Wes Streeting tears into Diane Abbott in brutal public spat

Wes Streeting and Diane Abbott

Labour frontbencher Wes Streeting has exchanged social media blows with ex-Labour MP Diane Abbott over the use of private healthcare.

Ms Abbott, who had her party’s whip withdrawn in April last year, took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to challenge Mr Streeting publicly over the assertion private healthcare could help cut NHS waiting lists.

The bombastic far-left politician addressed Wes directly when she posted to her 424,000 followers on X in response to an interview Mr Streeting did with the Guardian where he discussed current NHS capacity and the private sector.

Ms Abbott wrote: “There is no principled case for using the private sector. Just as the ‘spare capacity’ in private health Wes talks about does not exist. Only NHS doctors, nurses and the £million contracts Wes will give them.”

In a stinging rebuke to his former party colleague Mr Streeting, who has recently said “middle-class lefties” won’t stop Labour using the private sector, pointed to reports Ms Abbott had used the private sector for for her own son.

He fired back in reply to Ms Abbott “But you used the private sector while a Labour government improved public services”.

Diane Abbott

In 2003 Ms Abbott’s decision to put her son in a £10,000-a-year private school as opposed to public education sparked controversy.

Mr Streeting ended his social media response with a quote attributed to Ms Abbott speaking to the Mirror in 2010 where she admitted the decision to school her own child privately, saying: “Since I made that decision Labour built five new secondary schools in Hackney, one of them with some of the best GCSE results in the country. I wouldn’t have to make the same choice today.”

By highlighting Ms Abbott had used the private sector instead of public for her own family, Mr Streeting appeared to imply hypocrisy on the part of his former colleague calling out his own argument paid-for healthcare could help the NHS.

In his latest interview with the Guardian Shadow Health Secretary Mr Streeting said Labour would privatise the NHS “over my dead body” but that the party believed in using private healthcare to help cut current waiting lists.

He argued those that could afford to pay to see a doctor can still do so because it helps speed up the time those who cannot afford to go private have to wait on the NHS.

He told the paper: “The argument I’ll make unapologetically is that those people who say we shouldn’t use the private sector to cut waiting lists will have to be honest about the fact that they’re telling people who can’t afford to go private that their leftwing principles say they should be waiting longer.”