Labour Pledges Extra £37bn For NHS If It Wins The General Election

Cash will tackle waiting times, cyber security and cancer treatment.
PA Wire/PA Images

Labour will put £37bn extra into the NHS by the end of the next Parliament if it wins the election, tackling waiting times, cyber security, cancer treatment and winter pressures.

The party is keeping the health service front and centre of its general election campaign, having already pledged to scrap hospital parking charges and end the 1% pay cap for nurses.

Jeremy Corbyn is set to speak at the annual conference of the Royal College of Nursing - which voted to ballot for strike action over low pay - on Monday, when he will claim the Tories have ‘driven the NHS into crisis’.

“A&E departments are struggling to cope. Waiting lists are soaring and, and as we saw last week, Tory cuts have exposed patient services to cyberattack,” he will say.

“Imagine what would happen to the NHS if the Conservatives under Theresa May were to have another five years in power. It would be unrecognisable: a national health service in name, cut back, broken up and plundered by private corporations.

“Only Labour will put the NHS back on its feet. Today we are pledging an extra £37 billion over the course of the next Parliament, including £10 billion of capital funding to make sure that NHS buildings and IT systems are fit for the modern day.

Labour says it will strengthen the NHS against cyber attacks.
Labour says it will strengthen the NHS against cyber attacks.
PA Wire/PA Images

“That investment will mean the NHS will be able to guarantee treatment within 18 weeks and ensure those needing A&E services are seen within four hours.

“You can’t trust the Tories with our NHS. Labour founded the NHS and we will restore it to good health.”

The party said it will also tackle bed blocking, bring in a new one-hour target for the most urgent patients to be seen at A&E and bring down referral times for cancer treatment - funding the pledges through a higher top rate of income tax and hikes in corporation tax and the cost of private medical insurance.

A Conservative spokesman said: “Jeremy Corbyn can’t deliver any of this because his nonsensical economic policies would damage our economy and mean less money for the NHS, not more. Just look at Wales where Labour cut funding for the NHS.

“We are putting an extra £10 billion into the NHS and with strong and stable leadership from Theresa May we will be able to secure the strong economy our NHS needs.”

Close

What's Hot