August 5, 2019
As part the Conservatives’ healthcare policy commitment to strengthening our NHS, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has announced a £1.8 billion cash injection to ensure that frontline services have the funding that they need. This will make a real difference to the lives of doctors, nurses, and above all, patients.
Read on below to find out more about how we're protecting our NHS.
The money will go to 20 hospitals up and down England, from the Isle of Wight and Cornwall to Newcastle and Leeds.
Many hospitals in major towns and cities are getting funding, including in Luton, London Birmingham, and Manchester.
We are providing extra funding to more rural hospitals too, including the Wye Valley NHS Trust, the South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw Integrated Care System, and hospitals across Norfolk and Suffolk.
The devolved administrations will receive additional Barnett funding, as we are committed to delivering for the whole of the United Kingdom. In total, hundreds of millions more will be given to each administration to help NHS trusts in each region.
Boris Johnson said “The NHS is always there for us – free at the point of use for everyone in the country. With our doctors and nurses working tirelessly day in day out, this treasured institution truly showcases the very best of Britain”.
That’s why, as part of the Conservatives’ NHS policy, we’re providing £1.8 billion more to hospitals in England on top of the £33.9 billion in cash we have already promised to invest in the NHS.
This money will flow into the NHS quickly as well - we promise that £1 billion of the £1.8 billion will be spent this year. This means we’re providing an annual increase in the NHS’s capital budget of 30 per cent for 2019.
We have this extra money to spend on the NHS thanks to the strong performance of the UK economy in 2019. By delivering a strong economy, we have the money to invest in our vital NHS services.
The Conservatives have always been the party of the NHS. We been running the NHS for more than half of its history – 44 of the last 71 years.
Labour’s NHS plans don’t match ours. They’re actually offering less money for the NHS than we are. In their manifesto, Labour committed 2.2% more a year during this Parliament, which they said would ‘restore the NHS to be the envy of the world’. Our new budget settlement provides substantially more, at 3.4% a year. And our latest cash injection of £1.8 billion means we’re going even further.
And while we’re providing to hospitals, aiming to directly help patients, Labour’s healthcare policy has a history of not helping those who need it. When Labour were in government, barely half of their healthcare spending went to helping patients – instead, it was absorbed by higher pay and prices.
We have been spending more money each and every year to protect our health service. While we made difficult decisions to cut the deficit and rein in Labour’s out-of-control spending, we protected and prioritised the NHS with increases in spending every year.
Only the Conservatives can be trusted to protect the NHS and put patients first. Labour’s NHS policies risk our hard work being undone.
Commenting, Therese Coffey, Secretary of State for the Department of Work and Pensions, said:
“Corbyn’s Pension Tax will see ten million savers facing a huge bill forcing them to delay their retirement for almost three and a half years.
“This is just one of the ways a Corbyn government would hammer hardworking people on top of his plans to hike up taxes by £2,400 a year, as well as the cost of his plan for unlimited immigration and the chaos of 2020 being dominated by two more referendums – one on Brexit and another on Scottish independence.
“Only Boris Johnson and the Conservative Party can get Brexit done with a deal, get parliament working again and turbocharge our economy to unleash Britain’s potential.”
Read more about how this Pension Tax will impact millions of savers (PDF)