RCM CEO challenges Labour on Brexit and NHS spending

By Hollie Ewers on 24 September 2018 RCM CEO NHS Brexit People's Vote Campaign Labour Party

RCM chief executive Gill Walton has called for a second public vote on Brexit at the Labour Party Conference. 

In a speech today (24 September) she attacked the claims of leavers who say Brexit will mean more money for the NHS, repeating the RCM’s support for a second people’s vote on leaving the EU.

She said there had been a massive drop in EU midwives coming to the UK since the referendum.

‘We have already seen the number of midwives coming to the UK from elsewhere in the EU collapse, to just 33. That’s right, the latest figures are that just 33 EU midwives registered to work in the UK over an entire year. They used to arrive in their hundreds,’ said Gill. 

She outlined how staff from other EU countries will care for 60,000 people in every 36-hour period. 

Brexit is bad for the NHS and for workers’ rights because it will open up the NHS to increasing privatisation, she said. 

In another fringe event speech yesterday (23 September), Gill challenged whether the £20bn promised by the government is enough for the NHS. 

‘The challenges that are facing the NHS are such that we will need to see yet more money going into it in the years ahead,’ she said.  

At the same time she challenged Labour to give more detailed commitments on their indication of more money for the NHS.  

‘We need more politicians who see the value of things as much as they see the cost of things,’ said Gill.