Welcome to Devizes Constituency Labour Party

We are constantly working for you in the community, with many years of experience in local government we are well placed to represent you.
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We are always ready to bring our influence to bear: drawing attention to issues in the community through our campaigning, and lobbying for change with our local political leaders across our constituency.

GP warns of privatisation threat to NHS

The NHS is under dangerous threat of becoming an insurance-based health service according to GP Dr Bob Gill who spoke at a public meeting in Marlborough on Thursday 28^thNovember.

Dr Gill outlined the changes that have occurred to our health service since the 1980s and showed how the introduction of private investment is creating a legacy of debt that the NHS cannot continue to service. He predicted that we will end up with a health service similar to the US where the poor and the ill cannot afford the insurance they need for health care.But he emphasised that we are all at risk from this insurance-based health system, particularly the middle classes.

Christine Sibley organised the event, which was hosted by the local Labour Party, because she was becoming increasingly worried about creeping privitisation in the NHS.“I was shocked to discover how much of the NHS has already been privatised, putting profit before patient care, and wanted others to know what is going before it’s too late. It is the antithesis of what the NHS was originally set up for.” 

New research from the health service union GMB shows that £15 billion of NHS contracts have been outsourced to private companies since 2015, breaking up integrated care, costing the taxpayer and leaving a poor quality service for patients. Jonathan Ashworth, Labour's Shadow Health Secretary said on Friday “Labour will bring an end to this profiteering in our NHS and restore our health service to public hands."

Devizes constituency Labour candidate Rachael Schneider Ross who chaired the evening said, “Dr Bob Gill’s talk and the discussionthat followed shone a light on how important the NHS is to us all and how we all need to speak up to defend it. Servicing PFI debt has added millions to the NHS bill and I am genuinely worried about how the insurance industry will benefit from a diminished NHS.”

By the end of the meeting it had been agreed that a cross party campaign should be launched after the general election to inform the public about the real state of and risks to the NHS and to demand good local health services here in the Devizes constituency.

But in the meantime, those who were not at the meeting can see what Dr Gill has to say about the threat to the NHS on 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ro-oU0u8Jos

Devizes Hustings 19th November

Devizes Constituency Labour members know we have the best candidate for this election, but at the hustings held at Devizes School yesterday evening Rachael Schneider Ross won over many undecided voters as well as some previously loyal to other parties.

Elderly women left the hustings saying “I have voted Tory all my life, but this time I’m voting Labour”. A group of young people who had been planning to vote Green were changing their minds. A group of middle aged men said “She’s really very good - she was the best”. And another said “I didn’t know anything about Rachael before tonight. I certainly do now”.

If you’ve not seen Rachael at a Hustings yet, there are two more next week - in Tidworth on Tuesday and in Marlborough on Wednesday.

Tidworth  Tuesday 26th November Tidworth Community Centre, Wylie, Tidworth SP9 7QQ 18:00 https://www.facebook.com/events/425610058142859/ to book seats
Marlborough Wednesday 27^th November  St Mary's Church (behind the Town Hall) 19:00