POLITICS

Keir Starmer pledges NHS funding boost and wide-ranging reforms

The Labour leader warned that “the NHS is unsustainable unless we make serious, deep, long-term changes”
The Labour leader warned that “the NHS is unsustainable unless we make serious, deep, long-term changes”
IAN WEST/PA

Sir Keir Starmer has promised to pump more money into the NHS while introducing significant reforms to the service.

Warning that “the NHS is unsustainable unless we make serious, deep, long-term changes”, the Labour leader promised to intensify efforts to prevent ill health, beef up care closer to home and improve the use of technology to ease the pressure on hospitals.

Waiting lists would be pooled so that patients could choose to be treated at nearby units that could see them more quickly, Starmer said.

Doctors, NHS bosses and health experts largely welcomed the plans, but urged him to be specific on how he would pay for them.

Starmer has been wary of offering detailed spending commitments for fear of leaving himself open to Tory