Labour’s NHS job cuts plan in chaos amid row over £1bn costs

NHS England told the 42 integrated care boards in England in March to cut their running costs by 50%. Photograph: Anthony Devlin/PA

Labour’s radical reorganisation of the NHS has descended into chaos, a union has said, as a huge programme of job cuts has been halted amid a row over who will foot the £1bn bill.

The NHS’s 42 integrated care boards (ICBs) in England were due to make up to 12,500 of their 25,000 staff redundant by the end of the year as a result of health service cost-cutting.