS waiting rooms.
Don’t get me wrong – Streeting may be genuinely horrified by the resurgence of open racism — but it’s the direct result of a political culture that’s spent more than a decade normalising hostility, of which he is a part.
The tabloids and the right-wing press have pushed stories about “health tourism”, “migrant crime”, and “foreign workers taking jobs” until they have been accepted as common sense to people who are struggling and looking for someone to blame.
It’s a process called ‘The Big Lie’ – if you repeat a lie often enough, people will eventually believe it.
So when NHS workers — often brown or black, often foreign-born — are on the receiving end of verbal or physical abuse, it isn’t some spontaneous relapse into the 1970s.
It’s a predictable consequence of rhetoric that politicians have refused to challenge, or have even used themselves to look “tough” on immigration.
Racism is back because immigration has been used by politicians as a distraction from their own failures.
Streeting’s late moral outrage is fine, but if he and others don’t also call out the political machinery that made racism “socially acceptable” again, then they’re only condemning the symptom, while being part of the cause.
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