Jeremy Hunt: Protect our NHS

Breaking news: Jeremy Hunt has just been given the job of Health Secretary, replacing Andrew Lansley as the government minister responsible for the NHS.

From day one, let’s make sure he knows how important our NHS is. Let’s deliver him a huge open letter, signed by thousands of us, telling him that we’ll stand strong to protect our NHS. Let’s make it clear we’ll challenge him every step of the way if we need to.

When we reach 100,000 signatures, we’ll take out a full page ad in The Times – Hunt’s favourite newspaper – reprinting the letter in full:

“Our NHS is precious, and worth protecting. We want Britain to always have a public health service we can all rely on.

As you begin your new job as Health Secretary, we want you to know that we’re watching you. We’ll challenge you every step of the way if you try to do our NHS any further harm.”

Jeremy Hunt has heard of people power before. He’ll remember 38 Degrees members as having helped stop Rupert Murdoch’s takeover of BSkyB.  He’ll know that he should take us seriously. But he might not know yet how determined we are to protect our NHS.

Hunt’s track record as a cheerleader for Rupert Murdoch and enemy of the BBC doesn’t inspire confidence! But Hunt also knows from his previous job that people power is a force to be reckoned with – so let’s remind him that now he’s health minister we’re watching him even more closely.