The government will announce the details of the new NHS scheme in the coming weeks
Labour is set to launch a scheme to evacuate up to 300 seriously ill and injured Gazan children so they can be treated by the NHS.
The plan has been welcomed by Project Pure Hope, a charity that already helps bring injured and unwell Gazan children to the UK for medical care through private donations.
Omar Din, co-founder of Project Pure Hope, which has brought three children to the UK for medical treatment, said: “We have previously had children on the list but because approval takes so long, some of those children have ended up dying.”
He added: “The government needs to move at pace.”
Din said no single country can meet all the medical needs of children from Gaza, noting that Egypt, Jordan, and Qatar have already taken in thousands of children and adults for treatment.
In June, Italy evacuated 17 injured Gazan children and will provide them with medical care.
Prime minister Keir Starmer said on Sunday that the UK was “urgently accelerating efforts” to evacuate Gazan children to the UK for treatment.
However, the Right, including GB News and ex-Reform MP Rupert Lowe, have criticised the plan to help suffering Gazan children, arguing that British children should be prioritised for NHS care instead.
GB News presenter Martin Daubney said: “How long before human rights laws allow 1000s of their family members to join them?”.
Lowe said in a post on X: “We shouldn’t fly in Gazan children for medical assistance, not when British children are waiting months and months for care.
“Sorry, but we just shouldn’t.”
Independent MP Adnan Hussain responded to Lowe, stating: “Did you raise similar objections to the RAF surveillance flights that flew over Gaza throughout this genocide?”.
Lowe replied: “Do you think that Gazan children should be given priority over British children, in an already incredibly stretched NHS?
“I don’t.”
Labour MP Jonathan Brash also challenged Lowe’s comments: “This is sick. Children in desperate need anywhere should never be weaponised for your politics of division.”
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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