In his recent Spring Budget speech, Jeremy Hunt made a rather cringeworthy remark: “the NHS is, rightly, the biggest reason most of us are proud to be British”. The Chancellor was likely referring to a 2023 poll in which 54% of people said “the NHS” made them proud to be British – a higher percentage than for any other item.
Right-wing pundits had a field day on Twitter, lampooning Hunt with AI images portraying the NHS as having played a crucial role in events like the signing of Magna Carta and the defeat of the Spanish Armada. Writing in the Telegraph, the journalist James Bartholomew made the obligatory call to “abolish” the NHS and said it was “absurd” to be proud of Britain’s healthcare system.
While journalists and other commentators are free to do as they wish, does it make sense for Right-wing British politicians to bash the NHS? No – not if they want to get elected.
The simple fact is that the NHS remains overwhelmingly popular with the British public. A 2022 YouGov poll asked what are the best things about Britain today, and “National Health Service” came top. (“Britain’s countryside” came second.) The NHS is immensely popular not only among Left-wing voters, but also among Right-wing voters. In a 2018 YouGov poll, 88% of Conservative voters and 88% of Leave voters said they were proud of the NHS.
And when asked in 2019 whether we should raise the basic rate of income tax (the rate paid by ordinary people) to “better fund the NHS”, a majority of Britons said we should. Even 50% of Conservative voters said we should, compared to only 37% who held the opposite view.
Britain’s health service is, quite literally, the most popular institution in the country. Nigel Lawson’s quip that it’s the “closest thing the English have to a religion” was no exaggeration. And this is despite several decades of people like James Bartholomew banging on about its flaws.
In addition to being immensely popular, the NHS is something on which voters place a great deal of emphasis; it has high ‘salience’, in the political science jargon. According to the latest Opinions and Lifestyle Survey, “the NHS” is the joint-most important issue facing the country, along with “the cost of living”.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying the NHS should be so popular. From what I can tell, there’s plenty of room for improvement. And the quasi-divine reverence in which it’s held is frankly bizarre.
But the idea that Right-wing politicians should go around bashing the health service is a non-starter. Republicans on the Left are smart enough not to call for abolishing the monarchy – and the monarchy isn’t nearly as popular. “Let’s abolish the NHS” has about as much chance of working as “Let’s put kittens in blenders”.
Public opinion is largely with the Right when it comes to reducing immigration, and the Right can’t even win on that. To believe the Right can win on abolishing the NHS (where public opinion is clearly with the Left) is pure fantasy.
In order to get elected, the Right has to appeal to enough working-class whites in the country’s marginal seats. These voters tend to be patriotic and instinctively conservative on issues like crime and immigration. Yet they also tend to have warm feelings toward the NHS. If Right-wing politicians don’t pay lip service to the health service’s ‘greatness’, Left-wing politicians can say, “we told you they want to sell off Our NHS” and such voters will not hesitate to cast their ballots for the Left.
In the coming years, Britain’s healthcare system will need to be reformed as it comes under increasing pressure due to population ageing (a process that is affecting all developed economies). Meanwhile, Right-wing politicians need to accept political reality and pretend the NHS is great.
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