Labour planning to replace NHS England chair with party loyalist

Labour is poised to axe the chair of NHS England if it wins the election and replace him with a party loyalist to help implement its plans to revive the “broken” health service.

The party is considering replacing Richard Meddings with the former health secretary Alan Milburn, the ex-home secretary Jacqui Smith, or Sally Morgan, who served as Tony Blair’s political secretary.

Labour wants to install a senior figure from the last time it was in power to give it more influence over NHS England, which became independent from the government as a result of changes made in 2012 by the then Conservative health secretary, Andrew Lansley.

Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary, is keen to ensure that a new chair of NHS England will help him fulfil his ambitious pledges to ensure the service is meeting targets for key waiting times – in A&E and for planned hospital treatment – by the time of the next election in 2029.

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Plans for Meddings to be ousted after the election are an open secret in the NHS. The three leading contenders to replace him all have or have had major NHS roles. As health secretary in 1999-2003, Milburn was an architect of some radical changes made by Labour, including the creation of foundation trusts, which are semi-autonomous from government control.

Jacqui Smith was a junior health minister in 2001-03 in the early days of her ministerial career, before Blair’s successor, Gordon Brown, appointed her as home secretary – the first woman to occupy the role – in 2007. She previously chaired the University Hospitals Birmingham (UHB) trust and is now the chair of Barts health trust in London, two of the NHS’s biggest care providers.

Lady Morgan, who was Blair’s director of government and political relations in 1997-2005, used to chair the Royal Brompton and Harefield specialist heart and lung trust in London. She is now deputy chair of Guy’s and St Thomas’ trust , which merged with her former trust in 2021.

Meddings was appointed by the then health secretary, Sajid Javid, in January 2022 on a four-year contract and took over his role two months later. The former Treasury board member and deputy chair of Teach First pledged on his appointment to donate his £63,000 salary to charity.

He is widely seen as a “Tory banker”. However, colleagues say he is neither a member of nor donor to the Conservative party and shares Labour’s analysis that recent governments’ underinvestment in the NHS and failure to address its chronic lack of staff have left it unable to respond properly to the growing demand for care that an ageing population, Covid and poverty have helped create.

Related: Labour wants to build an NHS ‘fit for the future’. Can it cut waiting times?

Milburn has maintained a close interest in the health service since Labour lost the 2010 election, including in his role as an adviser to PricewaterhouseCoopers. One source said that Milburn, as a former health secretary, could be accused of “backseat driving” if he became the new NHS England chair.

Smith is “very keen on the role and pushing for it”, sources say. However, she was criticised for taking a leave of absence in 2020 from chairing UHB trust to become a contestant on Strictly Come Dancing at a time when the NHS was grappling with the Covid pandemic.

Morgan became a peer in 2001, chaired the education regulator Ofsted from 2011-2014, and has been the master of Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge since 2019.

Whoever Labour appoints will have to help improve relations between NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care. Insiders say the relationship “is at an all-time low” after a series of behind-the-scenes clashes in recent years between NHS England’s chief executive, Amanda Pritchard, and health secretaries – notably Steve Barclay – over the service’s funding and priorities.

A source said: “Labour feel they need to repair that damage and that NHS England needs new leadership and that a Labour person who would work well with Wes would be the best way to go forward.”