Fact Service November 2019

Issue 48

Is the NHS safe in Boris Johnson's hands?


A quick election quiz question. Who said: “The NHS would be as safe as a pet hamster in the presence of a hungry python if Boris Johnson, Michael Gove and Iain Duncan-Smith rose to power.”


Was it Dave Prentis, general secretary of the public services union UNISON or Dame Donna Kinnair, chief executive and general secretary of the RCN nursing union?


No, it was former Conservative prime minister Sir John Major speaking in 2016.


The hamster — and the NHS — is in even more danger today.


www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/jun/05/john-major-nhs-risk-brexit-pythons-johnson-and-gove