MAY IN £20BN NHS GAMBLE

PM pledges £380m a week extra, even if it means tax rise

THERESA MAY today announces an extraordinary £20billion-a-year boost for the National Health Service.

In her boldest move since calling the General Election, the Prime Minister vows to beat Boris Johnson’s infamous pledge to invest a £350milliona-week ‘Brexit dividend’ in the Health Service.

The announcement, timed to coincide with the 70th anniversary of the NHS next month, comes as Mrs May faces intense pressure on her leadership ahead of a pivotal Commons vote on Wednesday.

Mrs May’s promise of cash for the NHS in England will also mean a windfall for the Scottish health service.

The Barnett Formula is used to calculate how much money Scotland gets, and is generous to Scotland with public spending at £13,175 per person – £1,437 higher than the level across the rest of the UK.

If Mrs May delivers £200billion extra for the NHS over five years, the Scottish Government can expect to receive roughly a 10 per cent share – or £20billion.

Mrs May’s allies hope the 4 per cent rise will give her vital breathing space as Tory whips struggle to contain a party rebellion which could hand the Commons a veto over the Brexit process and weaken Mrs May’s authority. In an article for today’s Mail on Sunday, the Prime Minister promises an extra £20 billion in real terms by the 2023-24 financial year – or £384 million a week.

During the 2016 referendum, the Vote Leave bus used by Mr Johnson and his fellow Brexiteers declared: ‘We send the EU £350million a week, let’s fund our NHS instead.’

This was held to have been be a key factor in the campaign.

Last night a senior Tory source said the spending pledge showed Mrs May was signalling the end of a decade-long austerity drive. But she risks angering many on the Right of her party by admitting that voters will also need ‘to contribute more’ to the NHS.

Out of the extra £20billion a year for the NHS, no more than £9 billion is to come from money we will no longer pay to Brussels. The remaining £11billion, which will have to come from tax rises or extra borrowing, is equivalent to adding 3p to the basic rate of income tax.

In her article, Mrs May declares that ‘nothing matters more to the British people than our NHS’ and that she is ‘determined to take action’.

She also emphasises her own experience of the NHS after the shock of being diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in 2012.

Mrs May said that by 2023 inflation and growth are forecast to take the cash boost to more than £600million extra a week. It is the first significant spending boost by the Government since the 2008 financial crisis led to budget cuts.

In her article, Mrs May – paying rare tribute to former

‘Nothing matters more than our NHS’ ‘Health service is a special case’

Chancellor George Osborne – says: ‘This plan is affordable because of the difficult but necessary decisions taken by George Osborne and Philip Hammond to get the country’s finances back in order.’

But while the move is a triumph for Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt, who has been pushing for funding, it is a blow for Mr Hammond, who has privately objected it could jeopardise the Tories’ reputation for financial prudence.

A No10 source insisted last night that ‘the purse strings are not about to be relaxed’ for other departments, adding: ‘The NHS is a special case.’