18/01/2017 Party Political Broadcasts - Labour Party

Hello. I hope you're well. I really do.

Because if you're not, then chances are the NHS won't be able to

look after you as well as it should. And that's wrong.

Because the Labour Party created the NHS 70 years ago on

the founding principles of it being comprehensive, universal and free.

The NHS was created to care for us but now the NHS needs our care.

Today there are almost four million people

on waiting lists for treatment.

One in four of us have to wait a week to see a GP,

and every day thousands of us have to wait over four hours in A&E.

Our hospitals are understaffed and the staff who are so utterly

dedicated to our wellbeing are overworked and woefully underpaid.

Last year in England alone the NHS was £2.45 billion in deficit,

while the Tory government wasted £3 billion

in their top-down reorganisation.

And that's why when politicians argued about whether we should be

in the EU or not

they used something that they knew we all care about.

They used the NHS, the NHS that is desperately in need of funding.

So, yeah, they stood in front of their big bus

and promised £350 million a week.

Money they said we'd save.

Money they promised would save our NHS.

And that's brilliant,

because we all like promises, but no-one likes it when they're broken.

Do you really believe a Conservative government will honour that promise?

It's hard to. Why?

Because in their last budget there wasn't a penny of extra funding

for the NHS, or for social care.

No.

Not a single penny.

Still believe the promise of £350 million a week?

Well, look at it this way.

Right now the Conservatives are actually planning £22 billion,

yes, £22 billion worth of what they like to call

efficiency savings, but the rest of us would call them cuts.

Cuts to nurse training, cuts and more closures of A&E departments,

maternity units and other services, and cuts to social care.

Cuts that will continue to prove

the Conservatives' reckless neglect of our NHS.

So now do you believe they'll honour the promise of that £350 million?

No, neither do I.

The founding principles of the NHS are being broken, and I believe

that the promise of £350 million a week to save it will also be broken.

I wish I could trust a Conservative government to support the NHS,

but I can't.

That's why the Labour Party is demanding a commitment,

a clear and firm commitment from the Conservative government

that they will stop their constant neglect of the NHS

and provide the level of funding that it so desperately needs.

And whether the Conservatives are prepared to or not,

the Labour Party is.

Because Labour created the NHS to care for us all,

and now it's time that we all cared for the NHS.

The NHS needs extra investment,

so Labour will make sure that it gets it.

And, yes, that's a promise.