Health committee chair defects to Remain campaign over untrue health claims

The former GP and Conservative MP Sarah Wollaston has defected to the Remain campaign in the UK referendum to leave the European Union, branding the claims about the benefits to healthcare of “Brexit” as “shameful.”

Wollaston, who chairs the House of Commons Health Committee, said that Vote Leave’s claim that Brexit would free up £350m (€450m; $510m) a week for the UK health services wasn’t true. The UK statistics watchdog and the Treasury select committee have urged Vote Leave to stop using the £350m claim, but the campaign insists that although the United Kingdom gets some of the money back from the EU it does not have control over how it is spent.

In February Wollaston wrote that Britain would be stronger out of a federal EU and criticised the prime minister for failing to negotiate any meaningful reforms. However, in May she criticised both sides of the campaign for making disingenuous and at times misleading claims and said that she was torn about the referendum.

In her latest blog Wollaston explains why she has changed her mind, writing, “They [Vote Leave] have knowingly placed a financial lie at the heart of their campaign, even emblazoning it on their battle bus alongside the NHS branding to imply a financial bonanza. It’s an empty promise and one which would soon backfire.”

The MP for Totnes in Devon said that a strong economy had always been the cornerstone of funding for the NHS and that if the UK voted to leave the EU there would be an economic penalty, with negative consequences for the NHS.

She added, “The chilling effect would not just be financial, but on the workforce. If you meet a migrant in the NHS, they are more likely to be treating you than ahead of you in the queue, and very many of our core health and social care workforce come from the EU.”

Wollaston also said that the EU had played a positive role in promoting good health through regulation of water and air quality and through scientific research. “We contribute 11% of the EU research budget and receive 16% of its allocated funding. The UK also played a strong leadership role in the surveillance, shared intelligence, and response to the health threats which are no respecters of national boundaries, as evidenced by our ability to respond to the Ebola outbreak, saving countless lives,” she added.