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We adopt the definition of muckraking advanced by Marx in his Muckraking Sociology. At its core is a commitment to social criticism via the exposure and challenging of those rhetorics that provide cover for dominant interests. Our focus is on the field of health and health care, with particular reference to the largely hidden agendas of successive Health Ministers post-2010. We present two substantial case studies. The first concerns the sustained attack on the National Health Service (NHS) with a view to replacing it with a more market-oriented system. This begins with the run-up to the Health and Social Care Act of 2012 and goes on to feature governmental action taken as a consequence of this Act, often under the public radar. The second hones in on the government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. We argue that this reflects an ideological commitment to undermine and marketise the NHS and its public health arm. Following on from these case studies, we venture a re-appraisal of the sociological project in light of the growing need for evidence-based social criticism to examine, expose and if necessary counter a political tendency to fabricate policy-based evidence in line with the prevailing ideology.