Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Are Labour’s plans for NHS spending all they seem?

John McDonnell has promised £26bn funding – but there are a few areas that escaped mention, writes health correspondent Shaun Lintern

Wednesday 13 November 2019 00:28 GMT
Comments
Labour is promising to spend billions of pounds more on the NHS if it wins the election
Labour is promising to spend billions of pounds more on the NHS if it wins the election

Commitments on health spending are always big moments in any general election campaign but they can rarely be taken at face value. Today’s Labour announcement to spend an extra £26bn on the NHS by 2023-24 will be welcomed across the board and will certainly ease the pressure on hospitals after a decade of austerity.

But while the headline numbers look impressive, the lion’s share of funding has already been promised to the NHS by the Conservatives. Labour has added an additional £6bn to cover day-to-day spending.

Labour claims this equates to a real-terms average annual increase of 4.3 per cent. In context, average spending has equalled just 1.4 per cent since 2010, so on that basis Labour is being generous.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in