THE government has broken its health budget pledges and produced misleading figures to the public, a select committee of MPs has revealed.

A damning report produced by MPs on the Commons health committee has shown that the government’s 2015 spending review, which promised to put £8.4 billion into the NHS by 2020/21, was false and that the true figure is almost half this at £4.5bn.

The committee said ministers changed the way accounts were calculated from previous years, defining spending in terms of NHS England’s budget alone and excluding funding to areas such as public health, education and training.

“Excluding these aspects of spending — which are being cut over the spending review period — is misleading, as these organisations play a vital role in providing front-line services to patients,” said the committee.

Shadow health secretary Diane Abbott said: “The Tories are squeezing the NHS more than at any time in its history by making cuts to public health, social care and health education budgets, and they’ve tried to cover it up through a number of bogus pledges.”

MPs on the committee have called on the government to explain why they have altered the definition of health spending.

Tory MP Sarah Wollaston, who chairs the committee, said the NHS has been “treated favourably” but “the increase in health funding is less than was promised if assessed by the usual definitions.”

The committee also heard that the government’s expectations to save through improved efficiency are unrealistic.

Nuffield Trust chief executive Nigel Edwards said: “If you do not give the trusts the money that they need to deliver what they need and you set them efficiency targets that have never been achieved anywhere in the NHS’s history, do not be surprised if the income separates from the expenditure over time, particularly against a background of growing demand.”

MPs were informed that poor workforce planning has led to an increasing reliance on expensive agency staff, which has contributed to huge hospital deficits — while profit-driven employment agencies cash in.

Unison head of health Christina McAnea said: “Limiting annual pay increases across the health service to one per cent means the NHS will struggle to attract and keep the right number of staff.

“National living wage commitments mean many health workers will end up with even less.

“Scrapping the student bursary will lead to higher spending on agency staff with too few new recruits to plug existing gaps.”