Jonathan Ashworth
Jonathan Michael Graham Ashworth is a British Labour Party politician who has served as Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care since 2016 and Member of Parliament for Leicester South since 2011.
Ashworth worked as an adviser to Gordon Brown and head of party relations for Ed Miliband. He was first elected at a by-election in 2011, following the resignation of his predecessor Peter Soulsby.
In October 2016, Ashworth was appointed Shadow Health Secretary by party leader Jeremy Corbyn, shadowing Jeremy Hunt and later Matt Hancock alongside the Shadow Minister for Social Care Barbara Keeley. In April 2020, Ashworth was reappointed to the position by new leader Keir Starmer, gaining the additional portfolio of social care in England.
Education
Ashworth was born in Salford, brought up in north Manchester and educated at Philips High School in Bury and Bury College before studying politics and philosophy at the University of Durham. In 2000 he served as National Secretary of Labour Students.Political career
Labour Party officer: 2001–2004
Ashworth began working for the Labour Party as a Political Research Officer in 2001, and was the Economics and Welfare Policy Officer from 2002 to 2004. In 2003, he was seconded to the Scottish Labour Party to work on the Scottish Parliament election campaign, where he worked closely with then-Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown. Following the election, Scottish Labour remained the single-largest party at Holyrood and were re-elected, but the coalition with the Scottish Lib Dems remained in place.Special adviser: 2004–2011
From 2004, he was appointed as Special Adviser to Chief Secretaries to the Treasury Paul Boateng, Des Browne and Stephen Timms, but in practice he worked for Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown. His main job was liaising with the Labour movement and an Evening Standard profile said "his contact book was "stuffed with constituency officers and union organisers", and there was newspaper speculation that he would be Political Secretary at 10 Downing Street in a potential future Brown government.When Gordon Brown became Prime Minister in June 2007, Ashworth was appointed deputy Political Secretary with the role of linking the Government to the trade unions. There was speculation later that year that Ashworth might be selected to replace John Prescott as the official Labour candidate for Kingston upon Hull East, although it came to nothing. Ashworth spent most of the Crewe and Nantwich by-election campaign in the constituency.
After the Labour Party were defeated at the 2010 general election, Ashworth became Political Secretary to the acting party leader Harriet Harman. He did not publicly support any candidate in the subsequent leadership election because of his role working for Harriet Harman but he was described as a "key member" of Ed Miliband's team on the day after Miliband won the Labour leadership election. When Miliband was elected as Leader of the Labour Party, he asked Ashworth to join his office as Head of Party Relations.
Parliamentary candidate: 2011
With a general election imminent, Ashworth was identified as someone who the Labour Party leadership wished to find a seat for. He was linked with a possible candidature in Mansfield should the sitting Member of Parliament Alan Meale decide to stand down, but Meale decided to seek re-election despite widespread speculation he was to retire from Parliament. Ashworth was then identified as a potential candidate for Nottingham East when the sitting MP John Heppell retired, but the selection went to former MP Chris Leslie when the Labour National Executive Committee chose to impose Leslie at the last minute.Ashworth sought selection in Leicester South in 2011 when the sitting MP Peter Soulsby decided to resign to seek election as Mayor of Leicester. He was immediately identified as the front-runner for the selection and was backed by the major trade unions including his own Unite, GMB and UNISON.
Ashworth was also endorsed by the Co-Operative Party and is also a Co-Operative Party MP. He was selected on the first ballot by the local party, and held the seat with an increased majority on 5 May 2011.
In opposition: 2011–present
Following the row over alleged undue influence of trade unions in the Labour Party in the Falkirk Parliamentary Selection in 2013, Ashworth penned a piece for The Daily Telegraph claiming that it is ordinary people – not the unions – who choose Labour MPs.On 11 July 2013, Ashworth replaced Tom Watson as Deputy Chairman of the National Executive Committee.
Ashworth nominated Yvette Cooper to be Leader of the Labour Party following the resignation of Ed Miliband after the 2015 general election. He nominated Tom Watson as Deputy Leader.
Following his election as Labour Party leader, Jeremy Corbyn appointed Ashworth to the Shadow Cabinet role of Shadow Minister without Portfolio. In December 2015, Ashworth voted against the resolution to authorise RAF bombing of ISIL in Syria.
Ashworth was appointed Shadow Secretary of State for Health in October 2016. Following the 2017 general election, he went on record to say a Labour government would not repeal the controversial Health and Social Care Act 2012 despite Labour's manifesto commitment to do so.
