:00:23. > :00:27.It's an absolute pleasure to be here and I'm grateful that people have
:00:28. > :00:32.come along this morning to listen to what we had to say and at the
:00:33. > :00:34.significant day, because Theresa May, the Prime Minister, the woman
:00:35. > :00:39.who consistently promised the British people that she would not
:00:40. > :00:44.have a snap election to day goes to the palace to call for that snap
:00:45. > :00:48.election. And of course, this election is indeed about our future
:00:49. > :00:52.relationship with Europe. But this election is also about the character
:00:53. > :00:59.of our country. It's about the character of a country that allows
:01:00. > :01:03.working people to be ?1400 a year worse off and Theresa May has no
:01:04. > :01:08.answer for. It's about the character of a country that tells pensioners
:01:09. > :01:15.that we will give you dignity and security in retirement and then
:01:16. > :01:19.falls back and breaks the promise on the triple lock for pensions. It's
:01:20. > :01:25.about the character of a country that cuts 3 billion from our primary
:01:26. > :01:29.schools, from today's primary schools, and instead puts millions
:01:30. > :01:35.into building grammar schools for the privileged few. It's about the
:01:36. > :01:41.character of a country that just sits back and allows 4 million
:01:42. > :01:46.people to languish, about the poverty -- the character of the
:01:47. > :01:53.country where millions of people are waiting hours upon hours in AMD
:01:54. > :01:58.departments, about the character of a country where 500,000 people are
:01:59. > :02:02.waiting for hours on trolleys in hospitals, about the character of a
:02:03. > :02:10.country where 25,000 people are waiting longer than two months for
:02:11. > :02:13.cancer treatment. And in response, Theresa May says all that's
:02:14. > :02:18.happening in the NHS is just a small number of incidents. Let me tell
:02:19. > :02:24.you, it's not a small incident when you are waiting beyond two months to
:02:25. > :02:27.get your cancer treatment. It is a disgrace, and you should be
:02:28. > :02:32.disgraced, Prime Minister, about what you're doing to our NHS. -- you
:02:33. > :02:37.should be ashamed, Prime Minister, about what you're doing to our NHS.
:02:38. > :02:42.So in this campaign, we're going to be talking about the NHS and when
:02:43. > :02:49.people ask you, what are you going to do for the NHS? Let's just remind
:02:50. > :02:52.people, seven years into an Labour Government, we saw the biggest
:02:53. > :02:58.hospital building programme in our history, we saw waiting times
:02:59. > :03:01.falling, we were well on our way to the highest satisfaction ratings
:03:02. > :03:08.ever in the history of the NHS. What is happening is years into this Tory
:03:09. > :03:11.Government? What is happening to our NHS? People are waiting lists. They
:03:12. > :03:15.have now even told people, pensioners waiting for hip and knee
:03:16. > :03:19.replacements and cataract removals, they will have to wait even longer
:03:20. > :03:25.than 18 weeks. That's what's going on in our NHS today. And what have
:03:26. > :03:30.nurses been forced to do? We have got nurses forced to go to feed bags
:03:31. > :03:35.on the way home after seven years of a Tory Government and the Red Cross
:03:36. > :03:39.have said there is a humanitarian crisis in our NHS. That is the
:03:40. > :03:45.difference between Labour and the Tories on the NHS. Investment under
:03:46. > :03:50.Labour, a humanitarian crisis under the Tories. So today, I will talk to
:03:51. > :03:54.you about how we will rebuild the NHS, because we did it before and we
:03:55. > :03:59.will do it again. We are going to put patients at the heart of the
:04:00. > :04:03.NHS. We are going to invest in quality and safety. We have already
:04:04. > :04:07.announced that we are going to legislate for safe staffing in our
:04:08. > :04:13.NHS to put patients first. And you know something else? Investing in
:04:14. > :04:18.staffing, investing in the people who care for us, not only is that
:04:19. > :04:23.good for the staff, it's good for patients, too. So for the pay gap
:04:24. > :04:29.which means nurses are forced to go to food banks in the evening, we are
:04:30. > :04:32.going to scrap the pay gap and give nurses, midwives, everyone in the
:04:33. > :04:39.NHS, a fair pay rise as well. APPLAUSE
:04:40. > :04:47.And comedy you know something? We want to be training people. More
:04:48. > :04:51.people coming to work in our NHS. We want to train the next generation of
:04:52. > :04:54.nurses and midwives and other health care specialists. Rather than
:04:55. > :04:58.getting rid of support which means UCAS applications are dropping and
:04:59. > :05:02.people have to build up huge debts to go to train to work in the NHS,
