RISHI: NO RETURN TO AUSTERITY

HEALTH SERVICE TO GET EXTRA CASH TO CLEAR HUGE BACKLOG OF DELAYED TREATMENTS

RISHI SUNAK has pledged to spend an extra £3billion to help the NHS cope with the Covid crisis and tackle a backlog of operations put on hold.

But the chancellor refused to rule out a threatened public sector pay freeze in his spending review, which he announces on Wednesday.

Mr Sunak (pictured) said: ‘We know how desperately difficult and distressing it has been for patients that are waiting to have operations and medical treatment during the pandemic. This substantial package of extra funding will help people receive the medical care they need as soon as possible.’

It is expected to include £1billion to try to clear health service backlogs – aiming to pay for 1million delayed checks, scans and operations. The number of people waiting a year for treatment has risen from around 1,500 in February to 140,000 in September.

Mr Sunak also suggested an extra £500million for mental healthcare.

He told Sky News’s Sophy Ridge that the public ‘will not see austerity’ but warned it was ‘entirely reasonable’ to think of public sector pay ‘in the context of the wider economic climate’.

TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady warned: ‘If you want to motivate a workforce when we are still facing a second wave of a pandemic, and we’re going to have a tough winter, the last thing you do is threaten to cut their pay.’ The British Medical Association said it would cost £10billion to clear the backlog in appointments. Its chair, Dr Chaand Nagpaul, said Mr Sunak had ‘a golden opportunity’ to ‘undo the damage wrought by the failure to invest in the nation’s health’.

Mr Sunak is also expected to reaffirm his commitment to Tory manifesto pledges, such as extra police, despite pressure for cuts. Shadow chancellor Anneliese Dodds said: ‘After a decade of letting Britain down, people don’t want to hear more empty rhetoric and lastminute decision-making.’