In December 2019, it was reported 4,668 patient deaths during the year were linked to safety incidents at hospital, mental health and ambulance trusts. Ashworth held "years of Tory cutbacks" responsible for understaffing and for increasing pressures, which put patients at risk.
On 10 December 2019, it emerged that Ashworth had told a friend that he did not believe Labour would win the 2019 general election due to be held two days later. He said that this was largely due to the unpopularity of Jeremy Corbyn and voters outside the cities blaming Labour for not delivering Brexit. His friend, who was a Conservative activist, leaked a recording of the conversation to Guido Fawkes. Ashworth later claimed that he was joking and just "joshing around".
Ashworth supported Lisa Nandy in the 2020 Labour Party leadership election. When Keir Starmer won the contest, he decided to keep Ashworth on as Shadow Health Secretary, extending his portfolio to include social care. Conservative Health and Social Care Secretary Matt Hancock had recently praised Ashworth for his help devising government policy on the COVID-19 pandemic after the pandemic spread to the United Kingdom in January 2020.
Ashworth came under scrutiny in April 2020 following a leaked internal Labour report, which showed his wife Emilie Oldknow had written numerous messages abusive of Labour MPs and had privately engaged with Labour's General Secretary Iain McNicol during the 2017 United Kingdom general election campaign to plan for the replacement of Labour's leader. He replied to his constituents on social media saying he knew nothing of the report or of the actions it documented.
Views
Ashworth is critical of problems in the NHS. Ashworth stated, "The 4.3 million patients on waiting lists and the nearly 27,000 patients who waited over 62 days for cancer treatment last year will feel sorely let down that reducing waiting lists and stamping out rationing isn’t the first priority of the new health secretary. Investment in technology is welcome but years of Tory austerity has seen hospitals build up a £5,000,000,000 repair backlog, resulting in clinicians nationwide using hundreds of pieces of equipment that are years out of date, as recently revealed by Labour. And commitments to prevention will ring hollow without reversing the substantial cuts to public health budgets, which are set to reach £800,000,000 by 2020/21."Ashworth is concerned about closure of maternity units in 2017, stating, "Expectant mothers deserve reassurance that the local maternity unit will be there for them when needed. It is a disgrace that almost half of maternity units in England had to close to new mothers at some point in 2017."
Ashworth fears cuts to public health services are causing cancellations of children's operations. Ashworth stated, "Behind each of these cancellations is a sick child and their loved ones facing unnecessary distress for entirely avoidable reasons. These cancelled operations risk harming children further in the long term and it’s shameful that cancellations have reached this level . The fact that thousands of children’s operations – including for broken bones, removing rotten teeth, eye surgery and even breast cancer – have had to be cancelled on this scale reveals yet again an NHS pushed to the brink by the Tories.”
Ashworth expressed concern over staff shortages in the NHS, projected to increase during the coming decade. Ashworth maintains this is due to government mismanagement and financial restrictions on the NHS since 2010.
Ashworth maintained the NHS needed extra support from the government to prevent a crisis in the winter 2018/2019. Ashworth stated, "There was no extra cash for acute trusts in the recent budget for winter and we know many hospitals are facing intense pressures following this year’s ‘summer crisis’. It would be unforgivable if patients suffer another winter like last year. Ministers urgently need to reassure us they have a plan and will make proper funds available."
In December 2018 Ashworth was concerned about winter hospital provision and feared the government is unable to deal with the NHS due to pressure over Brexit. Ashworth stated, "This is a government dismally paralysed by the ongoing Tory civil war over the Brexit shambles. It will be an utterly embarrassing failure of leadership if the health secretary can’t get an NHS plan published because of the ongoing squabbling. A&Es are already overcrowded at unsafe levels this winter, waiting lists are getting longer and staff shortages across the NHS becoming more chronic. We need urgent action now. If the government can’t even get its proposals for the NHS agreed internally, then it should stand aside for a Labour government that will put patients first over this debilitating Tory civil war."
In November 2019 Ashworth expressed concern that staff shortages in the NHS lead to staff doing unpaid overtime to care for patients. Ashworth said, "The NHS is in crisis after nearly a decade of Tory cuts and it’s a disgrace that its dedicated staff, who always put their patients first, are having to pick up the pieces to fill the gaps left by this crisis made in Downing Street."