LABOUR will guarantee cuts to NHS waiting times under a ten-year programme of reform, according to Shadow Minister for Public Health Andrew Gwynne.
He told GB News: “We want the government to succeed on the NHS but they are failing miserably, and the NHS doesn’t need sticking plasters, it needs wholesale reform and only a Labour government is committed to driving through that radical programme of reform.
“By the end of the first term of the Labour government, remember this is a ten-year programme, in the first term of a Labour government, we will guarantee that your ambulance will arrive in a safe time so that lives are saved.
“We will guarantee that you are able to see your GP when you need to. We will guarantee that you are able to access A&E without dangerously high and long waits, and we will guarantee that if you need specialist hospital treatment, your waiting times for that treatment will be cut.
“I think those are really ambitious targets and you hold me to it after year five of the Labour government.”
In a discussion during Breakfast with Eamonn Holmes and Isabel Webster, he continued: “We’ve been very upfront. In the two big announcements that we’ve made so far on the huge increase that we are proposing in NHS staff training we would pay for that through scrapping the non-dom tax status.
“And in terms of our radical reform of mental health, we would pay for that through closing some financial tax loopholes, but also scrapping the VAT exemption on private education. So, we’ve been very clear on that.
“But let me make it even clearer. I’m not going to write Rachel Reeves budget now…but it has always been the priority of a Labour Government to find the resources the NHS needs. And we make that commitment today.”
Asked if Home Secretary Suella Braverman should face an equity over her speeding conviction, he said: “ I’ve got real frustration here about this , because a time of a cost of living crisis that people want real answers to, at the time that our NHS is on its knees and needs fixing, we’re here yet again talking about another Tory minister who has sought to bend the rules play the system for their own advantage.
“Of course, she needs to face an ethics advisor. I would go further, I think Rishi Sunak needs to show some leadership and show her the door.”
