Labour says tax raid will net NHS an extra £37bn

THE Labour Party will today pledge a £37billion ‘new deal’ for the NHS funded by a tax raid on the wealthy.

Jeremy Corbyn will tell nurses that his government would take one million patients off waiting lists, rescue crumbling A& E departments and bring in worldclass cancer treatment.

And the Labour leader will try to make Friday’s hacking of NHS computers an election issue – blaming ‘Tory cuts’ for ‘exposing patient services to cyber attack’.

Last night the party confirmed the huge spending commitment – £37billion over five years – will come mainly from increases in income tax for those earning £80,000 or more.

The rest will be funded by hikes in corporation tax and higher taxes on private medical insurance.

But a Tory spokesman said: ‘Jeremy Corbyn can’t deliver any of this because his nonsensical economic policies would damage our economy and mean less money for the NHS, not more. Just look at Wales where Labour cut fund- ing for the NHS. We are putting an extra £10billion into the NHS and with strong and stable leadership from Theresa May we will be able to secure the strong economy our NHS needs.’

Conservative candidates accused Mr Corbyn of trying to ‘weaponise’ the NHS, just as Ed Miliband did at the last general election.

The pledge to spend £7.4billon a year is even higher than the £6billion a year mentioned in last week’s leak of the Labour manifesto.

Mr Corbyn will tell the Royal College of Nursing conference that the Tories starved the NHS of funding to such an extent that it left hospitals vulnerable to last week’s hack.

‘This is about having a health service for the many,’ he will say. ‘In the past seven years the Tories have driven our National Health Service into crisis.

‘A&E departments are struggling to cope. Waiting lists are soaring and, as we saw last week, Tory cuts have exposed patient services to cyber attack. Imagine what would happen to the NHS if the Conservatives under Theresa May were to have another five years in power.

‘ It would be unrecognisable: a National Health Service in name, cut back, broken up and plundered by private corporations. Only Labour will put the NHS back on its feet.

‘Today we are pledging an extra £37billion over the course of the next parliament, including £10billion of capital funding to make sure that NHS buildings and IT systems are fit for the modern day. That investment will mean the NHS will be able to guarantee treatment within 18 weeks and ensure those needing A&E services are seen within four hours.

‘You can’t trust the Tories with our NHS. Labour founded the NHS and we will restore it to good health.’

Labour plans to guarantee access to treatment within 18 weeks, taking one million off NHS waiting lists by 2020.

The party would also guarantee A&E patients would be seen within four hours, and create a £500million winter pressures fund.

It would also bring in new treatment targets, such as an additional onehour guarantee for the most urgent patients to be seen at A&E.

There would be a new target for delayed discharge of patients, ensuring 80 per cent of them were released from hospital with an appropriate care package within a week.

And for cancer referrals, Labour would want 95 per cent of patients to begin treatment within four weeks – replacing the current target for 85 per cent to be seen within 62 days.

Funding for Labour’s New Deal For NHS Patients will be met from income tax on the top 5 per cent of earners – those on £80,000 or more – as well as corporation tax, higher-rate premium tax on private medical insurance and a new National Transformation Fund of capital expenditure.

Tory candidate Andrew Bridgen said: ‘It’s desperate stuff from a struggling Labour Party seeking once again to weaponise the NHS. There are a lot of spending commitments here but Labour’s blank cheques always bounce. The top 1 per cent of earners already pay 28 per cent of tax and anything that persuades them to leave the country is bad for the NHS.’

Mr Corbyn said there will be ‘fair immigration’ to the UK when free movement ends after Brexit, but refused to put any figures on the level of migration. On ITV’s Tonight programme he also confirmed the Trident nuclear deterrent would be in a Labour government’s defence review.

‘Their blank cheques always bounce’