Jeremy Hunt privately backed Labour’s flagship health plan to double the number of medical school places, a leaked email reveals.
The Chancellor is preparing to unveil eye-watering cuts on public spending after the Tories crashed the economy.
But now it has emerged Mr Hunt suggested ministers should pinch the idea of dramatically increasing the number of student doctors shortly before he was appointed to the role.
In an email to supporters of the patient safety charity he founded, the top Tory wrote: “The medical school place increase is something I very much hope the government adopts on the basis that smart governments always nick the best ideas of their opponents.”
Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting said: “As Nadine Dorries admitted, Jeremy Hunt left the NHS ‘wanting and inadequate’ by the end of his six years as health secretary.
“Now he has been appointed Chancellor, he has the chance to atone for his sins.
“The Conservatives don’t have a plan for the NHS but they are welcome to nick Labour ’s.
"Jeremy Hunt should put his money where his mouth is, abolish non-doms, and use the proceeds to train a new generation of doctors and nurses.”
At Labour’s annual conference in Liverpool in September, Rachel Reeves announced the pledge to double the number of medical school places at the party’s conference.
The Shadow Chancellor said increasing the number from 7,500 to 15,000 would be “the biggest expansion of medical school places in British history”.
She also vowed to double the number of district nurses qualifying every year, train 5,000 more health visitors, and create an additional 10,000 nursing and midwifery clinical placements annually.
Mr Hunt entered the Treasury last month following the sacking of Kwasi Kwarteng.
The Chancellor and Prime Minister are currently considering tax rises for millions of households and a squeeze on spending to address a black hole of up to £50billion in the public finances.
The Tories are threatening to whack public sector staff by capping pay rises across the board at a miserable 2% next year, despite warnings inflation could still be above 9%.
Rishi Sunak has insisted the Government will “always support the NHS”, but spiralling inflation means hospital managers are struggling to balance the books.
No10 said the PM was no longer committed to a promise he made in the Tory leadership election this summer to get overall waiting list numbers falling by next year.
A record seven million people are waiting for hospital treatment with the NHS in England.
Mr Sunak pledged to create a so-called "vaccines style" taskforce on day one of his premiership dedicated to tackling NHS backlogs, but this did not happen.
He also promised to eliminate waits of longer than a year for treatment by September 2024.
