UUP leader Doug Beattie challenges DUP over claim NHS not underfunded

Mr Beattie has written to Sir Jeffrey Donaldson asking the DUP leader to confirm if the East Antrim MP was on a “solo run” when he made his statement.

The UUP leader was referring to statement by the DUP MP earlier this week which attacked the record of Health Minister Robin Swann and stated that “the Health Service is not underfunded”.

Mr Beattie said: “This type of attention-seeking nonsense is par for the course for Sammy Wilson, but the fact that it comes as an official press release raises some important questions.”

In his letter to Sir Jeffrey, Mr Beattie continued: “Firstly, does the DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson agree with Sammy Wilson and does he also believe that the Health Service is not underfunded?

“Secondly, if the DUP genuinely doesn’t think our health service is under-funded, why did they promise an extra billion pounds of investment in their election manifesto just two months ago? Does this mean that the DUP is U-turning on its manifesto commitment?

“Thirdly, if Sammy Wilson is indeed speaking for the DUP, how does the party propose to fund the continued roll-out of improvements across the health service such as the plan to tackle waiting times, as well as fund any increase pay award for health workers?”

Mr Beattie added: “The public knows full well that our health service was in a woeful position in 2020 because it had been deprived of sustainable funding and subjected to chronic political mismanagement for almost a decade before, including during the period when Sammy Wilson was Finance Minister.

“For a short period at least, there appeared to be consensus from across the political spectrum that health needed to be a priority moving forward and that it would be kept above political wrangling.

“Sammy Wilson’s latest comments now throw into real doubt whether the DUP are really serious at all on delivering the improvements that they previously said they were commited to.”

The UUP letter was prompted by Mr Wilson’s claim on Tuesday that health now constitutes 50 per cent of public spending and questioned Mr Swann’s ability to make his department more efficient.