Tories out to ‘pillage’ services, MP claims
●
Since 2010, the NHS has endured the longest period of austerity in its history.
Before last November’s Budget, Simon Stevens, NHS chief executive, asked for a minimum increase of £4bn in 2018, only to receive £1.6bn for the year.
Trusts across the country have been forced to cancel all but non-essential procedures, including 23 elective patient procedures and non-urgent operations at Warrington And Halton Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, while it was working at ‘full capacity’.
Of the 44 schools in Weaver Vale, the spokesman said 42 have lost cash since 2015 and that 40% are predicted to have lost staff by 2020.
Mr Amesbury’s office issued other key figures:
A study by the Institute For Fiscal Studies in 2017 predicted the number of children living in poverty will rise to 37% by 2022 – equivalent to 5.2m children, and the Child Poverty Action Group has warned that 4.3m families or nearly 10m individuals will lose case due to Universal Credit, with many of those hit already in work despite Conservative claims that work is ‘the best way out of poverty’, the spokesman said.
In addition the IFS report said falls in inequality will be reversed in the next few years, with real earnings incomes boosting pay packets at the top while benefits cuts hitting those at the bottom.
The Resolution Foundation has predicted that 3.2m working families will lose cash, the average loss being £48 a week.
Mr Amesbury said: “Schools, firefighters, councils, schools, public sector workers have all felt the brunt of this Government’s austerity agenda.
“It was carried out under the guise of financial prudence, but is instead part of an agenda that’s fuelled by ideology.”