AM Strategy, owned by former Labour health secretary, generated income primarily from private healthcare consulting

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

A company owned by former Labour health secretary Alan Milburn recorded a £663,000 increase in profit last year, with the income generated primarily from a string of consultancy roles to the private healthcare sector.

Accounts filed with Companies House show that AM Strategy Ltd generated the income in 2013-14 at a time when Milburn worked as a senior adviser to Bridgepoint Capital, owners of one of the UK’s largest private companies delivering NHS healthcare, as well as working with PricewaterhouseCoopers, Lloyds Pharmacy and others.

The same accounts also show that the amount of cash held by the business – which Milburn jointly owns with his wife – increased by £463,000 to £1.76m as of the end of March 2014.

Milburn has previously described the purpose of AM Strategy as to “undertake media/consultancy work” on behalf of Milburn.

The disclosure of the scale of Milburn’s personal earnings comes after the former frontbencher sparked a political row on Tuesday after an interview critical of Ed Miliband’s NHS policy.

In an interview for the BBC’s World At One, Milburn warned the current Labour leadership against making a “fatal mistake” by rolling back New Labour’s market reforms to the health service.

Milburn’s intervention echoed a 2011 speech in which he attacked members of the shadow cabinet for opposing competition in the NHS.

As chairman of Bridgepoint’s advisory board, Milburn advises the company on its investments which include Care UK.

Care UK’s nationwide portfolio includes hospitals, GP surgeries and mental health centres, as well as £104m in NHS contracts since 2013.

Milburn holds a similar role at PwC where he chairs a board set up to expand the accountancy firm’s business interests in public and private health industries.

Announcing the new role in 2013, Milburn said the health industry offered “strong opportunities” for growth for both PwC and the wider economy.

The former MP for Darlington also serves as a healthcare adviser to Lloyds Pharmacy and to a startup developing a smartphone app for diabetes patients.

Other positions include a non-executive directorship at a Swedish private healthcare firm specialising in renal care as well as a senior advisory role at Pepsico, the soft drinks giant.

Milburn is no longer an MP and so is not obliged to declare his individual earnings from each of the roles, nor does he remain subject to requirements on parliamentarians to declare potential conflicts of interest before making statements on public policy in which he has a private interest. Only his total earnings through his company can be discerned.

Requests to Milburn’s office for comment were not returned by the time of publication. The publicly available accounts also show that the business has amassed net assets of £2m since it was formed in 2006.

Milburn, however, is not the only New Labour health minister to find work in private healthcare since leaving office.

Last May it was announced that Lord Hutton of Furness – who served as a health minister alongside Milburn – joined the board of Circle Holdings, one of the UK’s most prominent private health providers which has won £285m in NHS contracts since 2013.

Hutton also intervened in the row on Tuesday following Milburn’s interview with the BBC, which he gave immediately after Miliband had delivered a speech on the NHS.

Hutton said Milburn was right to speak out against Miliband’s plans and that Labour should continue with reforms begun by Tony Blair and continued by the coalition.

Earlier this month, Circle said it was going to pull out of running Hinchingbrooke hospital after the Care Quality Commission found serious failings in the hospital’s management.

Milburn and Hutton also jointly authored a piece in the Financial Times this week in which they appeared to criticise the party’s leadership, arguing that on economic policy Labour “under Ed Miliband and Ed Balls” have “worked harder to distance themselves from New Labour than to defend its record”.

Milburn’s intervention, which came immediately after Miliband delivered a speech on the NHS’s future, is not the first time he has criticised Labour’s plans for the NHS.

In 2011, he warned the shadow cabinet against making a “huge strategic error of judgment” by opposing competition in the NHS.

Speaking to pro-market thinktank Reform, Milburn called for “more competition” and said the shadow health team were making a “fundamental political misjudgment” by attempting to roll back policies he had overseen.