The Green Party’s general election candidate for Southampton Itchen Neil Kelly has said privatisation contracts within the NHS are leading to less accountability and a crumbling service.
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Kelly has worked in health and social care, specialising in homelessness and supporting those with drug and alcohol abuse issues.
A party press release said this experience has afforded him first-hand experience of the challenges of the last four decades of government-led NHS underfunding.
Kelly said: “The NHS is one of our biggest assets, but it has been used to bring money in via privatisation contracts which are only lucrative to shareholders, meaning increased costs, less accountability, and a crumbling service.”
Other pledges are around a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, increasing renewable energy, ending fossil fuel reliance, holding water companies accountable, fairer taxation, and bringing utilities into public ownership.
According to the Southampton Green Party website Kelly was a Labour Party member “till they threw out Jeremy Corbyn”. He subsequently stood as a 2022 TUSC local election candidate in Swaythling ward before joining the Greens. He also stood as a Green candidate in May’s local elections in Portswood ward, coming second to Labour’s John Savage.
Political forecasting website Electoral Calculus currently gives Labour a 97% chance of winning the Southampton Itchen seat – down very slightly from last month. It was held by Conservative Royston Smith at the last general election in 2019 with an increased majority.
A full list of parliamentary candidates standing in the Southampton Itchen constituency in the July 4 general election is published in our previous piece.
The constituency encompasses the Southampton wards of Bargate, Bitterne Park, Harefield, Peartree, Sholing, Thornhill, and Woolston, as well as two polling districts from the Banister & Polygon ward.
Photo: Supplied by Southampton Green Party