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Prime minister Keir Starmer launched Labour’s campaign for the May 1 local elections in a speech at Peak Pharmacy’s Bolsover headquarters earlier today, with company directors describing the visit as a chance to discuss the impact of historic sector underfunding and the newly announced Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework.

Speaking at the East Midlands headquarters of the independent pharmacy chain today (April 3), Mr Starmer touched on issues including the cost of living, public services and the UK’s possible retaliatory action against tariffs soon to be imposed by US president Donald Trump.

Peak Pharmacy managing director Joe Cattee told P3pharmacy this afternoon that the company had not sought to host the campaign launch but when offered to do so decided it was a “compelling” opportunity to speak with the prime minister before and after his televised speech.

“We have no political affiliations with any party, but we felt it was a good opportunity to address the contract announcement on Monday and give us an audience with the prime minister to share our views on that,” Mr Cattee commented, adding that Peak Pharmacy is engaged in ongoing lobbying of MPs including a recent meeting with Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch. 

Mr Cattee described the newly announced 2025-26 contract as “a first step to solving these problems” but said he had also asked the prime minister for “some reassurance” that the Government will “continue to work towards a suitable funding contract” in light of an economic review that found the sector is underfunded by at least £1.8bn per year.  

He said the prime minister acknowledged the “challenging environment” pharmacies and that the sector’s issues “would not be fixed overnight”. 

There “seems to be an appetite from Government to start to solve the problem of the funding crisis within community pharmacy,” he commented.

He added: “What was reiterated to the prime minister was that we don’t feel [the 2025-26 deal] is going to solve the funding challenges that community pharmacy is experiencing overnight.”

Retail operations director Matt Webster said the fact the company was asked to host the event “told us that the story we’ve been telling around the challenges within the sector had resonated”.

Elections will be held on May 1 across 14 county councils, eight unitary authorities and one metropolitan district, alongside mayoral elections in six regions and a by-election in the constituency of Runcorn and Helsby.