Victoria Atkin’s private life is being brought into the spotlight following yet more controversial comments from the Health Secretary. Atkin was named the UK’s new Health Secretary on November 13 by Rishi Sunak as part of his cabinet reshuffle. This same reorganisation saw the memorable sacking of Suella Braverman, whose scathing resignation letter was made available for public consumption.
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Atkin has faced her fair share of controversy; in December last year she was accused of purposefully slighting junior doctors during a strike. She said:
The last cohort is that of junior doctors, or doctors in training as I prefer to call them, and they sadly, to my great disappointment, they walked out of our negotiations and then called the strike.
Now she’s back in hot water over another branch of the health sector: dentistry. Let’s take a look at what she said, and why this is bringing her partner and his line of work into the conversation.
The new ‘recovery plan’ for dentistry
Rishi Sunak’s ‘recovery plan’ for dentist services in the UK is being slammed as new details have surfaced. The plan came after police were called to manage a queue of hundreds of Brits outside a reopened dental practice in Bristol on Monday.
Under the plan, NHS dentists will be paid between £15 and £50 for taking on a new patient. The goal is ‘to treat around a million new patients who have not seen an NHS dentist in two years or more’. In the same vein, dentists will be offered a £20,000 'golden hello' payment if they work for the NHS for three years.
The government accidentally sent details of their scheme to all MPs yesterday afternoon, including a plan to send dental teams to schools and nurseries to tackle tooth decay. The plan is facing a lot of criticism as opponents suggest it will simply ‘rearrange the deckchairs’ and not bring about real change.
Atkin has been interviewed on the topic and remained secretive about the funding backing the plan. On LBC this morning, she even struggled to say how many new dentists would be joining the NHS in order to tackle this issue in the long-term.
Victoria Atkins’ husband
Atkins is married to British businessman Paul Kenward and the pair have a teenage son together, Monty. Given the current focus on dental health, Kenward’s job is generating some scathing comments: he is currently chief executive of ABF Sugar, one the world’s largest sugar companies. This is not his first role in the domain: he was previously managing director of British Sugar.
This has sparked many comments from people on X, with one user @ianrich15813274 writing:
Health Secretary Victoria Atkin just been destroyed on the BBC for the government's pathetic attempt to fill the gaps in the rotten state of NHS dentistry. Notable, that her husband works in the sugar soaked food industry, of course there is 'no conflict of interest!'
Atkin was pressed on BBC Breakfast over the government’s new scheme where she insisted the government's £200m investment in dental services was ‘in addition to’ the £3 billion already allocated to this sector in the UK. Atkins has been accused of hypocrisy before because of her husband's work: Kenward made headlines in 2018 when news broke that he ran a legal cannabis farm. The Norfolk farm grows a non‐psychoactive variety that is used for children's epilepsy medicine, but Atkins has been fiercely against the use of cannabis for years.
Read more:
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Sources:
The Sun: FLYING HIGH Who is Victoria Atkins’ husband Paul Kenward?
LBC: Health Secretary Victoria Atkins stumped on exact figure for new dentists as ministers plan £20,000 ‘golden hello’
The Guardian: Health secretary accused of deliberate slight over ‘doctors in training’ remark
