The Friday Blog: The HealthTech Revolution Will be Televised
Foreword
Well, I thought I should probably say something having dozed through most of the night in bed with Nick Robinson. As someone once said, there is more to democracy than who gets the most votes. According to a bloke on the wireless just, it is all about voter efficiency. I did my best to follow what he was saying. It is apparently what explains how Labour, with an extremely modest share of the votes cast, managed to land a Blairesque landslide, and why the Parties outside the top two got 18% of the seats in return for 40% of the votes. Still, you can only play the game that is in front of you, and I do not expect that electoral reform will be a government consideration now for at least the next ten years. As Ellie alludes to in her reflections, we lost a few old friends last night, others have returned, and we will be busy in the months ahead making new ones. It was ever thus.
Richard Phillips, Executive Director, Policy and Partnerships
So, there we have it. The campaign is done, and a Labour Government is signed, sealed and delivered.
Did you watch the exit poll come in? Did you stay up and watch the first seat? Did you wake up in time to see a former prime minister lose her seat? Did you perhaps take part in a sweep stake? I did and its safe to say my reputation for being appalling at political betting (without insider information) is very safe.
What a night. At a reunion with fellow University of Bath politics alumni, and epic spreadsheets at the ready, it was my Super Bowl. And boy did it deliver. From a scathing rebuttal of his own party by Sir Robert Buckland (one of our many HealthTech Champions in the last parliament), to an almost wipe out of the nationalist party in Scotland, potential Conservative Party leader speeches everywhere you looked, and Ed Davey celebrating a win beyond anything he must have imagined whilst dancing to Sweet Caroline. It was a night of political drama.
Others will debate in far greater detail whether this campaign was a Tory loss or a Labour win, but the fact is, we have a new government with a majority. And an expected majority of 170 (congratulations to the Chair of ABHI Public Affairs for predicting it most closely – it is always helpful to remind us we are well guided). Starmer has the mandate to form a government and deliver his manifesto (however high level it may have been), and with the lowest popular vote share of any government majority in history, he and the party will want to start delivering and fast. They will also have an eye on the other story of the night, the supposed ‘Reform revolution’. There is no denying their impact on the sheer scale of this Labour victory, and there is no doubt that the more established parties will have to consider how they may choose to address the concerns they signify in the future. Lessons from our European neighbours will try to be learnt, but how it may impact this administration will be one to watch.
But what does the overnight intrigue and drama mean for us? Well, at about 01:53, in the midst of the slowest part of the evening, just at the point my eyelids began to betray me, on screen came an equally weary Wes Streeting, the, as was, Shadow Secretary of State for Health. In fairness, his flagging energy could be excused, given how close his Ilford North victory would prove to be. Anyway, Ex MP turned politico podcaster, Rory Stewart asked “was there anything that may give some hope for the transformation of the NHS, how about the use of technology?” And there, while most sane people were sleeping, Wes discussed how against the backdrop of challenge in the health system, life sciences and medical technology were delivering a revolution. He noted that the UK still has a leading position in the revolution, and with a model of partnership between our NHS that will remain free at the point of delivery, and our amazing life sciences and medical technology community, we can build on it, reform our NHS and ensure that we can help people live well and for longer. The real reform revolution. Hear, hear Wes. Hear, hear.
I did not predict the size of the win correctly, nor that our sector would get a call out as driving a revolution during the early hours of election night, but the change to a Labour Government was not a surprise. The Plan for HealthTech was published, we have briefed the political teams (Chi Onwurah committed to international recognition just two weeks ago), and as of today, our introductory letters are in transit.
ABHI Public Affairs will soon be in touch with the final plans for our Autumn Parliamentary reception (once some sleep has been recovered – it is the one night every five-ish years we can really let our nerd out), and with invitation templates you can adapt to support the effort. Next week we will launch our annual business survey. It is arguably the single most important exercise we do to aid our advocacy work. Please do support it. Our ambition is to make this record-breaking parliament, the HealthTech parliament. And we need your help to do so. Now the election campaign is done, our next one can begin in earnest. Bring on the revolution.
To end, before I hand the reigns over to Lucy for her reflections next week, I wanted to take a second to end on a more serious note.
Running for parliament is a brutal business and there has been a huge turnover in the number of MPs. There will be staffers on all sides who have lost their jobs through no fault of their own, family members who have not seen each other for the best part of six weeks and passionate campaign teams who have been pounding the pavement day-in and day-out and, may have missed out by the smallest of margins. And for anyone who wants a reminder of how we must not be complacent when protecting democratic freedoms, watch Jess Phillips MP’s acceptance speech. There is a human side to all this. So whist over this weekend you may be poring over the analysis with intrigue, possibly celebrating or drowning your sorrows, or maybe being largely indifferent, have a thought for the people who do their bit for public service for no other reason than they believe it is right to do so. Not everyone is involved in politics for the right reasons of course, but there are more of them than some of the narrative shows. And for some, regardless of the outcome, this campaign was brutal.
