By Oliver Taylor
Leicester South Labour MP Jon Ashworth slammed the NHS Funding Bill in the House of Commons during the Bill’s second reading last week.
Despite Ashworth’s fiercest rebuttals, the Bill was passed and is set to go to the Legislative Grand Committee today (TuesFEB4).
Photo via TwitterAshworth expressed disapproval over how the Conservative Government lowered NHS funding to a lowly one-and-a-half per cent, significantly down from the previous Labour Government’s six per cent funding.
As a result, Ashworth argued this decision “has left hospital trusts with deficits of £571 million and billions in debt, and left the NHS facing a repair bill of £6.6 billion, leaving hospitals with roofs leaking, pipes bursting, equipment faulty, IT systems breaking and ligature points in mental health trusts deeply unsafe.
“This decade of decline means the NHS is short today of 106,000 staff and our brilliant NHS staff are being pushed to the brink every week, working a million hours extra than they are contracted to work.
“They are working every hour God sends to make up for the austerity these Ministers have imposed.”
Ashworth called out the Bill as a disillusion by the Conservative Party to show a fake commitment to the NHS, saying: “This is not a serious funding Bill; it is an underfunding Bill. It is a political gimmick of a Bill.
“The Secretary of State hoped that the Bill would signal the Tories’ commitment to the NHS, but it actually reveals their lack of commitment to the NHS.”
Labour governments deliver record investment for our NHS.
As today’s Underfunding Bill confirms, Tory governments deliver continued underfunding & austerity for our NHS. Patients deserve better. pic.twitter.com/YYYigTOirr
— Jonathan Ashworth (@JonAshworth) January 27, 2020
Concluding his speech, Ashworth called the Bill a disgrace and that “this political stunt of an underfunding Bill will not deliver the scale of improvements that our constituents deserve.”
