Voters Believe Rishi Sunak is Secretly Planning to Privatise the NHS

Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives are not trusted by the British public to keep the NHS free to use, according to an exclusive new poll for Byline Times.

Ahead of the 75th anniversary of the NHS this week, Sunak promised to ensure that it would always be “there for you, whenever and wherever you need it”.

He also insisted that he has “no plans” to introduce any new charges to use the National Health Service.

However, our new poll found that most Brits simply do not believe him.

According to the new survey by pollsters Omnisis, six-in-ten voters (59%) do not believe the Conservative party will keep NHS services free at the point of delivery.

This compares to just 23% of voters who do trust the party to keep the National Health Service free-to-use.

It follows previous Omnisis polling published by the Byline Supplement last week showing that voters believe the current Government has “betrayed” NHS workers.

The survey found that 71% agree that nurses and doctors have been “betrayed by the Government since the pandemic” with just 14% disagreeing.

Sunak publicly supported the “Clap for our Carers” campaign which encouraged members of the public to stand outside their homes and applaud NHS workers.

However, when asked by Omnisis whether the Government had lived up to the “spirit” of the ‘Clap for our Carers campaign, just 19% said they had, compared to 65% who said they hadn’t.

The findings come as two new polls suggest that Sunak’s party is set to lose the upcoming by-elections in Uxbridge and Selby.

In the latter seat, polling commissioned by 38 degrees found that the NHS is now the number two issue for voters, with half saying they were either directly, or indirectly affected by NHS waiting lists.

On a visit last month to a warehouse in Kent, the Prime Minister insisted that he has a “very, very good plan” to deal with this issue, involving moving some services to supermarket clinics.

However, overall waiting lists remain at record highs, despite some progress being made on reducing some of the longest waits within the service.

The latest poll findings come as a senior Conservative MP claimed that the current NHS model is “not sustainable” in its current form.

Former Health Secretary Sajid Javid made his latest push for the UK to move to a system of private insurance instead, telling Sky News that there should be an “honest debate” about how healthcare is funded in the UK.

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A Lack of Trust

Doubts have previously been raised about the Prime Minister’s own personal commitment to the NHS.

Last year Sunak campaigned for the Conservative party leadership on a platform of introducing new charges for anyone failing to turn up to GP appointments, despite warnings that it would lead to a slippery slope of new charges.

After becoming Prime Minister it was also revealed that Sunak and his family were registered with a private GP offering £250 consultations.

However, Sunak has since distanced himself from plans to introduce charges of any kind for the NHS, with his spokesman telling journalists this week that there are currently “no plans” to do so.

Dissatisfaction over the Government’s handling of the health service does appear to be driving voters into the hands of the opposition, according to our polling.

Today’s survey found that voters are much more likely to trust the Labour Party to keep the NHS free-to-use.

47% said they trust Keir Starmer’s party to keep the NHS freely available.

However, a significant chunk of voters do have some doubts that the service would remain free under a Labour Government, with 32% saying they don’t trust the party to keep it in public hands either.