Wes Streeting was heckled by climate protesters during a speech calling on progressives to stand up to the “populist right”.
Two women shouted at the health secretary as he addressed the Fabian Society, urging the centre-left to take on the “miserablist, declinist vision” being offered by figures such as the Reform UK leader, Nigel Farage.
Both demonstrators were quickly removed from the conference hall by security, but one told PA Media she was protesting against the continued subsidisation of Drax power station in North Yorkshire.
One woman, who gave her name as Ellie, said: “Labour promised change and we voted for them because we wanted change, and they are continuing to subsidise.
“We still believe that there’s time for them to make a difference, but they need to end the subsidies now.”
After his speech, Streeting joked: “I can’t believe there were only two.”
In his keynote speech, Streeting accused Farage of offering a “miserablist, declinist” vision for Britain.
“The populist right are coming for us and we need to be serious about beating them,” he said.
“The crux of Farage’s argument is this: what was possible in the 20th century isn’t possible in the 21st. It’s a miserablist, declinist vision for Britain’s future.
“People shouldn’t have to choose between a health service that treats them on time and an NHS free at point of use.
“That’s a poverty of ambition for our country and Labour utterly rejects it.”
Farage said in 2014 that the UK was “going to have to think about healthcare very, very differently … I think we are going to have to move to an insurance-based system of healthcare.”
Earlier this month he told the Times: “We’ve got to identify a system of funding for healthcare that is more effective than the one we have currently got, and at the same time carries those who can’t afford to pay.”
Streeting said: “I can’t think of a more potent antidote to Farage’s miserabilism than proving the cynics wrong and getting the NHS delivering world-class care for patients again,” highlighting 150,000 patients coming off waiting lists in the past four months.
He added: “Cutting the longest waiting times from 18 months to 18 weeks by the next election will mean achieving something the NHS hasn’t done in a decade. It will require going further and faster than even the last Labour government.”
