Streeting heckled as he urges progressives to fight the ‘populist right’

Saturday 25 January 2025 2:26 pm

Well being Secretary Wes Streeting was interrupted by local weather protesters on Saturday as he gave a speech urging progressives to combat the “populist proper” in a battle of concepts.

Two girls shouted over him as he used an handle to the Fabian Society to name for the centre-left to tackle the “miserablist, declinist imaginative and prescient” he mentioned was supplied by figures like Reform UK chief Nigel Farage.

One of many demonstrators, who had been each swiftly taken out of the convention corridor in central London by safety, mentioned she was protesting in opposition to the continued subsidisation of Drax energy station in North Yorkshire.

The lady, who gave her title as Ellie, mentioned: “Labour promised change and we voted for them as a result of we needed change and they’re persevering with to subsidise.

“We nonetheless imagine that there’s time for them to make a distinction, however they should finish the subsidies now.”

After his speech, Streeting joked: “I can’t imagine there have been solely two.”

In his keynote handle Streeting accused Farage of providing a “miserablist, declinist” imaginative and prescient for Britain

“The populist proper are coming for us and we have to be critical about beating them,” he mentioned.

“The crux of Farage’s argument is that this: what was potential within the twentieth century isn’t potential within the twenty first. It’s a miserablist, declinist imaginative and prescient for Britain’s future.

“Folks shouldn’t have to decide on between a well being service that treats them on time and an NHS free at level of use.

“That’s a poverty of ambition for our nation and Labour completely rejects it.”

By Nina Lloyd, PA Political Correspondent