Alex Scott-Samuel

Alex Scott-Samuel is a British retired lecturer in public health at the University of Liverpool, where he was the director of the International Health Impact Assessment Consortium. He is the chair of Wavertree Constituency Labour Party and has a seat on the Labour Party regional board for the northwest. He was the chair of the Socialist Health Association between 2017-20 and is involved in the Keep Our NHS Public movement.[1] According to the constituency party he is Jewish.[2]

Biography

Healthcare

Scott-Samuel has published on topics related to health impact assessment, health inequalities, gender inequality and the politics of health.[3] In 1979 he established a politics of health journal, which later became Critical Public Health. Later he established the UK Politics of Health Group.[4]

In 2014, he was the joint author of a paper published in the International Journal of Health Services which claimed that the policies of the Margaret Thatcher's government had led to the "unnecessary and unjust premature death of many British citizens, together with a substantial and continuing burden of suffering and loss of well-being".[5] In 2015 he described Simon Stevens, Chief Executive of NHS England as the "cheerleader-in-chief for NHS privatisation".[6]

He supported the campaign to preserve the independence of Liverpool Women's Hospital, saying that the proposal to move it was part of the government plans to cut services and eventually privatise them.[7]

In 2017, he stood for election to the Momentum executive, and said that he was "an adviser to Labour's shadow health minister". At the 2017 Labour Party Conference, he proposed a motion on health policy on behalf of the Socialist Health Association calling for the reinstatement of the NHS "as per the NHS Bill (2016-17)". It was carried unanimously.[8]

Controversy

According to The Washington Post he is a fervent Corbyn supporter and was a major antagonist of former Labour MP Luciana Berger.[9] He is said, by The Jewish Chronicle, to be at centre of allegations concerning the antisemitic bullying of Berger and to be associated with John McDonnell.[10] He submitted a motion of no confidence in her which was subsequently withdrawn[11] after Tom Watson called for the Wavertree party to be suspended.[12] According to Nick Cohen he is Berger's chief enemy.[13] The Economist included him in a list of conspiracy theorists on the Labour left in March 2019[14] and the Times called him a swivel-eyed middle-aged conspiracy theorist.[15]

He has appeared several times on a conspiracy theorist radio show, the Richie Allen programme, promoted by David Icke. He was interviewed about vaccinations in 2015 and talked about the Rothschild family, who, he said, were "behind a lot of the neo-liberal influence in the UK and the US." Wes Streeting called for him to be expelled from the Labour Party and Alex Sobel said "Sharing a platform with these men is incompatible with Labour membership”.[16]

He retired from Liverpool University in late 2015 but still held an honorary position until February 2019 when the university terminated it and removed his pages from the university website.[17]

Publications
  • Health impact assessment – theory into practice, Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 1998
  • The Merseyside Guidelines for Health Impact Assessment, IMPACT, 2001 ISBN 1 874038 56 2
  • Towards a politics of health, with Clare Bambra and D Fox, in Health promotion international 2005
  • Suicides associated with the 2008–10 economic recession in England: time trend analysis, with Ben Barr, David Taylor-Robinson, Martin McKee and David Stuckler, British Medical Journal, 2012
  • Health and environmental impact assessment: an integrated approach, British Medical Journal, 2013
  • Personal Health Budgets in England: Mood Music or Death Knell for the National Health Service?, International Journal of Health Services, 2015[18]
  • After a summer of crisis and opportunity, can Labour's progressive NHS policies be sustained?, Open Democracy, 2016[19]
  • Peter Draper obituary, Guardian, 2016[20]
  • The NHS has become simply a logo for a partially privatised system – and the roots of the change go back to Davos, Labour List, 3 June 2017[21]

References
  1. "Medical centre in Leasowe handed over to private company after Wirral NHS trust loses contract". Liverpool Echo. 9 July 2015. Retrieved 25 March 2019.
  2. "UK: Anti-Semitism witch-hunt provokes backlash in Labour Party". World Socialist Web Site. 12 February 2019. Retrieved 25 March 2019.
  3. "Alex Scott Samuel". Dimensions. 21 March 2013. Retrieved 20 February 2019.
  4. "Health inequities need global political solutions". University World News. 14 March 2014. Retrieved 25 March 2019.
  5. "Legacy of Margaret Thatcher's reign is thousands of 'unjust' deaths of Britons, says study". Express. 12 February 2014. Retrieved 20 February 2019.
  6. "Alex Scott-Samuel: Simon Stevens—cheerleader-in-chief for NHS privatisation". British Medical Journal. 1 May 2015. Retrieved 20 February 2019.
  7. "ECHO readers dismayed over plans to move Liverpool Women's Hospital". Liverpool Echo. 6 January 2017. Retrieved 25 March 2019.
  8. O'Sullivan, Tony (27 September 2017). "Historic moment as Labour Conference unanimously recommits to restoring an NHS for all". Keep Our NHS Public. London: Keep Our NHS Public. Archived from the original on 17 March 2020. Retrieved 27 July 2020. An excellent motion was passed including a robust call for a defence of the NHS in England now and a move to reinstate it 'as per the NHS Bill (2016-17)'. Alex Scott-Samuel of the Socialist Health Association and Doctors For The NHS proposed 'Composite 8: The NHS' very movingly and the motion was seconded by Sue Richards of Islington CLP. Both are members of Keep Our NHS Public. The motion was carried unanimously.
  9. "Jeremy Corbyn is thoroughly indecent". Washington Post. 4 March 2019. Retrieved 30 March 2019.
  10. "Revealed: McDonnell's meetings with Rothschild conspiracy theorist". Jewish Chronicle. 18 February 2019. Retrieved 20 February 2019.
  11. Harpin, Lee (18 February 2018). "Senior Wavertree CLP member in 'Nazi masters' attack on Luciana Berger". Jewish Chronicle. Retrieved 20 February 2019.
  12. "Formby denies Labour leadership is ignoring MPs on antisemitism". Guardian. 12 February 2019. Retrieved 20 February 2019.
  13. Cohen, Nick (23 February 2019). "Buoyed by freedom, the rebels are now able to follow their consciences". Guardian. Retrieved 26 February 2019.
  14. "Britain is becoming a land of conspiracy theorists". Economist. 7 March 2019. Retrieved 25 March 2019.
  15. Baxter, Sarah (10 March 2019). "Corbyn's bullying Labour party is dashing the hopes of the young". The Times. Retrieved 25 March 2019.
  16. "Labour finally suspends activist who shared antisemitic post". The Times. 16 February 2018. Retrieved 20 February 2019.
  17. "University of Liverpool Disassociates From Lecturer Who Shared Rothschild Conspiracy on Controversial Talk Show". The Algemeiner. 12 February 2019. Retrieved 20 February 2019.
  18. Scott-Samuel, Alex (1 January 2015). "Personal Health Budgets in England: Mood Music or Death Knell for the National Health Service?". International Journal of Health Services. 45 (1): 73–86. doi:10.2190/hs.45.1.f (inactive 17 January 2021). PMID 26460448. Retrieved 25 March 2019.CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of January 2021 (link)
  19. "After a summer of crisis and opportunity, can Labour's progressive NHS policies be sustained?". Open Democracy. 12 October 2019. Retrieved 25 March 2019.
  20. "Peter Draper obituary". Guardian. 22 August 2016. Retrieved 25 March 2019.
  21. "The NHS has become simply a logo for a partially privatised system – and the roots of the change go back to Davos". Labour List. 3 June 2017. Retrieved 25 March 2019.
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