Stage set to storm to victory

NO Labour opposition has been in such good shape going into party conference since 1996. And polls consistently predict Keir Starmer will repeat the landslide that Tony Blair won the following year.

That would enable the Labour leader to carry out his £1.5billion plan to cut hospital waiting lists through an extra 2.2million appointments a year.

He will do it by giving doctors and nurses overtime payments to clear the disgraceful backlog of 7.7 million people now awaiting treatment.

This is not Labour splashing cash the country cannot afford. Rachel Reeves as Chancellor will insist extra spending must be paid for from untapped sources of revenue.

It means this fully costed scheme will be funded by making the non-dom super-rich pay their full whack of taxes in Britain.

And with a windfall estimated at £3.2bn, there’s plenty left over.

Enough for the £171million the next Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, needs for new MRI and CT scanners to cut waiting lists further.

In yet another example of 13 years of Tory neglect of our cherished health service, nearly half the scanners have reached their 10-year shelf life, while one in five hospitals are using clapped-out machines dating back to when Labour was last in power.

UNIFIED

The Tories have not recruited the 6,000 GPs they promised. Nor are they delivering Boris Johnson’s 40 new hospitals.

The 2019 Conservative manifesto pledge for a five-year increase in average life expectancy by 2035 is now a joke. The Health Foundation calculates that on present progress, it will take 192 years to reach that target for men.

Mr Starmer’s scheme is a win-win for patients and NHS staff. We’d get the treatment we rightly expect while doctors and nurses who worked themselves to exhaustion in the pandemic will have more in their pockets.

Labour in Liverpool promises to be a breath of fresh air after last week’s Tory gathering in Manchester, which was a catwalk for leadership hopefuls to strut their stuff as they vied for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s job.

There will be noises off, of course – it wouldn’t be a Labour conference without them – but Mr Starmer has reformed his party to turn it into a unified electoral force ready for power and capable of holding office.

He has inspired a confidence in Labour that has galvanised business, with 100 companies sponsoring events and twice as many charities and special interest groups turning up this year than last. In Scotland, SNP voters put ousting the Tories above independence. The prospect of 40 Labour seats there is no longer pie in the sky.

Keir Starmer is naturally cautious and he will warn against complacency. But the British people can feel the wind of change in the air.

And the hurricane that the Tories say is coming is the one that will blow them away.