Shadow Health Secretary: May shows “utter disregard” for NHS patients

Jon Ashworth, shadow health secretary, has accused Theresa May of showing “utter disregard” for NHS patients.

This comes as the NHS faces a winter crisis. In recent weeks, thousands of non-emergency operations were cancelled across England and patients in some hospitals have been treated in corridors. This has been exacerbated by 95 walk-in centres being closed or due to close since 2010, the campaign group 38 Degrees have claimed.

Asked about the crisis, the Prime Minister told Andrew Marr this morning that “nothing is perfect” in the NHS.

Ashworth responded on the Andrew Marr show by saying: “Yet again Theresa May has shown utter disregard for those patients languishing on trolleys, delayed in ambulances in the freezing cold weather or forced to wait longer in pain and anxiety because their operation has been cancelled.

“A real apology would be backed up by real action. Instead all we get is a plan to promote the Health Secretary who has overseen this crisis. Promoting the Health Secretary would be a betrayal of patients who deserve better this winter.”

He also criticised the idea that Jeremy Hunt, health secretary, might be promoted to replace Damian Green as First Secretary of State, saying May:

“hasn’t got a plan to get those people off the trolleys in corridors, those elderly people this freezing January being treated in ambulances. She’s got no plan for them.

“Her only plan, apparently, is to promote this Health Secretary. She should be demoting this Health Secretary. If she promotes this Health Secretary tomorrow it is a betrayal of those 75,000 in the back of ambulances.”

The shadow health secretary went on to criticise May’s appointment of Toby Young to the Office for Students, and said he should be removed from the post.

The appointment of Young to the post has been criticised after it emerged he previously made a number of offensive comments, including saying that a woman MP had “quite a cleavage”.

When asked about the appointment, Ashworth said: “These tweets from Toby Young are disgusting, offensive, sexist, she should show some leadership, she should get rid of him.”