Former Labour health secretary Patricia Hewitt has been recruited to advise the government on how to improve the efficiency of the NHS.
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt announced that a minister from the New Labour era will assist him and Health Secretary Steve Barclay with the operation of the new “integrated care boards,” which replaced clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) earlier this year.
Prior to and during her time in government, Miss Hewitt, who held four front-bench positions under Tony Blair, faced scandals.
She was forced to apologize for her 1970s ties to a paedophile lobbying group and was expelled from the Labour Party in 2010 due to political lobbying irregularities.
One senior Conservative stated last night, “Why in the world are we appointing a discredited Labour politician to lead a review of the NHS?
“We never, ever learn – we continually appoint adversaries to conduct reviews that are then used against us.”
Miss Hewitt apologized in 2014 for handling the Paedophile Information Exchange (PIE) improperly when she was general secretary of the National Council for Civil Liberties (NCCL).
Between 1975 and 1983, the two organizations were affiliated for eight years.
In a press release issued in her name by the NCCL in 1976, she argued that the age of consent should be lowered to 10 and that incest should be outlawed.
Miss Hewitt later stated, “I accept responsibility for our errors.” I apologize for having made a mistake on the PIE.
Along with many others, NCCL in the 1970s was naive and wrong to accept PIE’s claim to be a “campaigning and counseling organization.”
14 years after leaving the organization, she was elected as the Labour MP for Leicester West and was quickly promoted to the government.
However, her two years as health secretary were turbulent due to the introduction of a controversial junior doctor application scheme and the reduction of NHS spending to balance the books. Her accomplishments included implementing the public smoking ban.
She was cited as one of the MPs implicated in a “pay for access” scandal following her dismissal by Gordon Brown and subsequent employment with large corporations including BT and Alliance Boots.
During a Channel 4 sting operation in 2010, she claimed to suggest she was paid £3,000 per day to help a client acquire a position on a government advisory committee. Following the claims, she was suspended from Labour, but no further action was taken.
Sir Michael Barber, who advised the Blair administration on education before assuming a leadership role in the delivery of public services, was drafted back into government yesterday, according to Mr. Hunt.
While Miss Hewitt will advise the government on “how to ensure that the new integrated care boards operate efficiently and with sufficient autonomy and responsibility,” Sir Michael will assist in reforming the present British skills programme.
Sir Michael, an accomplished educator, worked for Mr. Blair for eight years prior to accepting positions with educational publishing company Pearson and becoming chairman of the Office for Students’ watchdog.