AIBU to not be remotely bothered that Rishi has private healthcare

[MXVIT]

I'm really not - it's an absolutely ridiculous thing for us to be getting worked up about.

He's the prime minister - of course he has private healthcare. Leaders of the country need to be fit and well and therefore need the best healthcare money can buy - we can all agree the NHS is not that - and thats a separate conversation.

By that logic lets ban all childless babysitters, all dogless dogwalkers.

Honestly as a country I feel we're that addicted to getting ourselves into a frenzy over everything that we're focussing on the wrong things.

The narrative of "the poorest of society don't have this - so NO ONE CAN" is getting more and more common lately.

Yeah, why should the person in charge of the basic living conditions of the majority know anything about the daily lives and struggles of those people?

100% agree @MXVIT . I can't understand what all the fuss is about. If I could afford it and I was on the mid six figures or higher, and not the low to mid 5 figures I am on, I would have private bloody healthcare. In fact, I would probably be more pissed off if Rishi was using the NHS LOL.

Completely agree. It’s so depressing to hear how people get sidetracked by this stuff.

He's got like seven hundred MILLIOIN POUNDS. Of course he's registered with a private GP. By saying "it's not relevant" he is de facto admitting it - which is why it is so cringe.

Personally I think that:

1. It is not appropriate for MPs/civil servants to have private healthcare (nor is it appropriate for that to be) offered as e.g. an incentive for civil servants) - yes, even for their partners / children

1. All MPs should be required to divest of any private healthcare/what-should-be public services (water, energy etc) investments before formal appointment. And no it shouldn't matter if that means a loss.

If you are working for the public, you are working for the public and the best way to understand if you're doing well or not is to be reliant on - I.e. vulnerable to - the robustness of public services.

When you want the highest job in the land, these things are everyone's business.

Starmer answered the question without hesitation.

I am not surprised if he uses private healthcare given his millions BUT I do care as his constituent that he doesn’t support the NHS.

He has failed as an MP to save our local hospital which mean people now have to travel into Darlington (County Durham) for the nearest a&e and sometimes even further to Middlesbrough to access emergency healthcare and other services.

If you live up the Dales it could be (and probably already has been for some) fatal.
James Cook hospital is nearly 50 minutes away and I live at the nearer end of the constituency. That’s where you are taken if you are suffering a stroke as was the case for my Grandad, the local hospital (was 20 minutes away ) used to have a specialist stroke unit too but no more. There’s barely any services there now.

This is why we need to know if he uses the NHS and if he supports it. What he values ultimately informs the services the rest of us receive.

So true. This annoys me more, so lazy and dim.

Yeah, why can't they just go easy on politicians?

Haven't politicians been through enough in recent years? Leave them alone!

It is not jealousy - an insane accusation.

Remember when Sunak did not appear to know how to pay for petrol with a card?
I would bet my house on him having zero idea of what using the NHS is like.
The issue is of people in charge of services they have zero understanding of.

Ask about policies sure, but you’re an easy sell with this stuff

Cheap headlines for the easily outraged.

Do PMs usually use their local GP? Wait at 8am for a prescription, I doubt it.

Yeah, why can't they just go easy on politicians?

Don't be ridiculous, no-one is expecting the press to "go easy" on politicians, so please take your straw man argument elsewhere.

I think the issue here is if he's never used the NHS nor has no need to do so, how could he every possibly really uunderstand / relate to the NHS issues, problems, funding crisis etc or have a real motivation to protect it? I assume all / most PMs have private healthcare but with his huge fortune he's probably less inclined than many prior PMs to keep it going, because it will never impact him, he is so far from reality and his whole situation is like marie antoinette / silver spoon etc.

If politicians aren't held accountable we will end up in an even worse state. Not that they're exactly held accountable these days. Party gate et al.

It is like someone in charge of supermarkets never going into a supermarket. It does not work.

Anyone who runs a private company knows this.

@MarshaBradyo I remember past Prime Ministers using local hospitals.

But having grown up in a family where a number of close family were supermarket workers.

and in the case of an emergency and your child desperately needed calpol at 3am, would would most certainly drive to the supermarket to purchase

Not everything is available privately.

I have private insurance it doesn’t mean I won’t ever use a hospital.

But for everyday stuff yeh I’d expect a PM to get a prescription without waiting at the local GP.

Do PMs usually use their local GP? Wait at 8am for a prescription, I doubt it.

Quite. I don't expect the Prime Minister to be finding quotes for the house insurance, doing a weekly shop round Aldi or spending their evening fixing the plumbing under the sink, they need to be doing their job so they have people to sort that stuff for them.

In a similar vein, I'd rather the PM was doing their job than hanging on the phone for 20 minutes to book an appointment for a prescription review, or sitting in a surgery waiting room to get an ingrown toenail looked at. It's not the most effective or efficient use of their time for the taxpayer.

And what are your thoughts on openness and honesty in answering questions?

why didn't he say that then?

I have private health insurance as I need GP appointments at odd hours given the hectic nature of my job. All PMs i know have it.

When you are super rich like Rishi Sunak you can get all medicine totally private. You do not have to rock up at your local private hospital, Consultants come to you. It is very different to having private health insurance.

With the amount of money he has I doubt he worries about insurance, but either way this is a pointless soundbite, why won't the media and opposition focus on the state of the service?

why didn't he say that then?

Why should he have to? It was a stupid line of questioning and I don't blame him for a) not dignifying it with an answer and b) wanting to keep some elements of his personal life private.

The populace doesn't own him and I'm not someone who wants to see a politician made to squirm just for the sake of it because I don't like him.

I mean, he doesn't even need to have private health insurance or anything does he? If he does need to see a health professional he can afford to pay any expert anywhere in the world to see him. He doesn't need a private GP or a Bupa plan. He's not middle class he's next level minted. If he's clogging up NHS waiting times I'd be pissed off. His party have crippled the NHS. I hope he's at least not adding anything to that burden out of some false placed claim at being a normal plebeian person.

Of course he can use private healthcare, but I do think it is a legitimate question for the PM to be asked and I think he should be honest about it.