Keir Starmer's Nottinghamshire hospital visit at centre of political row

A row has broken out over the use of a Nottinghamshire hospital to host a visit by Labour leader Keir Starmer. The opposition leader visited King's Mill Hospital alongside shadow health secretary Wes Streeting on April 8, where he answered questions on everything from Nottingham Forest to the city council.

The visit has now become the centre of a political row over whether Claire Ward, in her role as the chair of the trust running King's Mill Hospital, should have allowed the visit - given that she is also Labour's candidate to be East Midlands Mayor. Health secretary Victoria Atkins says she has reported the matter to the boss of NHS England.

The health secretary was asked about the issue by Ashfield MP Lee Anderson, whose constituency includes King's Mill Hospital. The Reform UK MP asked in the House of Commons on Tuesday (April 23): "I was disappointed to see the chair of my local hospital trust and the East Midlands Labour mayoral candidate use my hospital as a political campaign prop by inviting the shadow health and social care secretary and the leader of the opposition to canvass patients and staff.

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"Can the minister please explain to me how we can rein in this type of gutter politics and prevent my local hospital being used for Labour's dog-whistle politics?" Victoria Atkins replied: "This is a very serious matter, which I have raised with the chief executive of NHS England, and asked her to raise with the regional director and Nottinghamshire integrated care board. We have done so because we believe that it might be a breach of the Nolan principles."

The seven principles of public life, first set out by Lord Nolan in 1995, outline the ethical standards those working in the public sector are expected to meet. Claire Ward spoke during a mayoral hustings hosted by Nottinghamshire Live, Notts TV and Nottingham Trent University about her belief in those principles.

But reacting to criticism of the hospital's use for Keir Starmer's visit, Wes Streeting posted a picture on X of Lee Anderson and Boris Johnson visiting the same site and said: "Lee Anderson is crying because Keir Starmer and I visited King’s Mill Hospital. Would anyone like to guess who these two characters are and which hospital they were visiting? Is this the famous snowflake generation we've heard so much about?"

It is understood that the hospital had approval from NHS England before the visit went ahead. A Labour spokesperson said: "The Tory candidate in the East Midlands mayoral election is paid by the taxpayer to do three jobs. He's failing in all three.

"He can't fight for a fourth on his record because he's failed. He can’t fight on the Conservative Party's record because they crashed the economy. Claire Ward will be a powerful voice as mayor and deliver for the East Midlands."

Mr Bradley says he has repeatedly said that being the mayor would be his only job. The Conservative candidate added in response to Labour: "I've worked for years to secure us these new funds, new powers, to tackle problems that matter to residents.

"I've secured the money to sort the roads out, I've got us new powers to regenerate our city and towns, to fix our buses. So this election next week brings us new solutions and opportunities.

"It's a real shame that Labour's campaign seems to be more about criticising me than about any kind of plan or vision for the future."