Labour dismisses extra 900 NHS beds announcement as ‘sticking plaster’
Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting accused the Government of offering the NHS a ‘sticking plaster’, with the announcement that £250m was to be set aside to boost capacity before winter.
The move was announced as part of the government’s plan to make this week “NHS week” in the media. Yesterday the Conservative focus was on attacking the record of the health services in devolved areas of the UK.
Prime minister Rishi Sunak was quoting as saying: “Cutting waiting lists is one of my top five priorities, so this year the Government has started planning for winter earlier than ever before and the public can be reassured we are backing the NHS with the resources it needs.
“These 900 new beds will mean more people can be treated quickly, speeding up flow through hospitals and reducing frustratingly long waits for treatment.”
However, PA Media reports, the Labour response was to point out a raft of statistics they claimed showed mismanagement of the health service under the Conservatives.
Streeting said the NHS had “huge backlogs, unacceptable waiting times and an annual winter crisis”, adding “Now Rishi Sunak is offering a sticking plaster, which comes nowhere near the 12,000 beds the Conservatives have cut over the last 13 years.”
Key events
Good morning, welcome to politics live. The government is still very much trying to make this “NHS week”, and to that end have been making funding announcements. We can expect more recriminations from the evacuation of asylum seekers from the Bibby Stockholm last week, and Keir Starmer is in Scotland. Here are the headlines”
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The Government announced £250m to boost NHS capacity. It claimed the move will lead to the creation of 900 additional hospital beds, with Rishi Sunak quoted as saying “Cutting waiting lists is one of my top five priorities. These 900 new beds will mean more people can be treated quickly, speeding up flow through hospitals and reducing frustratingly long waits for treatment”. The current waiting list in England is 7.6 million people. Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting described it as “a sticking plaster”.
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After some considerable debate on who knew what and when, the mayor of Portland has said the Home Office should accept responsibility for failing to immediately remove asylum seekers from the Bibby Stockholm after the detection of a dangerous bacteria. Expect more rumblings about this today.
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The Institute for Fiscal Studies has said the method for allocating money to pay for public services is out of date, based on inadequate data and skewed in favour of the better-off south-east. It claims the government’s levelling up plans for England are being hampered by a funding system that is “not fit for purpose” and deprives the poorest areas of financial support to match their needs.
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On the economy front, the Bank of England is under renewed pressure to raise interest rates next month after wages jumped more than expected in June. A rise in borrowing costs is likely even though the latest figures for the labour market also showed employers had begun to shed workers in response to a slowdown in economic activity.
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Disabled people in England and Wales are missing out on an estimated £24m a month as record numbers wait for their personal independence payments (Pip) review, according to Citizens Advice. More than 430,000 people are awaiting a Pip review as the benefit backlog deepens.
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Yesterday the government’s ethics watchdog said ministers’ disparaging public attacks on civil servants have damaged staff retention and morale in Whitehall.
It is recess, so there is not much in the diary at all, however Labour’s UK and Scottish leaders, Keir Starmer and Anas Sarwar, are due to make a joint appearance at 10.30am.
Starmer is expected set out what a UK Labour government would mean for Scotland. Yesterday he said you’d have a “long, long search” to find any division between them. There will be a Q&A, where you suspect that any questions about Labour’s Westminster plans for benefit caps, gender self-ID and the balance of power – and funding – within the union might test that theory quite quickly.
I’m Martin Belam, and I am with you this week. You can reach me at martin.belam@theguardian.com.