Shadow ministers at odds over four-day week for NHS

LABOUR’S spending plans for the NHS were in disarray last night, after John Mcdonnell insisted that health workers would be included in the party’s proposals for a four-day working week.

Mr Mcdonnell’s comments undermined Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow health secretary, who had dismissed as “nonsense” the suggestion that the proposals would apply to the NHS.

Labour has promised to spend £6 billion more than Boris Johnson on the NHS by 2024, but the Conservatives claim that the additional funding would be eaten up by the cost of implementing a 32-hour working week.

An analysis released by Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, claimed the policy would require the NHS to hire more staff to make up for them working fewer hours, costing £6.1 billion over five years.

Dismissing the analysis, Mr Ashworth said: “We are not imposing a four-day week on the NHS.” And he added: “If we can drive up productivity maybe we can get into a position where people can work less hours.”

However, when asked about Mr Ashworth’s comments hours later, Mr Mcdonnell said the policy would “apply to everybody”. He said: “It’s a 32-hour working week, implemented over a 10year period. What Jon was talking about is how do you apply it over that 10-year period. It’s not an overnight thing, but it is a realistic ambition.”

Seizing on the comments last night, Mr Hancock claimed that Labour was in “chaos” over its plans.

The row came as Jeremy Corbyn appeared to change his mind three times in a matter of hours as to whether he would grant Nicola Sturgeon a second Scottish independence referendum.

After initially saying he would not allow a vote during his first term as PM, later he would only say there would be no referendum in the “early years” of a Labour government.