Labour’s £8bn NHS problem

LABOUR yesterday admitted it cannot match David Cameron’s pledge to provide the NHS with an £8billion cash injection.

The two main parties angrily traded blows over which would provide the most secure future for the Health Service.

But independent experts urged Labour to back plans to plug a £30billion hole in the books.

These plans, drawn up by NHS boss Simon Stevens, commit the service to making £22billion of savings, but also require an extra £8billion a year by 2020.

The independent Nuffield Trust said failure to make the financial commitment would have ‘serious consequences for the viability of the service’.

Chief executive Nigel Edwards said Labour’s stance was ‘regrettable’, adding: ‘The NHS has a plan, which has been endorsed by all leading organisations in the sector. Labour are now the only party not to have committed to this £8billion and yet their proposals are likely to require more spending on the NHS.’

The Nuffield Trust also warned that Labour’s ‘health manifesto’, launched at the weekend, suggested a return to the top- down management style it used when it was last in office.

Mr Edwards said: ‘The level of detail set out in this [Labour] document is somewhat concerning. The NHS is complex and often responds best to locally driven initiatives.

‘There is a risk that elements of this detailed approach could trigger further reorganisation.’

Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper repeatedly refused to say whether Labour would provide the £8billion funding. She said: ‘We will make sure the NHS has the money it needs and that’s what we’ve always done.

‘We’ll have practical measures that will raise £2.5billion – we can say where the money will come from, the Tories can’t.’

Miss Cooper also denied that Labour’s target to cut tax dodging by £7.5billion was simply ‘plucked from the air’.

The party has promised to reduce evasion and avoidance by this amount by the end of 2017.

But tax experts warned it would lead to a crackdown by HMRC on small firms – further souring relations between Labour and business.

Challenged on the pledge yesterday, Miss Cooper said: ‘It is an ambitious and it’s a stretching target but we think it is right to do so because under the Conservatives the gap between the amount of tax that should be being paid and that is being paid has been widening.’