Lord Warner who quit Labour wants to start charging for the NHS

Lord Warner (REX Shutterstock)

The House of Lords peer who quit Labour over Jeremy Corbyn wanted to start charging for the NHS, according to an article he wrote before the last election.

Lord Warner, who resigned the Labour whip on Tuesday, said the health service should become a “membership scheme” and charge £10 a month.

He also said people who became ill and who had to stay in hospital should have to pay extra.

“Many politicians and clinicians are scared to tell people that our much-loved 65-year-old NHS no longer meets the country's needs,” he wrote in the Guardian newspaper at the time.

“Frankly, it is often poor value for money, and the greatest public spending challenge after the general election.”

Outlining his proposed changes, he suggested “an NHS membership scheme, charging £10 a month (with some exemptions) collected through council tax”.

“NHS free entitlements, such as continuing care, could be reduced or means-tested and hotel costs in hospital charged,” he continued.

The peer, who served as a health minister under Tony Blair, said Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership of the Labour party would undermine its “credibility”.

“I shall not be joining any other political parties and will continue to argue for what I regard as progressive causes in both the Lords and in public. These are unlikely to be those you and your kindred spirits espouse,” he said in a letter first reported in the Guardian newspaper.

“I have watched for some time the declining quality of the Labour Party's leadership but had not expected the calamitous decline achieved in 2015.

“The approach of those around you and your own approach and policies is highly likely to worsen the decline in the Labour Party's credibility.”

Graham Jones, a Labour MP, said it was “sad that Lord Warner says he’s leaving the party”.

“With a policy review approaching [it is] important to shape the arguments,” he tweeted.

Another Labour MP, John Spellar, however simply tweeted: “He was always an arse.”