:05:03. > :05:08.we will bring back the training bursary to get people to train to
:05:09. > :05:16.work in our NHS so we had the best trained NHS staff in the world. But
:05:17. > :05:20.I think there's more we have to do as well. Because since I was
:05:21. > :05:25.appointed to this job as Shadow Health Secretary six months ago,
:05:26. > :05:29.I've been travelling the country, going to hospitals, listening to
:05:30. > :05:33.people who work in the NHS, listening to patients. I've been to
:05:34. > :05:36.Dewsbury, the local hospital here. I've been to hospitals in the
:05:37. > :05:41.north-east, in Manchester, in London. A few weeks ago, I was in
:05:42. > :05:47.Trafford at the very first NHS hospital. And I know that in local
:05:48. > :05:52.areas across the country, there are plans to redesign services. Look,
:05:53. > :05:57.let's be absolutely honest. You know, we know that the NHS at times
:05:58. > :06:01.has to change. Nothing stays the same. Populations change, technology
:06:02. > :06:06.means we have to do things in different ways. We know that. We
:06:07. > :06:10.have to see the NHS and the social care system integrated. We want to
:06:11. > :06:16.see less fragmentation in the system. We want to see people
:06:17. > :06:20.working together, which is why looking at things strategically is
:06:21. > :06:23.not a bad idea. It's why we used to have strategic health authorities
:06:24. > :06:28.until Andrew Lansley got rid of them. By the way, do you remember
:06:29. > :06:32.Andrew Lansley? Even he is now complaining about the NHS being
:06:33. > :06:35.underfunded, can you believe it. And whilst I'm talking about Andrew
:06:36. > :06:40.Lansley, let me tell you something. You know that health and social care
:06:41. > :06:45.legislation which Andrew Lansley introduced and Theresa May supported
:06:46. > :06:49.it whilst in Cabinet? Let's be absolutely clear, a Labour
:06:50. > :06:55.Government would get rid of that legislation which allows the NHS to
:06:56. > :07:02.be privatised. When it comes to local services, we all know that
:07:03. > :07:07.things sometimes need to change, but if things are going to change, then
:07:08. > :07:12.the public need to be involved and this STB plans, this Tory plans to
:07:13. > :07:16.downgrade services, whether it gets in Dewsbury, Darlington or places
:07:17. > :07:22.like Ealing in London, have not had public involvement whatsoever. We
:07:23. > :07:26.cannot have a system where accident and emergency is downgraded,
:07:27. > :07:30.hospitals closed, maternity services downgraded or closed and the public
:07:31. > :07:37.are shut out of decisions with no say at all. So I am announcing today
:07:38. > :07:41.that a Labour Government, on its first day, will. This hospital
:07:42. > :07:53.closure programme and have a full review. And the question, and the
:07:54. > :08:00.question that Theresa May have to answer, and the question that the
:08:01. > :08:03.Tory wannabe MP candidate here in Yorkshire is will they support
:08:04. > :08:08.holding this hospital closure programme? Because if they don't,
:08:09. > :08:18.the message will go out, the NHS is safe in Labour hands and not in Tory
:08:19. > :08:22.hands at all. So, look, that is the difference between Labour and
:08:23. > :08:28.Conservative on the NHS. But we've got a big job of work to do, because
:08:29. > :08:32.this election is a big election. There's a lot at stake in this
:08:33. > :08:36.election. Of course the issue of our relationship with Europe as part of
:08:37. > :08:40.the question facing us, but so is the character of our country and we
:08:41. > :08:45.have got to ask ourselves, what type of a country do we want to live in?
:08:46. > :08:50.Do we want to live in a country with a quality NHS there for everybody or
:08:51. > :08:55.do we want a country where the NHS is undermined bit by bit, pushed
:08:56. > :08:59.back to the bad old days? Do we want a country where we have an education
:09:00. > :09:02.system delivering excellence for every single child or a country
:09:03. > :09:07.where we just put the money into grammar schools and we cut primary
:09:08. > :09:11.schools for everybody else? Do we want a country where the economy
:09:12. > :09:16.works for everybody, where we invest in people's wages, in skills,
:09:17. > :09:20.quality jobs? Or do we want a country where we just deliver tax
:09:21. > :09:25.cuts for the privileged few? That's the question facing us in this
:09:26. > :09:29.election and it was one of my favourite poets, WB Yeats, who
:09:30. > :09:38.wrote, in dreams Begin responsibilities. We in the Labour
:09:39. > :09:41.Party dream of a fairer society, a fairer situation for everybody, not
:09:42. > :09:44.just a few. It's our responsibility to get out there to campaign and win
:09:45. > :09:45.for the people we