The government should not give private firms a greater role in the delivery of public services, a former Cabinet minister has warned.

Delivering a lecture in memory of NHS founder Aneurin Bevan, former foreign secretary Robin Cook argued that market forces were not suited to services designed to meet a social need.

While the Thatcher governments of the 1980s had privatised large parts of the public sector, the Labour government had made the boundary between the two “more porous”, he warned.  ”As a result, the public services are now thoroughly saturated by commercial companies who provide much of the finance, have taken over much of its provision and even bid for contracts to manage its service.”

Although there are pragmatic reasons for doubting whether the private sector could provide public services more efficiently, Cook said his main concerns were ideological, arguing that markets are run on the basis of self interest, while “by contrast, public services should allocate their resources to meet social need”.