Jon Ashworth Election 2017

It's an absolute pleasure to be here and I'm grateful that people have

come along this morning to listen to what we had to say and at the

significant day, because Theresa May, the Prime Minister, the woman

who consistently promised the British people that she would not

have a snap election to day goes to the palace to call for that snap

election. And of course, this election is indeed about our future

relationship with Europe. But this election is also about the character

of our country. It's about the character of a country that allows

working people to be ?1400 a year worse off and Theresa May has no

answer for. It's about the character of a country that tells pensioners

that we will give you dignity and security in retirement and then

falls back and breaks the promise on the triple lock for pensions. It's

about the character of a country that cuts 3 billion from our primary

schools, from today's primary schools, and instead puts millions

into building grammar schools for the privileged few. It's about the

character of a country that just sits back and allows 4 million

people to languish, about the poverty -- the character of the

country where millions of people are waiting hours upon hours in AMD

departments, about the character of a country where 500,000 people are

waiting for hours on trolleys in hospitals, about the character of a

country where 25,000 people are waiting longer than two months for

cancer treatment. And in response, Theresa May says all that's

happening in the NHS is just a small number of incidents. Let me tell

you, it's not a small incident when you are waiting beyond two months to

get your cancer treatment. It is a disgrace, and you should be

disgraced, Prime Minister, about what you're doing to our NHS. -- you

should be ashamed, Prime Minister, about what you're doing to our NHS.

So in this campaign, we're going to be talking about the NHS and when

people ask you, what are you going to do for the NHS? Let's just remind

people, seven years into an Labour Government, we saw the biggest

hospital building programme in our history, we saw waiting times

falling, we were well on our way to the highest satisfaction ratings

ever in the history of the NHS. What is happening is years into this Tory

Government? What is happening to our NHS? People are waiting lists. They

have now even told people, pensioners waiting for hip and knee

replacements and cataract removals, they will have to wait even longer

than 18 weeks. That's what's going on in our NHS today. And what have

nurses been forced to do? We have got nurses forced to go to feed bags

on the way home after seven years of a Tory Government and the Red Cross

have said there is a humanitarian crisis in our NHS. That is the

difference between Labour and the Tories on the NHS. Investment under

Labour, a humanitarian crisis under the Tories. So today, I will talk to

you about how we will rebuild the NHS, because we did it before and we

will do it again. We are going to put patients at the heart of the

NHS. We are going to invest in quality and safety. We have already

announced that we are going to legislate for safe staffing in our

NHS to put patients first. And you know something else? Investing in

staffing, investing in the people who care for us, not only is that

good for the staff, it's good for patients, too. So for the pay gap

which means nurses are forced to go to food banks in the evening, we are

going to scrap the pay gap and give nurses, midwives, everyone in the

NHS, a fair pay rise as well. APPLAUSE

And comedy you know something? We want to be training people. More

people coming to work in our NHS. We want to train the next generation of

nurses and midwives and other health care specialists. Rather than

getting rid of support which means UCAS applications are dropping and

people have to build up huge debts to go to train to work in the NHS,

we will bring back the training bursary to get people to train to

work in our NHS so we had the best trained NHS staff in the world. But

I think there's more we have to do as well. Because since I was

appointed to this job as Shadow Health Secretary six months ago,

I've been travelling the country, going to hospitals, listening to

people who work in the NHS, listening to patients. I've been to

Dewsbury, the local hospital here. I've been to hospitals in the

north-east, in Manchester, in London. A few weeks ago, I was in

Trafford at the very first NHS hospital. And I know that in local

areas across the country, there are plans to redesign services. Look,

let's be absolutely honest. You know, we know that the NHS at times

has to change. Nothing stays the same. Populations change, technology

means we have to do things in different ways. We know that. We

have to see the NHS and the social care system integrated. We want to

see less fragmentation in the system. We want to see people

working together, which is why looking at things strategically is

not a bad idea. It's why we used to have strategic health authorities

until Andrew Lansley got rid of them. By the way, do you remember

Andrew Lansley? Even he is now complaining about the NHS being

underfunded, can you believe it. And whilst I'm talking about Andrew

Lansley, let me tell you something. You know that health and social care

legislation which Andrew Lansley introduced and Theresa May supported

it whilst in Cabinet? Let's be absolutely clear, a Labour

Government would get rid of that legislation which allows the NHS to

be privatised. When it comes to local services, we all know that

things sometimes need to change, but if things are going to change, then

the public need to be involved and this STB plans, this Tory plans to

downgrade services, whether it gets in Dewsbury, Darlington or places

like Ealing in London, have not had public involvement whatsoever. We

cannot have a system where accident and emergency is downgraded,

hospitals closed, maternity services downgraded or closed and the public

are shut out of decisions with no say at all. So I am announcing today

that a Labour Government, on its first day, will. This hospital

closure programme and have a full review. And the question, and the

question that Theresa May have to answer, and the question that the

Tory wannabe MP candidate here in Yorkshire is will they support

holding this hospital closure programme? Because if they don't,

the message will go out, the NHS is safe in Labour hands and not in Tory

hands at all. So, look, that is the difference between Labour and

Conservative on the NHS. But we've got a big job of work to do, because

this election is a big election. There's a lot at stake in this

election. Of course the issue of our relationship with Europe as part of

the question facing us, but so is the character of our country and we

have got to ask ourselves, what type of a country do we want to live in?

Do we want to live in a country with a quality NHS there for everybody or

do we want a country where the NHS is undermined bit by bit, pushed

back to the bad old days? Do we want a country where we have an education

system delivering excellence for every single child or a country

where we just put the money into grammar schools and we cut primary

schools for everybody else? Do we want a country where the economy

works for everybody, where we invest in people's wages, in skills,

quality jobs? Or do we want a country where we just deliver tax

cuts for the privileged few? That's the question facing us in this

election and it was one of my favourite poets, WB Yeats, who

wrote, in dreams Begin responsibilities. We in the Labour

Party dream of a fairer society, a fairer situation for everybody, not

just a few. It's our responsibility to get out there to campaign and win

for the people we