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
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.
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