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HEALTH SECRETARY Wes Streeting is said to have privately warned that Labour’s plan for NHS funding, expected to increase by 4 per cent — about £8 billion — in the upcoming Budget is “not enough.”
A party source told the Times: “He told [Chancellor Rachel Reeves] that Labour couldn’t sell this as a Budget to save the NHS because it’s not enough money to make a transformative difference.
“The amount of money you need just to stand still means that the health service will still struggle to see significant improvements in patient care and waiting times.”
A report into the state of the health service by Lord Darzi revealed Britain had spent £37bn less on the NHS between 2010 and 2024 than comparable countries.
SNP Westminster health spokesman Seamus Logan MP warned that an extra £16bn is the bare minimum needed.
He said: “The fact that Wes Streeting’s allies are briefing against the Chancellor and warning her pitiful plans will impoverish, not improve, services shows how damaging the Labour government’s austerity plans are for the NHS in Scotland and every part of the UK.”