Prime Minister Keir Starmer is warning the NHS must “reform or die” following a critical report on the state of the national health service, arguing workers can’t afford tax hikes to plough in more funding.
Starmer started a speech on the NHS at around 10am, saying there will be “no more money without reform” – watch it live or back later here:
The Labour leader’s comments come as Lord Ara Darzi – an independent, former Labour peer and surgeon – publishes a damning, government-commisioned report today.
The government said it showed “surging waiting lists…a deterioration in the nation’s underlying health”, and “serious and widespread problems” for patients accessing services.
Starmer says in his speech today the last government made the 2010s a “lost decade for our NHS”, with a “scorched earth” approach to reform and “crumbling buildings”.
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In excerpts released ahead of the speech“People have every right to be angry. It’s not just because the NHS is so personal to all of us – it’s because some of these failings are life and death.
“Take the waiting times in A&E. That’s not just a source of fear and anxiety – it’s leading to avoidable deaths.
“People’s loved ones who could have been saved. Doctors and nurses whose whole vocation is to save them – hampered from doing so. It’s devastating.”
He adds: “What we need is the courage to deliver long-term reform – major surgery not sticking plaster solutions.
“The NHS is at a fork in the road, and we have a choice about how it should meet these rising demands.
“Raise taxes on working people to meet the ever-higher costs of aging population – or reform to secure its future. We know working people can’t afford to pay more, so it’s reform or die.”
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