Lord Prior will be third Tory peer in influential role when he becomes NHS England chair

Labour has criticised the growing number of Conservative politicians being handed key jobs in the health service after a Tory peer was named as the new chairman of NHS England.

Lord Prior of Brampton will become the third Tory member of the House of Lords in an influential position in the NHS when he takes up the role in November, subject to approval from MPs.

He will work closely with Simon Stevens, the organisation’s chief executive, a former Labour special adviser on health, as it prepares to unveil its eagerly awaited 10-year plan for how it will spend the £20.5bn extra funding Theresa May announced in June.

Prior has previously said private healthcare firms should be allowed to take over struggling NHS hospitals and suggested the service’s basis as a tax-funded service might have to be rethought.

Labour claimed his appointment was part of a pattern of Tory grandees landing important NHS roles. Dido Harding, a Tory peer, businesswoman and friend of David Cameron, is the chair of NHS Improvement. Lord Ribeiro, a former president of the Royal College of Surgeons, is the chair of the Independent Reconfiguration Panel, a group of experts that advises the health and social care secretary, Matt Hancock, on which hospital units should close as a result of NHS plans to improve care.

Responding to Prior’s nomination by the government, the shadow health minister Justin Madders said: “Patients and their families will have real questions about the independence of the NHS under this government when key positions are repeatedly being filled by Tory party grandees.

“With the NHS suffering from catastrophic mishandling and underfunding by this government, we need leaders to champion and support the NHS not defend the actions of the Tories. The secretary of state must urgently clarify how he will guarantee NHS England’s independence through this appointment, and publish the justification behind rejecting other candidates without a direct link to the Conservative party.”

The British Medical Association (BMA), which represents most of the UK’s 250,000 doctors, also voiced unease. “The BMA has repeatedly warned of the dangers of over politicising the NHS. The appointment of Lord Prior, should it go ahead, sends entirely the wrong message both to the medical profession and to patients who want an NHS working in their best interests not in the interests of party politics. We need an NHS that is run by an independent board free of party political interference and therefore the government should seriously reconsider their choice of chair for NHS England,” a spokesman said.

Prior, a former Tory MP, was a health minister for NHS productivity in 2015-16. He is also the chair of University College London hospitals NHS trust and previously chaired the Norfolk and Norwich hospitals trust. He was also the chair of the Care Quality Commission, which oversees care standards in the NHS and social care in England, from 2012-15.

The Liberal Democrat MP Norman Lamb, a former health minister, who ousted Prior from his North Norfolk parliamentary seat in 2001, defended the move, which has to be ratified by the Commons health and social care select committee after a hearing next week.

“This is a really good appointment. David has a clear understanding of the NHS and what is needed to ensure it is sustainable and responsive to people’s needs. He is also independent minded and willing to challenge government when necessary,” said Lamb.

Hancock said Prior would “bring huge experience to this important role where he will help deliver the long-term plan for the NHS. He is enormously qualified, having led an NHS trust, been a former health minister and a chairman of the CQC.”