Keir Starmer pledges to tackle ‘bureaucratic nonsense’ to save NHS

Keir Starmer, outside BBC headquarters in London on Sunday, said NHS healthcare would always be ‘free at the point of use’. Photograph: Henry Nicholls/Reuters

Keir Starmer has said Labour is prepared to reform the NHS to prevent it dying, as he said the current system of GP visits “isn’t working”.

The Labour leader said his party was going to tackle “bureaucratic nonsense” in the NHS and argued people should be able to self-refer themselves to a physio for back pain or to order a test for “internal bleeding” rather than having to see a GP.