The nationalisation of community pharmacies is not the Labour party’s official policy and Mr McDonnell was not referring to this during his interview with LBC journalist Iain Dale on November 5, the Labour party told C+D this morning.
During a discussion on the increasing involvement of the private sector in the NHS, Mr McDonnell was asked whether he wanted to nationalise all pharmacies. In response, he said the Labour party wants “to make sure that our services are in-house”.
After initially declining to comment, the Labour party told C+D that Mr McDonnell was alluding to hospital outpatient dispensing services, which NHS trusts can currently outsource to third party companies.
“We will unwind internal privatisation of NHS services by bringing contracts back in-house as they expire and repealing the Health and Social Care Act,” a party spokesperson said.
It also reiterated its intention to set up a “state-owned generic drugs manufacturer to manufacture drugs cheaply for the NHS”, which Jeremy Corbyn first announced at the party’s annual conference in September.
Listen back to the LBC interview with the shadow chancellor.