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In the last election Jonathan Ashworth lost one of Labour’s safest seats. On New Years Day this year, Jonathan suffered a major stroke, aged just 47.
In this revealing podcast Niall and Roy discover how this former key member of Labour’s leadership views the plight of the government and the Prime Minister he helped to secure the leadership after disastrous Corbyn years
In a frank exchange, Jonathan explains how and why the two party system has collapsed as well as how he warned his colleagues to back a ceasefire in Gaza, but they point black refused to listen, and he lost his seat.
Reflecting on the last two years, he says Starmer lacked charisma and ‘oomph’. But he is also clear Labour badly needs a policy debate. They won the election with a sl;ogan of ‘change - not being Jeremy Corbyn and not being nasty Tories. But that was not enough to create a programme for government, based on hard choices.
Jonathan calls for that debate now and for example to flesh out what Andy Burnham means by bringing health and social care together. ‘Unless we grasp the nettle over social care, ageing and frailty, and preventative health (and what that really means), we are not going to fix the NHS’.
Jonathan wants radical thinking – even exploring whether ending the triple pensions’ lock could be used to fund social care reform. As for Andy Burnham, while he notes how he endeared himself to Labour grassroots with his opposition to private sector tendering , Jonathan notes how the Manchester mayor worked pragmatically with the private sector to promote youth employment.
As for his own stroke and remarkable recovery, he praises the NHS but laments the miserable 6 hours of rehabilitation offered as standard to stroke victims. As a result he claims they are more likely to fall back on health and care services.
This is a great example of a politician freed from office, able even to admit ‘I am the ultimate hypocrite’. That was because he made endless speeches about the need for men to have check-ups but the ignored the text messages invitations himself. ‘If I had bothered.. .maybe I would never have had this stroke in the first place’.
