Matt Hancock, health secretary from July 2018 to June 2021

• FOLLOWING Matt Hancock’s resignation as health secretary at the weekend, there is a new face in charge of the National Health Service.

But it’s the same old story with the Conservatives handing out more taxpayers’ money to Serco instead of supporting the local public health team in Westminster to do vital NHS Test and Trace work.

Serco has won a contract to run Covid-19 testing sites across the country for another 12 months. This comes just days after a damning National Audit Office report concluded that NHS Test and Trace was still failing to “deliver value for money”.

The National Audit Office found that the £37billion a year service – which was run by Conservative peer “Dido”, Baroness Harding until earlier this year – had lost track of nearly 600 million Covid tests and had an over-reliance on private consultants.

To get the job done properly the government should be putting NHS Test and Trace in the hands of our local health service professionals.

CLLR PAUL DIMOLDENBERG
Labour City Management Spokesperson
Westminster City Hall, SW1