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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Politics
Sophie Huskisson

Keir Starmer rages as Jeremy Hunt gives NOTHING to NHS, crime or housing in Budget

Keir Starmer slammed Jeremy Hunt for failing to provide any extra cash to help tackle crime, reduce NHS waits or fix the housing crisis.

The Labour Leader said the seven million people waiting for hospital treatment would be listening at home desperate to hear help was coming only to be let down.

But the Tories heckled Mr Starmer from across the Chamber, with the Deputy Speaker having to step in so Mr Starmer could continue.

He shouted back across the Chamber: "They don't want to hear about the waiting lists. They don't want to hear about the crime going unpunished, about housebuilding rates falling - don't hear about that either I suppose, do you?"

He said: "Anyone listening to this and worried about NHS waiting lists, about crime going unpunished... They will have heard very little that makes them feel hopeful about our future."

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt was criticised after not mentioning NHS waiting lists in his budget (PA)

He told Mr Hunt, who is a former Health Secretary, that the Chancellor "knows that growth needs an NHS fit for the future and no country can be fit for work when there are seven million people on hospital waiting lists".

"So I was waiting for him to match Labour's ambition, waiting for him to match our plan to train more doctors and nurses to tackle the capacity crisis - a policy he publicly praised just 15 days before he became Chancellor. And yet, it never came.

"If there was ever a symbol of the poverty of ambition, that is it, because the reality is that a country getting sicker is a country getting poorer and a country getting poorer is a country getting sicker. Health and wealth must go together. Britain can't afford to be the sick man of Europe," he slammed.

The Chancellor's Spring Budget included three paragraphs in a section 'Supporting the NHS' which referenced funding attributed last year in the Autumn Statement 2022 - as well as funding confirmed two years ago in the Spending Review 2021.

It mentioned a pensions tax reform, which the Government hopes will stop doctors from retiring early. However, this isn't an NHS-specific policy, but relates to pensions in general.

In a seething rant, Mr Starmer said the Government's test today was whether it could "move beyond the usual sticking plaster solutions [and] set a new direction for growth that serves the interests of working people".

He went on: "But I'm afraid the verdict on this budget is clear. They won't offer change because they can't. So our course is set - managed decline - Britain going backwards, the sick man of Europe once again.

"That's the Britain they've created and they should look it in the eye, because today's figures on growth put their failures up in lights.

"After 13 years of Tory sticking plaster politics, 13 years of no growth for the many, 13 years of being asked to pay, working people are entitled to ask: Am I any better off than I was before?

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt in the Commons today (PRU/AFP via Getty Images)

"And after 13 years, there's no excuses left, nobody left to blame, no ambition or answers, the resounding answer is no - and they know it. "

Mr Starmer also accused the Tories of stealing Labour's policies.

He said: "There's a history to this, a pattern. Over the course of the whole cost of living crisis, time and again, it's Labour who bring the government, not just to its senses, but to our position.

"Who first pushed for the energy price guarantee? Labour. Who first called for a proper windfall tax? Labour. Who first stood by people on prepayment metres? Labour. Who first said we should freeze the price guarantee this April? Labour.

"We could go on because it was also Labour that first committed to extending the fuel duty cut, a policy that in January he dismissed as part of a dossier that he published."

Chief executive of NHS Providers Sir Julian Hartley also highlighted that "a long-anticipated announcement on the New Hospitals Programme (NHP) was also sorely lacking".

He said: “We know from the sheer number of applications from trusts to join the NHP and the staggering £10.75bn maintenance backlog across the NHS, that there is an undeniable need to provide trusts and systems with major funding for capital projects.

“It is vital that the government urgently makes decisions about the future of the NHP, the growing maintenance backlog and the need for funding to replace RAAC (reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete) planks as a matter of urgency.”

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