National Health Action Party

The National Health Action Party (NHA) is a political party in the United Kingdom.

The party grew out of the movement opposing the 2012 Health and Social Care Act.^[2] It campaigns for renationalisation of the privatised parts of the English National Health Service, reductions in outsourcing, and improvements to NHS funding, service provision and staffing.^[3][4] Despite focusing on health, the party has a range of policies in areas such as the economy, housing and education. These include opposition to austerity and a call for political reform.^[5]

History

The passage of the Health and Social Care Act in March 2012 prompted the party's co-founder Clive Peedell, a cancer specialist doctor, to co-write an open letter to The Independent alongside esteemed medical signatories.^[6] The letter was highly critical of the Liberal Democrats for their role in the passage of the Act and stated that the signatories would "form a coalition of healthcare professionals to take on coalition MPs at the next General Election, on the non-party, independent ticket of defending the NHS and acting in the wider public interest". Two months later, on 14 May 2012, Peedell co-founded the NHA Party with retired doctor Richard Taylor, who had twice been elected as MP for Wyre Forest on an 'independent health' component to his local hospital party name.^[2] The party was launched in Westminster in November 2012.^[7]

The party first stood in the 2013

Party co-founder Dr Clive Peedell resigned the leadership in July 2016, and Dr Paul Hobday was appointed as interim leader.[11] Surgical registrar Dr Alex Ashman was elected as the new permanent party leader in December 2016^[12] and promised to continue the work begun by Drs Peedell and Taylor.^[13] Dr Ashman resigned as leader in 2019 and was replaced by co-leaders Alastair Fischer and Veronika Wagner.^{[citation needed]}

Supporters have included authors Mark Haddon^[14] and Philip Pullman,^[15] satirist Armando Iannucci,^[16] science writer Marcus Chown^[17] and comedian Rufus Hound. Hound stood as an NHA Party candidate in the London constituency for the 2014 European elections.^[18]

Policies

The party has a range of policies on healthcare, political reform, the economy, immigration, housing, education and environmental sustainability.^[5][19][20]

Health

• To reverse privatisation and restore a publicly run NHS that provides
  universal healthcare
  .
• To repeal the
  Private Finance Initiative
  (PFI) deals.
• To protect the NHS from involvement in international trade agreements such as
  TTIP
  .
• To involve patients and staff in NHS decision processes and reduce reliance on management consultants.
• To improve public health, social care, housing and other matters that affect the nation's health.
• To combat gender inequality in healthcare and the workplace
• To demand a moratorium on hospital re-configurations unless there are evidence-based, clinical reasons with local and staff support and adequate alternatives already in place.

Political reform

• To enact stricter controls on MPs' and Peers' voting when they have a conflict of interest.
• To reform the
  directly elected through single transferable vote
  , while the remainder are appointed for fixed terms based on expertise in specialist fields
• To review the system of party whips and the practice of voting without attending debate.
• To end the revolving door culture of UK politics.
• To lower the voting age to 16.
• To appoint a commission to investigate a move towards proportional representation.

Economy

• To reject austerity and oppose further public spending cuts.
• To increase spending on key public services and infrastructure with a view to increasing the UK's GDP.
• To ensure taxation is progressive and take actions to reduce tax avoidance and evasion.
• To improve regulation of the financial sector, including separation of the retail and investment arms of banks.
• To introduce a living wage, ban zero-hour contracts and work towards a state of minimal unemployment.

Electoral performance

General election results

2015 general election

Jeremy Hunt. The candidates were:^[23]

Candidate	Constituency	Votes	%
Dave Ash	Sutton and Cheam	345	0.7%
Roseanne Edwards	Banbury	729	1.3%
Rik Evans	Truro and Falmouth	526	1.0%
Rebecca Fox	Camberwell and Peckham	466	0.9%
Dr. Bob Gill	Old Bexley and Sidcup	1,216	2.6%
Dr. Paul Hobday	Maidstone and The Weald	583	1.2%
Karen Howell	Stafford	1,701	3.5%
Dr. Louise Irvine	South West Surrey	4,851	8.5%
Dr. Clive Peedell	Witney	616	1.1%
Dr. Helen Salisbury	Oxford West and Abingdon	723	1.3%
Dr. Richard Taylor	Wyre Forest	7,211	14.6%
Dr. Carl Walker	East Worthing and Shoreham	1,243	2.5%

Among the twelve candidates, the party won no seats and only saved two deposits (i.e. won more than 5%). Their best result came in Wyre Forest, where Dr Taylor (who had previously won the seat twice for the

Independent Kidderminster Hospital and Health Concern

party) came 4th with 14.6% of the vote. Dr Irvine came 4th with 8.5% in South West Surrey.

