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11:34 12.09.2024 •
Tory governments dealt ‘unforgiveable’ damage for NHS. Prime Minister Keir Starmer blamed his Conservative predecessors for leaving England’s health service in a “broken” state, in his latest effort to frame the political narrative ahead of what’s expected to be a difficult budget proposal next month.
Successive Tory-led governments dealt “unforgiveable” damage to the National Health Service in the 14 years before his Labour Party’s landslide election victory in July, Starmer told the BBC in an interview.
It was the latest in a series of appearances by the prime minister in which he’s sought to shift the blame for the UK’s mounting problems away from Labour.
“Everybody watching this who has used the NHS, or whose relatives have, knows that it’s broken,” Starmer said, according to excerpts released on Saturday. “That is unforgivable, the state of our NHS.”
The interview comes ahead of a report expected to be published on Sept. 12 that finds reforms under Conservative Health Secretary Andrew Lansley in 2012 were “hopelessly misconceived.” Starmer said the review by a prominent surgeon, Dr. Ara Darzi, would reveal that too many children were “being let down” by the NHS.
The NHS, which was set up under Prime Minister Clement Attlee’s Labour government in the wake of World War II, has long been a totemic issue in British politics. Its recent strains — illustrated by a surge in wait times to get doctor’s appointments since the Covid pandemic — have been a chief contributor to a sense that the British state is broken.
While Starmer has pledged to improve public services, he has little money to invest in them, with Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves considering tax hikes and spending cuts to plug what she says is a £22 billion ($29 billion) “black hole” left by the Conservatives in the current year’s budget. Starmer warned last month that Reeves’s first fiscal plan on Oct. 30 would be “painful.”
Victoria Atkins, the Conservatives’ shadow health secretary, dismissed the criticism of the party’s record as political. “Labour’s instinct is to politicize children’s health, rather than provide solutions and reform our NHS,” she said in a statement.
The Telegraph: “Britain is broken – and nobody can be bothered to do anything about it”:
Sir Keir Starmer has been warned that he is placing Britain on 'the path to destitution' by preparing a welter of tax rises in next month's Budget, ‘The Daily Mail’ informs.
With Chancellor Rachel Reeves repeatedly failing to rule out swingeing new wealth levies such as a mansion tax infamously proposed by Ed Miliband, fresh statistics reveal that a record number of high earners, who contribute the biggest share to the Treasury, are preparing to flee the country.
Ms Reeves has blamed a £22 billion 'black hole' in the public finances left by the Tory Government for the 'difficult decisions' which she will set out on October 30.
Treasury officials are studying options including increases in capital gains tax, inheritance tax and fuel duty, punitive cuts to pension tax relief for higher earners and other potential levies on those whom Sir Keir says 'have the broadest shoulders'.
In addition, 'nanny state' measures such as further potential junk food taxes and a packaging charge for glass bottles are adding to the huge strain on business, who would inevitably be forced to pass on the costs to customers.
His comment came as the Prime Minister also prepares to blame the Tories for leaving the NHS in a 'broken' state.
Sir Keir will release the findings of a review into the NHS, chaired by Lord Darzi of Denham, a leading surgeon and former health minister, which is expected to act as the springboard for a ten-year Government plan for 'fixing' the service.
A 'mansion tax' proposed by the then-Labour leader Ed Miliband at the 2015 general election would have levied an annual charge on owners of properties worth more than £2 million.
Under his plan, the owners of a £3 million home would face a charge of around £10,000 a year, raising £1.7 billion annually.
Henley & Partners, which helps wealthy investors to move overseas, estimates that Britain is on track to lose a record 9,500 millionaires this year. Its analysis found that the UK suffered a net loss of 4,200 millionaires in the first five months of this year, with a further 5,300 expected to go before January. The most popular destinations are Dubai, Switzerland and Portugal.
The Times reported that one company offering relocation services to the wealthy recorded a 69 per cent jump in enquiries in August compared with a year earlier.
According to House of Commons statistics, the top 10 percent of income tax payers contribute more than 60 percent of all income tax receipts.
Meanwhile, Sir Keir faces a Commons rebellion against the move to axe millions of pensioners' winter fuel payments, with up to 30 Labour MPs set to vote against the Government.
The Newark MP said: 'Sir Keir Starmer lacks any vision for our great country. He's always talking us down and is determined to hit middle-class people with huge tax rises so he can pay off his union paymasters. That's despite him inheriting the fastest-growing economy in the G7 and inflation back under control after the pandemic.
'We've seen him cut winter fuel payments for ten million pensioners, just as energy prices shoot up another 10 percent. But not only is he ruining Christmas, he's actually endangering people's lives.
'The tax burden is already too high. Working people are struggling. But Sir Keir is now splashing out billions for Energy Secretary Ed Miliband's fantasy green energy plans and to satisfy his union paymasters by taking from the rest.
'It's completely unfair. It looks as if pensioners will lose pension relief, people hit by increases in capital gains tax will be forced to sell their homes and there could even be hikes in fuel duty when we already pay some of the highest prices at the pump. Sir Keir and his bunch of student socialist ministers seem determined to sabotage our economic recovery.'
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