National Health Action Party

The passage of the Health and Social Care Act in March 2012 prompted the party's co-founder Clive Peedell, a cancer specialist doctor, to co-write an open letter to The Independent alongside esteemed medical signatories.^[6] The letter was highly critical of the Liberal Democrats for their role in the passage of the Act and stated that the signatories would "form a coalition of healthcare professionals to take on coalition MPs at the next General Election, on the non-party, independent ticket of defending the NHS and acting in the wider public interest". Two months later, on 14 May 2012, Peedell co-founded the NHA Party with retired doctor Richard Taylor, who had twice been elected as MP for Wyre Forest on an 'independent health' component to his local hospital party name.^[2] The party was launched in Westminster in November 2012.^[7]

The party first stood in the 2013 Eastleigh by-election, with candidate Dr Iain Maclennan taking 392 votes.^[8] The party went on to stand in the 2014 European Parliament elections and the 2015 General Election, taking over 20,000 votes in each. This placed the party seventh in the popular vote in England in the latter.^[9] The party's best result to date was the 7,211 votes taken by Dr Richard Taylor in Wyre Forest in 2015 (he had been the MP from 2001 to 2010 under the label Independent Kidderminster Hospital and Health Concern).^[10]

Party co-founder Dr Clive Peedell resigned the leadership in July 2016, and Dr Paul Hobday was appointed as interim leader.^[11] Surgical registrar Dr Alex Ashman was elected as the new permanent party leader in December 2016^[12] and promised to continue the work begun by Drs Peedell and Taylor.^[13] Dr Ashman resigned as leader in 2019 and was replaced by co-leaders Alastair Fischer and Veronika Wagner.^{[citation needed]}

Supporters have included authors Mark Haddon^[14] and Philip Pullman,^[15] satirist Armando Iannucci,^[16] science writer Marcus Chown^[17] and comedian Rufus Hound. Hound stood as an NHA Party candidate in the London constituency for the 2014 European elections.^[18]

The party has a range of policies on healthcare, political reform, the economy, immigration, housing, education and environmental sustainability.^[5][19][20]

• Keep Our NHS Public