Making Health Equal: taking our campaign to the party conferences

This conference season, we hit the road with our #MakeHealthEqual campaign, travelling to the Liberal Democrat, Labour, and Conservative party conferences to take our message straight to the people shaping the UK’s future. 

The result? 24 new MPs from across all major parties pledged to champion our campaign and drive forward action on health inequalities – including Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey MP. Health Minister Ashley Dalton MP and Shadow Health Secretary Stuart Andrew MP also came by to show their support for our campaign. 

With these new MPs’ backing, our parliamentary champions network has now grown to 108 cross-party MPs, all committing to putting the building blocks of health at the centre of policymaking. 

Leader of the Liberal Democrats Ed Davey MP, and Health Minister Ashley Dalton MP

Putting the health gap front and centre 

We showcased the bold new look for our campaign, highlighting the scale of the challenge regarding health inequalities: that right now, there’s a 16-year gap in life expectancy across the UK driven by unequal access to the building blocks of health – from our homes, to work, childhood experiences, income, and the communities and environment around us. 

That’s almost two decades of someone’s life spent in worse health, simply because of the circumstances they were born into and the opportunities around them.  

There was real energy around our stand, with more than 1,500 MPs, councillors, and visitors getting involved by: 

• Using our postcode look-up tool to see the life expectancy where they live with many visitors also emailing their MP. 

• Printing their own life expectancy receipt showing the gap in their area. 

• Pinning their constituency’s figure on our giant magnetic map of the UK. 

• Reading powerful real-life stories showing how inequality plays out every day. 

And the message really hit home, especially during Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Wes Streeting’s speech at Labour’s conference, when he said: 

A child born in Blackpool will now live 10 years fewer than a child born in Hampshire. That is the unjust price paid by those who lost the lottery of life.

Those words perfectly capture why we do what we do. Because things like where you live, your income, and your background shouldn’t decide how long you live. 

A movement growing stronger 

Our coalition is now over 85 organisations strong and growing fast. It was fantastic to see so many members and supporters with us on the conference floor, including Crisis, Caribbean and African Health Network, The Health Foundation, British Red Cross, and New Philanthropy Capital. 

We’ve been inspired by the growing momentum and interest in making health equity a priority on the government’s agenda, and we’re excited to build on the energy and insights that have come out of the conferences.