Time for an emergency Budget to tackle NHS crisis, Corbyn and Ashworth tell rally

Theresa May has presided over the worst winter crisis in NHS history, Labour said tonight as Jeremy Corbyn and Jon Ashworth demanded an emergency Budget to heal the health service.

Labour published new figures showing the scale of hospital overcrowding in cabinet ministers’ constituencies as Corbyn and the shadow health secretary took part in a rally in central London.

Corbyn said the NHS crisis was being inflicted by the “political choices” of the Tories while Labour analysis revealed “dangerously full hospitals” in the seats held by 20 cabinet ministers including Theresa May and Jeremy Hunt.

“The government is failing staff, patients and their families across the whole country. All 20 members of the cabinet’s own constituencies have dangerously full hospitals, with patients stuck in the back of ambulances and on trolleys,” Corbyn said.

“We simply can’t go on like this. The government must bring forward an emergency budget for the NHS to give it the money it needs and end this crisis.

“The Tories are failing our NHS. Labour built the NHS 70 years ago and it will be the next Labour government that secures our NHS for the next 70 years.”

The rally follows intense pressure from Corbyn at prime minister’s questions yesterday and polling which showed a rise in voter concern over the performance of the NHS.

Ashworth said: “Having ignored repeated warnings from Labour, healthcare professionals and the public for urgent NHS funding this winter, Theresa May has overseen the worst winter crisis on record.

“Under the Tories, our NHS has been left underfunded, understaffed and overstretched. Despite the heroic efforts of our NHS staff, thousands of vulnerable patients have been left languishing on trolleys, stuck in the backs of ambulances and unable to receive the social care packages they urgently need.

“Our new analysis reveals that her entire inner circle is facing a disastrous winter crisis in their own backyards, with average bed occupancy in the cabinet at 95 per cent this winter. Perhaps her closest allies will now pressurise the prime minister into heeding Labour’s call for an emergency budget of £5bn for our NHS.”

The Labour analysis listed 20 cabinet members, excluding Scottish secretary David Mundell, Welsh secretary Alun Cairns and Lords leader Baroness Evans of Bowes Park, because they do not represent constituencies in England.