2017 general election

The party stood five candidates at the 2017 general election.^[24] Food blogger and activist Jack Monroe was announced as the NHA Party candidate for Southend West,^[25] but withdrew due to ill health and receiving death threats.^[26] The candidates standing were:

Candidate	Constituency	Votes	%	Change from 2015
Dr Louise Irvine	South West Surrey	12,093	20.0%	11.5%
Dr Carl Walker	East Worthing and Shoreham	575	1.1%	1.4%
Mark Jarnell	South Ribble	341	0.6%	n/a
Dr John Dean	Central Devon	871	1.5%	n/a
Neal Stote	Redditch	2,239	5%	n/a

Local election results

Year	Candidates	Total votes	Average votes per candidate	Average % vote per candidate	Number of Councillors
2014	7	1,177	168	6	0
2015	4	638	160	3.1	0
2016	0	0	N/A	N/A	0
2017	1	228	228	22	0
2018	0	0	N/A	N/A	0
2019	1	344	344	6	0
2022	1	219

European Parliament election results

Year	London constituency	MEPs elected
2014	23,253	0

By-election results

Constituency	Date	Candidate	Number of votes	% of votes	Position
Eastleigh	28 February 2013	Iain Maclennan	392	0.9	6th
Witney	20 October 2016	Helen Salisbury	433	1.1	6th

See also

• Keep Our NHS Public

References

1. ^ "National Health Action Party official website". Retrieved 9 June 2015.
2. ^ ^{a b} "Former MP to lead new political party opposed to NHS changes". BBC News. bbc.co.uk. 14 May 2012. Retrieved 17 June 2012.
3. ^ Stamp, Gavin (22 May 2012). "Can 'Save NHS' party make an impact at the ballot box?". BBC News. bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 17 June 2012.
4. S2CID 11227842
   . Retrieved 19 August 2012.
5. ^ ^{a b} "Election 2015: NHA Party 'serious about fixing the NHS'".
6. Independent.co.uk. 18 March 2012. Archived
   from the original on 18 June 2022.
7. ^ "Doctors launch National Health Action party in London". BBC News. 15 November 2012.
8. ^ "Eastleigh by-election: Lib Dems hold on despite UKIP surge". BBC News. bbc.co.uk. 1 March 2013. Retrieved 10 January 2017.
9. ^ ^{a b} "Results of the 2015 General Election - Election 2015". BBC News.
10. ^ "Wyre Forest Parliamentary constituency". BBC News. Retrieved 10 January 2017.
11. S2CID 6529526
    . Retrieved 15 July 2016.
12. ^ "AGM 2016 – Ballot Results". Retrieved 4 January 2017.
13. ^ "Christmas message from the National Health Action Party". 24 December 2016. Retrieved 4 January 2017.
14. ^ "Mark Haddon: 'The London theatre world is so much more alive than contemporary fiction'". Evening Standard. 12 March 2013.
15. ^ "In this week's magazine The power struggle". newstatesman.com. 5 May 2015. Retrieved 8 May 2015.
16. ^ "Whichever party spouts it, talk of the NHS budget being ring-fenced is a complete fallacy". independent.co.uk. 23 April 2015. Archived from the original on 18 June 2022. Retrieved 8 May 2015.
17. ^ "Labour values, the NHS and me". 27 August 2015. Retrieved 1 May 2017.
18. ^ "Rufus Hound in Euro elections NHS bid". BBC News. 26 January 2014. Retrieved 4 August 2014.
19. ^ "NHA website - Policies". Archived from the original on 29 June 2015. Retrieved 9 June 2015.
20. ^ "Our 2017 Manifesto - NHA Party". Retrieved 4 May 2019.
21. ^ "Results of the 2017 General Election". BBC News.
22. ^ "Election 2015: A party with a prescription for the NHS?". BBC News. 30 April 2015. Retrieved 2 May 2015.
23. ^ "Our Euro Election Candidates - NHA Party". nhap.org.
24. ^ "Just when you thought there couldn't be another election... - NHA Party". nhap.org.
25. ^ "Jack Monroe to stand for National Health Action Party". BBC News. 29 April 2017. Retrieved 1 May 2017.
26. London Evening Standard
    . 11 May 2017.

External links

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• National Health Action Party official website
• Facebook
• Twitter
• YouTube channel

Related articles

• The NHS is on a one-way road to privatisation. The Guardian. Published 2 October 2015. Retrieved 2 February 2017.
• Surge in privatisation threatening free NHS treatment, unions say. The Guardian. Published 8 February 2016. Retrieved 2 February 2017.
• NHS Reinstatement Bill: Tory MPs filibuster debate by talking about deporting foreigners for hours. The Independent. Published 11 March 2016. Retrieved 2 February 2017.
• Creeping privatisation of healthcare is damaging the NHS, study finds. The Independent. Published 28 July 2016. Retrieved 2 February 2017.
• Government quietly privatises the NHS's in-house agency staff provider. The Independent. Published 19 November 2016. Retrieved 2 February 2017.
• NHS bosses 'spent half of extra Autumn Statement cash on outside services'. BBC News. Published 27 March 2017. Retrieved 25 April 2017.
• Tory ‘Health Privatisation’ Under Fire £900m Spent On Non-NHS Treatments. Huffington Post (UK edition). Published 27 March 2017. Retrieved 25 April 2017.

Notes

1. Independent Kidderminster Hospital and Health Concern
2. Independent Kidderminster Hospital and Health Concern