UK left “vulnerable” to coronavirus by ten years of Tory cuts, says McDonnell

John McDonnell has said that ten years of “cuts, weak growth, and widespread insecure work” have left the UK in a “vulnerable position” to a shock like the one the country now faces with the escalating coronavirus.

Speaking ahead of the Budget due to be delivered on Wednesday, Labour’s Shadow Chancellor identified three crises, including the virus, and stressed the need for “urgent investment” to deal with them.

The intervention comes as the Labour Party released a series of reports, today, that highlight the vulnerability of the public sector and the wider economy in the run-up to the statement from the Chancellor Rishi Sunak.

Commenting ahead of the Budget, McDonnell said: “With all attention focused on dealing with the coronavirus, we will work constructively with the government to ensure this outbreak is properly managed and defeated.

“What is becoming clear, regrettably, is that the economy and our public services are in a vulnerable position to deal with a shock like this, because of the cuts, weak growth, and widespread insecure work produced by the last ten years.

“We need urgent investment to deal with the three crises on our hands – coronavirus, the climate emergency, and the crisis in our public services – and our concern is that the public will naturally be disappointed as the Budget fails to address these issues effectively.”

NHS trusts ended the last financial year with a combined deficit of £827m, excluding £256m of exceptional technical adjustments due to the collapse of Carillion, while clinical commissioning groups had a debt of £150m.

The report from Labour into the vulnerability of the NHS highlighted that trusts are increasingly relying on loans from the department of health, which the national audit office (NAO) says they are unlikely to ever repay.

The document also provides a snapshot, with several key figure, in relation to the capacity and staffing issues currently faced by the NHS. It states that:

• 214,000 people, one in four patients, were left waiting on trolleys for over four hours last year – the second worst performance on record;
• Over 11% of ambulances were left waiting over 30 minutes to deliver patients to hospital;
• Over 20,000 patients were forced to wait for at least an hour –the most ever recorded by the NHS;
• More than 5,000 hospital patients spent over 12 hours in A&E over the acute Christmas period last December;
• 678 urgent operations were cancelled between January and February last year;
• 4.3 million people are now on waiting lists awaiting treatment;
• One in 12 posts in England is unfilled;
• Since 2010, 17,000 NHS beds have been cut.

According to the NAO, excluding December 21st to 29th, bed occupancy did not drop below 92% all winter. The official maximum safe bed occupancy levels is 85%.

McDonnell delivered a pre-Budget speech earlier this week, talking about the way in which the virus had “exposed the social emergency” the UK faces and said that “someone needs to get a grip”.

The Budget on Wednesday will be the first delivered since the general election in December last year and will be delivered by the new Conservative Chancellor Rishi Sunak, who recently replaced Sajid Javid.